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Building Emergency CD:
[Last updated on March 22, 2004]
Intro: CECD - Customizable Emergency CD is my name for a powerful bootable CD that can be customized completely and built by anyone. The ways to add various components are described here. I've used BCDW - Bootable CD Wizard as the anchor that allows all these components to be bootable when placed in the CD.
- bartpe v3.0.32
- the 911 rescue cd v2.0.5 rc
- erd commander 2003 v4.1
- o&o bluecon xxl
- Flonix ( Knoppix Variant)
- R.I.P. Linux v6.9
as Bootable options. Apart from this it also contains Boot Managers for booting Operating systems from various partitions from your Hard Disk:
The disk is also capable of booting from any bootable floppy disks such as MS-DOS 6.22 or PC-DOS. I currently have added:
- Win98SE Boot disk (for old times sake!)
- MADBOOT Disk
- Tom's Root boot Linux Distro (2.88MB Floppy image)
- NTFS read Floppy (A floppy capable of Reading files in NTFS partitions and copying them over to your preferred FAT32 Partition)
In addition to this, the CD is capable of running any pre selected DOS application that reside in the CD such as Volkov Commander or Spinrite (I currently use these two).
Tutorial:
In this build of Emergency CD I use only BCDW as the tool for multibooting, later on I will include on details as to how to do this using bootscriptor and CDShell. To build this you will be needing bootable CD wizard version 1.50d or later. To download the version with multiple languages go here or if you will only be needing the english version I've zipped up the required files here (update: please download v1.50Z from the author's page). To know more about the components include I recommend that you go through the relevant pages. In the current list ERD Commander 2003 and O&O BlueCon Pro are commercial and have to be purchased to be included in the CD. Before you start make a new empty directory 'EMCD' at any location you prefer(for e.g.. c:\EMCD). Now unzip all the files from the file bcdw.zip to the root directory (C:\EMCD). You can edit bootcat.ini at the root dir(C:\BCDW) as you prefer, but for this tutorial I would ask you to completely delete the contents of the file bootcat.ini since we'll be building a complete bootcat.ini by the end of this tutorial. Now we will go into detail as how to include each component individually:
Depending on the plugins and the configuration that you have built, the directory structure may vary. But the following directories would always exist:
- i386
- Programs
You don't need to change the name or do anything special. The BartPE is very similar to WinPE in many ways. The Bootloader is the file i386/setupldr.bin . You don't need to alter anything at this stage. Now just copy *all* the files from the CD or the iso image into the root directory i.e.. c:\EMCD. Now take the file bootcat.ini and add the following line:
\i386\setupldr.bin ; Boot BartPE 3.0.32 ; ^BartPE^
The semi-colon(;) separates the data in this line. The first part is the location of the bootloader, The second is the title of the menu item, and the third is the description that can be viewed when the particular boot option is selected. So this single line adds the option to boot into BartPE. That's how easy it is!
Regardless of the utilities added to the 911CD the following would be the files and folders at the CD root:
- 911
- Auto run
- CDSH
- Autorun.inf
As in the previous case copy all these files as they are into the folder C:\EMCD. Take note that if you want to save space on your CD, you can remove the folder Autorun and the file Autorun.inf since they are useful only when you can boot into windows. Now use Bart's Boot image Extractor to extract the boot image for the 911 CD. If you don't want to do that download this boot image (2kB) and use it. If you extracted the boot image rename it to 911.bin. Place the file 911.bin in the folder c:\EMCD and add the following line to the file bootcat.ini:
\911.bin ; Boot the 911cd 4.0i ; ^Boot the 911 Rescue CD.^
Now you've added the option to boot the 911CD from the EMCD!
The following are the directories present in the root of the ERD2003 CD. [Note: in the case of ERD2002 only the Documents and Settings folder will be missing so you can use the same method for ERD2002 also] :
- i386
- Documents and Settings
Now we've got a problem. We just can't copy these folders to c:\EMCD since there is already a folder with that name present when you inserted BartPE. The solution is as follows:
- Copy all the files and folders to the root(c:\EMCD) directory and rename the copied i386 folder from the ERD2003 CD to ERDC (note: This folder name has to be exactly 4 letters).
- Open the file EMCD\ERDC\setupldr.bin in any hex editor and replace all occurrences of "i386" with "ERDC" [Note: There should be 4 occurrences in the entire file, change all of them].Or you can download my hex-edited copy of setupldr.bin (241kB) and overwrite the one at EMCD\ERDC\ .
Now just add the following line to bootcat.ini:
\ERDC\setupldr.bin ; Boot ERD Commander 2003 ; ^ERD Commander 2003^
You've successfully added ERD Commander 2003 to the Emergency CD!
The procedure to add O&O BlueCon XXL is very similar to that of ERD Commander 2003. O&O BlueCon XXL contains only one directory in it's root:
- i386
Follow the steps below:
- Copy all the files and folders to the root(c:\EMCD) directory and rename the copied i386 folder from the O&O BlueCon XXL CD to BLUE (note: This folder name has to be exactly 4 letters).
- Open the file EMCD\BLUE\setupldr.bin in any hex editor and replace all occurrences of "i386" with "BLUE" [Note: There should be 4 occurrences in the entire file, change all of them].Or you can download my hex-edited copy of setupldr.bin (241kB) and overwrite the one at EMCD\BLUE\ .
Then add the following lines to bootcat.ini:
\BLUE\setupldr.bin ; Boot BlueCON XXL ; ^O&O BlueCon XXL^
O&O BlueCon XXL has been added to the Emergency CD.
Flonix ( Knoppix Variant):
This is basically linux put into a CD (based on Knoppix) so that it can run from the CD with a GUI and various other applications. The Flonix has only one directory in it's root:
- KNOPPIX
To include Flonix into the emergency CD first copy all the files from the CD. Now use Bart's Boot image Extractor to extract the boot image for the Flonix CD and rename the image flonix.bin and place it in c:\EMCD. Alternatively navigate to the directory EMCD\knoppix and copy the file "boot.img" to the root i.e., c:\EMCD folder. Now rename the copied file as "flonix.bin". Now add the following line to bootcat.ini:
\flonix.bin ; Boot Flonix [Knoppix Variant] ; ^Flonix ( Knoppix Variant)^
Flonix can now be booted from the Emergency CD!
This is a Linux distribution that is bootable from CD and has some very specialized tools for the recovery of your linux system. The CDROM has the following dirs on it's root:
- boot
- isolinux
Copy only these two directories with all their files to the root of Emergency CD i.e.,C:\EMCD . Delete the file EMCD\isolinux\isolinux.cfg <note: This step is very important> Now add the following line to bootcat.ini:
/isolinux/isolinux.bin ; RIP Linux
6.9 ; ^ Rescue Linux Distro.^ ; /boot/kernel vga=normal load_ramdisk=1
usb_device init=/linuxrc prompt_ramdisk=0 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
root=/dev/ram0 rw hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi
hdg=scsi hdh=scsi pcd0=scsi pcd1=scsi
Note: Make sure all of it is in a single line.
R.I.P. Linux has been added to the Emergency CD.
Smart Boot manager allows you to choose and boot any OS currently installed in the Hard Drive. Adding Smart Boot manager is no problem if you have added the R.I.P. Linux. But if you don't want R.I.P. Linux but want the functionality of Smart Boot Manager, then download isolinux and memdisk and extract it's contents to the root of Emergency CD. Now download Smart Boot Manager floppy image and place it in "EMCD\Floppies". Then make sure that the following files are present:
- EMCD\isolinux\isolinux.bin
- EMCD\boot\memdisk
- EMCD\Floppies\\sbm.img
<Note: If you have R.I.P Linux, they will already be present> Now add the following line to bootcat.ini:
/isolinux/isolinux.bin ; Smart boot manager ; ^ Smart Boot Manager.^ ; /boot/memdisk initrd=/Floppies/sbm.img
Now you can start Smart Boot manager from Emergency CD and boot into your Operating Systems in the hard drive!
Gujin is a PC boot loader which can analyze your filesystems.
It finds the Linux kernel images available, as well as other bootable
partitions (for *BSD, MS-DOS, Windows, etc.) and files (*.kgz), and
displays a graphical menu for selecting which system to boot.
Because it understands the structure of Linux kernel images, Gujin does
not need LILO nor GRUB and can even load very big kernels.
There is no need to execute anything after making a new kernel: just copy the kernel image file into the "/boot" directory.
To add Gujin to the boot menu download Gujin boot manager , and place it in the directory "EMCD\Floppies". As in the previous case, if you have R.I.P. Linux, you can skip downloading isolinux and memdisk, else download isolinux and memdisk then add the following line to bootcat.ini:
/isolinux/isolinux.bin ; Gujin boot manager ; ^ Gujin Boot Manager.^ ; /boot/memdisk initrd=/Floppies/gujin.img
Bootable Floppy Disks:
You can add any bootable floppy disks to the CD. They can be booted directly from the CD by way of choosing from the menu. The following is the format to add floppy images to the menu:
location of uncompressed floppy image(.IMA) ; Menu Entry ; Description (within ^ and ^)
e.g., with a bootable Windows 98SE Floppy
\Floppies\win98se.ima ; Win98SE Boot disk ; ^ Windows 98SE Boot Disk ^
[Note:It would be useful to have Winimage in the preparation of these boot disks since you can edit the floppy images easily.] You can add any of your favorite floppy images to boot from!
Running DOS Applications:
To run any DOS application directly from the the CD using a menu option, first you have to prepare a customized boot floppy as specified in the Bootable CD Wizard. The steps are:
- Create a Windows 98 Second Edition emergency boot disk (My computer - > Control panel - > Add / remove programs - > Startup Disk) or if you don't run Win98SE download it from http://www.bootdisk.com .
- Copy the files bcdw_cl.com, autoexec.bat and config.sys (overwriting if necessary) which are present in the directory "EMCD\dos4bcdw" to the boot disk that you've just created.
- Now save this as a floppy image in an uncompressed format (.ima) and name the file "dos4bcdw.ima" [Note:You can use Winimage for this]. Place this file wherever you want, but make sure you give the correct location when specifying it in the bootcat.ini. I placed this image file in a directory called "Floppies". So check this up with the code examples given here.
Now you can add a menu option to run any DOS application present anywhere in the CD. I give the following 2 examples assuming that I have Volkov commander at "911\vc\vc.com" and Spinrite at "911\spinrite\spinrite.exe" where 911 is a folder at the root directory of my CD.
\Floppies\dos4bcdw.ima ; Run Volkov Commander ; ^Volkov Commander^; \911\vc\vc.com
\Floppies\dos4bcdw.ima ; Run Spinrite ; ^Spinrite^ ; \911\spinrite\spinrite.exe
In the same way you can add any DOS application you want in this format:
<correct
path of "dos4bcdw.ima"> ; <Menu Entry name>
; ^Description^ ; <Complete Path to the dos
application present in the CD>
Just follow the examples, and you'll have no trouble in adding any program to the menu!
[ Note: If you would like to take a look at my bootcat.ini, get it here]
How to create the iso?
To write the iso you need a tool called mkisofs. Obviously If you have BartPE you already have it. Then the command to create the iso image is:
mkisofs -iso-level 4 -l -d -D -J -joliet-long -b bcdwboot.bin -hide flonix.bin -hide 911.bin -hide bcdwboot.bin -hide boot.catalog -allow-multidot -no-emul-boot -volid "EMCD" -A PEBUILDER/MKISOFS -sysid "Win32" -boot-load-size 4 -o "output directory path e.g.,c:\bcdw.iso" "root folder of EMCD i.e.,C:\EMCD"
Ofcourse this is for the CD with all of the components described here. One thing you have to make sure is that no *.bin files are left unhidden. This means you have to hide them. For example to hide ntldr.bin file, you have to add this option to mkisofs:
-hide ntldr.bin
The VOLID is the volume ID change it as you see fit. Also make sure you specify the correct source folder and destination for the created iso!
For a list of all possible mkisofs options and their meaning checkout mkisofs options .
Then you can write the iso image using any standard tool such as Nero. I would however recommend that you check if your iso works properly by using something like Microsoft Virtual PC or VMware.That's it!
Your ideas and feedback are very important to me, so please do mail me what you think about this website and the content. Find me at thangarajj_AT_gmail_DOT_com
