Right Click to Create ISO

[Yzöwl]

When creating your unattended CD, CDIMAGE is used by nearly all of us.

I know there is a GUI version of CDIMAGE, but most of us would still prefer something a bit easier to work with.

Recently I saw a post request, by MCT, he was trying to use a right click context menu command which just created the ISO. A simple idea, and very handy for most of us!

In my last posting, on the fore-mentioned thread, I had found a method of achieving the original goal.

I've since tweaked it a bit, to allow for spaces in the folder name, and give it a simple installation method.

Instructions

Download the whichever of the two attached zip files you require, unzip it, right click on *.inf and choose Install. You can now delete the extracted files if you wish, as you will no longer need them.

To use it, right click on the folder containing the files with which you wish to create an ISO and select either

from MakeISO.zip

• Build Bootable ISO
  Build Data ISO
  

or from BootISO.zip

• MakeBootISO
  

The ISO will be created in the parent directory of the folder you selected.

If you have an earlier version of one of the many insarnations of these files, you will be better off uninstalling it from add /remove programs first.

Beware some versions may not unistall correctly, due to bugs /errors and some may require a reboot or manual directory deletions too.

[EDIT]

If you are not running Win2k or higher, or if you intend creating a bootable CD for any OS other than XP some of the files provided may require editing /changing

[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]

MakeISO gives you options for both Data CDs and Bootable CDs (the type we create for unattended installs)

Thanks to the 8936 people who downloaded the last version of DoISO, you can download the newest version MakeISO here.

Whereas BootISO is for Bootable CDs (the type we create for unattended installs)

[/EDIT2]

Edited March 1, 2006 by Yzöwl

[nam265]

Umm... btw this is work perfectly

but what if I creating a boot iso that is Windows MCE 2005 or Win2000?

Does it work the xp.img included?

if it doesn't, could you explain how to get the xp.img from different version windows so I could reaplce it?

Will that work? Thx

[Yzöwl]

@nam265

I think that the img file will be fine for those OSes

If not, one method to retrieve the appropriate img is this,

First, download and install the freeware program 'Isobuster'. Insert your original Windows CD (MCE 2000 XP 2003) into the drive and open up Isobuster. Navigate to the 'bootable CD' directory. In the right hand pane, highlight '<microsoft corporation>.img', (the name may be different depending on which OS the CD is for). Right click it and select 'extract <microsoft corporation>.img' to extract the file.

[Whampoom]

he-he , nice thanks , I must say I love the option to make an Iso from the Recycle bin or MyComputer

How could I change this to a cascade menu as my context is already crowded .

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

Thats very nice indeed, thanks MCT & Yzowl for a nifty little tool.

Just curious a simple way to include this in a UA?

[Yzöwl]

@MAVERICKS CHOICE

Easiest way would be to add the following command to your cmdlines.txt and keep all the extracted files together within your folder structure.

"rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 <path to folder>\cdimage.inf"

You should also be able to add the same line to any of your batches too!

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

@MAVERICKS CHOICE

Easiest way would be to add the following command to your cmdlines.txt and keep all the extracted files together within your folder structure.

"rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 <path to folder>\cdimage.inf"

You should also be able to add the same line to any of your batches too!

Appreciate it.

[Afterdawn]

he-he , nice thanks , I must say I love the option to make an Iso from the Recycle bin or MyComputer 

How could I change this to a cascade menu as my context is already crowded .

You can change it to 1 entry if you want.

Just name it "Make iso", and you let the batch ask if you want to include a bootsector. It's easily done.

[Whampoom]

nice idea , just what I did .

[GreenMachine]

... For some background and the actions performed by each of the right click options, read the original thread, since MCT deserves the credit for his idea. ...

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=140259

Glad to see it caught on!

[Yzöwl]

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=140259

Glad to see it caught on!

Well unfortunately, I wasn't even a twinkle in this forums eye, when you wrote that message, but I'm sure if MCT, got the basic idea from there, he'll let us know.

Still, he should get credit for the idea of having the variable iso and label names. Thats what interested me most in the first place.

[midiboy]

Hi Yzöwl

using your script gave me an error message when trying to create a Boot ISO of my AIO DVD folder. It says some file created by BartPE is longer than 110 characters.

I integrated BARTPE into my MultibootDVD as described in the MultiBootDVD guide on MSFN and has always worked fine so I guess your script does not need to stop on files larger than 110 characters ... ??

Bye,

Alex

[MCT]

but I'm sure if MCT, got the basic idea from there, he'll let us know.

that was indeed where i got the idea from, i just made it into INF to make the path less hardcoded & a bit more flexible it was originally designed to work with daemontools, so i didnt have to run daemontools.exe everytime i wanted 2 mount an ISO

see here for the Original Post HOW TO: Install Daemon Tools Optimized

[midiboy]

Hi again,

I guess the problem with the long file names comes from the switches you used for the BootIso. I changed them like this:

-h -n -o -m

I hope this does not cause any harm except that the iso will probably not be readable under DOS or NT 3.51.

Another thing I noticed, those context menu entries also appear on the Recycling bin now. Any idea how to get rid of those ?

Thanks,

Alex

[Yzöwl]

Hi Yzöwl

using your script gave me an error message when trying to create a Boot ISO of my AIO DVD folder. It says some file created by BartPE is longer than 110 characters.

I integrated BARTPE into my MultibootDVD as described in the MultiBootDVD guide on MSFN and has always worked fine so I guess your script does not need to stop on files larger than 110 characters ... ??

Bye,

Alex

The switches given in the CDIMAGE download on the MSFN's Unattended XP CD - Getting Started page, here were:

-h -j1 -m

They have always worked fine for all my UA CDs, and are what most newbies will be using. The only change from those options was that I included the optimize switch. You would be aware of this if you read the original thread as directed in my first post.

The files were intended as an aid to newbies, and people sick of constantly altering the cmd file from the Unattended site, whilst testing their compilations. An additional option for creating ISOs for general data CDs was added too for good measure. It must be understood that anyone creating any other type of CD or DVD must check the content of the extracted zip, to check for suitability first. Also for data CDs check the switches available in CDIMAGE first, and ensure that the ones in the cmd file are suitable too.

Additionally, if someone wishes to create an ISO of their recycle bin, (which is after all just a folder), or any other folder, then by all means do so, if they don't wish to use this option, then they don't click on it. If someone is incapable of right clicking on the appropriate folder to select the required option, for the intended ISO, then that's their problem, not anyone elses.

At present, if I was to right click on my Recycle Bin, I would be given an option to create a compressed archive of it, because it's a folder, what's the difference?

For the benefit of anyone requiring the switches here they are:

Usage: CDIMAGE [options] sourceroot targetfile

	-l  volume label, no spaces (e.g. -lMYLABEL)
	-t  time stamp for all files and directories, no spaces, any delimiter
  (e.g. -t12/31/2000,15:01:00)
	-g  encode GMT time for files rather than local time
	-h  include hidden files and directories
	-n  allow long filenames (longer than DOS 8.3 names)
	-nt allow long filenames, restricted to NT 3.51 compatibility
  (-nt and -d cannot be used together)
	-d  don't force lowercase filenames to uppercase
	-c  use ANSI filenames versus OEM filenames from source
	-j1 encode Joliet Unicode filenames AND generate DOS-compatible 8.3
  filenames in the ISO-9660 name space (can be read by either
  Joliet systems or conventional ISO-9660 systems, but some of the
  filenames in the ISO-9660 name space might be changed to comply
  with DOS 8.3 and/or ISO-9660 naming restrictions)
	-j2 encode Joliet Unicode filenames without standard ISO-9660 names
  (requires a Joliet operating system to read files from the CD)
  When using the -j1 or -j2 options, the -n, -nt, and -d options
  do not apply and cannot be used.
	-js non-Joliet "readme.txt" file for images encoded with -j2 option
  (e.g. -jsc:\location\readme.txt). This file will be visible as
  the only file in the root directory of the disc on systems that
  do not support the Joliet format (Windows 3.1, NT 3.x, etc).
	-u1 encode "UDF-Bridge" media
	-u2 encode "UDF" file system without a mirror ISO-9660 file system
  (requires a UDF capable operating system to read the files)
	-ur non-UDF "readme.txt" file for images encoded with -u2 option
  (e.g. -usc:\location\readme.txt). This file will be visible as
  the only file in the root directory of the disc on systems that
  do not support the UDF format.
	-us sparse UDF files
	-ue embed file data in UDF extent entry
	-uf embed UDF FID entries
	-uv UDF Video Zone compatibility enforced
	-b  "El Torito" boot sector file, no spaces
  (e.g. -bc:\location\cdboot.bin)
	-p  Platform ID for the "El Torito" boot catalog
	-e  Do not set floppy emulation mode in El Torito boot catalog
	-s  sign image file with digital signature (no spaces, provide RPC
  server and endpoint name like -sServerName:EndPointName)
	-x  compute and encode "AutoCRC" values in image
	-o  optimize storage by encoding duplicate files only once
	-oc slower duplicate file detection using binary comparisons rather
  than MD5 hash values
	-oi ignore diamond compression timestamps when comparing files
	-os show duplicate files while creating image
  (-o options can be combined like -ocis)
	-w  warning level followed by number (e.g. -w4)
  1  report non-ISO or non-Joliet compliant filenames or depth
  2  report non-DOS compliant filenames
  3  report zero-length files
  4  report each file name copied to image
	-y  test option followed by number (e.g. -y1), used to generate
  non-standard variations of ISO-9660 for testing purposes:
  1  encode trailing version number ';1' on filenames (7.5.1)
  2  round directory sizes to multiples of 2K (6.8.1.3)
  5  write \i386 directory files first, in reverse sort order
  6  allow directory records to be exactly aligned at ends of sectors
 	 (ISO-9660 6.8.1.1 conformant but breaks MSCDEX)
  7  warn about generated shortnames for 16-bit apps under NT 4.0
  b  blocksize 512 bytes rather than 2048 bytes
  d  suppress warning for non-identical files with same initial 64K
  l  UDF - long ads used in file entries instead of short ads
  r  UDF - number of ad's is random
  w  open source files with write sharing
  t  load segment in hex for El Torito boot image (e.g. -yt7C0)
  f  use a faster way to generate short names
  -k  (keep) create image even if fail to open some of the source files
  -m  ignore maximum image size of 681,984,000 bytes
  -a  allocation summary shows file and directory sizes
  -q  scan source files only, don't create an image file

	NOTE:	Many of these options allow you to create CD images
  that are NOT compliant with ISO-9660 and may also
  NOT be compatibile with one or more operating systems.
  If you want strict ISO and DOS compliance, use the -w2
  warning level and correct any discrepencies reported.
  YOU are responsible for insuring that any generated CDs
  are compatible with all appropriate operating systems.