ImageUSB - feature request

[aurikus]

I´m using ImageUSB quite often - lt is a great tool.

But i would like to see 2 features being implemented.

1) please allow the user to convert a non-hybrid ISO-image on the fly to a working ISO-image, if written to an USB drive
In many cases, the ISO image is being prepared for writing to a CD/DVD only. Writing to an USB drive works pretty well, as long as it is not a bootable media.
Since DVD and USB drives do have different requirements to contain the correct information so that you can boot from it, and since this information for the usb stick is missing quite often, it would be great if ImageUSB would provide the functionality to write the missing information to the usb-drive after completing the 1:1 transfer process. If the ISO file already contains the required information, do nothing. if this information is missing, inform the user that this info is missing and that it will be written to the usb drive afterwards. allow the user to disable this feature (for whatever reason).

PS: there is a linux tool (isohybrid) available that changes the content of the iso-file, but i do not always have a linux machine with me

2) since the ISO image does not contain any filesystem information, please allow the user to format the usb drive
please provide the functionality to allow the user to format the usb drive with a selected format (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, ...) prior transferring the ISO image file to the USB drive.

[David (PassMark)]

As far as I know, ISO's always contain a file system (e.g. ISO 9660). So what you are really asking for is a file system converter (with the possibility of the loss of meta information, like file system dates and times). Whereas the purpose of ImageUSB is create an exact bit for bit copy of a USB drive, even an exact copy of slack space, unused space on the drive and all the file meta-data.

We might write a converter one day, but it isn't our highest priority at the moment.

[aurikus]

As far as I know, ISO's always contain a file system (e.g. ISO 9660).

ISO 9660 is not a filesystem, it is a continuous data stream bit by bit. So there is no conversion needed. The only thing this tool would do is to add or change some bytes at the beginning and / or the end of the iso file.

Please take a look at https://superuser.com/questions/4103...al-disk-bootin for more information. It is an excellent comment about using ISO images for CD/DVD vs USB stick. According to this article no other information is being changed, so no information is lost.

[David (PassMark)]

Rubbish.
ISO 9660 is a file system. So if you are moving it to NTFS you can't just do a bit for bit copy.

[aurikus]

So if you are moving it to NTFS you can't just do a bit for bit copy.

But we are not talking about copying / moving files to a NTFS file system. We are talking about making an existing ISO image file bootable on a CD/DVD and / or an USB stick, if it does not already contain the required information.

[David (PassMark)]

You said,
"allow the user to format the usb drive with ...NTFS prior transferring the ISO image file".

So you are in fact talking about
"moving files to a NTFS file system".

[aurikus]

Yes. formatting the USB stick prior transferring the data, to whatever filesystem (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, ...) the user decides to use. This was the second request- It has nothing to do with the first request.

If the stick is already formatted i.e. using NTFS, image-USB is already doing it. So whats the deal ?

[aurikus]

Rubbish.
ISO 9660 is a file system.

Imho a filesystem should have the capability to write or delete single or multiple files without rewriting the entire data stream. Did you ever try to add a file to an existing ISO-image ?
Would you also call a zip-file a file-system ? In a zip-file you can add and remove files, so it has even more functions in it that would qualify it as a filesystem than the ISO-image has.

So if you are moving it to NTFS you can't just do a bit for bit copy.

You can do a bit by bit copy of any file from an ISO-Image file to any real file system. And in my understanding the boot information is not a file. You can of course write the bits and bytes to a file, but the system wont boot from it. You have to place those bits on a specific location on the boot-media. And in that case it is no longer a file which a user can access. You need special tools like image-usb to access this information.

[David (PassMark)]

ISO 9660 is a bit like a old tape file system. Sure it is an old and lame file system, but it is still a file system with volumes, directories and files. Being a lame file system doesn't mean it isn't a file system. That's like saying FAT isn't a file system because you can't write large files to a FAT volume.

Zip isn't referred to as a file system because you can't write a Zip file to blank unformatted media (CD, USB or hard drive) and have anything else read or write it. For the same reason files like Outlooks PST files and SQL Database files aren't file systems. They have similar characteristics to a file system, but they don't provide useful structure to blank storage media.

[aurikus]

ISO 9660 is a bit like a old tape file system. Sure it is an old and lame file system, but it is still a file system with volumes, directories and files.

ISO 9660 does not support volumes. It omly supports directories and files.

Zip isn't referred to as a file system because you can't write a Zip file to blank unformatted media (CD, USB or hard drive) and have anything else read or write it. For the same reason files like Outlooks PST files and SQL Database files aren't file systems. They have similar characteristics to a file system, but they don't provide useful structure to blank storage media.

You can write any file to an unformatted media, but as you said, it just does not make any sense.

[David (PassMark)]

Quote from Wikipedia on ISO 9660.

"An ISO 9660 compliant disk contains at least one Primary Volume Descriptor describing the file system and a Volume Descriptor Set Terminator for indicating the end of the descriptor sequence.
The Primary Volume Descriptor provides information about the volume, characteristics and metadata, including a root directory record that indicates in which sector the root directory is located. Other fields contain the description or name of the volume, and information about who created it and with which application. The size of the logical blocks which the file system uses to segment the volume is also stored in a field inside the primary volume descriptor, as well as the amount of space occupied by the volume (measured in number of logical blocks)."

So either you're wrong or Wikipedia (and the rest of the internet) is.

[aurikus]

Using the words "Primary Volume Descriptor" in the explanation does not mean that ISO 9660 supports volumes, it just means that this part of the file is the first (or primary) volume descriptor.

[David (PassMark)]

Those aren't my words, it is the ISO file system specification that says it has a table of Volume Descriptors.

Anyway if you don't believe us and the specification, it doesn't matter. If you look around, there are likely already tools available to ISO to NTFS conversion functionality, so just use them instead.