Regardless of programs being available, you may have no compatible software installed on your system to burn or mount .mdf files. If that is the case you can either install a software supporting the disc image format or convert the mdf image to ISO to circumvent the issue. The second solution may be more appropriate if you don’t have to work with mdf files on a regular basis.

The free software MDF to ISO looks very similar to the previously reviewed Img to iso application that I have reviewed less than a month ago. Both the application’s design and the program homepage look very similar.

MDF to Iso needs to be installed which is unfortunate as it would make a great addition to a portable tools collection. When you start the program you see a minimalistic interface where you have to select an mdf image file that you want to convert by clicking on the select button. You then pick a local directory where you want the ISO file saved to. A click on Convert start the conversion.

A real-time progress bar indicates the conversion progress. The conversion time depends on the mdf file size and the performance of the computer, specifically its processor.

The developers have tested the program only under Windows 7. It is however likely that it will work under different versions of Windows as well. Interested users can download MDF to ISO from the project homepage.

While it might work to simply rename the img file extension to iso, it sometimes is not that simple to convert the file. The Img to Iso converter has been created for those cases.

The program interface is very minimalistic. There are barely any options available, not that one would expect a lot of options in a converter like this.

You select the source img file with a click on open. This opens the computer’s file browser where you can navigate to the folder containing the img disk file. Img to Iso supports both *.img and *.ima files. The files in the file browser are automatically filtered so that only those two formats are displayed.

A click on save in the Iso file line opens the very same file browser. This time though you need to specify a file name and location for the Iso file that the Img file is converted to.

A click on the Convert button starts the conversion process. This usually does not take long. The program does not alter or delete the Img file after the process. You may want to delete it manually after verifying that the Iso image works properly.

Windows users can download the free Img to Iso converter from the developer website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. It uses Microsoft’s Virtual Hard Disk technology for its functionality, which means that the program needs to be started with elevated rights on the supported operating systems.

Yesterday I wrote on our sister website Windows7News about a tool called ei.cfg Removal Utility.  This is an excellent tool for removing from a Windows ISO the file that locks it to a specific edition.  By running this tool you can easily create a disc that will allow the installation of any edition.  The downside with this is you still need separate installation DVDs for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the OS.

So what do you do if you want just an installation DVD the contains every edition of Windows 7 in both x86 and x64 versions, is this even possible?  The good news here is yes it is, though it’s more complicated than just running a program.  I’d like to thank fellow MVP Alexis Zhang for providing the instructions on how to do it.

 What You’ll need

1. Installation ISOs for Windows 7 x86 and x64 (any edition)
2. ISO creation / editing software such as UltraISO
3. Windows 7 Automated Installation Kit

How to Create the Intergated ISO

1. Using UltraISO, extract the \ SOURCES \ INSTALL.WIM files from both the x86 and x64 ISO files.  If you do not have ISO files you can create them from your DVDs
2. Rename these INSTALL.WIM files as x86.WIM and x64.WIM
3. With the Windows 7 AIK installed on your computer run the Deployment Tools Command Prompt
4. Type the following commands in the Command Prompt window adding any folder destinations as necessary…
   1. IMAGEX /EXPORT x86.WIM 5 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Ultimate x86″
   2. IMAGEX /EXPORT x64.WIM 4 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Ultimate x64″
   3. IMAGEX /EXPORT x86.WIM 4 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Professional x86″
   4. IMAGEX /EXPORT x64.WIM 3 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Professional x64″
   5. IMAGEX /EXPORT x86.WIM 3 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Home Premium x86″
   6. IMAGEX /EXPORT x64.WIM 2 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Home Premium x64″
   7. IMAGEX /EXPORT x86.WIM 2 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Home Basic x86″
   8. IMAGEX /EXPORT x64.WIM 1 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Home Basic x64″
   9. IMAGEX /EXPORT x86.WIM 1 INSTALL.WIM “Windows 7 Starter x86″
5. This will integrate all the contents from the various version WIM files into a single INSTALL.WIM file
6. Using UltraISO, copy this new INSTALL.WIM into the SOURCES folder in your Windows 7 x86 ISO file
7. From the SOURCES folder delete the file EI.CFG from the same ISO file
8. Save the ISO file

It can take a bit of time but using this method you can create a single installer for every edition and version of Windows 7.  This is especially for people who want to be able to run the installer from a USB Pen Drive (which I also wrote about about in my article yesterday).

ISO Workshop is a free software for the Windows operating system that supports all of those tasks. The program displays options to extract, backup, convert or burn in the main interface after installation.

Users should pay close attention to the installation as it includes pre-selected options to install the ASK toolbar on the system. Lets take a closer look at the program’s features:

Extract – The operation that is most likely already available on the system. Packers and archiving software can often unpack iso images as well. ISO images are extracted with ISO Workshop in the following way. It begins with the selection of a locally stored ISO image. A click on Extract extracts the image and copies he files and folders to the same directory. There does not seem to be an option to change the target directory for the extraction.

Backup – Can create a backup from discs that are inserted into optical drives. The program supports the creation of CD, DVD and Blu-Ray ISO images. It is however not clear if it can backup copy protected discs or only unprotected discs.

The process is straightforward. The user needs to insert the disc into the drive, select an output directory and the backup button in the end. The program takes care of the rest.

Convert – Offers options to convert image formats to ISO or BIN. The program supports a wide variety of image formats including nrg, img, mdf, dmg or cdi. Images that need to be converted are selected via the built-in file browser. The name of the destination image is automatically added in the process. It is still possible to make changes to that name or select a different target directory on the computer, if necessary. A click on convert starts the conversion. A conversion of a test disk format from ISO to Bin took less than 3 minutes to complete. The actual speed may differ depending on the size of the disc image and the speed of the PC.

Burn – Burn should be self explanatory. The disc image needs to be selected first via the file browser. It is then possible to select one of the CD, DVD or Blu-Ray burners to burn the image to disc. The program supports disc verification and test writes.

ISO Workshop offers access to several ISO-related tasks. Especially the ability to convert pretty much every other popular disc image format to ISO could be handy for users who sometimes have to work with disc formats that they cannot burn or make use of without conversion or software installation.

The software program is free for personal and commercial use. Downloads are provided at the developer website over at Glorylogic.

Things have changed slightly with the release of Windows 7, which added capabilities to burn ISO images out of the box. Windows 7 users who encounter an ISO can simply right-click it to burn it on (an hopefully) connected DVD burner.

But what about users who are not running Windows 7? Sure, you could suggest a full fledged burning suite like Nero or a program like ImgBurn. Those are great programs, but they tend to be complicated in use. At least in comparison to ISO CD Burner, which is probably the most lightweight ISO burning software of them all.

To use ISO CD Burner it needs to be placed in the same directory as the ISO image. That should not be to much of a problem. Simply start the program afterwards. It will automatically scan the directory for ISO images and display those that are found in a pulldown menu at the top. If there is only one it is preselected automatically.

All that is left is to select the DVD burner from the list, if there is more than one. This is usually not the case either. In best case, users move the burning software to the directory of the ISO file, start it and press Burn It after start to burn the ISO to disk.

ISO CD Burner is available for download at the developer website. The tool is fully portable and should be compatible with most Windows operating systems.

But don’t expect such a powerful tool to be as simple to use as, say K3B. Acetone takes some getting used to. In this article I am going to show you how to install Acetone, mount an ISO image, and (of course) download a video from Youtube for burning.

Installation

You can install Acetone from pre-compiled binaries for the following distributions:

• Ubuntu
• OpenSuse
• Fedora
• Archlinux
• Slackware

You can also install from source, which can be found here. Since my current desktop of choice is still Ubuntu, we’ll work with that installation. You will not be able to find Acetone in your repository, without adding a new line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. The line you need to add is:

deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu karmic-getdeb apps

Once you have that line in place you will need to download and install the GPG key for the repository. This is done with the following command:

wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

With the apt line in place and the GPG key installed you are ready to rock. Go to this GetDeb page and click on the “Install this now” button to open up GDebi for installation. You will have to enter your sudo password for this to continue. Once the installation is complete, you will find Acetone in the Sound and Video sub-menu of the Applications menu.

Usage

Figure 1

When you fire up Acetone you will first have to take care of a couple of configurations. These configurations are very simple and are handled through a user-friendly Preferences window (see Figure 1). You will need to configure:

• File manager
• Database (location to save file)

You can also configure other options, but the above two options must be configured before you can continue to use the tool.

Figure 2

The Acetone main window (see Figure 2) is quite simple to navigate. The main window is set up in three panes:

Left pane: This shows the “database” of your images. This is really just a listing of the images you have created.

Upper right pane: This is the working pane where you mount, unmount, and burn images.

Lower right pane: This pane displays the progress of your jobs.

Now, let’s mount an ISO to work with. I am going to assume you have an ISO image downloaded to your machine. What you want to do is:

• Click the Mount button.
• Navigate to the ISO image you want to mount.
• Click Open to mount the drive.

The mounted image will now appear in a newly opened file manager window. You can feel free to work with that image before you unmount it.

Create ISO from folder

You can also create an ISO from a folder with Acetone. To do this follow these steps:

1. Click on the Image Conversion menu.
2. Select Generate ISO from Folder.
3. Navigate to the folder you want to use.
4. Give the ISO a name and a location.
5. Click Save.

That’s it.

Download video from Youtube

I am not quite sure why this feature was added, but it’s nice and it works very well. To accomplish this follow these steps:

1. Click on the Video menu.
2. Click on the Youtube Download Video sub-menu.
3. Select either Anonymous or User Account entry (depending on if you have an account).
4. Paste the URL to the video in the resulting window.
5. Click OK.
6. Navigate to a folder where you would like to save your video.
7. Click OK.

This process can take a while, depending upon your connection speed and the file size. Once this is complete you will have a converted mp4 file to view.

Final thoughts

Acetone is a very handy application. We’ll cover some of the more advanced features of this tool at a later date. Until then, enjoy this powerful, useful tool.

The core program can be downloaded directly from the developer’s website. It does not ship with any of the antivirus rescue disks or system tools though. It is up to the user to download them individually with the possibility to skip programs by simply not downloading them.

The program itself is divided into four tabs that list the various tools that are supported by the antivirus rescue disk. The Italian interface can be switched to several other languages. A click on any entry will open a website with download possibilities. Some websites are also shown in the Italian language but it is usually not a big problem to change those to another language like English or German to download the tool in the right language.

The downloaded images and tools have to be placed in the right directory so that the program will recognize them during the creation of the bootable disk image. Here is the list of supported antivirus rescue CDs and other tools:

antivirus: Avira Antivir Rescue System, Bitdefender, Dr. Web Live CD, F-Secure, GData, Kaspersky Kav Rescue CD, Panda Safe CD and VBA Rescue

utility: Floppy win98SE, Clonezilla, Gparted, NT password, Parted Magic, System Rescue CD, Ultimate Boot CD

Linux: Austrumi, Damn Small Linux, NimbleX, Puppy Linux, Slax

PE: LiveXP, MegalabCD, WindowsPE, UBCD4Win, VistaPE

The program offers then to create either an ISO image which can be burned to CD and DVD or to make to copy the files to an USB device and make that device bootable.

Shardana Antivirus Rescue Disk Utility is slightly more complex to setup initially. The tools that are combined on the disk or USB device on the other hand might make it an interesting option for users who usually run multiple antivirus programs and utilities in situations where they are needed.

The program can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

The only drawback (if you can call it a drawback) is that customizations such as themes, fonts, colors, etc are not configured by default. As a backup, Remastersys will copy all personal data. As a Live CD, Remastersys will include all installed applications, but not personal data. In this tutorial you will learn how to install Remastersys and create a backup and a Live CD version of your currently installed Ubuntu desktop.

Installing Remastersys

The first thing you will need to do is open up your /etc/apt/sources.list file in a terminal window. You will need to do this using the sudo nano /etc/aptsources.list command. Once that file is open add the following to the end of the file (depending upon your release):

For Gutsy and Earlier add the following:

# Remastersys
deb http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/repository remastersys/

For Hardy and Newer add the following:
# Remastersys
deb http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/repository ubuntu/

Save that file and then issue the commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install remastersys

There will be some dependencies to install, so accept those and wait for the installation to complete.

Running remastersys

You will find the menu entry for Remastersys in the Administration sub-menu of the System menu. There you will see two entries: Remastersys Backup and Remastersys Grub Restore. The entry you want is Remastersys Backup. When you first start Remastersys you will get a warning that you must close all other windows as well as unmount any network shares. Naturally this makes for complicating the process of taking screenshots, but when using Linux – we have ways.

Figure 1

The main window of Remastersys is very simple (see Figure 1). You have a window with a number of options to select from. To create a Live CD click the “Make a Distributable copy to share with friends” and then click OK. To create a backup of your current running system (which will include all personal data) click “Backup Complete System” and click OK.

Let’s examine the process of creating a backup. You will want to make sure you have all windows, but Remastersys, closed. Select “Backup Complete System” and click OK. When you click OK the main window will disappear to be replaced by a terminal window. The rest of the process will occur within this terminal window. Depending on how large your system is, the creation of the .iso will take some time (and many CPU cycles). Do not do anything on your machine during this process.

Once the iso is created you will be informed the iso file can be found within /home/remastersys/remastersys. The file name will be custom.iso (unless you have changed the name by using the “Modify the remastersys config file” option before you create your backup or Live CD.

Once the process is complete you will need to burn your iso onto DVD. Most likely your backup will not fit on a CD. You can burn your ISO using the handy K3B tool (For a tutorial on burning ISOs with K3B check out my article, “Burn CD and DVD ISO images with K3B“.) After the DVD is burned you will have a perfect backup of your system, including configurations and personal data.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a nearly foolproof means of backing up your Ubuntu system, you have most likely found it. Remastersys is an outstanding tool that will create backups and Live CDs of your currently running system.

I was about to give up hope and copy the files manually when I came across an extremely powerful, yet simple, Unix command: dd.

Using a Linux live disc, dd can be used to copy files, disks and partitions. It can output directly onto another disc or as an image (like an iso).

dd copies data byte-exactly, meaning it won’t get stuck should it encounter corrupted or fragmented data.

dd is nicknamed ‘destroy disk’ as mistyping one letter can wipe your hard disk, so caution must be used.

To copy a hard disk, one would use the following command (whilst root):

dd if=/dev/hdx of=/dev/hdy

hdx is the input hard disk (to be copied) and hdy is the output hard disk (where it is to be copied to).

if = input
of = output

This is extremely important to remember and their names must be altered according to how they are on your computer (use a tool like gParted to find out your drive’s paths). For example, your ‘if’ may be /dev/sdb whilst your ‘of’ may be /dev/sda, but this obviously varies according to how you want to use it and computer-by-computer so you MUST check. An extremely intelligent friend of mine accidentally wiped a hard drive using this command!

Another use would be to use it to produce a CD image:

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=image.iso bs=2k.

Debian Help has a more complete guide.

K3B (KDE Burn Baby Burn) is a CD/DVD authoring software written for the KDE desktop that supports nearly every feature you have come to love with such tools. K3B takes this one step further by being free. And unlike many other similar tools, K3B can burn bootable ISO images so you can keep that free-install smell on your PC at all times.

Burning an ISO image with K3B is quite simple. The first step is to start the application. K3B is generally found in the Audio or Multimedia menu entry within the Start (or “K”) menu. Once K3B is open you will want to either click on the Burn CD Image (or Burn DVD ISO Image) button or click on the Tools menu from the menu bar.

K3B Main Window

If you go the Tools menu route you will see an entries with the same title as the buttons (“Burn CD Image” and “Burn DVD ISO Image”).

When you select to burn an image a new window will appear. In this new window you have to click directory button in the Image To Burn section and locate the ISO file you want to burn.

The Burn Image Window

Once you have located the image K3B will run a checksum on the image to make sure it matches. When the checksum is finished, and you have inserted the proper medium in your drive, you can click the Start button to begin the burn process.

If you are unsure of your setup, or if you are low on burnable media, you can always select the Simulate button (under Settings) to simulate the burn process. If the process will run successfully you can then uncheck Simulate and run the process as normal.

Final Thoughts

K3B is one of the finest CD/DVD authoring applications available. And having the built-in ability to burn ISO images helps to stand above many other (more costly) alternatives.

This can be very annoying if a file generally distributed as an ISO, such as an operating system, has to be burned on a computer without essential software, for example at the house of a friend, who only uses the default disc burning tool.

ISO Recorder is a tool for Windows XP and Vista which provides a simple wizard to burn an ISO disc image onto a CD (and, in Vista, onto a DVD).

The software, whilst closed source, is free (as in beer). It is also quite reliable, although it does seem to freeze somewhat more than commercial pieces of software such as Nero.

There are 3 versions of ISO Recorder available: v1, for Windows XP and XP SP1; v2, for Windows XP SP2; and v3 for Windows Vista. A command line version also exists, which operates on XP, 2003 and Vista.

Version 1 allows ISOs to be burned by admins, Version 2 allows ISOs to be made and burned by admins and non-admins whilst Version 3 adds DVD support.

The benefits of creating ISO images and mounting them in Windows might outweigh the negative aspects. The main benefit is file management. Instead of having many folders and files scattered around the hard drive there is only one ISO file containing all the files. It’s not a difference speed wise either because the files are still located on the computer’s hard drive. The only negative aspect of this procedure is the fact that no new files can be added to the ISO image. The user would have to copy all files back to the computer, add the new ones and create a new ISO image.

The Free ISO Creator makes use of an easy to use interface that basically concentrates on adding files and folders using a file browser. It is possible to set a size limit for the ISO image. The three default sizes 700 MB, 4.5 GB and 8.0 GB are available as well as an option to create a custom sized ISO image which can be easily mounted as well.

A few additional options like creating a bootable image or selecting a different file system for the ISO are available. Conversion of the files usually does not take longer than a few seconds depending on the size they occupy on the hard drive and some additional parameters like the hard drive’s speed.

The ISO images can be mounted or burned to CD or DVD afterwards.

Pismo File Mount Audit Package can mount zip files but also iso, compact iso, compact file set and private folder files as virtual folders on the system. That’s an excellent way to access and execute the contents of a zip file without having to unpack it first.

The software supports a wide range of Windows operating systems including Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista both in 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

It integrates itself nicely in the Windows Explorer right-click menu and becomes available only on supported file extensions. Files can be mounted from all available locations including network devices and removable media.

The problem with bin formats is that they rely on cue files that tell the burning software how to burn the CD or DVD image to disc. If the cue file is missing the applications cannot find those information and refuse to burn the disc image.

WinBin2Iso is a tiny 43 Kilobyte application that can convert bin images without cue file to iso images which can be burned normally. Another option is Bin2Iso which has a size of only 12 Kilobyte and provides the same functionality.

Both applications convert the bin file to an iso file quickly. It usually does not take longer than a few minute to convert a full DVD image from bin to iso.

All formats can be burned to CDs or DVDs depending on their size using a DVD burning software like Nero for instance. Another method favorited by many is to mount those images as a virtual drive. This lets the user access the contents on the CD or DVD without burning it first.

Pretty good if you just need to install something or watch a movie that was distributed as a bin, cue, img or iso file. Several softwares exist that can mount those filetypes, one is named Daemon Tools for instance.

You would simply create a virtual drive in Daemon Tools, browse to the location of the image file on your hard drive and select it from there. Daemon Tools will do the rest and make the contents available for further use.

This is an excellent way to store CDs and DVDs on your computer. Great if you are traveling and do not want to take the original discs with you or to save power when using a notebook. It essentially means that you do not need to use the installed CD or DVD drive which saves the power.

Microsoft is offering a free unsupported software as well that is able to mount those files if you are using Windows XP.

Read More:

Microsoft Win XP Virtual CD Control Panel

You have to copy Vista from your DVD to your hard drive. Once that is done you load the folder in Vlite and it will be automatically analyzed. Once that is done you may click on the Components tab which displays many programs that you may choose to remove from the installation. Hovering over one entry displays some short lines about its purpose. The red entries should only removed with caution because removing them will have side effects that are explained in the text.

Components are sorted in categories like Drivers, Multimedia and Games. Once you mark a feature for removal the size will be displayed. Removing the Movie and DVD maker for instance reduces the size by 200 megabytes. (uncompressed I assume).

My test run had a estimated size reduction of 3843 megabytes. Afterwards you have the option to either apply the changes without rebuilding the installation files or with rebuilding them. The difference is that the first method will not decrease the size that Vista takes on the DVD whereas the second method removes the files from the installation thus creating a reduzed image. This does not affect the installation of Vista though, it does not matter if you choose method 1 or 2 the software that you have selected to be removed will not be installed during installation.

The result of the procedure was that I had a final size of the Vista folder that was close to Cd size. The final size was 990 megabytes. I did not try to install this image because I’m quite happy with the fact that my current one is working but I suppose it should not be a problem at all.

Please note that you need the .net framework and two additional components which are checked and installed when you first run the program.

Some days later he managed to do the same with a Blue-Ray movie which means that everything is set to get the warez scene going. I think it is kinda strange that it was always easy to copy games for the Playstation systems and many people think that the success of the Playstation systems could be connected to this.

This got me thinking. Why did not Sony try and dump their discs if they knew everyone would be able to install and use Linux on the Playstation 3 ? Did they all miss it or was it probably something they did not care about or even wanted ? What do you think about this ?