Hi,
I downloaded damn small linux to a CD; consisted of an index file and a .iso file. I'm trying to boot my Windows XP PC from the CD RW drive; have changed the bios settings to put USB CD in first position at boot config screen. Also tried another option that seemed to refer to CD RW drive, and put that in first position.
Nonetheless, my PC keeps starting up Win XP - I do hear the CD RW drive cranking away at startup, but that's it. Any assistance is appreciated.
Thanks, Chris

I believe your issue is that you burned the .iso FILE instead of the image to the CD. You will need a new CD (unless yours is RW) and a program, such as PowerISO(30 day trial I think) or Daemon Tools(Lite version is free) that can burn disk images. Hopefully you can figure out what to do from there. If not, just let me know and I'll be glad to give further advice.

It sounds like you just copied the .iso to the CD rather than burning a bootable disk?

I would have to agree with the above. You're supposed to burn the .iso file to the CD as an image, not as a file.

When you burn the .iso as an image, all the filesystem data within the .iso file (i.e. directories, filenames, etc.) are preserved, whereas if you burn it as a file, you're creating a new filesystem with just the .iso file in it. All the data is still there, just locked up in the one .iso file.

A good Windows program for this (at least that I've used) is ImgBurn. It's freeware, and (IMO) it's fairly easy to use and full-featured.

Hope this helps.