.iso File?

[webgyrl]

Another blonde question, I'm sure...

 

But what the heck is a .ISO file and what does it do?

 

Thanks,

Nat

[Class]

It's a 'Image' of a file, you can use tools like Daemon Tools to 'Mount' the image and it will look just like a normal CDROM in Windows (or whatever OS you are using.)

 

Most Linux distros comes as ISO images, that can be moved around like a normal file, and be 'Mounted' to install from it.

 

Edit: Many CD-burning software can open ISO-files and burn them.

[Head Guru]

An ISO is an image of a CD. It's one big file that has to be writen to a recordable CD (CDR). There are many Windows based programs that will write ISO images. Software like Adaptec's Easy CD Creator have support for ISO images

 

If you just wanna peak around a .iso file in windows. Try winiso

[DarqFlare]

Ooh, WinISO is nice...

[webgyrl]

Ahhhhhhhh!

 

OK, now I get it.

 

So if I copy an audio CD using EZ CD Creator 5 is is gonna be an ISO file?

 

If I back up other things like software are these ISO files as well or are they something else.

 

I am backing up all the programs I have on disk after hearing about how CD's can disintigrate... I just wanna know if they will work should I ever need them and if I would need something special to open an ISO file.

 

Nat

[webgyrl]

An ISO is an image of a CD. It's one big file that has to be writen to a recordable CD (CDR). There are many Windows based programs that will write ISO images. Software like Adaptec's Easy CD Creator have support for ISO images

 

If you just wanna peak around a .iso file in windows. Try winiso

Bill,

 

To find that file would I just search for *.iso?

 

Thanks,

Nat

[kevan_j]

Nat,

 

WinISo is a program you would have to download and install. It can be found here:

 

http://www.winiso.com/

 

Also, to answer your other question(s), if you copy an audio CD to your HD, you will probably not create an ISO file, depending on the software you are using. You would have to specify that you wanted to create an 'image' of the disc you are copying. There is so much softwware available to copy CD's now, it would be impossible to tell you exactly how to do it, but look for an option referencing creating an image of a CD.

 

Audio CD's are a different breed to data CD's. If you put an audio CD in your drive, and 'explore' it in Windows, you'll see a bunch of files corresponding to the tracks on the CD. If you copy these to your HD, you will not copy the audio portion of the data. The files are like 'pointers' to the audio data, so that CD players can find and play the music stored on the CD. To copy the audio data, I think you would have to either make an image, or rip to MP3.

[webgyrl]

Kevan,

 

Thanks for the info.

 

What If I was backing up my software? If I did a "Copy CD' function in Easy CD Creator 5 would it work just like the original if anything ever happened to the original disk?

 

I am on a backup mission!

 

Thanks,

Nat

[kevan_j]

If you have an original software CD, and you use Copy CD to make a backup, it should work exactly the same as the original.

 

What kind of system do you have? CD drive plus CD Burner?, or just CD burner? How old is the system? Just asking, as there might be some 'gotchas' with copying CDs on older machines.

[webgyrl]

Kevan,

 

My system is kind of old. I have a 550Mhz Pentium 3 with 256MB RAM

The drive is a ROM-Burner

Brand: Sony 32X/10X/40X

The drive is about 2 years old.

 

I am hoping to get a new system... but I am backing up everything using what I have.

 

So technically if I copy any data CD it is going to be an ISO (image of the disk) file?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Nat

[kevan_j]

Nat,

 

I'm going to try to explain this in as much detail as I can. Please don't think that I regard you as (in your own words ) "blonde", but for someone who doesn't appear to have done much in this line before, it can be confusing.

 

First, on a system with those kind of specs, it would be best to have the software copy your original CD to your HD before making the copy. If you only have one CD drive (the burner), it is going to do that anyway. This is a temporary image file that the software makes, so that you can remove the original from the drive to put in the blank disk when asked to by the software. Once the copy is made, the software will delete the image from your HD. It will do this transparently to you, so you don't have any input once you start the copy process, except for switching disks.

 

Second, the answer to your last question is 'Not necessarily'. If you put a CD in your drive, and drag and drop the contents to a location on your HD, all you will get is copy of the files on your CD. That is OK, and you might be able to make a new CD based on those files, but the preferred method is to use the copy CD function of the software, which, as described above, creates a temporary image, then burns the new CD from that image.

 

Think of it like this. Let's say you have a sheet of paper with 6 pictures on it that you want a copy of. The 'manual' method (copying files and folders) would be to hand draw each picture on a new sheet. The 'image' method would be to take a picture (image - see the correlation), then have it developed onto a new sheet of paper. An ISO file is like a photo of the original disc.

 

The difference between the first method (copying all the files), and the second (extracting an ISO) is this. When you copy the files, you get copies of each individual file and folder on the CD. The problem with this can be that if there are hidden files on the CD, you might not copy everything. When you extract an ISO, the software reads the information as it is written to the CD, in an exact bit-by-bit copy. You can't see any filenames, or even that there are individual files (unless you get WinISO so you can 'look' inside the ISO). A ISO copy of a CD that is full will be about 650Mb. You can set up most CD copying software to extract an image to the HD (say for instance, if you wanted to illegally copy a CD and post it on the Internet somewhere, or you wanted to store the image so you could burn a CD later), but this is more for manually copying CDs. If you put your original in the drive, and tell the software to copy the CD, it should do it pretty much automatically.

 

The best way to do this is to try it. Don't be scared...Blank CDs are cheap, so if you do burn a 'coaster' (highly technical term for a bad CD burn), you can use it as just that, or hang it from your rear view mirror, or whatever people do with them!! And you can't harm your original CD. If you got it right, the software should make an exact copy of your original, which will act just like the original CD when you try to install from it.

 

Hope this helps,