ISO Image files

[Ronald Johnson_1]

I read the recent forum on ISO's but I don't know very much about them. Can anyone tell me exactly what they are and how to use them. They seem to be some sort of mystery. I recently "recieved" an ISO but I don't know how to burn it in a way that would be useable data. Any and all advice would surely be welcome.

Thanks

P.S. This thread has been moved from Disk to Optical Jukeboxes & Drives. -HP Forum Moderator

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

An ISO is simply raw data. In simple terms, 1s and 0s. It's the same as doing a dd of a CD. Are you familiar with HP-UX dd command? Do a man dd for information.

Why is it used on CDs? Because it's convinient. Instead of storing file system information and stuff like this, CDs are read raw, 1s and 0s, yielding to 1 big raw file. The OS canot read this cuz it's a stream of 1s and 0s. When written on CD, though, data will be meaningful on CD.

Are you using Windows? There is a program called WinISO, with which you can view file information in your ISO. Download it from download.com or tucows.com . Magic, as they say.

To burn an ISO file, get a CD writing program, like Nero or Easy CD Creator. Select open and choose .iso as the file type. Choose your file and burn it and that's it :-)

When CD writing programs do not write "on the fly" (meaning it does not write from CD to CD-writer directly, but first copies the CD to the harddisk, then to the CD-writer), guess what it is doing? Yes, an iso file on the harddisk, then writing this raw data to the other CD.

HTH,
Vince

[Ronald Johnson_1]

Vince,
Thanks for the info. I have been to other forums but it seemed as if no one wanted to give me a straight answer. You have helped me immensely.

Thanks again.

Ron

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

You're welcome.

On these forums, if you want to thank people the right way, you have to assign them points :-)

Vince