Forum: EasyBoot
Topic: ultra-pre-newbie question about ease of use
started by: JohnRylander
Posted by JohnRylander on Dec. 14 2004,11:54
I haven't tried EasyBoot yet, but I'm wondering if it will or does work as follows:

(1) Have a stack of bootable CDs
(2) Run EasyBoot
(3) Feed the CDs in one-by-one
(4) EasyBoot automatically images them and adds them to the new EasyBoot CD or DVD and its meta-boot menu
(5) When done with all that you have or all that will fit on one CD or DVD, burn the resulting ISO.
(6) When you boot from the new EasyBoot-created CD or DVD, a menu comes up allowing you to pick any of the bootable images stored on the DVD.

Ideally, this would even work with existing multi-boot CDs (such as the awesome WIndows XP 8-in-1 boot CD--great for helping friends who've screwed up their systems).   I can see where this last idea would be especially difficult, though, given that these CDs often seem to quasi-reboot the system themselves.

Also ideally, given that usually these bootable CDs are also non-bootably useful, it'd be nice if when you popped in the EasyBoot-created CD or DVD in a non-booting context, a menu would come up and let you pick which internally stored CD or DVD image you wanted to work with.

So perhaps a better way to put it is this way: I'm looking for a (Windows-friendly) very easy-to-use multiple-CD/DVD-in-one utility that also supports booting from any of those CDs or DVDs.

Is this even possible?  Is it practical?

Posted by Incroyable HULK on Dec. 14 2004,12:17
Most of the stuff you are asking for is possible but not that easy!

EasyBoot cannot take your Bootable CD and add them to your Multi-Boot CD without manipulation at first. However, UltraISO is able to extract the Boot Information File (.BIF) from a lot of products wich you can easily add to your EasyBoot project.
You can also build Floppy Images directly from EasyBoot wich is convenient.

You can add some stuff to your CD like the Ultimate Boot CD but you will need some external plug-in like BCDW.

Ultimately, you will have to invest a lot of time testing and reading on this forum, the documentation provided with EasyBoot and on the Web.

I can assure you that there is no better software than EasyBoot to get to your goal.

See Ya around!