How do I create a bootable rescue CD/DVD?

[rubaiyat]

I'd like to create a bootable rescue CD that has all my utilities on it, including DiskWarrior 4, TechTool Pro and Apple's Disk Utility.

I tried starting with my DiskWarrior CD and adding the others to it in Toast 7.1.2 but it won't boot OSX from it.

I get the usual set-up "ignore ownership on this volume" advice in Finder, which frankly doesn't work. You set it and eject the CD and OSX doesn't remember.

Rebooting and holding down the C key just makes it think longer before it goes back to the default boot volume.

Anybody got this to work?

[albloom]

In olden times (Panther) an app called BootCD would do that for
you. The author seems to have given up on trying to get it working
under Tiger.

You'd be best off creating an eDrive via TTP. I copied my DW to it,
so everything is in one place. It boots lots faster than a CD, too.

[bobw]

To make the disc bootable, you would have to have a System on it. Easy enough to make a copy of a Tiger Install disc, but I don't know if adding utilities would work.

Why not get an external Firewire drive, install OS X on it along with your utilities.

[rubaiyat]

I have created the eDrive using TechTool Pro on an external HD.

I don't really think that is satisfactory though in the long term. For a start it was extremely slow to set up and eats up a large chunk of what I have left of that drive. Secondly I can picture some possible problem affecting FW, or the actual drive that it is on, that might make it difficult or impossible to mount. Thirdly it is not as portable as I would like, I have several machines not all the same models or vintages.

The Diskwarrior 4 CD has a system on it so should be the kernel of a mountable CD/DVD, but getting it to work is the difficulty. I actually ran DW itself on the the CD I had created, but wouldn't mount. DW reported it as being "blessed" which is the old MacOS9 term for having a system on it and being mountable.

Surely there must be a way. The whole way OSX manages this is extremely clumsy and perilous. Obviously to attack verious problems just using Disk Utilities, which is hard to start off your System DVD is totally inadequate and I would like to be able to bring my other utilities to bear more than one at a time.

[rubaiyat]

Here are instructions I have located on the web:

How to BURN bootable disk image using Disk Utility
Easier, less steps than using Toast
1) Launch Disk Utility (Panther and Tiger Operating Systems)
2) Click Burn (upper left)
3) Navigate to and select the DMG file (do not drag and drop).
4) Click CHOOSE or BURN
5) Insert disk when prompted and BURN.

How to BURN bootable disk image using Toast
Yes, it really is possible.
1) Get Info on the .dmg and "lock" it, then double clicking on the .dmg to mount it
2) Launch Toast
3) Select "Data"
4) Show Disc Options window (upper left corner) and click "Advanced" tab and elect "Mac Volume" button
5) In main window area click "Select", then highlight the mounted volume to be burned (do not drag and drop)
6) Uncheck "Optimize on-the-fly"
7) Click "OK" and Burn.

The trouble is the Disk Utility method besides being extraordinarily clumsy and circuitious [the above advice is only part of what you need to do] does not let you add to the original volume or image.

The Toast instructions don't match the options in my version of Toast (Toast Titanium v7.1.2) and don't work with all the other options I've tried. I ignored the statement in the Toast Help saying it will not do it, because this has been wrong in the past for previous versions of Toast and OSX.

[jbarley]

Here is a link that might be of some help,
the instructions are for a bootable flash drive, but maybe could be adapted to DVD.

http://www.tedlandau.com/books/helpl...ble_drive.html

jb

[rubaiyat]

Thanks jbarley! s:-)

That's worth a try. It isn't simple and not guaranteed to work, but it is a start.