Bootable CD ROM Bigger Than 2.88MB?

[Kenneth Loafman]

Kenneth Loafman wrote:
> Jonathan Hirschman wrote:
>> Kenneth Loafman wrote:
>>> I've ruled out bootdisk.com and a bunch of others due to this serious 
>>> limitation.  Somewhere there has to be a site that explains how to build 
>>> a bootable CD without limiting it to floppy size.  Or is there?  I just 
>>> need to be able to put about 7MB on the CD, some for the msdos system, 
>>> and the rest for the two exe's
>> Um, you don't need more than 2.88MB - in fact, you really shouldn't need 
>> more 1.44MB - for the bootable area.
>>
>> Bootable CD's have two areas - the bootable area (size of the a floppy), 
>> and the data area (the rest of the CD). Get a bootable image that has 
>> drivers for your CD . Put the .exe in the data area, make the CD. Boot, 
>> cd to the data area (typically D:), and then run the .exe from there.
>>
>> If you can't get a bootable image that has IDE/ATAPI drivers for the CD, 
>> then find a bootable image that has USB drivers (the one that comes with 
>> Nero 6.x does). Boot from the CD, run the .exe's from a usb key/drive.
> 
> Thanks for the explanation.  Seems I'm not the only one that's had this 
> misunderstanding.  A fair number of articles out there explain in great 
> detail how to remove unneeded files so the ROM image will fit.  That's 
> where I got the idea that it was limited to the floppy size.

The flash program that Dell uses to flash the 1501 will only run on 
Windows.  Not being willing to reformat and reinstall Windows for this, 
I had finally gave up and downloaded HAWKPE-37, which is a Windows XP 
Preinstalled Environment (PE), along with a Linux boot.  This Live CD 
has a load of diagnostic and other tools which I have yet to explore, 
but the bottom line is that for anyone wanting to flash a system where 
the manufacturer is locked into Windows, HAWKPE is the way to go.  Burn 
the CD, put your flash programs onto a USB stick, boot a Live XP session 
and flash the ROM.  After you're done, you'll have a good recovery disk 
to add to your collection.

...Ken