Can somebady help me with an ISO burning question?

[40hz]

Ok...

I was wondering if the collective expertise at Donation Coder could help me with this one.

I had a client ask me if there was a relatively easy way to use (or convert) a bootable CD ISO so that it could be burned as a bootable DVD. (Long story why - don't ask... )

If it were just a data CD, it would be an simple job to open the ISO in something like IZArc, extract the files, and then either burn the collection to DVD, or recompile it as DVD ISO. But this is a bootable CD they're talking about.

I don't know of any easy, non-techy way to convert it other than do it manually.

Basically, what they're looking for is a utility or simple how-to they can follow. Unpacking the original ISO, isolating the files, and then manually recompiling the collection to boot from DVD media would be completely beyond them.

Any suggestions?

[cmpm]

From the hits found, it seems WinRAR should be able see whats in the iso. And perhaps extract and build a bootable disc, though it seems a long shot.

[cchian]

If I recall correctly with Ultraiso you can open an ISO, add/delete files and then save the ISO or burn it on-the-fly without making changes to the original. I have never tried to recompile it or burn it into a different media size. I believe the bootable property is preserved.

[4wd]

I had a client ask me if there was a relatively easy way to use (or convert) a bootable CD ISO so that it could be burned as a bootable DVD. (Long story why - don't ask... )

I don't know of any easy, non-techy way to convert it other than do it manually.

Basically, what they're looking for is a utility or simple how-to they can follow. Unpacking the original ISO, isolating the files, and then manually recompiling the collection to boot from DVD media would be completely beyond them.

Any suggestions?

-40hz (June 05, 2009, 03:45 PM)

Silly question, but what's stopping you from just making an image of the CD, (eg. using ImgBurn), and then writing the image to DVD ?

Works for me, it's how I test new PE builds - create CD ISO and write to DVD-RW since I have a hard time finding blank CD-RW in my study  

AFAIK, any bootable image will work on either a CD or DVD, providing:
a) it fits,
b) the drive can read it.

If it were just a data CD, it would be an simple job to open the ISO in something like IZArc, extract the files, and then either burn the collection to DVD, or recompile it as DVD ISO. But this is a bootable CD they're talking about.

Or do you mean you want to add files also, (which you avoided mentioning in the above line), which will account for the need to write to DVD ?

In that case +1 for UltraISO.

[MilesAhead]

I'm with 4wd. For some reason I used to assume a CD image wasn't "legal" to burn as a DVD with Imgburn.  Then for chuckles I just burned one.  Worked fine.

[Innuendo]

I'm late to the party, but what I was going to say has already been said. The only difference between a CD data ISO and a DVD data ISO is the size it can be. Bootable or not, they are the same when it comes to burning.

[40hz]

Silly question, but what's stopping you from just making an image of the CD, (eg. using ImgBurn), and then writing the image to DVD ?

-4wd (June 05, 2009, 07:34 PM)

I'm with 4wd. For some reason I used to assume a CD image wasn't "legal" to burn as a DVD with Imgburn.  Then for chuckles I just burned one.  Worked fine.

-MilesAhead (June 05, 2009, 07:49 PM)

I'm late to the party, but what I was going to say has already been said. The only difference between a CD data ISO and a DVD data ISO is the size it can be. Bootable or not, they are the same when it comes to burning.

-Innuendo (June 05, 2009, 08:57 PM)

My turn to feel stupid.  

You're all absolutely right. When they told me burning to DVD "didn't work" my brain took a temporary leave of absence and forgot that it doesn't matter whether you burn an ISO to CD or DVD as long as there's space for it on the media.

And providing you specifically tell Nero (which I don't much like or use - but they love) to burn to DVD. If you don't, it apparently defaults to using CD media for sub 700MB ISOs, and DVD for anything over.



Thanks people. It's been a long day.

[Shades]

Don't know if it is the tool or not, but I always use LCIsocreator to create iso's from (bootable) existing disks. It's a brilliantly simple and small portable app not bigger than 60Kbyte.

The resulting iso's I could burn with Nero 7 which came with my new SATA DVD burner without any problem. However I deinstalled Nero 7, because they didn't learn from the errors in Nero 6. Actaully, it is the same crap, only more of it.

[Innuendo]

RE: LCIsocreator....it is beyond awesome. I've been using it for years and it's been flawless for me.

RE: Nero...Never have I seen a program reach such heights of brilliance in the early versions to reach such depths of crapitude in later versions. They have not only lost their way, but refuse to try to find their way back to the right path of software development.

[Hirudin]

Windows 7 should make it even easier for non-techy people to burn ISOs - it's built into the OS. Just right click on an ISO and choose "Burn disc image". Pretty coo!

I have to assume some disc image formats will not be supported - I'll probably stick with ImgBurn for the foreseeable future.