Burning and ISO image to CD or DVD
This section is intended to teach the basics of burning CD and DVD images.
An ISO image is a file that is, bit for bit, exactly the same as a CD or DVD. Imagine that I look at my copy of a particular CD or DVD and start to write all the ones and zeros down in a notebook. That notebook, while unusable by any computer, would contain the exact information as contained on the CD or DVD I took it from. It would be an image of the CD or DVD.
If you were to borrow my notebook and copy all the ones and zeros from that notebook and place then in order on your blank CD then your new blank CD and my original CD would be indistinguishable by a computer. An exact digital copy.
We will refer to the digital image for CDs as an ISO image because the file system is based on a standard and name ISO (pronounced ī-sō) has often come to mean a CD image.
The process for a DVD is similar except that the capacity is larger. The typical size for a CD is 650 MB or 700 MB. A typical DVD can store 4.7 GB.
Operating System Considerations
Depending on which operating system you use, there are various tools that can help you create a CD from a digital image. As a minimum, you will need:
- a drive capable of burning CDs or DVDs
- a blank CD or even better, a DVD
- a functioning operating system that can see the CD or DVD burner
- software that is capable of burning CDs and DVDs.
Windows
95/98/ME/2000/XP
- If you do not already have CD-RW software to burn CDs, we recommend Infra Recorder - a light-weight (3.5MB), free and open source image burning application for Windows. Download and install Infra Recorder on your PC.
- Insert a blank CD into your CDROM-RW drive. Cancel any autorun application that may be pre-configured to start-up.
- Open Infra Recorder and click the Write Image button in the main screen.
- Use the file browser to locate and select the ClearOS ISO image, then click Open.
- Select your CDROM-RW drive and click OK.
Windows 7
- Use the file browser to locate the ClearOS ISO image that you downloaded.
- Right click while hovering over the file and select Burn disc image.
- Select a disk burner (CDROM-RW drive) and press Burn.
MAC OS X
- Click the Burn button and follow the instructions.
Linux
Ubuntu
- Install a blank CD into your CDROM-RW burner. If any automated application wizard is configured to perform an action when you insert a CD into your CDROM drive, cancel the action - we will be using a specific application to burn our image to CD.
- Using File Browser, open the directory containing the ISO image
- Right click on the ISO image file and choose Italic TextWrite to Disc.
- Select your CDROM-RW drive when asked prompted. It is recommended that you select the lowest possible write speed for bootable media.
- Start the burning and allow the process to complete (note, this step can take some time, depending on your burn speed).
- Your CD is now ready to be used as an install CD.
Notes
CD format is based on a standardized system called ISO 9660. This ensures that the CD will work from one computer to the next. ISO which stands for International Standards Organization was the group that established the standards for CD interoperability.