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I looked https://www.memtest86.com/tech_booting-cd-dvd.html

and I downloaded the file they link to there https://www.memtest86.com/downloads/memtest86-iso.zip

And within it i'm not entirely sure what file is the image file i'm meant to burn, but I found the memtest86 ISO deeply nested within the directory structure of it, having opened it in 7zip to browse it to find that.

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So having downloaded memtest86-iso.zip then opening it in 7-zip, I found

C:\Users\User\Downloads\memtest86-iso.zip\memtest86-iso.iso\MEMTEST.IMG\MemTest86.img\

Within this zip file memtest86-iso.zip, there's this iso file memtest86-iso.iso and i'm not sure if that is meant to be burnt, but within that, there's a "[boot]" directory, a boot.cat file, and a MEMTEST.img file. The memtest.img file is not meant to be burnt, because within that, are simply two img files. One called "EFI System Partition.img" and one called MemTest86.img And that looks like a file to burn.

I copied MemTest86.img to my Downloads folder so got C:\Users\User\Downloads\Memtest86.img

Then I tried to burn it with PowerISO.

When I open PowerISO it says that the unregistered PowerISO can't create or edit images over 300M. Well that's fine 'cos the image is 261MB and i'm not trying to edit it just burn it.

But PowerISO gives an error here

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And Windows also. If I right click the img file and do "open with" and "windows disc image burner" it says "the selected disc image file isn't valid"

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Added

Since within the Zip is a file memtest86-iso.iso it has been suggested that I try burning that. I did try burning that and a computer I tried the DVD in didn't boot with it. Looking at the files within the ISO, (as sometimes they can indicate e.g. if the ISO requires UEFI or requires legacy), I don't see anything I recognise as bootable. It doesn't look like legacy DOS OS, or legacy linux OS.. and no dot EFI file. So that makes me wonder if it is bootable. See the contents of it below

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And I tried it in virtualbox but didn't manage to boot off it. See virtualbox didn't recognise it as bootable media. (Note that I can't see an option in virtualbox to switch between UEFI or not, but I think it's legacy judging by the lack of an .efi file and efi folder, and virtualbox should be fine with legacy/BIOS)

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  • Have you tried to burn the ISO file in question to a disk?
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 16:14
  • @Ramhound: "The author wants to use a bootable optical disk not a bootable USB flash disk."
    – harrymc
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 16:18
  • @harrymc - Yes; I know what the author is asking. I am asking barlop if they have tried burning, the ISO in question, to an optical disk.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 16:19
  • @Ramhound yes look at the images it's all about trying to burn to optical discs and you see the attempts and errors on attempting.
    – barlop
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 17:14
  • You attempted to burn the IMG file. I asked if you attempted to burn the ISO file.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 19:06

2 Answers 2

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The ISO file is a CD image. You burn it as-is (not as a file, but using the image burning function of your favorite CD burning software).

7-Zip is capable of browsing various image formats (both for optical media and classic block storage), so that may be confusing.

The ISO image also works perfectly fine in a Hyper-V Gen2 (UEFI) VM. It is, however, only UEFI-bootable. So if you try it in VirtualBox, you have to switch to (U)EFI there as well; IIRC this option is only visible when certain modern operating systems are selected as the guest OS.

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  • what do you mean "burn it as-is" what do you think I was burning it as? what's the difference between burning it as-is and burning it not as-is? what does burning it not as-is mean?
    – barlop
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 17:15
  • You have tried to unpack the memtest86 image twice, by first unpacking the zip file, then unpacking the image file inside. You should have just unzipped it. That's it.
    – Artem S. Tashkinov
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 18:11
  • @ArtemS.Tashkinov it didn't work but i'm not sure if the ISO actually contains something bootable, maybe it's possible to identify from the file structure? it doesn't look like efi? or a non-efi dos, or linux.. I tried in a comp and that didn't work though not sure if the comp is the issue there, and I tried in virtualbox but it didn't work i.imgur.com/my99J3G.png
    – barlop
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 22:01
  • Nowhere in their documentation they mention buring or using their tool to boot from a CD/DVD drive. Looks like the image is meant to be written to a USB flash drive directly.
    – Artem S. Tashkinov
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 22:09
  • @ArtemS.Tashkinov of course it could, it has been around for over 2 decades. It predates usb Also, see memtest86.com/tech_booting-cd-dvd.html "MemTest86 v8, bootable CD/DVD ISO images are no longer supported......However, for UEFI systems that can only boot via CD/DVD media (such as systems with older UEFI implementations, or systems that only support remote boot via CD-ROM emulation through the BMC or IP KVM devices), we provide an (unsupported) CD/DVD ISO image of MemTest86 Free Edition for download."
    – barlop
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 23:13
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To create the boot USB, download from MemTest86 Download the free version and unpack it.

The included file readme.txt contains these instructions:

  • Plug in your USB drive.
  • Launch the included ImageUSB application.
  • Select your USB drive from the list (Step 1).
  • Select 'Write image to USB drive' (Step 2)
  • If it is not already selected, select the included image file (Step 3).
  • Click 'Write' (Step 4).

After accepting a few more prompts this should give you a working bootable USB drive.

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1
  • The author wants to use a bootable optical disk not a bootable USB flash disk.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 16:17

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