A method of transferring CD ROM formatted files independently of operating systems. The method includes booting a computer with an operating system kernel loaded from a bootable CD ROM, and loading a file transfer application. The application can recognize CD ROM formatted files and can write selected files to a writeable CD ROM. The method further includes replacing the bootable CD ROM with a writeable CD ROM after the file transfer application is loaded, and copying the CD ROM formatted files from the computer to the writeable CD ROM. The method may also include selecting files on a computer's hard drive, converting the files to a CD ROM format and writing the files to a writeable CD ROM. A bootable CD having a bootable hard disk data structure, an operating system kernel, and an application for reading and burning ISO 9660 images and hard drive content to a writeable CD ROM is described.