Creating Bootable CD

I've run into a bit of trouble creating a bootable CD. I've tried it with both DOS and Linux, to no avail. It just boots right up to good'ol' Windows no matter what I try to boot to CD. So I've concluded I must be doing something wrong.

Right now I'm trying to create a MS-DOS 6.22 boot CD. I know my source files are correct, as I used them last summer to install DOS to a virtual machine. The first CD contains 41 files, totalling 1.14 MB, the same as the source files (and of course the same files).

I have put CD/DVD drive first in the boot queue (always good to cover the obvious first).

The CD was formatted by Windows prior to burning the files, and is in the UDF file format (probably not for United Dairy Farmers), with a capacity of 518 MB. I tried burning it without formatting for Linux before using ExpressBurn, but that didn't work, either. So I think I might have an issue with my method of burning. Thus I must ask, what is a good CD formatter - and which format should be used? My experience in this area is quite low, and a free solution is much preferred. I don't think Windows' UDF format is the one I want, nor the lack of a format from ExpressBurn.

Do I need to do something other than just copy the MS-DOS floppy disk files to the CD to make it bootable?

Or do I have to "master" the discs? I'd really rather not do so for 1.38 MB or less files, especially since I have one CD and 5 DVD's.

Would CD-R's help? I've been trying on a CD-RW.

Disk label is currently "DISK 1", supposedly required for DOS's disc check. But I don't think the label has any impact on it booting to CD.

Help would be appreciated. It doesn't seem like creating a bootable CD should be that hard. If I can get this working I can finally try Ubuntu Linux as well.

UDF joke added for humourous purposes only. The question itself is serious.

 

You need to actually create a "bootable" CD. The media type (RW or not) is not that important, i've created bootable cd's from many types of media.

Did your Inspiron not come with any burning software? If not, and you have access to an XP machine, try CDBurnXP

http://cdburnerxp.se/

 

Thought there might be something specific I had to do to make it bootable. My Inspiron came with Roxio, but unfortunately it wouldn't re-install after I re-installed Vista. But I didn't even expect to get Roxio, so I wasn't upset that it didn't work again. I'll try cdburnerxp. It says it works on Vista, if all goes well, I'll soon have Linux up and running!

 

maybe if you explained what your ultimate goal is, there's a way easier way to accomplish it. if all your trying to do is install linux or dual boot linux, there's waaaay easier ways to do it.

 

Get the free trial of NERO 8, it has all the things you need in order to create a bootable CD ( i was able to create a bootable slipstream CD of sp 2). Its only a trial, but i think its plenty of time.

 

Use 'bootable CD' option from Nero or Roxio....

 

Use "syslinux" for bootable linux distributions. You can even make a flash drive bootable.