Created 4/27/2003

Last Updated 4/27/2003

Software Required for this Process

WinImage v6.0 or better – 30 day shareware from www.winimage.com

Roxio EZ CD Creator Basic v5.3 or better – free with most cdr/w drives

OS - A floppy disk that boots to DOS622 or Win9X

PowerArc v8.x or better – free from www.powerarchiver.com

 

 

Obtaining a bootable floppy image file

The CD will boot from an image of a boot floppy.  This image must be the same size as a floppy (360K – 2.88MB).  2.88MB is the largest possible size for the boot drive, however it is possible to map the remaining space on the CD to a second drive letter by installing CD drivers in the boot image config.sys and MSCDEX in the autoexec.bat file.  It won’t be possible to use the files on the second drive until late in the boot process after autoexec.bat starts and MSCDEX loads and assigns a drive letter.

Since it is difficult to create a 2.88MB bootable floppy image, CIS has created one.  Just find a bootable CD, then open the CD and copy the “imz” file.  Open it in WinImage, and copy all files other than the OS files (the stuff in the DOS directory, command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys) into the winimage project, then save the project to a new .imz file.

If you already have a bootable floppy, do the following to obtain a floppy image:

Open WinImage.  Insert the bootable floppy.  Click “Read Floppy and inject contents into memory”.

Click “File/Save As…”.  Choose a filename, choose “IMZ” file type, then click “Save” to create the image.

 

 

Placing more than 2.88MB of files on the bootable image

If necessary, it is possible to place more than 2.88MB of files on the bootable image by compressing some files into a .cab file using PowerArchiver.  During boot, a ram drive is created, then the cab file is extracted to the RAM drive.

See www.bovistech.com for an example of this method.

PowerArchiver can create these CAB files.  Use LZX/Medium compression only.

 

 

Burning the CD

To burn a bootable CD, start EZ CD Creator.  Choose Create a Data CD.

Click “File”, then “New CD Project”, then “Bootable CD”.

Click “Use Existing Image file”.  Click “Browse…” and browse to the location where the image is located.

Click “Open”.

Add anything else you want on the CD.  These will be separate from the boot image, and will be available after the machine boots and CD drivers have loaded.

Click “Record” to burn the bootable CD.

 

Unless otherwise specified, the text and images in this page are the copyrighted property of Bryan A. Thompson, 1996-2008.  All Rights Reserved.