I Hate Iso Files

ISO files suck. I can see whey they exist, but you need a special program to burn them. I'm trying to fix my desktop PC by reinstaling Linux, but the file you download is an ISO. I burned it to a disk thinking Windows would extract the files inside the ISO then burn those files. Now I have to burn it again with a certain program to do it right.I HATE ISO FILES! THEY SUCK!

ISO files are what you need to create Linux installation CDs or DVDs. If it were not for ISO disc images, pretty much any CD or DVD you make would have been just a set of files for you to access through Windows Explorer, and not a bootable CD. Well, yes, there are other disc image formats, such as NRG, BIN/CUE, IMG and many more, but ISO is the most common file format that there is.If you are looking for a free utility to write ISO images to CD or DVD, try ImgBurn. It is free and it supports a wide variety of disc image formats. If you are already using Linux then you have the dd utility for disc imaging - you can create disc images with ease by specifying the input to be the device and the output to be a file. It is easy to specify the output to be a device so make sure that you double-check what you type to ensure that you are not overwriting a disk drive unless you mean to do so.

ISO files are just an archive. Open them up in 7zip and you can just copy and paste, so long as you get the boot sector written by using a utility to mark it as bootable then it should work. Also useful if you have, for example, an program install ISO, just unarchive it using 7zip, copy it to a folder and double click Setup.exe etc...ISOs are pro.

I can see whey they exist, but you need a special program to burn them

Umm, not really. Almost every burning program that's not from the middle ages can burn them. Never burn with the windows's integrated burning software, that just sucks.
Protip: ISO files are also nice for making backups. If you want to do that, make the backup by creating an ISO file of for example your whole document directory, then you install daemon tools. Daemon tools can be used to mount the file into a virtual drive, meaning you don't really have to burn it. It'll show up as a CD/DVD in My Computer. Then you can browse it like a folder.

Umm, not really. Almost every burning program that's not from the middle ages can burn them. Never burn with the windows's integrated burning software, that just sucks.Protip: ISO files are also nice for making backups. If you want to do that, make the backup by creating an ISO file of for example your whole document directory, then you install daemon tools. Daemon tools can be used to mount the file into a virtual drive, meaning you don't really have to burn it. It'll show up as a CD/DVD in My Computer. Then you can browse it like a folder.

The reason I said that you need a special program wasn't because there's only one in the world, but I'm just stating the fact that you need to install an external program to burn it. And yes, I learned the hard way that Windows integrated burning is a bad idea for ISO's. If I can get my desktop to run again, I have a good program that can burn ISO's and do a lot more. It's called NERO.

I just had a thought. If I can make an ISO of my entire Windows partition, then format the HDD with the non-working install, I can then put the ISO back on the HDD, thus I can keep all my stuff like it never happened. Could that work?

I complain about ISO's, but one may save my desktop....ironic.....
Edited July 29, 2011 by NNNOOOOOO (see edit history)

you mean without installing the OS again? Hmm, I'm really not sure. In theory, maybe, but it might so happen that windows doesn't give access to some files or the shortcuts don't copy well. Also, even if you have the files all copied and archived in the ISO, you need the boot loader thingy which installs when you install the OS. If you have nothing to lose, you could just take a backup and try.

I hate my computer. It can't find any Windows OS's. I only need my CD burning software. I can't find the install disc for it. It came with my CD burner. And installing from a download requires you to purchase it. If I had the install disc for Windows and NERO (the CD burning software), I would do a fresh install. Can Linux make ISO files?

I hate my computer. It can't find any Windows OS's. I only need my CD burning software. I can't find the install disc for it. It came with my CD burner. And installing from a download requires you to purchase it. If I had the install disc for Windows and NERO (the CD burning software), I would do a fresh install. Can Linux make ISO files?

What exactly are you trying to do? I didn't read the other posts, too lazy.

If you want to burn an iso image on linux, check out my incredibly educational post here: http://forums.xisto.com/topic/68226-burn-cd-images-in-linux-with-ease/

If you want to "make" files into an ISO image, that's possible too but I'm not sure how without googling.

If you're trying to burn an ISO on Windows, just download a free IMG burner found on Google.