How To Create an ISO Image File From a CD, DVD

Make an ISO Image From any Disc

By Tim Fisher, About.com Guide

Creating an ISO file from any disc is pretty easy with the right free tool and is a fantastic way to backup important CDs, DVDs, or BDs to your hard drive.

Creating and storing ISO backups of your important software installation discs, and even operating system setup discs, is a smart plan. Compliment that with an unlimited online backup service and you have a near bulletproof disc backup strategy.

ISO images are great because they’re self contained, perfect representations of the data on a disc. Being single files, they’re easier to store and organize than simple copies of the folders and files on a disc would be.

Windows doesn’t have a built-in way of creating ISO image files so you’ll need to download a program to do it for you. Luckily there are several free tools available that make creating ISO images a really easy task.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Creating an ISO image file from a CD, DVD, or BD could take anywhere from a few minutes to over a hour, depending on the size of the disc and the speed of your computer

Here’s How:

1. Download BurnAware Free, a completely free program that, among other tasks, can create an ISO image from all types of CD, DVD, and BD discs.

    

   Important: There are “Home” and “Professional” versions of BurnAware that are not free. However, the “Free” version is fully capable of creating ISO images from your discs, which is the aim of this tutorial.

   BurnAware Free works in Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and even Windows 2000 and NT. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of those operating systems are supported.

2. Install BurnAware Free by executing the burnaware_free file you just downloaded.

    

   Note: BurnAware Free tries to get you to install a browser toolbar from AVG during installation. If you’re not interested in doing that, you can skip the add-on by choosingCustom installation and making sure all three boxes are unchecked. You may also want to uncheck the Add BurnAware to AutoRun menu option near the end of the install.

3. Run BurnAware Free, either from the shortcut created on the Desktop, or automatically via the last step in the installation.

    

4. Once BurnAware Free is open, click on Copy to Image.

    

   The Copy to Image tool will appear in addition to the existing BurnAware Free window that’s already open.

   Tip: You might have seen a Make ISO icon next toCopy to Image but you don’t want to choose that for this particular task. The Make ISO tool is for creating an ISO image not from a disc, but from a collection of files you select, like from your hard drive or other source.

5. From Source, choose the optical disc drive that you plan on using. If you only have one drive, you’ll only see one choice.

    

6. Click or touch Browse….

    

7. Navigate to the location that you want to create to ISO image file to, give the soon-to-be-made file a name in the File name text box, and then click or touch on Save.

    

   Note: Optical discs, especially DVDs and BDs, can hold several gigabytes of data and will create ISOs of equal size. Make sure that whatever drive you choose to save the ISO image to has enough room to support it. Your primary hard drive likely has plenty of free space so choosing a convenient location there, like your Desktop, as the location to create the ISO image is probably fine.

   Important: If your ultimate plan is to get the data from a disc onto a flash drive so you can boot from it, please know that simply creating an ISO file directly onto the USB device isn’t going to work as you expect. In most cases, like when installing Windows 7 from a flash drive, you have to take some extra steps to make sure the flash drive is properlyformatted and the files are correctly copied to the drive.

8. Insert the CD, DVD, or BD disc that you want to create the ISO image from into the optical drive you chose in Step 5.

    

   Note: Depending on how AutoRun is configured in Windows on your computer, the disc you just inserted may start (e.g. the movie may start playing, you may get a Windows installation screen, etc.). Regardless, close whatever comes up.

9. Click or touch Copy.

    

   Tip: Do you get a There is no disc in the source drive message? If so, just click or touch OKand then try again in a few seconds. Chances are, the spin-up of the disc in your optical drive hasn’t completed so Windows just doesn’t see it yet. If you can’t get this message to go away, make sure you’re using the right optical drive and that the disc is clean and undamaged.

10. Wait while the ISO image is created from your disc. You can watch the progress by keeping an eye on the Image progress bar or the x of x MB written indicator.

     

11. The ISO creation process is complete once you see the Copy process completed successfully box.

     

    The ISO file will be named and located where you decided in Step 7.
12. You can now press or click OK to that message, close the Copy to Image window, and also the BurnAware Free window. You can also now remove the disc you were using from your optical drive.

Tips:

1. You can only create ISO images from discs that your optical drive supports. For example, if you only have a CD drive, you won’t be able to make ISO images from DVD or BD discs because your drive won’t be able to read the data from them.

    

2. While you won’t be able to follow my tutorial above exactly, there are several other free ISO creation tools available if you don’t like BurnAware Free or it’s not working for you. Some include ISODisk, ImgBurn, ISO Recorder, and Free DVD to ISO Maker.

How to Install Windows from a USB Flash Drive.

1. • The Flash Drive should have a decent read/write speed

     

      
   • The size of the drive should be at least 4GB

     
2. To prepare the USB Flash Drive, we need access to a computer running either Windows Vista™ or Windows 7™. Insert the Flash Drive in the computer and wait for the computer to recognize the drive.

   
3. Click START > All Programs > Accessories

   
4. Right click on Command Prompt and select “Run As Administrator”

   
5. In Command Prompt, type DISKPART

   
6. Type SELECT DISK 1 [ The Picture Shows 2 Because Of My Drive Allocations ]

   

    
7. Type CLEAN [ A successful clean will prompt the message “Diskpart succeeded in cleaning the disk” ]

   

    
8. Type CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

   
9. Type SELECT PARTITION 1

   
10. Type ACTIVE

    
    • By following the above step we have just created a USB Flash Drive capable of booting from the system BIOS.

      

      Copying The Installation Files

1. The next step is to copy the files from the Original Windows Vista™ / Windows 7™ disc. Before we copy the content of the disc to the Flash Drive, we have to make sure that the drive is ready to accept files. In the same Command Prompt that we have used in the previous step, type the following commands

   • Type FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK [ When it reaches 100% you are ready to move to the next step ]

     

      
   • Type ASSIGN

     
   • Type EXIT to get out of DISKPART Command Utility

     
2. Now your Flash Drive is ready for the files. Insert your Windows disc into your drive. In my case, my Disc Drive is I: drive and my FLASH Drive is J:

   
3. Type XCOPY I:\*.* /S/E/F J:\ [ This Command needs to be typed in the same Command Prompt that we have left open after Diskpart.

   
   • If your Drive letters are correct, after several minutes you will get a message saying the numbers of files successfully copied to your FLASH DRIVE

     Warning

     • Please make sure that no other external or internal hard drives or flash drives are attached to the computer while performing these steps. Only the FLASH DRIVE should be attached to the computer. Failure to do so might result in DATA LOSS in other drives while performing the DISKPART commands

     Things you will need for the procedure

     • A Computer With DVD Drive Running Windows Vista Or Windows Seven
     • A Flash Drive with 4GB Capacity
     • The OS Installation disk you want copied onto your Flash Drive

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Create a New Partition on a Windows 7 Hard Disk

The Windows 7 Disk Management tool provides a simple interface for managing partitions and volumes.

Here’s an easy way to create a new partition on your disk.

1. Open the Disk Management console by typingdiskmgmt.msc at an elevated command prompt.

• In Disk Management’s Graphical view, right-click an unallocated or free area, and then click New Simple Volume. This starts the New Simple Volume Wizard. (Note: If you need to create unallocated space, see the Tip Easily Shrink a Volume on a Windows 7 Disk for information on how to do this.)
• Read the Welcome page and then click Next.
• The Specify Volume Size page specifies the minimum and maximum size for the volume in megabytes and lets you size the volume within these limits. Size the partition in megabytes using the Simple Volume Size field and then click Next.
• On the Assign Drive Letter Or Path page, specify whether you want to assign a drive letter or path and then click Next. The available options are as follows:

  Assign The Following Drive Letter Select an available drive letter in the selection list provided. By default, Windows 7 selects the lowest available drive letter and excludes reserved drive letters as well as those assigned to local disks or network drives.
  Mount In The Following Empty NTFS Folder Choose this option to mount the partition in an empty NTFS folder. You must then type the path to an existing folder or click Browse to search for or create a folder to use.
  Do Not Assign A Drive Letter Or Drive Path Choose this option if you want to create the partition without assigning a drive letter or path. Later, if you want the partition to be available for storage, you can assign a drive letter or path at that time.

• Use the Format Partition page to determine whether and how the volume should be formatted. If you want to format the volume, choose Format This Volume With The Following Settings, and then configure the following options:

  File System Sets the file system type as FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. NTFS is selected by default in most cases. If you create a file system as FAT or FAT32, you can later convert it to NTFS by using the Convert utility. You can’t, however, convert NTFS partitions to FAT or FAT32.
  Allocation Unit Size Sets the cluster size for the file system. This is the basic unit in which disk space is allocated. The default allocation unit size is based on the size of the volume and, by default, is set dynamically prior to formatting. To override this feature, you can set the allocation unit size to a specific value. If you use many small files, you might want to use a smaller cluster size, such as 512 or 1,024 bytes. With these settings, small files use less disk space.
  Volume Label Sets a text label for the partition. This label is the partition’s volume name and by default is set to New Volume. You can change the volume label at any time by right-clicking the volume in Windows Explorer, choosing Properties, and typing a new value in the Label field provided on the General tab.
  Perform A Quick Format Tells Windows 7 to format without checking the partition for errors. With large partitions, this option can save you a few minutes. However, it’s usually better to check for errors, which enables Disk Management to mark bad sectors on the disk and lock them out.
  Enable File And Folder Compression Turns on compression for the disk. Built-in compression is available only for NTFS. Under NTFS, compression is transparent to users and compressed files can be accessed just like regular files. If you select this option, files and directories on this drive are compressed automatically.

• Click Next, confirm your options, and then click Finish.

 

The Windows 7 Disk Management tool will now show the space configured as a new partition.

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Easily Shrink a Volume on a Windows 7 Disk

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The Windows 7 Disk Management tool provides a simple interface for managing partitions and volumes. Here’s an easy way to shrink a volume to free up space so you can create a new partition on your disk.

To shrink a basic volume, simple volume, or a spanned volume:

1. Open the Disk Management console by typing diskmgmt.msc at an elevated command prompt.

• In Disk Management, right-click the volume that you want to shrink, and then click Shrink Volume.
• In the field provided in the Shrink dialog box, enter the amount of space by which to shrink the disk.

  The Shrink dialog box provides the following information:
  Total Size Before Shrink In MB Lists the total capacity of the volume in MB. This is the formatted size of the volume.
  Size Of Available Shrink Space In MB Lists the maximum amount by which you can shrink the volume. This doesn’t represent the total amount of free space on the volume; rather, it represents the amount of space that can be removed, not including any data reserved for the master file table, volume snapshots, page files, and temporary files.
  Enter The Amount of Space To Shrink In MB Lists the total amount of space that will be removed from the volume. The initial value defaults to the maximum amount of space that can be removed from the volume. For optimal drive performance, you should ensure that the volume has at least 10 percent of free space after the shrink operation.
  Total Size After Shrink In MB Lists what the total capacity of the volume in MB will be after you shrink the volume. This is the new formatted size of the volume.

• Click Shrink.

 

Once you have unallocated space, you can use that space to create a new partition. For a tip on creating a new partition, see Creating Partitions, Logical Drives, and Simple Volumes.

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How to protect your pen drive through password without any software

BY IRSHAD KHAN –

We all know the importance of USB stick. It is the one of the easiest way to share or transfer your files, data between computers. But what if your pen-drive having some secret data or having files which you don’t  want to get checked by any other person. 

For these types of situations you need to lock your pen-drive with password. On internet lots of paid as well as free software available to secure your pen-drive. But today I’m going to explain you that how you can password protect your pen-drive without any software.

Procedure To Password Protect (Win7 & Win8)

• Insert your USB drive to computer
• Click on Start  
• In ‘Search programs and files’ box, type Bitlocker Drive Encryption
• Now click it to open. You will find your pen-drive in last and click on Turn on Bitlocker

• Select password  to unlock your pen drive
• type your desired password

• Click Next
• Choose  save the recovery key to a file
• You can also print recovery key

 

• Choose the safe destination for recovery key because in case you forgot your password it will help you to unlock your USB
• and then tap Next.
• Then click on Start Encrypting. 

 

It may take a few minutes in Encrypting depending upon size of pen-drive.
You can check it by removing and again re-inserting the pen drive.The System will ask you to enter the password to access the data. 

Now your all data remains safe. Also in case your pen drive is lost or gets stolen then also no one can use it without password. 

If this tutorial helps you in any way, then please take 5sec. to share with your friends.

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