Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

What makes a CD-ROM bootable?

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Steven

unread,
Mar 19, 2000, 3:00:00 AM3/19/00
to
This make be a really dumb question, but what makes a CD-ROM bootable? I
know how to change the boot sequence, but is the CD-ROM drive different?

--
Steven

(to reply, remove "nospam." from address)

Oliver Battenfeld

unread,
Mar 20, 2000, 3:00:00 AM3/20/00
to
> This make be a really dumb question, but what makes a CD-ROM bootable? I
> know how to change the boot sequence, but is the CD-ROM drive different?

It愀 not the CD drive, but the BIOS that makes it possible to boot from a CD
!

Bye,
Oliver

Terry Russell

unread,
Mar 20, 2000, 3:00:00 AM3/20/00
to

some systems are finicky about the bootable CD and can't be coaxed to
work with
particular disk/drive combinations

the Bios loads an image from the CD that acts just like a floppy
bootdisk
bios only knows how to load it, whatever the boot image does determines
behaviour
from then on,
the drive doesn't matter apart from needing to support ATAPI or SCSI
which
anything since 1995 should do

if the CD doesn't have a properly installed boot image you can't boot
from it
there are several websites that explain the process, or look up 'El
Torito'

http://www.ptltd.com/techs/specs.html
the ET link is to a PDF, download rather than open if ytou want to read
offline

0 new messages