make windows folder behave like a cdrom

The CD ROM is a different drive (not a folder). So I think you would have to do this with a separate partition that can boot. Manufacturers use this to create recovery partitions.

To your question "do this with a folder [on the existing system}", I do not think you can do this.

... Thinkpads_User

Yes I am open to do this in separate partition. So it is possible to do in separate partition?  How?

I mean to say I can create that folder in separate partition

I think you need to make the whole partition bootable, not just a folder.

... Thinkpads_User

No, my requirements are make one folder (may be in other partition where windows loaded) behave like bootable cdrom and boot from it (maybe in dos) when needed

You cannot do this with a folder.

I have done this with a partition specifically to boot to DOS. That was a while back with Windows 2000 and the bootable partition with DOS was the first partition on the hard drive. It did work, but the whole partition was involved. A folder will not do it.

Today, with more modern systems, I use VMware and I have a DOS guest machine. That works also.

If you happen to have Windows 7 64-bit, you can do all this with XP Mode which is a free download from Microsoft. This approach also works.

.... Thinkpads_User

@Thinkpads_User:
Ok, if I go for a separate partition also, can I make it DOS bootable?  Can I make this partion even when windows xp or Windows 7 64 bit or Windows 8 are already loaded in pc and make that DOS as the first partition in the drive?
@ve3ofa:

@ve3ofa:
"The bios will look for the boot sector and the tiny program that is on the boot sector will then load the operating system."
Can you please explain a little bit more, please? Can I make that tiny program to call & load my iso?

Ok, if I go for a separate partition also, can I make it DOS bootable?

Set it up so that, upon start, the partition manager will display so you can select it. Then DOS can be set to boot.

You should be able to do this with XP on the machine, but if the machines is truly a Windows 7 or 8 machine with SATA drives, it probably won't work.

If you have Windows 7, you can use XP Mode as I noted. If you have Windows 8 (as I do), XP Mode is note supported. The only way to run DOS on a true Windows 8 64-bit machine is with VMware.

... Thinkpads_User

What are you trying to run separately (start a separate drive)?  Is it DOS?  If not, what?

For anything past Windows 98, you are probably better off to use Virtualization. That way the OS you want can run simultaneously with your host and network to it.

For anything from DOS 6 forward, you can still use Virtualization. DOS will not network with a 64-bit machine. I no longer have a working Windows 3.1 machine. Windows 95 and up should network with a modern host. Windows XP and up WILL network with a Windows 8 host.

.... Thinkpads_User

i suppose it would be best if Roy explains in detail what he wants to do

modifying the boot block is way beyond the expertise of even most programmers.  You need to understand the bios interrupts and also be able to program in assembler.  The risk of breaking your working operating system loading is quite high.  This will be detected by most anti-virus/malware applications as a problem.  If you are running a Windows Professional operating system > vista then you can boot to a VHD which is a file that mimics a hard drive. (vhd - virtual hard drive) by modifying the boot sequence.

You tagged: Windows XP which does NOT support this

@ nobus:

I think you are right. Let me explain everything. Please find one utility here

[Link removed - Modulus_Twelve]

It use Norton ghost for backup & restore. Surprisingly, it do not need any Norton to be installed. It only creates a folder in separate partition other than windows. Restore & Backup is done by this software. Whenever it needs to backup / restore it boots in DOS & after the job it reboots into windows. Before any task, i.e. backup / restore it asks in boot menu whether user wants to backup / restore.

This utility creates one folder only for the entire process.

I think (am not sure, guessing, you may suggest me the right way) it creates a hidden partition of dos (I don't know what version of dos is it) and after its job, running from that partition it restores windows.

I suggest you to look into this utility, and I need to do more or less same type of job. I can not use any bootable cd / install Norton for this, just like this software.

Please help

For my clients, we keep a bootable version of Ghost on a USB key. Then we keep images on a USB hard drive. If there is need to restore the image (not a client decision at all), we have the tools. Boot Ghost, answer the prompts and it installs the image onto the hard drive.

If you are dealing with single clients where the image may be on their hard drive, perhaps you could give them a bootable USB key (their expense).

Otherwise you need to build a drive/partition for Ghost to boot from.

.... Thinkpads_User

The more I think about this, the more I question trying to do this on a hard drive.

The image you want to restore is the computer hard drive - is that correct?  That is what Ghost does.

So then the process needs to be outboard to the computer. At least that is what I think at this point.

.... Thinkpads_User

In case windows corrupt,  user may restore the previous state from the other partition. Actually its client requirements.  So, I need to make this from had without norton installation like that utility I send link in my above post.  That's all. Client only need this without any cdrom drive.
Another thing,  how you can do it in usb, as that is not recognized from bootdisk of dos!

Symantec has instructions for making a USB Bootable.

So I have a bootable USB key, and I have a USB 1 Tb hard drive with images. I turn off the computer, connect the USB, connect the hard drive, start up, follow the Ghost prompts and image the computer. Works well.

... Thinkpads_User

Yes, but my requirements are specific. Can not we do it without usb drive or cdrom or installation of norton like my given to link above? I need to do that way. Please help

The computer will get lost if it starts restoring itself and wipes out what it is working on while it is trying to run.

Recovery partitions only restore the one partition. That is how they work.

.... Thinkpads_User

@Thinkpads_User:

accepted. if you give me solution to recover only one partition by norton, without installing Norton or use cd/usb/dvd rom.

@nobus:

"you could modify it's bat file to make your own folder and use your own iso file", which bat file? which iso file? how to make those? where to put those? please clarify. I am really stuck in this point.

Regards

My approach is to use Norton Ghost (not avoiding it) and using it to capture an entire system. Accordingly the restore goes the same way.

So while I am interested in what you are doing, I do not have a solution for it.

.... Thinkpads_User

@thinkpads_user:

sorry, may be I was not clear in my last statement towards you. I do not want to avoid Norton. I want to use it, but I want to avoid installation of Norton, that's all. I want to use ghost.exe / ghost32.exe actually without installing Norton in hdd. like we can do backup/restore by ghost cd, I just want to do that without cd, that's all.

I request you to see this utilility, what exactly I want to do
[Link removed - Modulus_Twelve]

i assumed you worked with the zip file you posted
in there is the bat file

Yes. You need to unzip & install

I just make my software like that zip file. How to do that? That utility is just working as a folder which acts as bootable partition, probably. I may be wrong. You people can tell that better.  I just want to make my software like that. help please?

i suppose you need others here for looking in to the bat file; it's not my speciality
you can ask the mods if they can post your Q in other topics for more help - use request attention

Thanx

@Soumen-Roy - Thanks.   ... Thinkpads_User

you need a boot manager i.e. boot-us http://www.boot-us.com/download.htm
and an operating system to boot into i.e. freedos http://www.freedos.org/
from there you can run ghost  but you cannot use the windows executable that you have the installer for.. BTW you must purchase GHOST as it is a copy written program owned by Symantec.