iso to flash drive?
in [UK Mac]
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From: Sara Merriman on 21 Feb 2010 05:48 The background: Rog has brought home a Very Old PC to mend for a colleague (I know, he's insane). He's out on a lovely bike ride and I've decided to Do Some Good and help whilst he's away. The problem: I have an iso of some software. I don't have any blank CDs. The VOP does not have a DVD drive, it's CD only. It does have USB and I have an empty flash drive. The question: Using my MBP (see? this is on topic after all), how do I get the iso onto the flash drive? By which I mean so that the VOP will see it as a device it can run software from, not just a copy of the iso. Does that make sense? Obviosuly, the easiest thing to do would be to go out and get some CDs, but I'm still in my dressing gown and have the bit between my teeth. -- Sara Cuddler of rats, cats and husband
From: Chris Ridd on 21 Feb 2010 06:26 On 2010-02-21 10:48:08 +0000, Sara Merriman said: > The background: > > Rog has brought home a Very Old PC to mend for a colleague (I know, he's > insane). He's out on a lovely bike ride and I've decided to Do Some Good > and help whilst he's away. > > The problem: > > I have an iso of some software. > I don't have any blank CDs. > The VOP does not have a DVD drive, it's CD only. > It does have USB and I have an empty flash drive. > > The question: > > Using my MBP (see? this is on topic after all), how do I get the iso > onto the flash drive? By which I mean so that the VOP will see it as a > device it can run software from, not just a copy of the iso. > > Does that make sense? It certainly does! It looks a bit fiddly - I found this page <http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=598291> which suggests how to do it on OS X. It pointed to this <http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/> which is a Windows or Linux tool to automate it. How well that would work from a VM is another matter! > Obviosuly, the easiest thing to do would be to go out and get some CDs, > but I'm still in my dressing gown and have the bit between my teeth. -- Chris
From: Woody on 21 Feb 2010 06:34 Sara Merriman <saramerriman(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > The background: > > Rog has brought home a Very Old PC to mend for a colleague (I know, he's > insane). He's out on a lovely bike ride and I've decided to Do Some Good > and help whilst he's away. > > The problem: > > I have an iso of some software. > I don't have any blank CDs. > The VOP does not have a DVD drive, it's CD only. > It does have USB and I have an empty flash drive. > > The question: > > Using my MBP (see? this is on topic after all), how do I get the iso > onto the flash drive? By which I mean so that the VOP will see it as a > device it can run software from, not just a copy of the iso. > > Does that make sense? Yes. it makes sense, but wouldn't it be eaiser to mount the drive on the old PC. Is it a windows XP thing? you can download microsofts free iso mounting tool (Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel). Never tried the iso onto a key on a mac. -- Woody www.alienrat.com
From: Ian McCall on 21 Feb 2010 06:33 On 2010-02-21 10:48:08 +0000, Sara Merriman <saramerriman(a)blueyonder.co.uk> said: > Using my MBP (see? this is on topic after all), how do I get the iso > onto the flash drive? By which I mean so that the VOP will see it as a > device it can run software from, not just a copy of the iso. Put the ISO on the drive, and also put one of these on: <http://weblogs.asp.net/pleloup/archive/2004/01/15/58918.aspx> (clik the control panel link) <http://www.smart-projects.net/> (pay-for, but demo available) Run that software on the PC, and mount your ISO accordingly. Ian
From: Steve Firth on 21 Feb 2010 06:26
Sara Merriman <saramerriman(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > I have an iso of some software. > I don't have any blank CDs. > The VOP does not have a DVD drive, it's CD only. > It does have USB and I have an empty flash drive. > > The question: > > Using my MBP (see? this is on topic after all), how do I get the iso > onto the flash drive? That's easy, you just copy the ISO to the flash drive. > By which I mean so that the VOP will see it as a > device it can run software from, not just a copy of the iso. Ah, that's difficult. Because PCs are dumb. Obviously on a Mac you can just mount the ISO and the Mac will treat it as yet another drive. PCs don't work like that out of the box. Also some, probably most, PC software is picky about how it is installed as part of the attempts to provide copy protection. The old Mac trick of simply copying a drive to a folder with the same name as the drive then installing from there isn't necessarily going to work with a PC. But you could try it. Mount the ISO on the Mac. Erase the flash drive to FAT32 format. Copy all of the ISO content to the flash drive. Boot the PC. Try to access the flash and see if the software will install from there. If the Windows software team were being unusually dense or obtuse the install may fail if the installer decides that it really, really, wants to install from a physical CD and not from a mounted drive. There are some other options but most of them fairly awkward. For example if the software must be installed from a bootable CD the above won't work. There are some websites that can guide you towards booting a PC from a flash drive. For example: http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm As you can see, "easy" isn't the term to apply to this, and driving to Tesco to buy a pack of CDs is probably cheaper and less time consuming. |