The college that I go to has a licensing program setup with Microsoft where they can distribute copies of Windows and other Microsoft software (excluding some) to math and CS students. I'm one of those students, so what I am doing is legimate. My professor said I can copy one of the Windows CD's if I want to. I really am being honest.

Basically, I have only one CD drive in my computer (it's a burner). I want to make an ISO file of the Windows 2000 CD, then burn that ISO image to a blank CD-R. I know I have to make this ISO file bootable when I write it, but the program I'm using, Burnatonce, is asking for an image file. I can only find the floppy image files on the CD, and I don't think that's what I should specify. What should I do?

Hi Chad,

Some burners can simply do a "copy CD" but I can't remember which ones. But if you don't have 'em, that won't help.

If the orig is bootable and you make an ISO, then burn correctly, the copy will be bootable.

A possible snag is if you simply burn the ISO file to CDR, all you'll have is a copy of the ISO.

Wait a bit for someone to jump in with the solution.

M2

If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

I have never used burnatonce but I think you are making things more comlicated than necessary. Did you attempt to simply copy the CD. Whenever I buy software The first thing I do with it is make a backup copy. I then use the backup copy to install the software. I simply use the Disk Copy function with Roxio or Nero.

How do I copy the CD if I only have one CDROM drive? If I copy everything to my harddrive, then burn, it won't be bootable then. I don't have enough RAM to load the whole CD into memory either.

The same way you copy a floppy. Insert the source disk and say copy. It will write the files to disk and then should ask for the target disk to write to.

One thing I forgot to mention. You will need more than HD space than the size of the CD being copied. The size of a windows CD installation disk isn't 700MB though. It is less, just look under my computer.

I assume you mean copy it with Explorer or a command-prompt. If I do so, then I burn the copied files to a CD, how will the program know to make the CD bootable? Don't I have to have an ISO file set to be bootable?

No, you need to use a burner program, like Nero or Roxio. These programs will make an exact copy of most disks.

Try here:

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/#w2k

Just ignore stuff about slipstreaming service packs etc.

Ok, if I understand this correctly, you have one CD drive and it is a burner. Burnatonce supports CD imaging. Make sure the Win2000 CD is in. Open burnatonce and from the menu select Read/Copy then Read to Image. Name and save this file to the desktop or someplace where you can easily find it. After the image is completed, burnatonce will ask if you want to load the image. Say yes. Now put a blank CD in the drive and select write. The image will contain all the necessary files off the CD and most importantly it will be bootable. FYI, you can delete the image file (iso, bin/cue) after you’ve burned the CD.