Bootable Floppy to Allow Booting From DVD?

[patio]

You need to try a factory produced bootable CD to eliminate some of the possibilities here...

[Compeek]

patio, that doesn't make any sense. I don't need to try a factory produced disc. I've already tried three discs that I know work. But, just to suite you, I tried an official Vista Ultimate disc that I have. It doesn't work. Now can we please accept that it won't boot DVDs?

[BC_Programmer]

interesting. my AMD K6-2 from 98 can boot just fine to DVD's, burnt or otherwise.

I assume you can read the DVD's after booting?

XP Pro corporate

hate to go off on a tangent, but people insist this "edition" exists- and yet it doesn't! the only quote I can find on the MS site about it is this, on the MSDN social:

Please be advised that Microsoft does not have, or ever distributed, a version of Windows XP called "XP Corporate edition".  You obviously have a non-genuine version.

as well as

Fred Nava [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What is the difference between Windows XP Professional Edition and Corporate Edition?
A: Hi Eric, I've never heard of Windows XP Corporate Edition. It might be a simple branding device for Volume Licensing but the only actual client SKUs for Windows XP were Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows XP Home Edition, and Windows XP Professional Edition.

I'm not ripping on you, of course- but the only conclusion would be that the "corporate" edition is really in the same domain as the "black" edition or the "super awesome gamo" edition. (IE, some 13 year old runs n-lite and removes a few things and adds his wallpaper, and BOOM! it's the mega awesomo edition!)


*ahem*

sorry about that.
Anyway- my main query would be- can you read the DVDs after booting?


Also- to answer your query there is no way to Boot a DVD after booting from something else.

However if you boot a floppy with drivers for your DVD drive you can get access to the setup program. I haven't a clie what it will do, though.

[truenorth]

Ok for those of you that find it necessary to deviate from the Op's request for actual assistance and desire to split hairs. There is no difference between the xp pro and the "corporate' other than the limitations of "legitimate " use. And no it does not mean that it is "illegal" as implied. Yes it is a licencing parameter. Now can we get back to trying to help Compeek as some of us are trying to do. For God's sake grow up. truenorth

[patio]

Now can we please accept that it won't boot DVDs?

No.
My brain won't let me accept that...

[Compeek]

BC_Programmer, who said XP Pro corporate anyway? :\

At this point, I don't know if I can read DVDs after booting. I've only got FreeBSD or something installed on it right now from a past experiment, and I'm not good enough with the command line in *nix systems to go figure out how to read the disc. Maybe I'll install Ubuntu or something just to see if I can read DVDs...

I'll report back when I do so.

[BC_Programmer]

BC_Programmer, who said XP Pro corporate anyway? :\

weird. I know I Copy-pasted from this thread. Or maybe it was another thread. Oh well.

Maybe I'll install Ubuntu or something just to see if I can read DVDs...

Sounds like a good plan.

WE've already established that the boot order is properly set in the BIOS, right?

[Compeek]

Yeah, that's definitely established. At the boot screen, it says something like "Checking for boot record on CD-ROM..." and that it says "None found" or something like that. It's definitely trying to boot from the DVD drive and all of that. And it boots fine with CDs, just not DVDs.

Tomorrow when I'm up and not tired I'll install Ubuntu and see what I can figure out.

[street1 (RIP)]

NTFS......http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm

[Compeek]

No luck with that either.

I suppose I'll try once more with a SATA drive in a USB enclosure. I'll let you all know what happens.

[truenorth]

Compeek, While i continue to wish you the best of luck in your quest i want to remind you of the likelyhood of a failure if you try the process with an external HDD. I see no mention yet as to whether you have tried my suggestion of an second internal/transfer HDD. While it may not be successful for a variety of reasons --some of which have been mentioned by myself and others. It was not totally ruled out as a possibility of success. I assume you must be getting near the "i give up" stage if i were in your shoes i would want to give that route a try before quitting the effort. If i am not mistaken because win 7 is still in beta test it probably has no limitations as would an authentic O/S of say XP insofar as how many computers it can be put on. Which of course could be a problem with a "normal legit" O/S.truenorth

[Compeek]

Truenorth, I should have specified that I meant an external SATA DVD drive. Just in case both drives are somehow faulty.

And you are correct, I haven't yet attempted to transfer the drive. I haven't ruled that out yet; I'll get to it. I'm just busy with some website design for a while and have just been messing with the PC when I need a break.

I haven't quit yet.

[patio]

I don't think you are creating bootable CD's properly since 4 of them have failed to boot properly...which is why i suggested a manuf. bootable CD way back when.

[Compeek]

patio, I don't think you know enough details. Believe me, these discs, including the official Vista one, all work in other computers.

[jake_friz]

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html

I have not tried this yet, but it looks promissing. It claims "CD/DVD boot without BIOS support" and can be installed on a floppy.