El Torito CD Image Preparation Tool

Hd2iso.exe enables you to convert your run-time image to an ISO 9660 image file. When you install Microsoft Windows XP Embedded, the El Torito CD image preparation tool is copied to the Windows Embedded\Utilities folder.

The El Torito CD image preparation tool creates a bootable CD image from a partition on a physical disk. It converts the hard disk partition image to an ISO-9660/El Torito-compliant image file that can be burned to a CD using a commercial CD-burning application.

Before using this tool, you must create a disk with a bootable partition on your development system or a test system.

The image source is exactly one hard disk, from which you choose one or more partitions to be included in your run-time image. The target is the virtual hard disk stored on the CD-ROM from which you can boot. You can select up to four partitions, primary or extended, of any file system to store on the target. The total size of all selected partitions cannot exceed the capacity of the target media. If the target media is to be bootable, you must select one primary, active, FAT partition on the source media to include in your run-time image. The partition size should be 8 MB to 650 MB for a 74-minute CD or 8 MB to 700 MB for an 80-minute CD. There are no restrictions on the nature or content of the other partitions.

The El Torito CD image preparation tool does not distinguish logical drives within an extended partition. If you select an extended partition, the El Torito CD image preparation tool stores all logical drives within that partition in the run-time image. Typically, it is unnecessary to include more than one partition in the run-time image.

See Also

Bootable CD-ROM | Writing a Bootable CD-ROM | How to Create a Bootable CD-ROM

Last updated on Wednesday, October 18, 2006

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