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I have many CD ISOs downloaded from the Internet. They are each about 100 MB in size and consist of repair/diagnostic programs and other tools. Some of them are Linux-based; others are based on DOS clones, like FreeDOS.

I want to put all of the ISOs onto one bootable DVD, so that when I use the DVD, I will get a menu prompting me to select the ISO I want to boot. How can I do this?

I've seen some rescue CDs that are combinations of other people's ISOs, but I have no idea how they were made.

Regarding bounty:

I, a different person than the OP, have placed a bounty on this question for a solution that meets ALL of these criteria:

  • Is for DVDs (not flash drives!!!)
  • Is free
  • Works with any ISO file, regardless of original OS
Community
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rsk82
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8 Answers8

8

I did some research and found this tool called SARDU. This tool is free for non-commercial use. I read the website, and I think it can do what you're looking for. You may also want to look at the "Extra's" page to learn how to install ISOs that aren't officially supported by the software.

EDIT: Found you something else, although this has a specific list of supported .iso's that you need to use; you can't use anything other than these. It's called MultiCD, and it's a shell script. Here's the list of supported distros. Most stuff I've looked at has a specific list of stuff you can intall. SARDU is the only one I've seen so far that lets you use whatever ISOs you want.

But seriously, what's wrong with using flash drives? This is certainly a very interesting question, but flash drives are more practical in my opinion. You can get flash drives in MUCH larger sizes than even the highest capacity DVDs.

LiveWireBT
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ephilip
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7

Customize the UBCD template

Using the template that is provided with the UBCD, you can easily sub in your own ISO images and have a nice menu for a user to select from:

To add your own ISO images to UBCD, copy them to c:\ubcd-extracted\ubcd\custom. You can optionally compress each image using gzip (via a tool such as 7-Zip) to make them smaller. Then edit c:\ubcd-extracted\ubcd\custom\custom.cfg and add each ISO image to the menu.

For example:

LABEL -
MENU LABEL Windows 98
TEXT HELP
 Windows 98 boot disk
ENDTEXT
LINUX /boot/syslinux/memdisk
INITRD /ubcd/custom/win98.iso.gz
APPEND iso raw

I have done this on numerous occasions to build customized UBCDs or just alternative boot CDs with other utilities or options (such as multiple live operating systems)

rsk82
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MaQleod
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5

Consider switching to USB flash drive. I carry 6 isos around on a USB drive, some Linux, some utility and rescue disks. The USB experience is so much faster, and it is incredibly easy to create using this tool:

Pen Drive Linux

How to Create a MultiBoot USB Flash Drive

  1. Run YUMI-0.0.2.8.exe following the onscreen instructions
  2. Run the tool again to Add More ISOs/Distributions to your Drive
  3. Restart your PC setting it to boot from the USB device
  4. Select a distribution to Boot from the Menu and enjoy!

Once you have a drive created it is easy to add and remove manually from the list if you come across a distro that isn't automatically supported by the software. (or at least it was with the previous version which I use)

James Mertz
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Dennis
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2

You can easily make a multiboot DVD with EasyBoot.

enter image description here

Gareth
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kaykay
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2

Have a look at this article : Super-Disc: Multi-Boot Project CD/DVD Using ISOLINUX.
The method uses ISOLINUX to assemble the DVD.

The article is oriented Linux, but contains also at its end directions for including XP, which should work for all versions of Windows.

You must understand that before making a Multi-Boot DVD, you should already be able to make a working, bootable CD of each of the OS's you intend to include.

harrymc
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2

Have a look at XBoot

https://sites.google.com/site/shamurxboot/tipsntrick

or YUMI

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

Moab
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1

This page has a lot of information: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootablecd mostly about how they created the Hiren's Boot CD menu but could be adapted for other uses.

You may also want to take a look at Bart PE to create bootable windows environments as well. http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Regards

yoydigg3r
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-1

Try Easy2Boot (E2B)

Free, works great with USB drives.

Though I haven't tested the tool with DVD, it should work this way as well according to the guide Make and burn an E2B DVD or CD.

AntonK
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