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Disk Image is a computer file containing the complete contents and structure of a data storage device. The term has been generalized to cover any such file, whether taken from an actual physical storage device or not. [wiki:Disk_Image See more]...

A common use of disk images is for remote distribution of software such as Linux distributions: installation floppy disks or CD-ROMs can be recorded as disk image files, transferred over the Internet, and the contents of the original disk(s) duplicated exactly by end users with their own floppy or CD-R drives. So, user can burn the Isos to convert them in LiveCD s, to try an Operating System, without installing it in the hard disk .

Another common use is to provide virtual disk drive space to be used by ["SystemVirtualization"]. This can prevent the CD from getting burned or damaged. It can also reduce bulk when one wishes to carry the contents of the CD along with oneself: one can store disk images to a relatively lightweight and bootable storage device which has a higher storage capacity than that of a CD (i.e. a USB keydrive).

.bin

.bin files (or .RAW files) are images extracted in pure RAW format. That is 2352 bytes sectors, the full CD sector content: user data, sector header, error correction codes (ECC) and error detection codes (EDC). Once again, each sector is converted to digital data in the .BIN file, but more stuff is copied and the resulting file will be bigger. The .BIN file should be 251,000 x 2352 = 590,352,000 bytes big. This process will copy ANYTHING on the disc, so it is useful for exotic discs (multiple tracks, mixed track type Audio+Data or Data+Audio) and for non-PC CDs (PSX, VCD, MAC).

.iso

An ISO image (.iso) is an informal term for a disk image of an ISO 9660 FileSystem. More loosely, it refers to any optical disk image.

As is typical for disk images, in addition to the data files that are contained in the ISO image, it also contains all the filesystem metadata]] (Boot code, structures, and attributes). All of this information is contained in a single file. These properties make it an attractive alternative to physical data storage device for the distribution of software which requires this additional information as it is simple to retrieve over the Internet.

Some of the common uses include the distribution of Linux and LiveCD s.

Mime

["MIME"] type

 application/x-iso-image

How to create it

You can create it with a [:CDDVDTools:CD and DVD applications]

Command Line Interface:

Ways for copying a CD to a file (this is, create an iso file):

 dd if=/dev/cdrom of=image.iso

or using cat (deprecated).

 cat /dev/cdrom >image.iso

How to use it

You can open it with a [:CDDVDTools:CD and DVD applications]

Command Line Interface:

 mount -o loop -t iso9660 image.iso /mnt/''somewhere''

.img

.img is the filename extension usually use for the disk image of floppy disks, and sometimes, hard disks. First populated by DOS-based software HD-Copy DiskDupe and now WinRaWrite, is a handy way to archive a floppy disk completely, including bootable ones. In fact there is no "format" in it, just a raw dump of the content of the disk.

Some newer software like Some newer software like WinImage supports zipped version of the format and the extension is .imz.

.nrg

.nrg is a Nero Image. You can rename it as .iso and follow the same instructions.

External links


See also: [:CDDVDTools:CD and DVD applications] - IsoBuster - ["iso-sarge"] (obsolete) - ["mkisofs"]