ISO vs BIN vs CCD vs whatever...

[JustTed]

Simple question here,

I'm trying to archive a 17-CD Visual Basic 6.0 self-study pack and put it into my HD. Having CDs scattered all over the place is starting to annoy me. Question I have is: should I save the CD image file into .ISO format or .BIN? Or is there any other formats that's "better" than the two (Nero, CCD)?

And what are the differences between the different formats, anyway? Is one better than the other at something (say, ISO is better for software, BIN is better for VCD, or whatever), or is it more like the DVD-R and DVD+R battle, just a matter of different formats (say, Nero and CloneCD)?

If the answer is the first one (some formats are better at something than others), can someone give me what format they think is best for archiving software?

Thanks much.

 

[SemperFi]

Well .iso can be used in all the cd/dvd programs I have ever used. The .bin I am not sure that burning programs use that type. The only time I have seen a .bin is for bios updates and files in linux which are binary files.

I am not sure what you are really getting at. If you are wanting to access them on your hard drive instead of the cd I wouldn't recomend either format. If you store them in .iso you will have to open a burning program to be able to see whats in the file. There may be other programs available that I am not familiar with.

If you are wanting to archive them on your hard drive and have easy access to them I would suggest winzip or winrar to compress them.

 

[QueBert]

if you want to run them off your HD, use BIN, you can mount them with alcohol 52% or Daemontools

if you want to archive them, WinRAR is the way to go. but if you RAR them know you can't access them unless you unrar them.

 

[eklass]

Originally posted by: QueBert
if you want to run them off your HD, use BIN, you can mount them with alcohol 52% or Daemontools

if you want to archive them, WinRAR is the way to go. but if you RAR them know you can't access them unless you unrar them.

I personally will take whatever format is available and mount it with Daemon Tools. ISO is probably the easiest to make, but BIN/CUE is fairly popular as well.

 

[JustTed]

So it doesn't really matter which format, right? OK then.
Think I'll just go with one of them then.

@SemperFi: Well, since I'm not using them at the moment, I'm trying to just save them. But I also want to be able to access it quickly when I need to in the future, hence the CD images, because I can just mount them using DaemonTools, Nero DriveImage, Alcohol, or something. I'm trying to get away from RARs for archiving CDs. Compressing/decompressing 700MB is kind of, well, a pain... (and that's for each CD)

By the way, QueBert... I usually use Alcohol 120%, and I know that Alcohol Software also makes a 52% version, but I've never really tried it since I have the 120%.
Is 52% any different than the 120%?

Thanks a lot, guys.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: JustTed
So it doesn't really matter which format, right? OK then.
Think I'll just go with one of them then.

@SemperFi: Well, since I'm not using them at the moment, I'm trying to just save them. But I also want to be able to access it quickly when I need to in the future, hence the CD images, because I can just mount them using DaemonTools, Nero DriveImage, Alcohol, or something. I'm trying to get away from RARs for archiving CDs. Compressing/decompressing 700MB is kind of, well, a pain... (and that's for each CD)

By the way, QueBert... I usually use Alcohol 120%, and I know that Alcohol Software also makes a 52% version, but I've never really tried it since I have the 120%.
Is 52% any different than the 120%?

Thanks a lot, guys.

there is one small difference between 52% and 120%, 52% doesn't burn, it's only used to make virtual images. Which I love because the few games I do buy, I tend to misplace the cd's and like to have a backup on my PC so I can play without diggin around forever. I know this is borderline illegal but oh well