How to Make Bootable CD/DVD for Windows 7 Using CMD?

What does a bootable CD/DVD do?

Bootable drives like bootable CD, DVD, USB drive, and Pen Drive are quite useful in various kinds of situations. For example, you’ll receive a Windows Installation bootable CD or DVD for later clean reinstallation like install Windows to SSD when you purchase a brand new computer.

After that, you may want to create a disaster recovery bootable drive with regular backup in case of bad things happen in the future. At the same time, Windows 7 Backup and Restore also will remind you to create a bootable system repair disc before creating system image.

Therefore, different bootable drives are needed for different purposes. In general, the bootable drives for repairing and disaster recovery are quite easy to create. It is a little bit complicated to create installation bootable DVD for Windows 7 if you’ve lost the original disc. Don’t worry. This passage will show you how to make a bootable CD in Windows 7 easily.

How to make a bootable DVD for Windows 7 using CMD?

In the first place, make sure that your Windows 7 has installed Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK). If not, click the link to get one as well as the installation guideline. You may need to download the CDImage.exe as well. Follow these steps after install completes.

1. Click Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Windows AIK -> CMD. Run as administrator.

2. Type oscdimg -n -m -b"C:Win7 7048 ENDVD Bootable Toolsx64_Bootetfsboot.com" and press Enter. Type the path where the boot image file is placed by you in the quotes.

Tips✍:
● -b: points to the boot sector file location (etfsboot.com). This file will make the DVD bootable. Do not use a space between b and path!
● -n: makes it possible to use extended file names.
● -m: allows to create iso files, larger than CD format.

3. Type C:Win7_7048_ENx64fre and press Enter. That’s where all Windows files are placed.

4. Type C:Win7_7048_EN_ISOWin7_7048_x64_EN.iso and press Enter. The place you save the ISO file.

5. Type exit to leave the command prompt.

Alternatively, you could type C:\>oscdimg -bd:\win7dvd\boot\etfsboot.com -u2 -h -m -lWin_En_DVD d:\win7dvd d:\win7.iso to make the bootable DVD directly. To help you understand:

●  “C:\>” is the command prompt drive.
● “d:win7dvd” is the folder where you copied entire DVD of Windows 7.
● “boot\etfsboot.com” is a folder inside Windows 7 DVD.
● “-u2” and “-m” are needed for large files.
● “Win_En_DVD” is the name given to DVD.
● “d:win7dvd” is of the same meaning of described before.
● “d:win7.iso” is the destination name of DVD with ISO extension.

Make bootable pen drive for Windows 7 using CMD

Also, you could make bootable media with Diskpart easily. Insert the USB drive to your computer first.

1. Open an elevated command prompt. Type diskpart and press Enter.

2. At the prompt, input following command successively and press Enter after each.

• list disk

• select disk n (where n is the target bootable drive)

• clean

• create partition primary

• select partition 1

• active

• format fs=ntfs

• exit

3. Save the prepared custom image to the root of the USB flash drive.

Two ways on how to make CD bootable using CMD are introduced now. You can reboot to see if you could boot from the bootable drive successfully. You may need to change boot order in BIOS as well.

Tips: Above steps apply to how to make bootable DVD for Windows 10 using CMD as well.

Nevertheless, you may encounter Windows won't boot from CD or DVD issue. Or, you may not familiar with the command line bootable media creation operations. To provide extra layer of protection for your Windows, another easier way to create bootable drive for Windows 7 is recommended.

Easier method to create bootable media in Windows 7/8/10

AOMEI Backupper Standard is free bootable media creating tool that will help you create bootable CD, DVD or USB drive in a few clicks. Powerful as it is, it also provides different features on backup image creation. In detail, you can create system backup on a regular basis.

When your computer fails to boot, you can boot it from the bootable media and perform system restore to get things to normal.

WinPE and Linux bootable disc type are supported. In WinPE type, Legacy and UEFI boot modes are supported as well. You could also download the environment from Internet. What’s more, three options: burn to CD/DVD, USB Boot Device and Export ISO file are available.

Steps to make bootable media for Windows 7:

1. Connect the media (CD, DVD or USB drive) to your computer, and make sure it can be detected. Note that the storage will be formatted, so back up important files in advance if necessary.

2. Free download, install and launch AOMEI Backupper. Click Utilities and then Create Bootable Media.

3. Select Windows PE here for Windows 7. It supports both legacy BIOS and UEFI boot modes.

4. Select bootable media, CD, DVD, or USB drive. Click Next.

5. As covered, the target drive will be formatted. Click Yes to confirm.

6. The creating process will start automatically. Wait patiently and it will be completed in a short time. Click Finish to exit.

The best arrangement of bootable USB drive is with regular system back up. Once your system fails, you can return it to the latest working state. Also, you could make a system image at the first day when you clean install your system. In that way, you can restore the system image to the initial state.

Summary

Several ways on how to make bootable DVD for Windows 7 using CMD are discussed. Choose the most suitable one according to your own situation. That is a method for booting a single computer. As a matter of fact, to boot multiple computers simultaneously like in a company, you can turn to AOMEI PXE boot tool. It is a tool that allows you to boot computers from network.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image file on server-side computer to multiple client-side computers over network.