Dvd of Windows Vista not bootable

[Earth]

I am trying to install windows vista on a separate Hard Drive. I burned the Vista ISO file to DVD and it won't boot from the dvd. I have the cd/dvd drive set to boot 1st. When it tries to boot it says "Cannot load DOS Any key to retry" If I stick the vista iso dvd in my primary computer I am able to open the vista setup in windows, so I know I burned the iso correctly, but I don't want to install vista on the same drive as my primary system. Do you need to install the vista iso as a bootable dvd? or just a plain data dvd? I tried both and neither worked. Please help me. Thank you

[unidentified]

See similar threads on same type of issue: Vista wont boot after install, DVD is not bootable either. Please help.
VISTA BOOT FROM DVD PROBS
Will Vista DVD boot from a 'SATA' DVD-RW on a clean install?
How to Make A Bootable DVD for Windows Vista...??

[nitesh mehta]

How to consolidate and make a bootable windows Vista DVD:

Software used:

Nero Burning ROM 7.0.1.3

Create a folder called OS on your hard drive (C: is used in this example).
In this folder create two sub-folders called BOOT, and ROOT.

1.) Copy the contents of Install CD 1 to hard drive and place them in the folder ROOT.
2.) Copy the install*.swm files from CD's 2-5 to the "OS\ROOT\Sources" folder
3.) Use BootExtract.exe to extract a file with a name similiar to Drive-E.NoEmulation__Segment-0000__SecCount-4.bin and rename it to *.ima

4.) Start Nero - Burning Rom.
5.) Select File > New... from the menu.
6.) Select DVD-ROM (Boot).
7.) Click on the Boot tab
- Select Image file from Source of boot image data.
- Check Enable expert settings (for advanced users only!)
- Set Kind of emulation: to No Emulation.
- Set Load segment of sectors (hex!): to 0000.
- Set Number of loaded sectors: to 4.
8.) Press the Browse... button.
9.) Locate the BootSector file (Drive-E.NoEmulation__Segment-0000__SecCount-4.ima) in the folder C:\OS\BOOT.
10.) Click the Open button.
11.) Click on the ISO tab.
- Set File name length to Max. of 11 = 8+3 chars (ISO Level 1). (I don't know if this setting affects anything)
- Set Data Mode to Mode 1. (In mine it was greyed out)
- Set Character Set to ISO 9660 (standard ISO CD-ROM).
- Check all Relaxed ISO Restrictions.
12.) Click on the Label tab.
13.) Click the Manual radio button.
14.) Enter the same Volume Label as CD1 into the ISO 9660 and Joliet text boxes. In my case this was LRMCFRE_EN_CD1
15.) Click the More Labels button.
16.) I changed the Joliet Publisher and Data Preparer fields to Microsoft Corporation. The ISO 9660 fields were MICROSOFT_CORPORATION.
17.) Click the Burn tab.
- Check Write.
- Check Finalize CD (No further writing possible!).
- Set Write Method to Disc-at-once. (We have had Track-At-Once work as well.)
18.) Click the New button.
- Locate the folder C:\OS\ROOT.
- Select everything in the folder and drag it to the ISO compilation panel.
- Click the Write CD Dialog button.
19.) Click the Boot tab.
- Verify the settings. Correct if needed.
- Click the Burn button.

[Zachary]

How to Make 64-bit Windows Vista Bootable DVD from Microsoft WIM with vLite Guide
Microsoft provides genuine users who purchase license and product key online to download the setup package directly from its content delivery partner’s digitalrivercontent.net server. In fact, anybody use the direct download links to download the Vista installer directly from Microsoft to ensure the copy is clean, unmodified and untampered with.

The downloaded packages are in .WIM format and extension, which can be made into a bootable ISO DVD image of Vista setup disc. Now, this guide will make use of vLite to build the ISO image from WIM archive files. vLite is a freeware application to customize Vista installation to create customized Vista DVD media before actually installing Vista. With vLite, it’s possible to further customize the final DVD ISO image to user’s likings. In this guide, the installation process will skip asking for product key (so that trial version for 30 days evaluation is installed) and bypass attempt to automatic activation.

As earlier guide has shown instructions for x86 Vista, this guide will take this opportunity to provide step-by-step instructions with illustration to make bootable ISO image for Vista x64 edition instead. The only difference between creating ISO DVD image for 32-bit and 64-bit Vista is that there is no need to download and deal with etfsboot.com when preparing files for 32-bit Vista disc.

Download 3 x64 Vista setup files.
Download and install vLite from www.vlite.net.
(Not required for 32-bit Vista) Download the etfsboot.com. etfsboot.com is the boot image necessary to create bootable DVD.
Copy install.wim, boot.wim and X13-49121.exe to system root drive (i.e. C:\ folder).
Double click and run the X13-49121.exe. A “Windows Vista Setup Preparation” dialog box will appear and start extracting 64-bit Vista setup files.


For more information go to this link.

[JAMES_911]

When you purchase Vista from the Windows Marketplace website, you are entitled to a physical copy of the installation DVD for the version you paid for. You can order the installation DVD here:

Windows Marketplace: Windows Vista: Order your backup discs:
http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/co...Id=404&tabid=1

The downloaded files can be burned to a DVD for backup purposes, but they
cannot be converted to a normal installation DVD.

More information here:

Windows Marketplace: Windows Vista: How to Download:
http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/co...Id=395&tabid=1