Creating bootable disc does not boot.

[BlackHorse]

Hi,

Making bootable windows 8 disc.

I've followed the guide but the disc refuses to boot at all.

Burned 9 discs so far, non of them bootable. The operations ended successfully  each time.
Used ver 2.5.0.0 and 2.5.8.0
Ran as Admin.
Used 2 different burners.
Used a known bootable disc files as source and still did not boot.
Tried the discs on 3 different PCs, didn't boot on any of them.
Extracted boot image info from a known bootable disc.
Changed dvd brand.
Burned under windows 7 compatible setting.

Non of these worked, I'm clueless, what's wrong here?
Windows 10 x64 
Log file attached for recent operation.

Thank you.

ImgBurn.log

Edited June 28, 2020 by BlackHorse

[dbminter]

And you followed this guide

noting the specific parts you should use for Windows 8 versus another system?

 

I'm concerned about this "burned under Windows 7 compatibility setting."  What exactly do you mean?  Do you mean you created a shortcut to ImgBurn on Windows 8 and used Windows 7 compatibility for it?

 

Honestly, I have NEVER gotten a bootable disc made with Build mode to ever boot.  Tried a few bootable discs with other bootable applications, but none of them ever worked.

 

If you've got rewritable media, use that so you won't go through discs with failed attempts like you have so far.

[BlackHorse]

Thanks for the reply.

I've followed that guide step by step.
Program is running under Windows 10 x64, trying to make windows 8 installation disc to be used on laptop.
Yes, I made a shortcut and changed it to windows 7 compatibility.

I did copy the files on USB stick and worked fine, but still want to make disc to give it to my sister.
I made a bootable installation disc with Imgburn couple years ago, but maybe I was using Windows 8.1 then? Not sure.

 

Any suggestions?

Edited June 28, 2020 by BlackHorse

[dbminter]

You could try the Windows Media Creator Tool, if it supports Windows 8.1.  It will download the necessary files and save them as an ISO, burn to them to a disc, or create a bootable flash drive.  It's what I do whenever I want to create bootable Windows discs.  Or, if I have one already, I just make an image file with ImgBurn of that existing disc.  If I need to add any files or folders to it, I use UltraISO and inject files/folders into the image file.

[BlackHorse]

Here what I'm trying to do,
I've the official Windows 8 iso, but want to add some updates and hotfix with it and give to my sister, since her laptop won't install windows unless it has the PID along, plus disc is more fool proof, so she won't end up modifying files by accident.
Just making everything easier.

Windows Media creator require an iso to burn, so I used Imgburn to turn that folder into an iso file, and burned it with Windows Media Tool, still didn't boot.

Can't seem to find another way to create bootbale disc?

[dbminter]

You turned ONE folder into an ISO file?  That's probably why it didn't boot.

[BlackHorse]

3 minutes ago, dbminter said:

You turned ONE folder into an ISO file?  That's probably why it didn't boot.

The content of that folder.

It's bootable on USB drive.

[dbminter]

Shouldn't be.  Windows installation media is definitely more than 1 folder.  And the USB drive is just 1 folder?

[BlackHorse]

1 hour ago, dbminter said:

Shouldn't be.  Windows installation media is definitely more than 1 folder.  And the USB drive is just 1 folder?

Source folder, where it is treated as root, everything inside that folder will be imported to burn.

Look at the guide (step 4).
Now I tried burning using different PC completely and I still can't get it to boot.

 

Worth mentioning?
I used the original bootable disc, after where it says "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD" I pressed space and swapped the disc with the unbootable one I just made, windows installation continue to setup just fine.

I have no idea at all at this point.

Edited June 29, 2020 by BlackHorse

[dbminter]

What is the name of this source folder?  Is that the only folder on your burned disc?  Those sub folders in this 1 source folder should all be in the root directory of your burned disc.  Otherwise, there's nothing to load to start installation.

 

Okay, I went over the instructions in the guide and there seems to maybe be a missing important step.  As far as I know, you need to extract the boot sector from a Windows 8 installation disc that already boots before it will work.  But, then again, I never got a bootable disc to work, so what do I know?

 

Under the Bootable disc tab, use the Extract button, the blue floppy disk icon, to extract the boot sector using the target of the root directory of an inserted bootable Windows 8 installation.  Then, under Boot image, point it to the Boot Image you just extracted from the bootable Windows 8 installation disc.  See if that helps.

 

If that doesn't help, I still say you need more than 1 folder in the root directory of your burned disc, if there is only 1.

[BlackHorse]

Here you can see in the attachment, view of the image iso after burning on disc and the source folder on Hard drive.
You can tell by the address bar.

Now I just realized I had DVD RW after wasting 12 DVD R lol.
This time, trying to follow site suggestion by making an iso file first with Imgburn, then using windows to burn it on disc.

[dbminter]

Oh, have you not been burning these failed discs with ImgBurn?  You've been using Windows itself to write ISO's?  Try creating an image file with the guide and then use ImgBurn in Write mode to write that image file to a disc.  See if that works.  Windows burning engine has been known to be less robust than ImgBurn.

[BlackHorse]

I did burn them with Imgburn in the 12th tries before.
Now the last one DVD RW failed to boot too. However in Imgburn it says disc is bootable?? 

[dbminter]

There's bootable and then there's "bootable."  Booting usually means two phases.  The part that actually starts booting and then the part that runs after booting.

 

I still say you need an extracted boot image to get all the necessary bootable files onto the boot sector in order to start a Windows boot.

 

However, I've never gotten a single bootable disc to ever boot, so I'm not going to be of much help.

 

As I said, I just use the Windows Media Creator tool to make all my Windows bootable discs and flash drives.  Saves me the trouble of mucking around getting nothing to ever work.  Although for Windows 8, I don't think it's supported anymore, just 8.1.  But, you could try the ISO Download tool.

 

https://www.softexia.com/windows/internet/download-managers/windows-and-office-iso-download-tool

 

I'd just snag a Windows 8 ISO with this tool, but, didn't you also say you were streamlining all the latest updates and service packs into your Windows 8 installation?  That may be why it isn't working.  You're trying to boot from a Windows 8 installation that has been "modified."  Otherwise, you'd just take your Windows 8 installation media and Read an image of it and burn that.  So, you need this specifically to work, which I can't help you with.

[BlackHorse]

I've been trying on clean copy to minimize my errors first, I'm not modifying an installation, right now just trying to add the PID to bypass OEM error to get it work on the obsolete laptop.
Also trying to copy clean Windows 7 iso and didn't boot.

Now I've tried this:
Imgburn> (Working windows 8 bootable disc) > Copy image.
Imgburn>  Blank DVD > Burn the image > I get "Disc need formating" and it's stuck on 99%.

Used Nero to burn that exact image on the same disc, burned successfully and booted to windows setup.

Must be something with Imgburn, it hasn't been updated since 2013, so that's most likely why.
Now the DVD RW is corrupted and unusable after being burned with Imgburn, great, total waste of 13 DVDs.

I've the original iso's burned on discs from back then.
The original iso can burned with any tool and it is bootable, it looses the bootable feature once the iso has been extracted (to my know).

Thank you for trying to help me on this.

As I was writing, finished burning another clean copy of windows 7 and failed to boot.
Used Imgburn to verify Disc with Iso image, I got +99 miscompare (errors in sectors)
So my guess is Imgburn is bad with newer hardware.
I'll find another way.
Thanks again.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Are you creating a legacy bootable disc or an efi bootable disc? Your bios needs to allow for whichever format you’re using.

Legacy would normally require you to turn off secure boot and enable legacy booting in the bios.

The guide is old and doesn’t really cover efi booting. I’ve no idea on the exact settings required for that.

ImgBurn itself works fine on old/new hardware. Nothing has changed in the world of optical disc burning.

[dbminter]

The miscompares are either your hardware is going bad, you're using cheap discs, your drive's firmware needs updating, or there's an incompatibility between the write strategy for that media.  We'd have to see a log with miscompares to know more.

 

The 99% "freezing" may not be what you think it is.  How long did you wait at 99%?  It can take up to 10 minutes to format disc and you were using 2x, it seems, so it will probably take longer.  And some hardware and ImgBurn combinations only list the 99% value and don't offer a countdown of format time.

 

Extracting the ISO of a bootable disc probably wouldn't work because, as I said, there are two "sides" to a bootable disc.  One side you see is the contents listed in File Explorer.  The other side is the boot sector, which contains all the necessary files to do the actual booting.  The only way I know to see that boot sector side is to extract it to an IMG file and open it with an IMG edtior.

 

I had wondered if the Legacy/EFI booting thing might be a problem here since the introduction of EFI.

[BlackHorse]

8 hours ago, LIGHTNING UK! said:

Are you creating a legacy bootable disc or an efi bootable disc? Your bios needs to allow for whichever format you’re using.

Legacy would normally require you to turn off secure boot and enable legacy booting in the bios.

The guide is old and doesn’t really cover efi booting. I’ve no idea on the exact settings required for that.
 

Now I feel like a total idiot.
I had my doubt about EFI and actually turned it off on Windows 7 disc booting once, then enabled it again.
Now  I've tried the burned discs I made in Legacy mode, they booted fine **face palm**

Thank you @LIGHTNING UK! and sorry for all the troubles,
There is no way to make bootable EFI on disc? 

 

@dbminter
I guess it was all my idiocy fault.
Even the bad sector disc booted fine in Legacy mode.
Sorry.