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Boot from ISO file on the HDD or on USB flash drive

Zeratul
09-08-2006, 12:25 PM
I have an Acronis Bootable ISO file.

I need to do either of these two:

Either keep this iso file as it is on my HDD and ask you to fetch me a bootable tool than can load any iso file from HDDs
or you fetch me :D some other tool that can "burn" or in other words, copy this iso file with a special method and make my USB flash drive (data traveler) boot from it


Is there any tool on the internet to do this strange mission??

Any other ideas would be appreciated...

Nodsu
09-08-2006, 04:18 PM
2 is plain impossible. CDs are very different from hard drives and so are the boot methods.

1 was already asked once before and no, noone could come up with the said program. IMO writing one would be a true feat of PC hacking..

You really can't afford a USB CD-ROM drive?

Ad
09-08-2006, 04:18 PM

Zeratul
09-09-2006, 12:44 PM
You really can't afford a USB CD-ROM drive?

I don't think this is related to my question :) Nodsu, but i don't think i can afford it because i guess it gonna be slightly expensive :-(

Besides, what you're saying is a CD drive, but what i want is actually a tool to fully identify iso files but OUTSIDE WINDOWS, i.e. before entering windows after system start up

I guess there's nothing like this or at least, up till now

Nodsu
09-09-2006, 01:58 PM
Does Linux count as "outside Windows"?

What exactly do you want to do?

Zeratul
09-09-2006, 04:55 PM
What I meant is that from its 1st bootable CD, it gives me the ability to continue the installation of its distro from the HDD if i have the 3 other ISO files on it and which means that it's bootloader, i suppose, can UNDERSTAND AND DEAL WITH ISO FILES AS THEY ARE and which also means that I don't have to burn these ISOs on CDs, no, i can leave them on the HDD. >>> That's exactly what i want. I want something like this bootloader but for any iso file not just its linux ISOs.

Am i clear or there's still something vague :suspiciou

Regarding LINUX, well, it could be considered so if i can load it from a live CD, i.e. all what i want are tools that ARE BOOTABLE AND CAN BE USED from CD

Nodsu
09-10-2006, 02:00 PM
If you mean the ability of Linux distros to install from ISO files, then that is something completely different.

The bootloader loads a tiny Linux OS from the first CD/floppy that in turn runs the installer program that uses the Linux facilities to read ISO files. This is not "booting" from ISO files on a hard drive, this is accessing the contents of ISO files from the Linux operating system.

No, once you have booted a proper operating system (like Linux, not DOS), you cannot boot another.

Samstoned
09-10-2006, 11:20 PM
what about bootable xp ISO's
I have 2 of them,, dvd's can usb emulate udf
and does Bart PE boot loader do this
not sure how this would work with usb drive
the bios must be able to boot from this device
I know xpe boots from flash drive ,could this boot from usb port??
I say just load it up and give it a shot

link 1 (http://www.aaltonen.us/archive/2004/03/01/tip-boot-from-usb-key-addendum/)
Toms hardware supposed to have info on usb booting
don't know if it's windows
as for leaving the iso on drive and then seeing the boot sector you would need a virtual drive emulator on bios boot ??
I have never allowed a Vdrive to stay active on boot no reason I don't think my bios would recognize it
that would be under the cdrom drives order

Tmagic650
09-11-2006, 12:35 AM
ISO is just a loose term for a CD image or even a UDF file. Nero can "burn" these to media. I use Daemon Tools to move ISO images of my game CD's that require that the CD be in the drive to play the game, to virtual hard drives on my system. I can run the games from these virtual disks, and not have an actual CD in the CD drives. If you create a bootable "ISO" CD image, you should be able to move this image to any device that is big enough to handle the file size and to a device that you can "mount".

Ad
09-11-2006, 12:35 AM

Samstoned
09-11-2006, 04:05 PM
and there lies the problem
the bios must see the boot drive
or it will not read any info from said drive .,right
I've been rather busy with a ceramic tile floor and some plastering so not been able to look into usb bootable's

Zeratul
09-11-2006, 07:02 PM
No, once you have booted a proper operating system (like Linux, not DOS), you cannot boot another.
:( :(

I have a question,

There are two kinds of usb drives or they're called so:
1. USB HDD, can be called usd drives, and
2. USB Flash drive or pen drive or the small flash disks in the size of a finger.

Now, which one of these two is used in the upper link ??????

ememisya
05-06-2008, 11:20 AM
If you mean the ability of Linux distros to install from ISO files, then that is something completely different.

The bootloader loads a tiny Linux OS from the first CD/floppy that in turn runs the installer program that uses the Linux facilities to read ISO files. This is not "booting" from ISO files on a hard drive, this is accessing the contents of ISO files from the Linux operating system.

No, once you have booted a proper operating system (like Linux, not DOS), you cannot boot another.

In theory this is in fact possible. You can boot the ISO as a guest VM. Some rootkits operate this way. I'll make it a weekend thing to look into it.



Okay, I haven't tried this but here's a theory.

Get a big USB Key.

1. Install Slax on your USB Key (http://www.slax.org).

2. Download VMWare for Slax (ftp://ftp.scottopper.com/pub/lzm's/)

3. Download VM Browser Appliance (http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/browserapp.html)

4. Edit browser-appliance.vmx

Replace

ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

To

ide1:0.fileName = "\tmp\your.iso"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"

5. Boot the key, run VMPlayer, boot the browser-appliance
6. Press ESC on VM Player boot screen, select boot from CD.

And it should work, I'll try this myself as soon as I get a chance.

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