A bootable CD but no bootable CDreader . How can I do.

[Eberhard Roloff]

Neil wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 10:13 AM, Philippe Didier
> <pdidier at neptuneconcept.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On a old computer, I have a CD reader but it does not want to boot the
>> CD... any bootable CD (I tried 5 different flavors of Linux).
>> As I have the CD Hardy 8.04-1, I do not want to make a full network
>> installation.
>>
>> What is the best way to do now ?
>>
>> A boot loader in a USB key, then reading the ISO ? Any other way ?
>>
>> I read about WUBI, but moving it to a real partition and wiping out
>> Windows does not look so easy (LPVM...)
>>
>> FYI, the old Windows can be destroyed.
>>
>> Philippe
>>
> 
> Hi
> 
[...usb boot is poosible...]
> 
> Neil
Hi,
I highly doubt that an "old computer", that does not boot from CD will 
ever boot from usb. ;-)

Imho the smartest and indeed easiest solution will be to make the old PC 
boot from CD.

You simply install smart BootManager, either to a free/MS-dos floppy or 
to your mbr. It takes about 30 sec to install and then you can easily 
boot from CDRom.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/

I recently used it on a PII where Windows refused to start. It 
absolutely did not boot the microsoft ERD CDRom to do an emergency edit 
of the registry. At the same time, it also did not boot RIP Linux.

Now there is a Smart Bootmanager floppy. When I need to boot from CD, 
it now boots from a freedos Floppy that starts Smart Boot Manager and in 
turn it boots anything that is needed from its CDRom.

Highly recommended

Kind regards
Eberhard