Hello All, I’m hoping someone can help me with how to mount an ISO image on a USB flash stick. I’ve got an ISO image of some drafting/design software on my computer that I’ve mounted on my hard drive using Alcohol 120. I think the image was originally meant to be burnt onto and run from a DVD drive, but not having a DVD drive I just had to run the ISO from my hard drive with the ISO mounted with Alcohol 120 - and has been running fine that way. What I would LIKE to do is mount that image on a flash drive (flash stick) so that I can take it with me when working on computers other than my home computer and run the program from my flash drive. I can not just install the program fresh (from the original disks) onto the flash drive (if that's even possible) because I no longer have the original installation software for the drafting program ... this is why I need to find a way to mount the ISO I do have onto the flash drive. I’ve tried this with Alcohol 120, but that program wants to only recognize (virtual) drives *it* creates on my hard disk ... not “removable Disks” like my USB flash drive ... (Though I am not totally familiar with the Alcohol program so there might be some feature or setting I’m not aware of ?) I have tried just copying files from the mounted ISO onto the flash drive, but when I do, the drafting program does not run correctly. Runs fine as an ISO mounted on my hard drive ... but not as just a bunch of files dragged onto the flash drive. I’m guessing that the ISO must be mounted on a drive of its own (?)... but like I say, Alcohol 120 will only mount on virtual drives it creates - and apparently won’t create a virtual drive on a flash stick. Any help with this would be VERY much appreciated!! Many thanx in advance! (My final confession ... I am still running Windows 98se. I know - I need to shake the hayseeds out of my hair - but I’m an impoverished student and don’t have the money to replace the OS - not to mention the equipment. ... BTW I do have USB 2.0 on my system, I have installed a USB 2.0 card/software etc so that is not a problem)
98 usb drivers are rubbish.. honest.. 2k would do a far better job and most things that run 98 will manage 2k happily. http://www.topshareware.com/ISODisk-download-64692.htm Might do it, but why don't you just burn the iso to a cd? .. that seems the obvious solution.. as you want portability. The problem is in the application itself.. it is running as a live cd for some reason.. As you claim to no longer have the original installer software did that make this iso on a hdd with a loader somewhere, or is the file just a copy of the original disk? further research turned up this.. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mount-cd-dvd-disk-images-using-a-portable-app/ give it a go.
Thanx for the reply. Yes, win 98se including its USB support is wildly insufficient. The USB 2.0 paddle card I installed and it’s drivers at least let me run 2.0 compliant devices. Well ... kinda. As far as burning the ISO to a cd ... the ISO is about 4 gigs ... too big for cd (and even at 4 gigs, it’s compressed too, I think). I originally got the ISO about 3 years ago from a classmate who had the actual software ... he was nice enough to make me the ISO. I’m not very knowledgeable about the process of how he made the image, but as you said, I’d assume he made the ISO on his HDD with a loader etc. (assuming that's how it's done) That link to the MakeUseOf.com article was spot-on. Brilliant. Thank you so much! That article explained what the problem is with “portably” running applications that would mount an ISO from a USB stick. Here is a caption from that text ... “Unfortunately, most of these programs require the installation of drivers, creation of registry entries, and often ask you to reboot the machine. Such requirements make it difficult to use them as portable apps on a USB drive ... The Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel by Microsoft is the perfect solution for mounting disk images from a portable USB drive” This would seem to be a great solution ... er ... well ... if I had a new machine running XP ... <takes a moment and re-enacts the hat-stomping scene from “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” where Steve Martin realizes his car has been stolen at the airport ...> SO if I understand the comments captioned above about needing something like the “Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel”, it would seem that until I can afford XP and a machine upgrade, I may be out of luck ... Any other ideas that I might consider on how to mount this ISO on a flash drive in Win98se would STILL be VERY much appreciated.
