A boot diskette, or startup diskette, is a diskette that makes it possible to boot / launch an application or environment contained on the diskette independently of the installed operating system – even on a computer that does not contain any operating system. A classic example of a boot diskette is a Windows startup diskette.
What is a boot diskette used for?
A boot diskette is always intended for a specific purpose. There is no universal boot diskette. There are various boot diskettes containing, for example, diagnostic tools, utilities, and disk tools. For example, Acronis True Image software makes it possible to create boot diskettes that can be used to create and restore a system backup. Acronis Disk Director software makes it possible to create boot diskettes that can be used to partition disk volumes, merge disk volumes, create partitions, and delete disk volumes.
What other types of removable media can be bootable?
The most common boot media are bootable CD, bootable DVD, and bootable USB flash drive. To start bootable media, you need to set the system boot device to the desired device in the BIOS.
What can Acronis boot media do?
Acronis Disk Director boot media
After booting from this media, it is possible to create and delete disk partitions and resize disk partitions without data loss. This boot media (CD, DVD, or USB) can be created after purchasing an Acronis Disk Director license.
Acronis True Image boot media
After booting from this media, it is possible to create and restore backups of disks, disk partitions, and data, and clone basic (MBR) disks using the disk-to-disk method. The boot media makes it possible to restore a backup even to hardware-dissimilar machine. This boot media supports desktop operating systems only (Windows 7 – Windows 10 and Mac). This boot media (CD, DVD, or USB) can be created after purchasing an Acronis True Image license.
Acronis Backup boot media
After booting from this media, it is possible to create and restore backups of disks, disk partitions, and data. The boot media makes it possible to restore a backup even to hardware-dissimilar machine. This media supports both desktop and server operating systems. This boot media (CD, DVD, or USB) can be created after purchasing the relevant Acronis Backup license.