What Makes a CD Bootable?

In order for a CD to be bootable, it must contain two files: BOOTCAT. BIN and BOOTIMG.BIN. BOOTCAT.BIN is a catalog file, and BOOTIMG.BIN is an image filean image of a bootable floppy disk. Thats why you need an existing bootable floppy in order to make a bootable CD.

When you browse the contents of a bootable CD in Windows or at a command prompt, you wont see any of the files that you would find on a bootable floppy; thats because they are all stored within BOOTIMG.BIN.

When you boot from the bootable CD, everything in BOOTIMG.BIN and BOOTCAT.BIN shows up as being on the A: drive, while everything else on the CD shows up on the regular CD drive letter. It tricks the PC into thinking that there is actually a floppy in the A: drive.

Related posts:

  1. Free DOS 1.0 released!!! Huh! What? Who uses DOS anymore?
  2. Intel makes an e-reader for the visually impaired
  3. Linux & Unix Tricks
  4. Basic Computer Hardware
  5. OCR PDF; A great asset for the software industry!

Filed Under: Computer Hardware

About the Author

Abhinav Kaiser is a certified project manager (PMP) and an expert in IT service management. He has been writing on several blogs for over 6 years and has been a source of inspiration for many budding bloggers. He recently started a blog, Abhinav PMP and his latest baby in the works needs special mention - Success Mantras. Click here if you need to get in touch.

Comments (1)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. meneame.net says:

    Qu necesita un CD autoarrancable…

    Simple informacin que nos dice qu se necesita para crear un CD autoarrancable…

Leave a Reply




If you want a picture to show with your comment, go get a Gravatar.