How to Make a Bootable Disk in Vista

Vista start-up problems are nobody's fun. In previous versions of Windows, the first step would be to try some troubleshooting by booting the PC from a CD or DVD. Previous versions of Windows and third-party applications made it very easy to create these bootable discs. (Some of us still have CDs from OSs-past in our collections.)

Vista is the first version of Windows that does not include a method to make a bootable disc.

This article is a follow-up to Windows Vista Backup - the Good, the Bad, and the Not so Hot, in which we discussed using the Backup Center in the Office, Enterprise, and Ultimate versions of Vista to back up the entire PC to external media such as a USB hard drive. This proved to be a pretty simple operation, but it left us with potential problems. To access a recovery partition (a space on the hard drive where the manufacturer stores the recovery environment), one needs to press F8 repeatedly during startup.

Obviously, if the hard drive has failed catastrophically, the user can’t access the recovery environment on the recovery partition. When this happens, the user needs another method to start the PC, perform diagnostics on the hard drive, and, if necessary, reinstall the operating system and user content from the external backup. This means that the user needs a bootable DVD or CD that can start the recovery environment.

In the first article, we talked about using the PC’s manufacturer’s “Rescue or Recovery” or “Recovery Manager” application to create bootable DVDs. The disadvantage of using these is that their focus is on restoring the computer to the new, out-of-the-box configuration, not the PC’s most recent state. We found that the HP utility created a bootable DVD, but it failed to provide a Vista recovery environment. This meant there was no access to the external backup during startup. Using HP’s solution requires that one (1) must have a full external backup, (2) must reinstall the factory configuration from the recovery partition, and (3) must run Windows Backup to restore from the external hard drive.

That’s no help if the recovery partition is damaged. It would be better to have a bootable disc that can diagnose drive and memory problems and provide the Windows recovery environment to restore your backup to the same or a new hard drive. Here are three approaches we can use to create a bootable Vista CD or DVD.

Please note that solutions one and two require access to a Vista DVD. If you don't have or can't obtain one, please scroll down and go to page three where a solution is shown that does not require a Vista DVD.

That’s right. The Vista distribution DVDs are not copy-protected. The Vista Ultimate DVD, which accounted for about 30% of retail (over the counter) sales, can install all the lesser versions, too. We’re interested in this because the retail DVD can start the recovery center to restore from an external backup. So the first step is to beg or borrow a real Vista DVD.

Not all burning applications do a great job copying bootable DVDs. You need one that can do a “sector-by-sector” copy. If you have two DVD burners, you can do a drive to drive copy. For the rest of us, I recommend using an application such as the freeware ImgBurn. Of course, I also urge you to donate to the project if you find the software useful.

Here are the steps involved using ImgBurn. First, insert the Vista DVD and dismiss the auto-play message if it comes up. Then start ImgBurn and click “Create image file from disc.” The default will be to write the image to the root folder of the C: drive. That’s fine.

Select your DVD drive and click the start/burn graphic in the bottom of the application window. (Click the image to enlarge.)

This will write an image file (.iso) to the root of your C: drive.

When ImgBurn finishes, close it. Remove the Vista disc and put a blank DVD-R in the drive. Click on "Computer" on your desktop and then on your C: drive. Click to sort by size and then right-click your .iso file. Select “Burn using ImgBurn.” ImgBurn will then restart and create a copy of the Vista DVD.