Burning An ISO Image

Burning An ISO Image
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[1] Introduction
[2] Windows Instructions
[3] Linux Instructions
[4] Finding ISOs
[5] Drawbacks Of ISO Images

[1] Introduction
This tutorial is for one purpose, and one purpose only. The majority of my other tutorials have been related to installing various Linux distributions, or Linux tools etc. However, for most people, the easiest (and cheapest) way to get Linux is to download it from the Internet. Of course, many distributions offer the entire CD-ROM available for download as separate files, but you have to download each one individually... The alternative is an ISO image, and this tutorial is for those of you who want to download Linux, but don't know how to burn an ISO image (Although, if you don't know how to do something as simple as burning an ISO, Linux probably isn't right for you anyway).

[2] Windows Instructions

[2.1] Nero Burning ROM
This software is one of the most popular packages distributed with CD-RW drives, along witn Adaptec Easy CD Creator. Instructions are as follows:
(1) Open Nero Burning ROM (From its entry in the Start menu)
(2) If the Nero Wizard appears, move on to step 3. If it does not, click File>New...
(3) Select the option 'Compile a new CD' and click Next
(4) Choose 'Other CD Formats' and click next
(5) Choose 'Create a CD from an image file' and click Next
(6) In the Open dialog that appears, browse to your downloaded image file (.iso) and select it
(7) Click Open
(8) Insert a blank CD-R disk into your CD-RW drive, and click the Burn button on the dialog.
(9) Wait while the CD image burns onto a CD
(10) once complete, remove the CD and use it as per the instructions for the specific software on the CD.

[3] Linux Instructions
As with everything in Linux, there are thousands of free burning programs, most of which support ISO files. In fact, the usual way to create a data CD in linux is to run an ISO creation tool (I believe it's called mkisofs, although since I dont have a CD Burner on my linux box, I have never used it).
For this reason, most, if not all, of the CD burning software on Linux supports ISO burning. The documentation accompanying the software should explain how to burn an ISO, although if you already have a Linux installed, running and working with a CD Burner, you will probably know how to burn ISO images anyway.
Within one of the Window Managers, there are usually various frontends to CD creation software, an example being GToast, which is the Gnome (Gnu) CD burner frontend. KDE also has one or two which I can't remember the names of.

[4] Finding An ISO

[4.1] Distribution Sites
The main website of the distribution usually has an option to download an ISO image of the distribution.

[4.2] LinuxISO.org
http://www.linuxiso.org has a huge selection of ISOs available for download, if you can't find it there, you probably can't get it as an ISO.

[5] Drawbacks Of ISO Images
There is one major drawback: Size. Each ISO is typically around 650MB, if a distro comes on 4 CDs, thats 2600 MB. If you're downloading that on 56K (And here's where the math goes a bit fuzzy round the edges), that takes 371428.57142857142857142857142857 seconds, or 6190.4761904761904761904761904762 minutes, which is: 103.1746031746031746031746031746 hours, or 4.2989417989417989417989417989418 days. So, it takes you 4 days to download 4 ISO images, and thats assuming a constant 7Kbps... most 56k connections never make it beyond 5Kbps on a good day - Mine manages a stable 5.2 most days, but it rarely reaches 7.
Of course, if you have a broadband connection, you can download a 650MB ISO in just under 2 hours... I tried!


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Attached in a .zip file for those of you who like to keep these things for future reference.

Rewandythal,
here we go again, with another brilliant Totorial's of yours. hey Re, i wish i can issue you AO points, +200
so brilliant Re! i own you one!

Wow, if only someone made the information that easy to find & follow when I first started burning ISO's....

Actually Rew, there are several ways. If you are trying to copy a CD, you can create an ISO of any CD, using ANY CD DRIVE (you don't need a burner specifically). There are several ways of going about it.

The simplest is to use DD to make an exact image of the CD to your drive.
Example:
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/home/user/cdrom1.iso
Note: you have to be root for that to work.

An alternate method, using mkisofs would be:
mkisofs -o cdrom1.iso /mnt/cdrom/*
Note: you must have your CD drive mounted in order for this to work.

Obviously, mkisofs will also convert any directories you may have, so it is useful for backing up documents, etc..

chsh has specified some excellent ways of creating ISO images, in the post above, for those of you wishing to take ISO use that step further, although it is slightly more involved than simply burning an image... which is all you need to be able to do to install a Linux distro. Anyway, thanks chsh for adding that bit extra for the more adventurous linux newbies (that is, if they ever work out how to burn an ISO from the crap tutorial I wrote about it... re-reading it now it doesnt even make sense to me).