How do I convert multiple CD/dvd install to USB?

Hi everyone.

I wonder if you can help me.

I have some applications which are spread over 2 or sometimes 3 CD's DVD's.

After using the excellent tutorials on the site to create an install USB memory stick for my copy of Windows7, I was wondering how do I do about creating the same thing but for a multipart cd or dvd based application?

Often the disc installer asks for disc 2 / 3 etc so I take it that it's not as easy as dragging everything onto the one pen drive.

Some of them take a long time to install using traditional optical media, and if I could put them all onto a single pen drive it would be great.

Thanks in advance.

you could format a pen drive using ntfs, which will allow you to store large iso files.

you could then use an iso mounting app like daemon tools or virtual clone drive to mount the iso's as virtual drives.

... but do you really need them on the pen drive? haven't you got lots of room on a separate hard-drive partition somewhere? hard-drive space is cheap compared to pen drive...

Any program that will write an iso image to a flash drive will reserve the entire drive for the first image which is no better then having 2 or 3 cds and being prompted for flash drive #2? That won't work while unpacking all files for one 2 or 3 program install cds onto a flash drive may or may not work either.

For those older programs where several disks are used the newer versions since should be seeing a single dvd at this time. As far as trying to run a muti cd installer from a flash drive that depends on how the installer was written to start with since many older programs will require a disk swapping in the optical drive and not see Disk #2 when everything is unpacked to one location like a folder on a flash drive.

saverio,

If you have the complete program available as an ISO file then there will probably not be a problem.

Contact the mfg of the software and ask them if the program is available as an ISO file for installation from a USB.

nighthawk - i meant saving several iso files as iso files onto the one drive - or better save them on a hard-drive partition.

you could quite easily make your own iso, using free software like daemon tools.

Mickey,

I like UltraIso, primarily because its free for nearly all types of applications. Can't remember what the plus is for buying it.

Another popular program is PowerIso but if I remember right it's free version is rather limited.

I suppose you could combine all the disks into a single iso but the process would probably need to be tailored to each program you want to combine. But most programs look for the specific name of the next disk, not just the name of the next file. It may not be easy, or even possible for many applications. If you want to do this with games, you can usualy find programs to do this on gamers sites. Though If the programs operate fine as ISOs, one could just save all the actual ISOs to hard disk and jut run them using Daemon Tools.

Create a folder for each CD on your thumb drive and match the folder name to the volume label of the CD. Then copy the contents of each CD to the respective folder. Run the setup file for the first CD and see what happens. Depending on how the installer was written you might get lucky.

Here is a link to comparison of iso image software.

Comparison of ISO image software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

mickey megabyte said:

nighthawk - i meant saving several iso files as iso files onto the one drive - or better save them on a hard-drive partition.

you could quite easily make your own iso, using free software like daemon tools.

Click to expand...

You can make iso images and store them on one drive. The main problem with many mulitiple disk games and apps however is the encryption you don't see placed on each disk that signifies it as disk #2, disk #3, etc. that the installer looks for when prompting you to place the next disk in the drive.

Most multiple cd games will require the first be placed back in the drive if the disk is required or to prompt about seeing quick launch and desktop shortcuts created. For desktop apps try seeing Windows 3.1 which came on 6 floppies to install on a VM when trying to make a single iso up. Some installers simply won't work without having separate disks.

Mounting iso images from a flash drive for a particular program using VirtualCloneDisk could work out for several. The thing to know however is that once a game or app is installed by other means it will still look back to the exact same drive for running off of cd or for any other files or options.

Run from disk type games where one cd is required to be in the drive while running the game itself rules out any substitutions from the start. For the other install direct to drive only type games and apps it will trial and error to see which ones you can get to run.

NIghthawk and all others, many thanks for all your advice.

The application in question is actually Adobe Creative Suite 4 which comes on 3 DVD's, fortunately I made ISO's of them when I first bought the software and have then on a hard drive.

It got me thinking because when SP1 rtm comes out, I intend to do a full system re-install with the user accounts taken care of by easy transfer.

I have an external drive which I could partition in to the three DVD size partitions but as has been said above, the prompt is for the next disc, and I wonder if it always look to the optical drive - whether it can be made to point to another partition / hdd volume etc.

I'm sure that in the next few years we'll see the flash drive or online installer options as standard, but till then it's finding workarounds which as you can all appreciate will make the difference between a 20min install and an hour install.

i'm sure that multiple iso's is the way to go.

you have three dvd's - convert them to iso1, iso2 and iso3. mount all three of them at the same time, so they become f: g: and h:

i have a feeling that the installer looks for any available optical disk drives before it asks 'insert disc 2'.

so if you had already mounted discs 1,2 and 3 on virtual drives f: g: and h:, then all you need do is start the installer program on f: and the installer should find g: and h: automatically, and you won't need to mess around changing virtual discs.

this has worked for me in the past - but will only work if the iso's are all saved on (the same) ntfs partition, due to the filesize limit of fat32.


it's a pity that the cs4 trial is not available for download from adobe any more, as that would come as the one package, and needs no disc or iso swapping at all. you could easily activate the trial version with a valid serial key.

Installers tend to look for Disk #2, #3 in the exact same drive as used for the first. You wouldn't be able to assign a separate drive letter for each iso of the same installation package but may see the installation work by mounting all of the iso images from the same drive in order to fool the installer in a way.

Since the Adobe suite installs directly to the hard drive unpacking all 3 isos into a single folder may be the way to go since the installer will be able to find the remaining files it needs during setup. The only way to find that out of course would be giving that a try.

It basically comes down to how the installer works. With some programs a unique disk id is present where a verfied optical media disk is a requirement. Software companies see to that for the obvious reasons.

thanks to all, yes, I can only give it a go and see what happens!

ONe thing is for certain, when I finally get the money for an upgrade I will definitely be looking to download the trial version from adobe in order to do exactly what Mickey suggested - and then just pop in my serial number.

Many thanks to all.