45 replies to this topic

[bakr_2k5]

Hi there,

(Don't know if this is the right forum for this. And it also applies to all other OS's I guess. Though I'm in Ubuntu LiveCD at the moment!)
Got a question, I've read on the net it IS possible to 'burn' an ISO file to a partition on the harddisk?!
Though they don't say HOW to do it. I've been searching google like all day only for this and getting pretty desperate on this!

Anyone in here that knows how to do this?

My idea is, I have a 3,2 gb spare hd which I'm going to use as my "ISO drive". I make a bootable floppy disk to boot the "ISO partition" of my choice to install. This spares me from download every ISO over and over again

I've also been searching for "Boot ISO from grub / lilo" but couldn't find anything to do this. (especially on windows ISO, though legal CDs but ripped from CD to ISO! ) If you know something about this too, I'll be happy to hear!

I really need to know this, since it'll give me:
a. Better install speed (since HD is faster then CD)
b. No spoiled CDs
c. Less (spoiled) CDs
d. Easy way to install something else
etc... etc...

Hope to get some fast reply here!

bakr_2k5

[nightfox]

"Burn" an ISO to a hard disk? Is this like imaging a computer? You can't actually "burn" anything to a hard disk since it doesn't use a laser... just magnetism. If you mean image a computer, there are several tools available. However, all the ones I know cost money.

[N]F

[Mark420]

hey mate..after a brief search I came up with a few things that may help..

http://dirk.eddelbue...o_lilogrub.html

http://www.knoppix.n...pic.php?t=11796

Hope this helps..not tested it myself but post back any feedback cos its an interesting idea..I have a couple of DVDs with lots of different OS on it..but it would be nice just to have an old 10 gigger that you can connect and rebuild from..

[bakr_2k5]

"Burn" an ISO to a hard disk? Is this like imaging a computer? You can't actually "burn" anything to a hard disk since it doesn't use a laser... just magnetism. If you mean image a computer, there are several tools available. However, all the ones I know cost money.

[N]F

Yeah I know this. And it can't be called burn though don't have other words for it ...

Mark420, I came across those too today. Though they're very much linux specific since it uses the kernel from the ISO. And Windows ISO's don't have such a kernel (i think).

---

I've also seen some people that said: "Format the partition as CDFS / iso9660". Though can't seem to find ANYTHING that can do that. Or some howto or something.

Anyway, I don't want it to be Linux specific. Because of my Windows ISO. So those methods you (Mark420) mentioned won't work I guess.

I hope I'll get some more replies here. In the mean time I'll build a bootable floppy disk, and try some stuff with that. It might work in some way!

bakr_2k5

Edited by bakr_2k5, 27 January 2007 - 09:15 PM.

[WeaponX]

Was confused here as well

I'm with nightfox. If you mean imaging the drive instead, you will need to get programs like Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage. Both of these programs should be able to accomplish what you wanted originally there. Image files are meant for speedier "installs". It will be a one to one copy from this 3.2 GB hard drive to another hard drive you want to install the operating system on.

[bakr_2k5]

Was confused here as well

I'm with nightfox. If you mean imaging the drive instead, you will need to get programs like Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage. Both of these programs should be able to accomplish what you wanted originally there. Image files are meant for speedier "installs". It will be a one to one copy from this 3.2 GB hard drive to another hard drive you want to install the operating system on.

Very short reply,

No that not what I mean,

That 3,2 gb drive will contain install ISOs (windows iso, ubuntu iso, etc) and no hd ISOs.

bakr_2k5

[vujsa]

Very short reply,

No that not what I mean,

That 3,2 gb drive will contain install ISOs (windows iso, ubuntu iso, etc) and no hd ISOs.

bakr_2k5

An ISO is an image of a drive. Whether it be a hard drive, floppy drive, or optical drive. It is just a file! So, what you are asking makes no sence to the rest of us! I don't mean to be overly blunt but you don't seem to know what you want to ask!

Most ISO readers will only look at drive formated as an optical disk, CD or DVD! It seems that you want to store your ISO files on a hard drive. Copy and paste would work for that! If you want to use these ISO's as if they were on optical media, then you need an emulator.

Search for:
"DVD Drive Emulators" => http://www.google.co...G=Google Search

"Virtual Drives" => http://www.google.co...amp;btnG=Search

Most of these require an OS to operate so, they won't provide a solution in the event that you are trying to create a backup of your system that can be easily installed in the event of a crash!

If you are tired of "wasting" cd's/dvd's, then use rewritable disks! If you are concerned with the speed, then you need to take a deep breath and try to imagine the world when we only had 5-1/4 inch floppy drives!

Anyhow, you really should try and figure out what it is that you need help with and ask a intellegent question.

vujsa

[mastercomputers]

ISO files are just images of the content they cloned, most likely created from a DVD/CD.

I use to boot Live CDs off the Hard Drive. It was simply downloading the ISO, giving it a location:

cat name_of_iso.iso > /dev/hda10

Then alter the bootloader to point to the root /dev/hda10.

Booting ISOs under NTFS partitions is another story though and since I work mostly under Linux, I never did get round to doing an NTFS ISO boot.

Cheers,

MC

[toby]

I have a similar question, can you run a live cd iso, or an iso temp, from boot or something like VMware? I don't know what my cd writer can do, not too bothered about that because I know I can use Ubuntu live cds, and dvds.

[xboxrulz]

I think he means booting the system from a drive full of compressed ISOs. I don't think that is possible since I don't think LILO or GRUB can decompress ISO to RAMDISC without having the ISO decompressed in the first place.

xboxrulz

[kgd2006]

I think what you meant you want to do is ripping an image from a cd on to your hard drive correct? Well that is what I understand from reading your topic post. But if I understood your question correctly their are many programs that you can use to rip a cd on to your hard drive in which you can use as backup of your current CD just in case your CD somehow becomes unreadable. Certain programs that I use is winISO, cloneCD, and even NERO I believe are the best tools to use if you are looking to rip an image from a CD to your hard drive. All the programs I believe needs to be purchased to experience the programs features full functionalities. I also would suggest that you make sure the ripped copies of your CD is a good rip because I ran into issues where the ripped images can become corrupted in certain instances. Also I believe that there are also programs out their that can run the images from your computer, which acts as a drive on its own. I can remember the software name on the top of my head but it allows you to run the image without burning it on to a disc. Hopefully, you will find what I mentioned is useful and good luck with whatever you are doing...

[xboxrulz]

Don't want to be rude but, this is the most complex computer question since no one actually know what this guy is trying to ask, it's like sherades.

xboxrulz

[polarysekt]

My only question here is... why would you worry about the Windows aspect... in other words... I've yet to see a LiveCD distribution of Windows in any form as of yet... but there's always exceptions to what I've seen I guess...

Basically... If you want Windows 95, 98, Me, 2k, XP, and Vista.... that's only about 6 cd's anyways... but most cd's i've found would just run the standard installation environment...

Of course you can use GRUB to bootfrom=/sda1/*.iso ... but i believe you need to reference the kernel as well... as far as windows is concerned... I have no idea how to segregate the kernel...

But in all reality... I see very few reasons to need to boot various versions of windows... Usually they are built upon one another and at least somewhat backwards compatible... however... unless you have some sort of tool to make a snapshot of a windows installation into an .iso... i barely see how this would help...

For real, you may as well just install a few versions of windows onto your hard drive... though I think you have to do it in ascending order from versions... like 95 then 98 then Me then 2k then XP then Vista... although I doubt you'll be able to use NTFS unless you can make several partitions...

I would probably just put XP and Vista onto the hard drive... for ordinary booting... then if you really want something else... like linux, set up your floppy with grub and bootfrom the .iso's on your disk... Additionally, I believe you need to point to the kernel as well... which is part of where I lose track of the Windows portion.... like i said...


--=-=-=-=


apart from that, I would agree with previous posts that you might just have to use VMWare to boot from images... which I would say would be ripped from cd's or at least saved from a complete setup and installation... which is where you'd be stuck again with windows to just one computer... hell, I can't even switch out hardware without windows blue screening me... I usually have to do the old "REMOVE, boot, shutdown, REPLACE, boot" just to swap out various PCI cards... unless I stick them in a previously empty slot...

but if you do find something more helpful... please keep us all updated... : )

good luck

[mastercomputers]

I would recommend using a Live Linux CD of some sort so we have the necessary tools to do what is required.

You want to setup GRUB on the hard drive to "pretend to boot off a CD", remember it's only faking Grub but we know it'll be using the Hard Drive.

You need to create partitions, usually each size should be 700MB but if you want to save space or allow for more partitions, create them at the same size as the ISO files but allow for 1-8MB extra (unless you know how to exactly tell how many bytes you'll specifically need, but remember partitions are hard to be completely accurate down to the bytes.

These partitions will be formatted as CD file system.

We then use our CD Writing software to write these ISOs to those partitions, configure a grub menu so we have the ability to chose which CD we want to boot from, and that's why we fake grub to think it's booting from a CD because our file system suggests it's a CD we're using anyways.

Maybe I need to show a step-by-step on this, but it'll take me a while to write it up as I don't have time to do a lot here.

However, if you have ISO files, you could just boot from them, just the ability to mount an ISO at boot and using grub to boot from them should have been enough, but I guess that's another method I probably have to show as well.

Cheers,


MC

[rockershive]

hey i haven't tried burning an ISO onto a hard drive (call it mount, not burn). You can use Virtual Drives applications to mount ISO on a hard drive, it should be bootable if the ISO file you are mounting a bootable one. These apps can create temporary virtual drives (e.g. partition, CD/DVD drive) where you can place ISO files to be used on specific tasks.