I found several tools that will mount image files on Windows 2000, including Daemon Tool 3.29. But what should I use to =create= images? The ones he talks about in Daemon Tools supported format list are all commercial programs. I already have Nero, but it has its own private format and I want to use something more standard. I understand that Unix people make .ISO image files by using the dd program. I think the equivilent of that on Windows is to open the device itself and read everything from it; I've done that to demonstrate raw reading on floppy and CD before so I could make something in a few lines, if that's all there is to it. But that doesn't preserve information about sessions and tracks. Do I need to even worry about that, or will raw-reading the disk with multiple sessions and then writing it back out as one session/track simply not work? I'm not interested in games. I'm interested in condensing the pile of CD's I've gotten with all my software and hardware purchaces onto a much smaller number of DVD's. Some items come with a driver or utility disk with only a few meg on it. Some software packages have half-full CD's. I'm sure most of those would not mind an ordinary file copy. But even without copy protection on purpose, some installers might assume paths from the root of the current drive letter or that the disk is removable. So without looking at each one in detail, the safest bet is to "image" them all and then mount the image if I ever need it again. But, maybe some commercial software does have some copy protection in it? I won't throw out the original discs for those. --John
Software capable of creating 'standard' images are CDRWin, CloneCD, Alcohol120%. - CDRWin will copy the full disc layout but without subchannel data. - CloneCD will copy everything, bypassing also some copy protection scheme. - Alcohol is very powerful, easy to use with a good 'Image Creating Wizard' and capable of doing almost everything. It has a 'mount' image command similar to Daemon's. If the original software is protected you'll need those last twos. Go to the README1ST for info about how to find them. Of course you'll have to burn the .CUE/BIN (or .CCD/.IMG/.SUB) sets as files, on the DVD, and doing a backup of a 74 min CD will take 747 MB (not 650 MB) for the layout plus other 23 MB for the subchannel part, if you want to backup it too. To burn the image files on a DVD you can use all software you want, because they are being burned just as files (I assume you'll create a DVD-Data with many subdir, each of them having a .BIN/.CUE for a CD). I also suggest to scan the images for corruption before burning them (I use CDMage).
What's a "standard" image? Later you mention .BIN/.CUE, but you also said that CDRWin, the home of .BIN/.CUE, doesn't do subchannel data. I tried Alcohol: it reports .ISO as "Standard ISO Image File". I know that .ISO originally meant a ISO 96whatever file system image, to be burned as one track; but to handle sessions and tracks some programs store more info but still called it .ISO (I think that was in the DVD FAQ). Alcohol's native format is .MDF/.MDS, which is larger for the same disc. What are the merrits of this format, and is it open and documented? Alcohol may "do anything" but the docs are quite lacking. I read the beginner's info in this fourum and it explained 1:1 copy and the fact that various file formats exist. But, what are the pros and cons of each one? Which one should I use when I need "everything" e.g. for a commercial software distribution CD, and which one can I use if I'm not expecting anything funny? Are any of the formats compressed? For example, why would the subchannel data take up 23 meg if it was all zeros, and why doesn't the program tell me that it's basically "not present" and not save it at all? Likewise with copy-protection funny business. --John
I call 'standard image' (this is a definition of mine, since images are absolutely non-standard: there are many many image types depending on the software you use to create them) an image WITHOUT ANY LEAD-IN /LEAD-OUT BYTES (Header) CREATED BY THE APPLICATION. THE IMAGE CONTAINS ONLY BINARY DATA EXTRACTED BY THE CD-ROM SECTORS. This mean that, in my definition: 1) a RAW 'standard image' size (in bytes) is N*2352, where N (N<330,000) is the number of occupied sectors of the original CD. This was the original .RAW or .DAO format, now replaced by .BIN (CDRWin) or .IMG (CloneCD). 2)a 'cooked' (data only) 'standard image' size of a PC CD-ROM (in bytes) is N*2048. This was the original .ISO (or .TAO) format. The .ISO extension is now abused, so you'll find .ISO images on the scene that do not compkly to the 2048*N rule. 3) a 'standard image' size of an Audio CD is also N*2352 Roxio EZCD and Nero, for instance, create NON STANDARD IMAGES, They add extra bytes on their .ISO/.NRG images so they cannot be read by other burning software. The image size (RAW or 'Cooked') created by such apps will not satisfy the 'golden rule' above described Please note that RAW size (2352) is incremented of 96 bytes/sector if you extract subchannel data (as CloneCD, BlindWrite and Alcohol 120% are capable of, for instance). Of course, extracting so much info is useful only if it's needed to copy extra info such as CD-text, protections etc. More, extracting much info is useless if your burner is not capable to write it back to the CD-R. For instance: if you want 1:1 copy the RAW image (2352 bytes) you have to write in 'RAW DAO' mode (raw disc-at-once) or the burner will re-calculate the ECC/EDC during burning, so spoiling the raw extraction. If you want to write also subchannel data, you need to write 'RAW DAO 96' (or DAO 96). CDRWin does not extract sub chanel info. The 2352*N bytes are put on the .BIN file. CloneCD puts the subchannel data on a .SUB file whose size is 96*N, and the RAW info on its .IMG file (that is 2352*N and, since it's standard, it matches 1:1 with CDRWin's .BIN). Alcohol ... I don't remember if it puts all info in an .MDF file, whose size is 2448*N, or creates a .SUB file too.
I think I've gotten most of it, but still have some outstanding questions: What would a "cooked" read and write to a blank do for a data CD-ROM that had multiple sessions or tracks (are data CD-ROM's ever multi-track)? I beleive the regular Standard ISO image good enough for CD-ROM discs that don't use copy protection and only have one track. Is there a way to tell if the disc is copy-protected or has any other funny business? Alcohol reports the track layout so I can clearly see if there's more than one. But it would be nice if I could simply be told automatically (1) if the subchannels contain anything other than the standard contents for the P-Q, and (2) if the sector information wrapping the 2048 data bytes contains anything different from "correct" values. --John
Well,having multiple tracks is not relating to being protected. I confirm that .ISO format is not good for tealing with CD-XA. If you try to extract data from a CD-XA with WinISO, for instance, you'll end up with a Track01.iso file and a series of Track0n.wav files (one for each audio track). To burn all such stuff again you need to prepare a proper .CUE file, such as: FILE "Track 01.BIN" BINARY TRACK 01 MODE2/2352 INDEX 01 00:00:00 FILE "TRACK 02.WAV" WAVE TRACK 02 AUDIO PREGAP 00:02:00 INDEX 01 00:00:00 and so on. But I'm not sure that RAW extraction is essential for software backup. For instance, on many CDs you have to apply patches to the executables... this is not ECC/EDC/subchannel related (more, you could simply copy files..).. I have not investigated this issue since it seems more theoretical. As for detection: there are a lot of software that do this job, Clony XL/XXL or Protect CD being some of the most popular...
Tell me a software which i can simply compile a ISO image from the files i select from harddrive, then burn it using CLONE CD.i am looking for a one all over the net, Hopefully freeone. Magic ISO is not free
