Creating a bootable OS disc

Okay so here's the deal, I have an arseload of operating systems all on a bunch of DVDs. I found this old laptop and decided I want to install a copy of winXP on it. This is a Toshiba Satellite A10 or something, about 10 years old give or take.

So the problem is that the machine won't boot up from my windows XP MCE disc. I get BOOTMGR is missing usually, though the error has varied.

Through all my operating systems, only a few Win2k8 discs will actually boot on the machine, but I found out the common denominator was that all the discs that would boot were DVD-Rs, and they all had the file bootmgr. The XP disc is a DVD-RW, so that might explain it, and also, the XP disc does NOT have bootmgr.

What I plan to do is burn my XP iso to a DVD-R this time, hopefully that will work. I have plenty of DVD-Rs, but I'd like to get this done in one shot, so I'm wondering, is my problem simply that I need my XP to be on a DVD-R as opposed to a DVD-RW? OR is it that I'm missing bootmgr (the XP iso does not include bootmgr by default)? I would like to point out that I have installed this exact copy of XP on another machine that is slightly newer, without any problems. It seems that I didn't need bootmgr in another installation. Or is it both: I need XP on a DVD-R (for this machine) and i need bootmgr on this DVD-R.

If I do, in fact, need bootmgr, can I just copy it from one of the other windows operating systems I have (2k8, vista, seven, etc)?

I hope my questions are clear! Thanks in advance!

 

been a while since i last dealt with installing xp but i'll give it a shot.

1. regardless if it's DVD-R or DVD-RW it should work
2. you need to create a DOS based bootdisk then the standard Win XP installer extracted into the dvd disc.

3. easiest and cheapest way is to create the installer in a flashdrive using the following article here EEEguides.com: Install Windows XP on the Asus Eee PC

but check your laptop's bios if it's supported otherwise

How to Create a Bootable Windows XP Setup CD/DVD from a Pre-loaded/Preinstalled Windows System (howtohaven.com)

 

I think the key word in Geekz's point 1 is should. I'd check and make sure your drive does explicitly state it has RW support (it probably will be printed in the drive in white ink, assuming the drive is black). I've tried to use (CD) RW's on CD drives that aren't built for them, and while they occasionally do work, it's usually fraught with problems. Another question is how many times you've burnt this DVD-RW. They do get less reliable with repeated burnings.

I'm not familiar with bootmgr as a prereq for installing XP, as I've only installed XP on relatively new machines. Seems a bit odd but it could be a requirement.