The Infamous "Boot CD" aka... "I Wish I'd Made One Before the Computer Crashed!"

If you need to make a bootable CD (and you really, really do!) here's what you need to make it, and how you burn it. But first, why you need it!

Why you need it...

Remember when you installed Windows, you were prompted to make a Startup Disk? - but you skipped that step because your new computer didn't have a floppy drive or you just couldn't wait - here's the info Mr. Gates forgot to tell you: you can make a Startup CD instead of a floppy. It would be nice if we could just burn an old floppy to a CD, but it's not that simple. When your computer starts up, it goes through a lengthy process (you know that - you sit there, waiting...) that starts in the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) but which eventually turns control over to the bootloader and to Windows. Dozens of files are loaded into memory - if one of those files gets corrupted, Windows won't start. Boot CD to the rescue.... with a bootable CD you can start your computer and troubleshoot Windows using a number of available tools.

What you need to make it..

Obviously (I hope it's obvious) you will need your Windows-based computer equipped with a CD burner.
You also will need a blank CD and four files freely available on the Internet. The files are BCD, wnaspi32.dll, BFD, and CDROMsi - these are linked below to a website where they are available. And you'll need a few minutes of your time... that's all it takes to create the most valuable computer recovery tool you will ever use.

How to make it...

1. Create a new folder in the root of your hard drive named anything you want, such as 'boot_cd' - the path will look like this: c:\boot_cd
2. Download BCD , wnaspi32.dll , BFD , and CDROMsi to this new folder on your hard drive.
3. Unzip everything to this folder, (unzipping BFD last) -some files from BFD will overwrite files from BCD - allow that to happen.
4. Drag wnaspi32.dll into the bin folder and drop it there (i.e. Move it from c:\boot_cd to c:\boot_cd\bin)
5. Insert an unused blank CD into your CD writer and open a Command Prompt (click "Start" | "Run" and then type cmd in the box and hit Enter or click on OK).
6. Using the DOS "Change Directory" command (CD), navigate in the DOS box [that opened in Step 4 above] to c:\boot_cd or whatever you called the folder in step 1. 
7. When the DOS box is open to c:\boot_cd (or your folder name) then type "bcd cdromsi" (without the quotes) hit Enter, and sit back and watch the fun... it won't take long! (When it is done, typing exit at the command prompt gracefully closes the DOS window).

Congratulations! You have a bootable CD-ROM. Label it "Boot CD" or anything you like, such as "lifesaver when the PC won't start."

Remember, in order to use it, you may have to enter your system BIOS and change the boot order to boot from the CD-ROM drive instead of the hard drive (restore this setting when you are done).

Also remember that files on your hard drive will not be visible under DOS if you have formatted your drive with NTFS, which is highly recommended. [If you want to see your NTFS files, use this utility - which you can install on the CD before you burn it - see Footnote].

Footnote: Before you burn the CD, you can add programs and files to cds\cdromsi\files\ - (they will appear in your CD root folder when in DOS) - and - you can edit the "autorun.bat" to execute the programs for you.

Burn it; try it; tuck it away. Someday... you WILL use it!

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