Boot sector image extraction

[Fox2]

Can "Boot sector" be improved, and added to the tools menu?

 

The current option is very limited in 2 ways - it doesn't give any information about the boot sectors, and it's misleading as it stands. Right now it lists all devices, and a save icon, and a title "extract boot image". No "browse" button, and not in the obvious place (tools menu).

 

So if you do find this option tucked away inside nested tabs, you're left thinking (as I did) that it saves a boot sector of the devices listed. Not that you can choose any hard drive to browse for an image file to extract the boot sector of.

 

What I'd like would be a dialog "Extract and save boot image" with a box and "browse" button for the source (file or device), and "save boot image..." and "cancel" buttons, and linked from the tools menu and the current location.

 

The other change I'd make is, just like ImgBurn checks if the settings are right for a system install disk, it can probably also check the number of sectors needed for a boot image. The boot image will be for a given OS, the files saved will often be for a given OS, and the image file will be a given size. Automating the entire boot sector side, would be nice

[LIGHTNING UK!]

The location makes sense to me.

 

It's on the same tab where you opt to make your disc bootable - therefore it's right in front of you.

 

As for not giving any info, look in the log window.

 

I'm not sure what purpose a 'browse' button would serve. The devices listed in the drop down are the only ones you can possibly extract the boot sector or create an image from. You pick the drive and click the save button, that's all there is to it. It'll then auto-populate the other fields with the correct info if you tell it to so your new disc uses the correct sizes.

 

For such a tiny feature and one that already does what it supposed to perfectly well, it's not worth me spending any time on it... nor do I really want to - sorry.

[Fox2]

Then maybe I'm missing something.

 

I have an ISO file on a hard drive, and I want to use the boot sector from that ISO file to build an updated ISO.

 

How does one do that?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

You can't.

 

You can only extract from a drive.

 

So basically, the only way to do it is to mount the file in a virtual drive and go from there.

[Fox2]

You can't.

 

You can only extract from a drive.

 

So basically, the only way to do it is to mount the file in a virtual drive and go from there.

Then that's the feature I'm asking for, I guess If ImgBurn can extract a boot image from a device, it would be really nice (and logical) if it could extract a boot image from a disk image file too

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Use IsoBuster.

[pcguy]

Actually, Bart's BBIE utility does this if I am not mistaken? Extracting a boot image from an ISO is exactly what I needed. The only problem is, when I use the extracted file from BBIE as an input in ImgBurn, my ISO doesn't boot but when I used ImgBurn's own (.IMA), the ISO does boot! Any ideas?

 

Have a look below:

 

BBIE - Bart's Boot Image Extractor v1.0, (c) 2001, Bart Lagerweij
http://www.nu2.nu

Extracts all bootimages from a bootable CD-Rom or ISO image file
Supported format: El Torito Bootable CD-ROM Format Specification v1.0

Usage:
 bbie [switches] <source>

 source: The source file or drive to extract images from

 switches: -v   Verbose mode
		-b   Also write bootrecord and bootcatalog

Examples:
 bbie z:
 bbie redhat71.iso

 

Also is it possible to write directly to the boot sector of an ISO rather then recreating the whole ISO and including a boot image?

 

 

You can't.

 

You can only extract from a drive.

 

So basically, the only way to do it is to mount the file in a virtual drive and go from there.

Then that's the feature I'm asking for, I guess If ImgBurn can extract a boot image from a device, it would be really nice (and logical) if it could extract a boot image from a disk image file too

Edited September 22, 2009 by pcguy

[LIGHTNING UK!]

ISO's don't have 'boot sectors' in the sense you're thinking.

 

They have an El-Torito descriptor in addition to the normal ISO9660 / Joliet file system descriptors and it then points to an area on the disc containing the boot catalogue which then points to the bit the bios or whatever is supposed to boot. Only the initial El-Torito descriptor is in a semi fixed place on the disc, the rest can be anywhere.

 

As for why ImgBurn IMA works and the BBIE one doesn't, I've no idea. Have you compared (in a hex viewer or whatever) the extracted items to see how they're different?

[pcguy]

As for why ImgBurn IMA works and the BBIE one doesn't, I've no idea. Have you compared (in a hex viewer or whatever) the extracted items to see how they're different?

 

Hmm no I haven't. I will have to investigate this but I suspect it could be related to:

 

			-b   Also write bootrecord and bootcatalog

 

I used it without the -b flag. Since you mentioned:

 

They have an El-Torito descriptor in addition to the normal ISO9660 / Joliet file system descriptors and it then points to an area on the disc containing the boot catalogue which then points to the bit the bios or whatever is supposed to boot.

 

When you use it without the -b, it produces a single file image1.bin but if you add a -b, it produces two extra files: bootcatalog.bin and bootrecord.bin. Perhaps I should use one of these and see if I can get it to work.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

bootrecord.bin would be the one to use as I make up my own boot catalog based on the other options you select/info you provide.

[pcguy]

Thanks for that, I now wonder, you see the whole purpose of using bbie would be to extract the whole "bootable" image including the bootrecord so you can make an ISO bootable but by default the program does not do this, it only extracts image1.bin without bootrecord.bin which makes it kinda of not very useful.. unless I am missing something out.

 

Since ImgBurn's IMA works fine, would your program's extracted IMA be equivalent to bootrecord.bin? Or does it combine all three files into one? bootcatalog, bootrecord and the other one? Kind of confusing...

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Mine is just the boot record as that's all you need for things like bootable os installation cds (xp / vista etc).

 

If you had some mega complex mutli-boot image disc then perhaps you'd need to extract the catalogue as-is too... but for general usage that's simply not required.

[pcguy]

Excellent, thanks for that.