Looking for Software for mounting images
- Thread starter canivari
- Start date
gee thats a tough one.. im not sure about its ability to be portable, but poweriso(i think i did a cracked version dont know if thats ok with you or not) but poweriso worked great with installing win7 by mounting it.. i didnt have any blank dvds so i tried mounting and it worked great.just be sure when installation restarts to enter the boot menu and select windows installer or windows 7
canivari
New Member
I ve been working with Virtual Drive manager portable until now, (its from http://www.towodo.com/) and i was able to create virtual drives on XP with it but with VISTA and 7,it doesnt allow me to.
Because even if its portable, the program it self still needs to install
some drivers so i can create the drive it self and VISTA and 7 doesnt allow it to.
I do have poweriso too, but unfortunatly doesnt work as portable..
i mean it works as portable,but he cant create virtual images as running portable
Because even if its portable, the program it self still needs to install
some drivers so i can create the drive it self and VISTA and 7 doesnt allow it to.
I do have poweriso too, but unfortunatly doesnt work as portable..
i mean it works as portable,but he cant create virtual images as running portable
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PC Hobbyist
New Member
Check out these options. I don't know if one single app (from the choices below) will create and mount. You might need one that creates and another one that mounts. I've never used them, so I can't give you much info.
These are all portable and I believe they are all freeware - but check for yourself.
Folder2iso
LC iso creator
Virtual Floppy Drive (although I assume this is only for floppy images (up to 1.5 MB) - hmm, why would anyone need that?
Virtual CD-ROM control panel from Microsoft - seems to work also on Vista (possibly also Win7)
This one is not portable - but it's small and I like it for mounting images.
Virtual Drive from SlySoft.
MagicISO I heard it is good and also free, but I don't know if there is a portable version.
And another website with portable apps (along with www.pendriveapps.com) is www.portableapps.com - just in case you find them useful.
These are all portable and I believe they are all freeware - but check for yourself.
Folder2iso
LC iso creator
Virtual Floppy Drive (although I assume this is only for floppy images (up to 1.5 MB) - hmm, why would anyone need that?
Virtual CD-ROM control panel from Microsoft - seems to work also on Vista (possibly also Win7)
This one is not portable - but it's small and I like it for mounting images.
Virtual Drive from SlySoft.
MagicISO I heard it is good and also free, but I don't know if there is a portable version.
And another website with portable apps (along with www.pendriveapps.com) is www.portableapps.com - just in case you find them useful.
TrainTrackHack
VIP Member
DaemonTools is awesome, get the Lite version for free.
I used MagicISO before, it's nearly two years since I last tried it so I can't comment on the current state of the things, but back then it was too buggy... just for example, if I mounted an image without explicitly umounting the previously mounted image, it wouldn't refresh the folder structure, so I was pretty much left with the old files still appearing in there but none of them working (blah blah doesn't point to an existing location or something like that...).
I used MagicISO before, it's nearly two years since I last tried it so I can't comment on the current state of the things, but back then it was too buggy... just for example, if I mounted an image without explicitly umounting the previously mounted image, it wouldn't refresh the folder structure, so I was pretty much left with the old files still appearing in there but none of them working (blah blah doesn't point to an existing location or something like that...).
canivari
New Member
Welll, the idea is to mount for example the Office instalation disc and instal it
in any machine without to install the drive it self.All the images that i have are in ISO format (but i can change them).
Because until a few weeks ago, i have been running XP and used Virtual Drive manager Portable , (its from http://www.towodo.com/) but in the VISTA or Win7 it doesnt allow me do it.
tlarkin
VIP Member
I think you are going about it the wrong way. How many machines are you going to mass deploy this to? In reality I think you need to look at packing up Office (or other apps like it) in a MSI (Microsoft Installer) file which will capture all the files and locations needed and then block copy the app to the client to the proper locations.
When I used to support thousands of windows machines I had to install the Autodesk academia series on student labs for the school I used to work for. The whole suite is about 25 DVDs (Inventor, Revit, Civil, AutoCAD and so forth) so I used their deploy kit to create MSI files of each application and then pushed them out over the network to all my clients.
This quick google search led me to this article which briefly goes over a few tools that can do this. At my last job though we ran Novell so we used Zen Works and SMS from Windows server.
canivari
New Member
I gonna try to explain you why do i need an virtual drive portable:
I have an 2.5' HDD by USB that i carry with me all the time,so if i am in an clients site, and if he asks me to install for example an office (i carry an Office iso image in y HDD disk too) or if need same tools from an Windows CD (i have also an image iso of windows in my HDD) i mount the image, usit and unmount it again with out messing with registries in Clients computer.
I am sorry for my delay in responding to your message its because i manage
to create the magic Disk program running as portable with SFX ZIP and
some batchs the only problem with him is that i dont know the programing (in batch)
to unistall the virtual drive driver in automated mode if i close the aplication it self.
Any sugestions?
tlarkin
VIP Member
What I am saying is with a MSI file it is all self contained, and you don't have to fuss with images. You just drop the MSI file off a thumb drive and double click it and it installs the full program. You can even embed product license keys in the MSI as well so you don't have any post configurations like inputting the license key after you install it.
Plus if you went your route you would have to install said software on each client machine before you could use your images.
Plus if you went your route you would have to install said software on each client machine before you could use your images.
canivari
New Member
Yes you are right about that, thats what i usually use (for example in Office)
Its what is called unatented install.
My problem is, is when i dont want to install the entire program and just need some tools inside the CAB files like with Windows images.
I think that MSI files are great to work over LANs with Active Directory installed and one active domain working and need to deploy for example for 50 Machines but my
problem here is totally diferent from that.I just need to carry an Virtual Drive
on my 2.5" HDD Portable so i can mount all my images (Microsoft or Non-Microsoft) and do what i need to do from the ISO image it self.
tlarkin
VIP Member
MSI does not mean it only works with Microsoft products. I am not sure I totally see the point you are trying to make with images, and yes with a MSI you can customize it to add or subtract things from the install. You would have to purchase said software to create MSI files from either third party or from Microsoft, as I am not sure if there are any free ones out there.
I use MSI files over thumb drives, external HDs, over the network and so forth. They are way more efficient both HD space wise and time wise than carrying around a bunch of disk images to dump installs on.
So the downside, which is the only downside, is you would have to do some grunt work in the beginning to create all your MSI files, but after that it is just double click and done.
I used MSI to deploy all the Autodesk products at a previous job, and it would sure as hell be a lot more hectic to have to deal with disk images of all that software.
I don't have a lot of experience with the apps that create MSI files as I have only used a couple of them, but there are a lot to choose from. I can't really recommend one because I don't and haven't worked in the Microsoft world really for the past 4 years and am a bit out of touch with it.
I would recommend you at least look into it before dragging a bunch of disk images around and having to install client software to mount those images as a virtual optical drive on every client and see if it is a viable option for you.
canivari
New Member
Thank yiou for your replly,
I see that MSI packages are great to deploy, update, self-repair and can
run from networks. I think is all good on those.I dont know either if thereis any MSI Compiler free out there.
The good thing with ISO images is that i can also burn them directly
to CDs or DVDs and make them bootable (for example OSs) and MSI files
cant do that.
I thought a lot about it when i started working with Virtual Drives and ISO files (something like 4 years ago) and for going outside it was the
only thing that i could manage,Install,mount,extract,burn directly and boot
without any fuss in clients machine.
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tlarkin
VIP Member
I have had great experiences with Daemtools lite, but of course don't install the search tool bar add on. It is adware that generates DaemonTools revenue. I have used it to mount ISOs for a while. It is free and light weight, and not a huge hassle to install so I would check that out.
canivari
New Member
Yes, i allready check Daemontools, It is freeware but not for comercial use
and after u unistall it he leaves some registries behinde and also Folder.
And if i install that in an client computer to use the images and unistall it
in the end and the clients get an inspection there,they will ask why was used
an Freeare non-comercial licence in that computer and i gonna be in troubles.
About the batch that told you a few minutes ago, do you know any
command for the batch to wait for an aplication to end so he can start
another batch?
(Something like an Wait.. or if... or Loop.. statements)
tlarkin
VIP Member
I never bothered learning batch vocab, but it seems very simple. I know bash, perl, and some php, but that is not going to help you.
Down the road you will see more support for the Power Shell as it is now standard in all installations of Windows 7, but are only added in previous versions as optional downloads. Powershell gives Windows a Unix-like command line vocab aliased to windows commands to give it a more robust native scripting language, just like Unix. The commands are very similar to shell as well.
However, batch does support loops, if/then, and sleep (or wait I guess, as almost all languages do, even the crappy ones) I would google to see if someone else has one posted on a forum or something, steal it and modify it for your needs.
canivari
New Member
All the Best for you.
Thank you for your time and if you need anything from me
let me know.
Regards
Canivari