incomplete iso images

henmaster

Member
Jun 4, 2001
175
0
0
Is there a way to tell if an iso is complete or not? I went to download a slackware iso from FTP today and it was only 100MB. I downloaded it anyway and winimage extracts 600 something megabytes of files from it. So to do a test I re-downloaded the iso but canceled it at 3%. Now I only had a 3mb file, which I know is incomplete, and again winimage extracts 650 or so megabytes from it. I dont get it. I have opened many files from the extracted directory on my HDD, way more than 3mb worth, so how did a little 3mb image produce all of this? If anyone could enlighten me I would appreciate it.

henmaster
 

henmaster

Member
Jun 4, 2001
175
0
0
thanks, that prog seems to do the detection bit well. But I'm still curious about how an incomplete iso can produce so much out of so little..
 

pac1085

Diamond Member
Jun 27, 2000
3,456
0
76
I think theres like a table of the files stored in the image somewhere in the beginning of the ISO, and since its supposed to be larger it shows them all but if you try to burn it or extract it itll give you errors, and if somehow your able to access the files itll say there not valid win32 apps and stuff.
 

henmaster

Member
Jun 4, 2001
175
0
0
I suspected that the files may have just been garbage in the extracted directory, but I have opened a lot of them (way more than 3mb worth) and have not run into any errors yet.
 

henmaster

Member
Jun 4, 2001
175
0
0
ok it turns out I screwed up and extracted the 100MB iso instead of the 3MB one. Stupid me hehe. Anyway the 3MB one does extract but most of the stuff in the directory turns out to be "not a valid win32 program" or something. I am downloading what I think is a good (639MB) slackware iso now, so it should check out with CDMage and extract without a problem.

ozziegnx: I dont think this program can do that. To extract an iso to a directory on your hard drive try using "WinImage". To burn a CD directly from an iso image you can use a whole slew of programs - I use easy cd creator.