How is an ISO CD produced?

Okay. My Presario SR1123WM, 756 RAM is down because "Ntldr is Missing. press Ctrl Alt Delete to reboot."
I need to make an ISO CD in order to try to replace the missing loader.
But How?
I have downloaded a solution to this problem, And I have downloadedan ISO burner. But what are the mechanics of doing this? I have tried using the CD ISO burner to open the solution
but my e machines tells me that it cannot do so.
Help!

 

Somehow I don't think that an ISO is going to help you with this, but I'll go thru what an ISO is and what to do with an ISO. First, an ISO is basically an 'image' of some data. It can be a CD, a hard drive, a file, a folder, anything. Any kind of data can be in an ISO. But ISOs are usually associated with CDs and DVDs. An ISO of a CD would contain all the data, the boot sectors, the sector layout, everything; versus when you put a CD in the computers CD drive you just have access to the data, so the ISO has an exact copy of the entire CD in one image file. The file cannot be burned as data. If you do, you'll put the CD in the PC and you just see one file on it called "%filename%.ISO". You must tell the burning program that you are burning an image, and point it to the ISO file. If you need to create an ISO, there are many ways to do this. Most CD/DVD burning tools have the option to create an ISO image from another CD or DVD. There are several programs that will create an ISO from any file, folder, disk, drive, whatever. MagicISO, UltraISO, WinISO, are a few paid ones. There are some free ones too; Folder2ISO and ISORecorder are two that come to mind. But, I don't think ISOs will do anything to fix your problem. Anyway, here's some links to some free programs for ISOs:
Folder2ISO http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_tools/folder2iso.cfm
ISO Recorder http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
ImgBurn (burning software that will handle ISO and many other image types) http://www.majorgeeks.com/ImgBurn_d4870.html
CDBurnerXP (requires .NET Framework 2.0 or newer) http://www.majorgeeks.com/CDBurnerXP_d4242.html
EasyISO (I haven't used this one, but it may be what you need for ISOs) http://www.majorgeeks.com/EasyISO_d2499.html
These programs are all 100% free to download and use. The ISO programs I mentioned are not free, and therefore I didn't link to them. If you're interested in one of the paid apps, a Google search should turn up all you need. Now, to address the actual problem that you're having with NTLDR; read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320397/en-us
and this too: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305595/en-us (this requires a working PC with WinXP and will create a floppy to get the PC started). There's tons of info about the NTLDR problem at the Microsoft Knowledge Base.... maybe a search there is needed.
Good Luck!

 

Thank you for your prompt reply - I've been on a trip to Mississippi - just got back. What I've done is printed your excellent exposition of ISO. I will go to Microsoft, as I have another working computer. I need to study this stuff - it's so new to me.
Thank you again.

 

I downloaded IMgBurner, and loaded NTLDR fixer into the ISO burner . The program did a good easy job, once I figured out what to do. But the product did not rejuvinate my ailing Compaq Preasario SR 1123 WM. The program did give me ten chances to fix the missing NTLDR - but none of them worked. So, right now, I am using Puppy Linux to get around. I'm wondering if a different hard drive would be the answer to my problems.
Any further thoughts about how to reintroduce the missing NTLDR that is apparently my main problem?

 

Like I posted earlier, I didn't think that your NTLDR problem would be easily fixed, it's been my experience with the NTLDR errors that they are VERY seldom an easy fix. Did you try the Microsoft links I posted above?

I have fixed the NTLDR in the past by replacing Windows boot files with known 'healthy files'. I have discs with clean, healthy copies of the following files boot.ini; NTDETECT.COM; NTLDR I have successfully booted into Windows by setting the BIOS boot order to boot to the floppy disk first (or the CD drive, where-ever the boot files are), the files are read from the floppy which then directs the remaining boot process to the hard drive. If this works, then we know that one (or two or all three) of the boot up files on the hard drive is bad. Once the PC boots to the desktop, you can copy the healthy files from the floppy (or CD) to the root of C:\, overwriting the bad files. I usually rename the old files by adding a "-old" instead of overwriting them, just in case. You can also copy the files over from the recovery console, or by booting to any "live" CD like a BartsPE disc, the UBCD4Win, or a live Linux disc like Knoppix. Knowing next to nothing about Linux, I would use the live Linux option as a last resort, but that's me. So, you need access to a healthy PC running the same version of Windows that you're trying to repair: XP Home, Pro, Media Center, whatever. Then enable the viewing of hidden files/folders and enable viewing of system files/folders, otherwise you won't be able to see the files. They will be on the root of C:\. Copy them to a floppy or CD or even a thumb drive will work in most situations.