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How to make a non-bootable image file bootable?

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7 replies

by vaidos

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Hi guys. I'm trying to install a clean copy of WinXP Pro. The original CD has got a few scratches on it so it will stop in the middle of the installation as some files couldn't be copied. Fortunately I created a copy as an image file with .img extension. The problem is that image is not bootable and therefore can't boot from the cd. I tried to boot from Windows but the problem is it doesn't allow me to delete the existing installation because "Setup is unable to perform the required operation on the selected partition. This partition contains temporary Setup files that are required to complete the installation" How can I boot from this non-bootable image?

7 replies

by vaidos

Sorry the image file has an nrg extension. I double clicked on it and nero image burning, as an associated program, opened up. It successfully burns the image but still it's not bootable. I also tried to make cddvd drive as a 1st boot device from the bios but still this doesn't work. Seems like it just extracted all the files structure in the image and didn't add the boot information.

the other thing i tried is to select from nero "create a bootable data cd" and added those files and folders but i ended up with the useless disk which loads Caldera DR-DOS 7.03 It looks very much like dos or windows command prompt. That means I can't format my hdd and install a clean copy?

by ic-it

Just do a CD to CD copy of your original XP disk. It will be bootable.

by peconet tietokoneet

.IMG files are similar to .ISO files and can be burnt to their correct disk format by most burning software. MagicISO is one such program that will burn the image file http://www.magiciso.com/.
It may be worth changing/renaming the extension to ISO (IE, if it says ".img" then change it to "ISO", without the quotation marks) and try your existing burning software.
Hope this works for you.

by vaidos

I decided to manually remove all the programs that I had on my HDD followed by manually deleting the program files folders. I also deleted everything in the registry and boot from that XP to upgrade it. It deleted most of the stuff and replaced the files and folders by the necessary ones from the disc.

Thanks to you all for your participation

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