What you need:
1. Magic ISO Maker, a powerful CD/DVD image file creating, editing and extracting tool. It handles both CD and DVD image files, converts BIN to ISO and back, makes an ISO file from a DVD/CD-ROM or hard disk, and handles boot information. MagicISO can also make multiple boot CD/DVD image files. It is available from www.magiciso.com, is a 2.6 MB download, and costs $29.95
(Rs 1,400).
2. A DVD writer and a few blank DVDs.
3. Your original operating system CDs.
We shall take, as an example, a multi-boot DVD with your copies of Windows XP Professional and Windows 98.
The magicISO interface
Collect the bootable images from installation CD
Make an ISO from a CD-ROM
Create a folder “boot” on the C drive. Insert one of the operating system’s installation CD into the DVD drive. Click the “Make CD/DVD image file from CD/DVD-ROM” button to open the “Make ISO from CD-ROM” dialog. Choose CD-ROM, and select an appropriate output file name like bootxp.bif with the path to save set to C:Boot, and choose “Export Boot Image”. Repeat this for Windows 98 and call its boot image boot98.bif.
Make the multiple OS DVD compilation
In MagicISO, click the “Create new image file” button on the toolbar. Click the folder-shaped button to create the “WinXP” folder in the root directory. Insert the Windows XP Professional CD and copy all its contents into this folder. Click the Save button to save the compilation as C:multiboot.iso. Eject the CD and insert the CD of the next operating system into the drive. Create a folder with an appropriate name and repeat the above procedure.
Open C:multiboot.iso with MagicISO. Hold down [Ctrl], and use the mouse to drag the “WinXPi386” folder to the root directory. Right-click on “i386” to rename it to “iWXP”. Repeat the steps for Windows 98, calling it iW98, for instance.
Copy the files “WinXPWIN51”, “WinXPWIN51IP” and “WinXP WIN51IP.SP2” to the root directory. Now create a folder called “iWXP” in “c:boot”. Extract the “iWXPSETUPLDR.BIN” file to “c:bootiWXP”:
1. Select the iWXPSETUPLDR.BIN file.
2. Click the button to extract the file to “c:bootiWXP”.
Open “c:bootiWXPSETUPLDR.BIN” with a Hex Editor-UltraEdit is a good example.
Replace all instances of “I386” with “IWXP” (Use upper-case letters).
Copy c:bootiWXPSETUPLDR.BIN back to “iWXPSETUPLDR .BIN” in the multiboot.iso that you have open.
From the open multiboot.iso, extract “iWXPTXTSETUP.SIF” file to “c:bootiWXP”:
1. Select the “iWXPTXTSETUP.SIF” file.
2. Click on the Extract button to extract the file to “c:bootiWXP”.
Open “c:bootiWXPTXTSETUP.SIF” with Notepad. Replace all instances of “I386” within the section “[SourceDisksNames.x86]” with “IWXP”
Copy “c:bootiWXPTXTSETUP.SIF” back to “iWXPTXTSETUP.SIF” within c:multiboot.iso.
Now insert the Windows 98 CD and drag the Win98 folder to the root.
Make the multi-boot DVD image file
Click on the “Make multi-boot CD/DVD image file” button to open the Multi-Boot Image Editor. Click “Add…” to add an item to multi-boot image file. The Bootable Wizard will open and guide you. Choose “Boot from bootable image file” and click Next to go to the next step. Choose the “From Local Computer” option, input “C:boot bootxp.bif”, and click Next to go to the next step. Input the menu description of Window XP, and set “Hot Key” to “1”. Click Finish to complete the Windows XP bootable item.
The bootable Wizardfor the first OS
Now click again on “Add…” to add one more boot item. Repeat this for the Windows 98 bootable image file.
Now, in the Multi-Boot Image Editor, select an item that you wish to make the default boot option and click on “Set Default”. Click on the Save button to save the multi-boot image file to c:bootmultiboot_boot.mbi.
Finalising and burning the DVD
Open C:multboot.iso again. Click on “Load boot image …” to open the “Bootable Option” dialog. Choose “From multi-bootable image file” and select “c:boot multiboot_ boot.mbi”. Save the ISO. Now go ahead and burn the DVD!
Burn the multi-boot DVD