[KLUG Members] Re: Creating ISO images -- ISO[9660]=CD standard

[Bryan J. Smith]

Scott Van Singel wrote:
> I am running Win 2000 Pro with a Adaptec Create CD
> software runing on the system.  I have a CD burner
> that is 16/10/40 Plexwriter.  Would I have to do
> anything different to create the Images on CD's?

QUICKSTART:

- Pull up Adaptec CD Copier (or other software)
- Goto "File" -> "Burn from CD Image" (or similar)
- Select ".iso" from the extension list (or similar)

ISO9660 STANDARD TECHNICAL INFO:

On CDs, information is organized into "tracks."  Tracks can be
digital audio, data, etc...  The international "ISO9660 standard"
defines several format types.

- "Red Book" is a standard digital "audio" track (@16-bit, 44.1KHz)

- "Yellow Book" is a standard digital "data" track with a
self-contained "filesystem" (i.e. directories, filenames, file
attributes/meta-data and the actual files with their data), etc...

"Yellow Book" tracks are often referred to as an "ISO9660
filesystem".  You can usually assume files with a ".iso" extension
are an "image" of an ISO9660 filesystem.

So all you need is some CD recording software that can take that
".iso" file, and put it in a track on the CD.  Most commercial CD
recording software comes with support for ".iso" files.

CD FUNDAMENTALS:  MASTERING V. RECORDING

One intersting note is that actual "creation" aka "mastering" of an
ISO9660 filesystem is _separate_ from the actual "recording" of it
onto a CD.  All "mastering" is is the stuffing of files and data
into single file -- not-so-different than "archiving" with PKZip,
Tar, etc...  So if "mastering" is akin to "archving," you can think
of "burning" as "unarchiving" back into a usable format.

*FURTHERMORE*, that means that you do *NOT* have to have a CD
recorder drive, nor CD recording software to actually create a "CD
image".  This is _very_important_ when it comes to considering CD as
a backup medium, especially for legacy hardware that lacks CD
recording hardware.  You can "master" on the system withOUT a
recorder, then move the resulting "image" to a system that does.

-- Bryan

-- 
Bryan J. Smith, Engineer        mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   
AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.     http://www.linux-wlan.org
SmithConcepts, Inc.          http://www.SmithConcepts.com