How to make a bootable Vista Ultimate Upgrade DVD

Posted by TEAM FILEnetworks | 4/17/2007 | , | 16 Comments »

This post is related to a previous article. A lot of users had emailed us asking how to create a bootable Vista upgrade DVD as Vista setup was giving errors (for some users only) when run from within a Windows environment. Unfortunately the directly burning the 3 files to a CD wont make it bootable and solve all your problems. But there is a way.

This is how you create a bootable Vista Ultimate Upgrade DVD using the 3 files available.

1. Locate the downloaded files (boot.wim, install.wim, X13-49120.exe)and copy them to your root drive (Ex- C:\) Do not create a folder, just put them in the root drive.

2. Run x13-49120.exe, this will extract files to a folder named 'Vista' in your root drive. (Ex- C:\Vista, where C is the drive letter in which you placed the files in step 1 )

3. Download CDImage program. Extract and place cdimage.exe (place only the exe file, dont create a folder) in your root drive (same drive where you put the files in step 1).

4. Open command prompt. (Start Menu-->Run -->cmd.exe . Press Enter)

5.In command prompt navigate to C:\ drive (assuming C is your root drive). If you dont know how to do this, type 'C:' (without quotes) in command prompt and press enter. Then type 'cd\' (without quotes) and press enter once more.

6. Type the following command exactly as displayed below, in command prompt.

"cdimage -m -u2 -b C:\Vista\boot\etfsboot.com C:\Vista C:\Vistax86.iso" (without quotes)

Command prompt will display the progress of Image creation.

7. Once it shows 100% complete, you will see a new file created in the C drive (Vistax86.iso) This is a Vista Ultimate Upgrade bootable image.

8. Burn the newly created image using an image burner (Nero, PowerISO etc). Make sure you burn it using the 'burn image' or 'disk image or saved project (in Nero)' option in your Burner app. Burning the iso file to a single using normal burn wont work.

9. Once the image is created, you can safely delete boot.wim, install.wim, X13-49120.exe files, Vista Directory (created in step 2), cdimage.exe file and  Vistax86.iso files from your root drive.

You can now use the newly created bootable DVD to install Vista Ultimate Upgrade.


16 Comments

  1. දිමුතු // 4/18/2007 11:43:00 AM  

    The file is missing. Please repost.

  2. Thiru Cumaran // 4/18/2007 01:59:00 PM  

    please repost the CD Image. it is broken.

  3. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 4/18/2007 03:29:00 PM  

    Aplogies for the broken link.

    Here is a working direct download:

    http://www.tech-hints.com/prog/cdimage.zip

  4. adityamanutd // 4/21/2007 09:40:00 AM  

    Thanks a lot
    but the command prompt is not too clear

    Like I tried alot until I realized you have to put the C:\Vista ...............
    on the next line.

  5. Maverick // 4/23/2007 10:14:00 AM  

    Sexy job dude.... really fantastic... i have actually bought a vista ultimate express upgrade from microsoft... i have installed it but like u said i had mojor problems making it into a bootable dvd... fantastic !!!

  6. Unknown // 5/04/2007 12:24:00 PM  

    When I type "cdimage -m -u2 -b C:\Vista\boot\etfsboot.com C:\Vista C:\Vistax86.iso" I get the error message " ERROR : Could Not Open Boot Sector File ""
    Error 3 : The System Cannot Find The Path Specified."

    What am I doing wrong ?

  7. Unknown // 5/06/2007 05:58:00 PM  

    cdimage -m -u2 -bC:\Vista\boot\etfsboot.com C:\Vista C:\Vistax86.iso

    Copy and paste that into the Command Prompt, there was a space between -b and c: in the original post

  8. Jonathan Wei // 5/17/2007 02:00:00 AM  

    here's the problem I found with the code in CMD - kinda had a problem with vista. tried on a vista machine, (ironic isnt it? - installing vista on vista)

    anyway here's the correct code:


    cdimage -m -u1 -bC:\Vista\boot\etfsboot.com C:\Vista C:\Vistax86.iso

  9. Anonymous // 6/26/2007 02:57:00 PM  

    May be this is the right code for cmd:
    Cdimage -m -u2 -bC:\Vista\boot\etfsboot.com C:\Vista C:\Vistax86.iso

    NOTE that there is NO SPACE Between "b" and C:\...!careful!

  10. Jep // 11/07/2007 11:03:00 PM  

    both download links of cdimage does not work. can you make another download like for that if posible.

  11. aron7676 // 11/24/2007 11:46:00 AM  

    here is another link to cdimage low daily bandwidth though

    http://boxstr.com/files/166302_brbyv/cdimage.EXE]cdimage.EXE

    oh, and this is what worked for me...
    c:\cdimage -m -u2 -bF:\vista\vista\bo
    ot\etfsboot.com f:\vista\vista\ c:\vistax86.iso

  12. Tenshou // 4/09/2008 04:15:00 AM  

    What happened? I didn't get an ISO file but a winrar file. Do i have to uninstall WinRar? o_o

  13. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 4/09/2008 09:20:00 AM  

    "What happened? I didn't get an ISO file but a winrar file. Do i have to uninstall WinRar? o_o"

    That is because you have associated .iso file types to open with WinRAR. It doesnt matter you can burn it.

  14. Jalavi // 1/24/2009 02:22:00 PM  

    Please repost the CD Image. it is all three broken.

  15. Albanicus // 6/20/2009 02:10:00 PM  

    Hey thanks very much for the tutorial

  16. Unknown // 11/09/2009 06:59:00 PM  

    Do I need to extract the iso? or leave it as winRar?

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)