Technology Explained : ISO format
By Ted Peterson

Many new virtual environments consider an ISO file as an additional hard drive or a CD/DVD drive. These ISO files can be created with a lot of software’s which would take there own sweet time before the user gets the final file in an ISO or BIN format.

If you are looking for reliable software which has good speed and agility, then go for PowerISO, which is one of the powerful tools used today to create such ISO files either from local stored files or directly from a CD or DVD. This image processing tool provides additional features where any user can create, open, extract, compress, split, and encrypt an ISO file. Once the ISO file has been created, it can be further used with any virtual server connection.

The application can be installed in few simple steps and provides an easy to understand user friendly interface. This tool is particularly important for system administrators who can create ISO files for there Operating System or any other application. Image creation was never that easy and these files would then be mounted as virtual drives to fit into any virtual server or VMWare environment.

You can pick and choose the files that can be stored into an ISO file by simply using the drag and drop feature. Clipboard copy-paste also works here without any problems and a user can easily create a new ISO files with 3 to 4 simple clicks.

In case you want to add additional files to existing image then you may open the ISO file using the same PowerISO application interface and using the same drag-drop or copy-paste feature to generate modified ISO image file. Well! It is now very obvious that an ISO files can not be extracted without special ISO reader application, which in our case is the PowerISO. Extract the files to any location either on local computer or over the network.

An ISO file can be stored into other different formats as well like BIN etc. there is absolutely no issue noticed or reported about storing ISO files into BIN format.

Another good feature with PowerISO allows the users to create bootable ISO files which can be burned directly on to the CDs or DVDs. In most cases they can be used to build a new virtual operating system etc. Along with that the user can also choose to create a floppy disk image as well.

Do you know: many enterprises use virtual environments to run there operating system today! They do this to save up on different hardware based server and to save up the disk space that could also be an issue in future. Thus a need to create an ISO file arises and that is where PowerISO can be used to create files using the DAA (Direct-Access-Archive) advanced image format which supports enhanced features like compression , security and spanning one image through multiple volumes (which are very similar to an ISO or BIN file format).

The application can be used to create an ISO for any Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows98/Me/2000/XP/2003 or even Vista. But the base operating system needs to be a windows 2000 or windows server 2003 only.

Ted Peterson writes for CoreDownload, a shareware archive where you can find many utilities that will help you deal with ISO files like PowerISO and others.

How I Use ISO Images
By KH Tan

What is ISO?

An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc using a conventional ISO format that is supported by many software vendors. ISO image files typically have a file extension of .ISO but Mac OS X ISO images often have the extension .CDR. The name ISO is taken from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media but the term ISO image can refer to any optical disc image.

- Wikipedia

Usage

The usage of ISO extension file is wide but the main purpose of me creating images is to backup the files. I find that it is quite easy to organize files and folders by ISO images.

For example, if you have tons of photos from your previous trips to various places such as Paris, Japan, US and Malaysia, then you can create different images to identify the photos or even group them altogether into one ISO image but different folders.

Example 1 - Different image to categorize

In this case, you will have Paris.ISO, Japan.ISO, US.ISO and Malaysia.ISO. What you will see from your hard drive is only four ISO files and all the photos are stores inside.

Example 2 - Only one image file

Create only Photo. ISO but have four different folders as Paris, Japan, US and Malaysia

My article about Backup and Restore Your Hard Drive Using ISO has described that you do not have to go through the installation process if you compile an ISO image of your hard drive.

For your information - PSP

ISO images are also used in PSP. The games are extracted from UMD disc and compiled into ISO or CSO files. CSO is a compressed format of ISO. Playing games from ISO is much faster than playing from the UMD drive.

Purpose

Having one ISO file is like having a mini hard drive. You cannot read ISO files just by double-clicking it. Daemon Tools is a popular tool where you can mount the ISO files as another drive.

For example, if your C and D drive are hard disk drive and E drive is you DVD-ROM, then you can mount your ISO file as F drive or G drive and so on. Once mounted, you can view your files in the ISO file through the drive you have assigned to.

ImageBurner

ImgBurn is a freeware that allows you to burn ISO images into CDs or DVDs. You can also create ISO images using the software. Do not worry. If you use the image burn function, the software will extract all the files in your ISO images and burn the files into the CDs or DVDs. However, if you use the normal copy function, the CDs or DVDs will only show your .ISO extension files.

Nero does the same but I find that it installs quite a lot of craps.

Pros

• Files store in ISO files cannot be deleted or moved easily like your files in your hard drive
• Once you mount the image drive, you can drag the files to your hard drive

Some little problems

• To add files into your ISO images, you need to re-compile
• If you delete the ISO file and remove from recycle bin, that's it

Please visit My Ideas 4 You and How I use ISO Images.

A Downloaded ISO File - An Image That Can Be Used in CD
By Janis V Elsts

An ISO image is actually an archive file that uses a conventional International Organization for Standardization format of an optical disc which is supported by many software vendors. It provides a good option to physical media regarding the distribution of the software as it can be easily transferred over the Internet or via a LAN connection. It helps in using software titles that require physical disk to run like in games. SO images can be loaded into different CD recording software packages so as to create CDs.

Format

The ISO file contains data files along with the file system metadata that includes boot code, structures and attributes. Its information remain in a single file but it's not a multi-track image format so cannot be used for Audio CDs. An "ISO" file is just a disk image which is more or less like a zip or a cab file without any compression. An ISO file contains the image of disk as it contains all the files and folders on that disk. In ISO file byte-for-byte copy of the low-level data is actually stored on a disk. It has the raw data from the disk so it is interpreted correctly but the operating system check the format used like FAT32 and NTFS.

Importance

Burn the ISO file to a disk: The ISO files are used to distribute both CD and DVD images like while downloading any popular Linux distribution one actually downloads an ISO file. By using a CD or DVD burning program one can then write that ISO disk image into an actual disk. Afterwards the disk will have all the files and folders that were in the image.

Mount the ISO file as if it were a disk: Sometimes people use ISO file as a disk drive to mount several utilities depending on the personnel usage.

Treat the ISO file as if it were an archive: Its popular archiving utilities include WinRAR and 7 Zip by which one can read and extract the contents of ISO files. One should use the extraction functions on the ISO file to examine the extract of the files.

Creating ISO files: One can easily create the ISO files of CDs by the help of burning software. After inserting the CD the user confirms the placement and name of the ISO file and simply pushes the button for the processing.

While writing an image to the CD firstly downloads the ISO CD image to a folder on the computer. Then insert a blank CD in the CD-RW drive. Now start Windows Explorer and locate the ISO file. Then right-click the file name and then copy image to the CD.

Its easy to use ISO files and very beneficial for the user while downloading information from internet as the information can be easily transferred to the desired destination by any cd or pan drive. With so much information floating in the virtual world of internet it's very comfortable to use ISO file for transferring data.

A list of free tools and tutorials that will let you convert your disk image files from various proprietary formats (e.g. Convert MDF to ISO BIN to ISO, IMG to ISO and so on) to the universally supported ISO File format.

Advantages of ISO Files
By Janis V Elsts

ISO file is an archive file of the digital media or the disk which is created by using conventional format taken from ISO 9660 File system.

The ISO File format is basically a format for storing digital data by converting the image files into this format. This format is used to make copies of CD/ DVD's which can carry the data, file system file attributes and directory structures as it is. ISO Files are used for backing up DVD/CD and creating replica of the same because these files can convert and carry complete data with bits from the discs. Generally when a file is copied from a disc the data is not complete as the header information is lost but ISO carries the complete data information including header on the disk. In other words, ISO is the exactly similar to the original data media.

These ISO Files are complete images which resemble ghost for hard disk. These ISO File formats can be copied in various software recording packages for creating CD/ DVD's.

Creating ISO File

An ISO File format can be created by using effective software such as Magic ISO which simply converts the file from a command line utility. There is a limitation to convert with this software which restricts the file size to 10 GB. Most of the media and data files come under this capacity.

Magic ISO can burn almost all image files like ISO, BIN, NRG, CIF but is largely used to burn ISO. This software acts as both burner and disk utility software. This software can also edit the ISO Files.

Software Used to convert ISO File

There are various software available on the Internet which helps convert to ISO Files. The following are:

1.ISO Recorder Power Toy: This is a freeware and is easily available on the net. This utility uses Windows to write images to CD.

2.Easy CD Creater (Roxio): This is not a freeware but is easily available. One can easily create CD from an ISO file Format using this software. For using this software one needs to purchase it from Roxio.

3.Nero - Burning ROM (Ahead Software): This is another paid software which should be purchased from the company. This is also used to convert an ISO file to a CD.

4.CDBurn.exe tool in windows: This utility in windows server 2003 support tools enable the user to burn CD using ISO files.

These softwares can help convert but do not support editable facility. The files to be edited require an editor along with the disk utility and recording software. Magic ISO can be the best option available. It will allow converting, record and editing the files without loosing any data information.

Advantages of Using ISO Files

The main advantage of using ISO Files for converting images is that it copies the exact replica of the image file. This copy includes the data and header information which means the complete data file without any loss.

So, the next time you need to convert your media and data files use ISO File Format and convert your data files without loosing any information on your disk while creating an exact copy of the image.

To know about Advantages of ISO Files and A list of free tools and tutorials that will let you convert your disk image files from various proprietary formats (e.g. Convert NRG to ISO MDF to ISO, BIN to ISO and so on) to the universally supported ISO format.

What Are ISO Files, and How Can I Open Them?
By Jon Buchanon

An ISO image is an archive disk image file of an optical disk, most generally a CD or DVD. What this means is that an image of a CD is an exact replica of that CD compressed (note when I say compressed in this case it doesn't mean that the size will be smaller) in one file. In fact ISO files contain raw data. When you extract the contents of that image file, you will have the exact files and folders which were on the CD, which was used to create an image from. In addition to data files it also contains all the metadata of the file-system used (like for example: NTFS or FAT 32), including boot code, structures, and attributes. All of this information is contained in a single file. It is not a multi-track image format and thus cannot be used for Audio CDs.

ISO files are typically useful for creating backups and or sharing bulky files with others. There are basically two ways to handle ISO files in order to be able to view or use their contents. The first is simply to burn the ISO image file onto disc (CD/DVD) and then use the CD normally. The other way is to use an application which "fools" the PC into believing that you are mounting the ISO file onto a virtual (non-existent) CD drive.

Some software titles are written in such a way that they require a physical disk to be present in order to run. This is mainly for security purposes, such that a user has to own the CD and this practice can also be used as a measure to not use a lot of hard disk space just for one application. Games are the most common example of software that fall in this category. When you install games, they partially install half the required files on your computer's hard disk and the rest need the CD to load the audio tracks or some other data that the software needs to be able run. Otherwise the game would not work.

How to burn ISO files to disk?

Most applications which can burn CDs nowadays are able to burn images to disk. ISO is one of the most common file extensions used by many software vendors since it is defined as a conventional standard by the International Organization for Standardization. Burning programs like Nero Burning Rom, and ImgBurn are able to read ISO image files and burn them to an actual disc.

Mount the ISO file on with a daemon tool

All you need to do, to open the contents of the ISO file as if it were already burnt on a CD without actually burning it to disc is to use a daemon tool like Daemon Tools Lite. You can download this application freely online. Mounting "virtual drives" which emulate physical CDs or DVDs achieve better performance than actual CD playback since hard drive I/O speed is many times faster than a CD/DVD drive.

Creating an ISO file

Once again there are several applications which can help you achieve this. ImgBurn is one of these tools which is user-friendly and also can perform most of the functions concerning image files.

To conclude, I hope you find this article useful to your specific needs. If you want some really cool info with lots of free tools and tips about file extensions including ISO then visit File-Extension.com or click on that link. Another interesting blog about in-general tech info is TechMantra.com. I tried to clear things out as much as possible. If you like my articles, I would appreciate if you leave feedback.

How to Install IIS on Windows XP SP2 Without the CD
By Binh Nguyen

Having problem installing a piece of software on your system is frustrating. Do you want to find out how to install IIS on Windows XP SP2 without actually having the SP2 CD?

The problem I experienced with while installing IIS:

I tried to install Internet Information Service (IIS) on my Windows XP Service Pack 2. The setup failed and kept asking for Windows XP SP2 CD. I only had Windows XP SP1 CD and the Service Pack 2 Service Pack 2 installation package.

I tried to find an existing solution on the Internet using Google. I read and attempted many solutions including a complicated one from Microsoft Support (support.microsoft.com/?kbid=894351) and some simple solutions "Installing IIS after Service Pack 2". None of those solutions I found actually worked, or the instruction was too complicated to follow

Finally I had to solve by myself. Here is what I did: I had unpacked the SP2 installation file using WinRar a while ago and compiled a CD image file from it. I mounted this CD image onto a virtual CD. I install and use this Virtual CD to supply the missing files which are somewhere inside the I386 folder.

Here are the steps you can follow to install IIS without having a Windows XP SP2 CD:

1. Download the XP SP2 installation file (softwarepatch.com/windows/xpsp2.html) if you do not already have.
2. Extract the content of the file into a folder using WinRar (win-rar.com) or similar compression software;
3. Start installing IIS using standard procedure (Control Panel > Add and Remove Programs > Windows Components)
4. When it prompts for source folder, browse for the I386 folder that you extracted earlier
5. When it prompts for missing files, browse I386 and its sub-folders for them.

The solution was easier than it look. You do not need to riskily alter the Windows security folder. You do not need to spend time merging SP2 into Windows XP CD. All you need to do is to use what were already there.

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