Mount ISO’s without creating a coaster
I spend most of my day attached to networks that are absolutely unusable. Slow as hell, or firewalled and proxy-protected to death. Fat chance of any web page showing up reliably. Perish the thought that a download of an ISO has any chance of succeeding. And if it does, chances are it’s corrupted. Since you wouldn’t know until you burn to a CD and insert the useless volume, I’ve resorted to a software application to help me check the ISO out before continuing with any other action.
For Windows XP only, the VirtualCd control panel is available here.
The installation is not complex, but certainly not automated. Before operation, the included driver for the virtual CD ROM has to be moved to the SYSTEM32\DRIVERS directory. Then, it may be a good idea to create a new directory under Program Files and copy the single application executable there. Creation of a Start Menu item is recommended. Run the application and register the driver, then start it.
When adding a new drive letter, an unused drive letter is chosen. In my case, Y: was chosen. Why? I don’t know…
Some UNIX parlance: the ISO is mounted to the selected drive letter. I choose the 29th copy of the download for the Fedora 9 Alpha. Holding thumbs!
It mounts
and I’m able to browse the file structure.
Rather handy! With a large hard drive installed and ISO‘s ripped to it, this may be a practical solution to get rid of CD‘s and DVD‘s in your gadget bag.
