Hi, I want to make a Bootable CD that has a menu appear giving options to auto run such utilities as "spinrite" "ghost" "Partition Recovery" etc.
I have successfully created a Ghost boot CD " (found instructions on internet) but had to use a windows .img file that seemed to restrict my CD files size to 1.4mb. Don't know why. This stopped me from adding the other programs that I would have been able to navigate to manually.
I have limited experience making batch files but do understand basic programming and basic DOS commands.

I know I will need a version of DOS, the Utilities and a "menu script" called at boot up. I assume that will be Autoexec.bat.
At this point I only have the utilities ready.

Could someone help me with the recipe to bake a CD with 'my menu' as the 1st screen seen please?

Thanks in advance, Darrell



you arnt being CLEAR enough, what do you need to do?
Are you using DOS , or command.exe or cmd.exe ?
you need autoexec.ini to run in later version of windows
you need autoexec.bat to run in earlyer versions of windows


the .img file you burned is the cd image itself so a 1.4mb cd image
is the entire disc, i may be wrong about that, but it DOESNT make sence to have
more then one image on a disk.The reason the .img's came out this size is you probably clicked the default .img size during the burn which for some reason was set to floppy size...
What program did you burn with ? ?Ok, sorry about the lack of info. I do a lot of repairs to PC's and often need to boot a broken PC. The CD I wish to make will run independently of any OS and needs to boot into a 'menu' giving me options to goto various programs eg: ghost, spinrite ( to test and fix hard-drives) etc. It's equivalent would be a Barts PE or knoppix although this won't have the overhead that those Live CD's have.

As I said, I managed to make a boot CD which automatically starts into ghost, I use this to try to copy the hard-drive onto another hard-drive before I try to fix it. It basically replaced my ghost floppy boot disk.
Now I would like to go one step further and add an menu that I can select by a number that gives me possibly 4 or 5 choices of my most used utilities (all were once bootable floppies).

I currently have the following files: on my ghost boot cd:
=====================
autoexec.bat
command.com
config.sys
io.sys
mouse.com
mouse.ini
mscdex.exe
msdos.sys
oakcdrom.sys
AND 2 folders called ghost (ghost.exe inside) and net (1 nic driver inside + netbind.com)

BTW I don't need the nic\net stuff as it doesn't work unless the PC has the 1 and only driver that I put into the folder. I just used the net bit because it was PART of the only METHOD (recipe) I could get working, so I just left it in. It throws an error and just skips over it and boots straight into ghost. Yahoo!!
======================

My autoexec.bat looks like this

@echo off
SET TZ=GHO+08:00
mscdex /L:D /d:mscd001
MOUSE.COM
\net\netbind.com
echo Loading Ghost...
D:
cd \ghost
GHOST.EXE

if %config% == FROMFLPY goto FLPYBOOT
if %config% == FROMCD goto CDBOOT

goto FAILED

:FLPYBOOT
echo Insert Ghost boot disk 2 (containing Ghost.exe)
pause
if exist a:\ghost\ghost.exe goto GHOSTFND
goto FLPYBOOT

:CDBOOT
echo Insert Ghost boot disk 2 (containing Ghost.exe)
pause
if not exist b:\ghost\ghost.exe goto CDBOOT
b:
goto GHOSTFND

:GHOSTFND
cd \ghost
echo Loading...
GHOST.EXE
goto END

:FAILED
echo Unknown boot menu selection
goto END

:END

============================
I think the help I need is what version of DOS to use (maybe the one I already have, the file is dated 16/07/1999), what other files to use, if any, and how can I make the whole 700MB CD available so I can put extra programs on it.
Obviously an example of a simple menu DRIVEN Batch file would be the other main bit of info I would need. I am able to edit it to suit my needs if needed once I have an idea of how it would work.

I hope this info is more complete and you can help. Thanks again. Darrell



The menu is built in config.sys. This is a copy I built to load different NIC drivers.

[menu]
MENUITEM=650, Dell Precision 650, Dell Precision 670
MENUITEM=745, Dell Optiplex 745
MENUITEM=755, Dell Optiplex 755
MENUITEM=7500, Dell Inspiron 7500
MENUITEM=C840, Dell Latitude C840
MENUITEM=D800, Dell Latitude D800, D810, D820, D830
MENUITEM=GX270, Dell Optiplex GX270
MENUITEM=GX280, Dell Optiplex GX280
MENUITEM=GX620, Dell Optiplex GX620

[COMMON]
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
BREAK=OFF
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES=10
BUFFERS=10
LASTDRIVE=Z
SHELL=COMMAND.COM /P /E:1024
DEVICE=OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD000
DEVICE=GCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001 /C0
DEVICE=GCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD002 /C1
DEVICE=GCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD003 /C2
DEVICE=GCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD004 /C3

[650]
DEVICE=\650\protman.dos /I:\650
DEVICE=\650\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\650\e1000.dos

[745]
DEVICE=\745\protman.dos /I:\745
DEVICE=\745\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\745\B57.dos

[755]
DEVICE=\755\protman.dos /I:\755
DEVICE=\755\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\755\e1000.dos

[7500]
DEVICE=\7500\protman.dos /I:\7500
DEVICE=\7500\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\7500\CBENDIS.EXE

[C840]
DEVICE=\C840\protman.dos /I:\C840
DEVICE=\C840\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\C840\EL90X.dos

[D800]
DEVICE=\D800\protman.dos /I:\D800
DEVICE=\D800\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\D800\B57.dos

[GX270]
DEVICE=\GX270\protman.dos /I:\GX270
DEVICE=\GX270\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\GX270\E1000.dos

[GX280]
DEVICE=\GX280\protman.dos /I:\GX280
DEVICE=\GX280\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\GX280\B57.dos

[GX620]
DEVICE=\GX620\protman.dos /I:\GX620
DEVICE=\GX620\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICE=\GX620\B57.dos