How To Condense A Multi File Iso Download Into One Iso File

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When shopping online for software for your small business, you usually need to download the software and run the installer directly from your hard drive. However, with larger business productivity suites such as Microsoft Office, downloads are often available as ISO images you can burn to a CD or DVD. With ISO mounting software, you can install these bigger images directly from the hard drive. However, to transfer large installation applications to media with a capacity smaller than the actual file size of the image -- for instance, burn a program designed for a DVD to several CDs -- first split the ISO file into smaller pieces.

1.

Open your Web browser and navigate to a site that offers a file compression utility compatible with ISO images. Free applications such as 7-Zip, FreeArc and IZArc all support splitting of ISO images into multiple smaller files (links in Resources). Download the setup file for the compression program and save it to a folder on your PC.

2.

Click “Start,” then open Windows Explorer by clicking “Computer.” Browse to the folder where you saved the compression utility setup file. Double-click the setup file and follow the prompts to install the compression application. Restart the computer if prompted to do so.

3.

Launch the file compression program on your computer. After the program window appears, click the “Add” or “Add New Archive” link or icon on the toolbar. When the file browser window opens, navigate to the folder on your computer that contains the ISO image you want to split into smaller pieces. With the file name of the ISO image highlighted, click the “Add” or 'Open” button. A new “Add to Archive” or “Archive” window appears where you can configure the compression settings for the ISO image file.

4.

Click the “Normal Compression” or “Standard Compression” option unless you need to shrink the size of the ISO image file dramatically. In most cases, though, using the standard compression level works best for multiple part ISO images. Click and enable the “Create EXE” or “Create SFX Archive” option in the configuration window.

5.

Enable the “Encrypt Archive” or “Password Protect Archive” option if you want to require a password before decompressing or merging the ISO image after you split it into smaller pieces. If you enable the password option, enter the password users will need to open the ISO image file in the Password field, then type it again in the Confirm Password field.

6.

Click the drop-down list arrow next to the “Split Archive,” “Span Volumes” or “Split to Volumes” label. In the list of media types or file sizes, choose the option that best matches the media to which you want to save individual pieces of the ISO image. For instance, if you are splitting a large DVD image into files you can burn to a CD, choose the “CD” or “700MB” option.

7.

Enter a name for the compressed ISO image in the File Name, Name or Save As field. Click the “Archive,” “Compress” or “OK” button to start the compression process. The file compression program splits the ISO file into smaller pieces based on the media type or file size you selected in the configuration windows. When creating the smaller files, the compression utility uses the same name you entered in the Name or Save As field, but appends each filename with a number that represents the position of the file in the file set. For example, if you split a 4.2GB-sized DVD file into smaller pieces suitable for burning to CDs, the file compression program creates six files -- the first file is “filename1,” the second “filename2” and so on.

8.

Save all of the smaller file pieces of the compressed image in the same folder.

Tips

  • After you compress the ISO image into smaller pieces, you can burn them to CD with your preferred disc-authoring software or copy them to other media.
  • To move the complete ISO image to another computer, first install the first disc of the set and run the extraction utility. After you double-click “file1” on the first disc of the set, the compression utility will automatically prompt you to insert subsequent discs. After you extract all of the pieces onto the new computer, you can mount or burn the ISO image to CD as you normally would.

References (3)

Resources (3)

About the Author

Jeff Grundy has been writing computer-related articles and tutorials since 1995. Since that time, Grundy has written many guides to using various applications that are published on numerous how-to and tutorial sites. Born and raised in South Georgia, Grundy holds a Master of Science degree in mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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An ISO file, often called an ISO image, is a single file that's a perfect representation of an entire CD, DVD, or BD. The entire contents of a disc can be precisely duplicated in a single ISO file.

Think of an ISO file like a box that holds all the parts to something that needs built — like a child's toy you might buy that requires assembly. The box that the toy pieces come in does you no good as an actual toy but the contents inside of it, once taken out and put together, become what you're actually wanting to use.

An ISO file works in much the same way. The file itself is no good unless it can be opened, assembled and used.

The .ISO file extension used by ISO images is also used for Arbortext IsoDraw Document files, which are CAD drawings used by PTC Arbortext IsoDraw; they have nothing to do with the ISO format explained on this page.

Where You'll See ISO Files Used

ISO images are often used to distribute large programs over the internet due to the fact that all of the program's files can be neatly contained as a single file.

One example can be seen in the free Ophcrack password recovery tool (which contains an entire operating system and several pieces of software). Everything that makes up the program is wrapped up in one file. The file name for the most recent version of Ophcrack looks like this: ophcrack-vista-livecd-3.6.0.iso.

Ophcrack certainly isn't the only program to use an ISO file — many types of programs are distributed this way. For example, most bootable antivirus programs use ISO, like the bitdefender-rescue-cd.iso ISO file used by Bitdefender Rescue CD.

In all those examples, and the thousands of others out there, every single file required for whatever tool to run is included in the single ISO image. Like I mentioned already, that makes the tool really easy to download, but it also makes it super easy to burn to a disc or other device.

Even Windows 10, and previously Windows 8 and Windows 7, can be purchased directly by Microsoft in the ISO format, ready to be extracted to a device or mounted in a virtual machine.

How to Burn ISO Files

The most common way to make use of an ISO file is to burn it to a CD, DVD, or BD disc. This is a different process than burning music or document files to a disc because your CD/DVD/BD burning software must 'assemble' the contents of the ISO file onto the disc.

Windows 10, 8, and 7 can all burn ISO images to a disc without using any third-party software — just double-tap or double-click the ISO file and then follow the wizard that appears.

If you want to use Windows to open the ISO file but it's already associated with a different program (i.e. Windows doesn't open the ISO file when you double-click or double-tap it), open the file's properties and change the program that should open ISO files to be isoburn.exe (it's stored in the C:Windowssystem32 folder).

The same logic applies when burning an ISO file to a USB device, something that's much more common now that optical drives are becoming much less common.

Burning an ISO image isn't just an option for some programs, it's required. For example, many hard drive diagnostic tools are only usable outside the operating system. This means that you'll have to burn the ISO to some form of removable media (like a disc or a flash drive) that your computer can boot from.

How To Condense A Multi File Iso Download Into One Iso File

While less common, some programs are distributed in ISO format but aren't designed to be booted from. For example, Microsoft Office is often made available as an ISO file and is designed to be burned or mounted, but since it doesn't need to be run from outside of Windows, there's no need to boot from it (it wouldn't even do anything if you tried).

How to Extract ISO Files

If you don't want to actually burn an ISO file to a disc or USB storage device, most compression/decompression software programs, like the free 7-Zip and PeaZip programs, will extract the contents of an ISO file to a folder.

Extracting an ISO file copies all of the files from the image directly into a folder that you can browse through like any folder you'd find on your computer. Although the newly created folder can't be directly burned to a device like I discussed in the section above, knowing that this is possible might come in handy.

For example, let's say you've downloaded Microsoft Office as an ISO file. Instead of burning the ISO image to a disc, you could extract the installation files from the ISO and then install the program like you normally would any other program.

Iso

Every unzip program requires a different set of steps, but here's how you can quickly extract an ISO image using 7-Zip: Right-click the file, choose 7-Zip, and then select the Extract to ' option.

How To Condense A Multi File Iso Download Into One Iso File

If these steps don't work for you, double-check the file extension to make sure you aren't confusing another file for one in the ISO format. ISZ is one example of a file that can be easily confused for ISO.

How to Create ISO Files

Several programs, many of them free, let you create your own ISO file from a disc or a collection of files you've chosen.

The most common reason to build an ISO image is if you're interested in backing up a software installation disc or even a DVD or Blu-ray movie.

How To Condense A Multi File Iso Download Into One Iso File Download

See How to Create an ISO Image File From a CD, DVD, or BD for help doing that.

How to Mount ISO Files

Mounting an ISO file that you've created or downloaded from the internet is sort of like tricking your computer into thinking that the ISO file is a real disc. This way, you can 'use' an ISO file just like it was on a real CD or DVD, only you didn't have to waste a disc, or your time burning one.

One common situation where mounting an ISO file is helpful is when you're playing a video game that requires the original disc be inserted. Instead of actually sticking the disc in your optical drive, you can just mount the ISO image of that game disc that you previously created.

Download File Iso

Mounting an ISO file is usually as simple as opening the file with something called a 'disc emulator' and then choosing a drive letter that the ISO file should represent. Even though this drive letter is a virtual drive, Windows sees it as a real one, and you can use it as such, too.

One of my favorite free programs for mounting ISO images is WinCDEmu because of how easy it is to use (plus it comes in this portable version). Another one I feel good recommending is Pismo File Mount Audit Package.

How To Condense A Multi File Iso Download Into One Iso File Windows 7

If you're using Windows 10 or Windows 8, you're lucky enough to have ISO mounting built in to your operating system! Just tap-and-hold or right-click the ISO file and choose Mount. Windows will create a virtual drive for you automatically — no extra software required.

Although mounting an ISO file is very useful in some situations, please know that the virtual drive will be unreachable anytime the operating system isn't running. This means it's entirely pointless to mount an ISO file that you want to use outside of Windows (like what's required with some hard drive diagnostic tools and memory testing programs).