May 1, 2009
Extract An .ISO File
An ISO image is what's called a disc backup - an exact copy of a CD or a DVD disc. ISO files are typically created as DVD backups, but they can also be made "from scratch" using a specialized editor like WinISO. An ISO image can only store a single track of data, so it doesn't work for music CDs and a few more arcane CD types.
It may help to think of the .iso image like a kind of archive because it usually contains a number of files and folders. However, unlike general purpose archives (e.g. ZIP or RAR), the ISO format stores everything in uncompressed form. Some commercial disc archive formats like UIF file and DAA files also support compression, but they're not as widespread as ISO.
To extract an ISO file you will need to install one of the many ISO image tools. There's a multitude of applications that can extract the ISO files, but most of them are either very expensive or simply lack any defining traits that would let you make an informed choice. So which one should you pick? Depending on your goal, there are two applications that I would recommend.
First, if you only need to extract the archive, take a look at 7-zip. It's a free open-source archiver that can open ISO CD files. It will let you access the contents of the DVD image, but that's it - 7-zip can't record, mount or make new .iso files. It's a nice and simple application and it works both on Windows and linux computers.
In case you want a bit more features you will probably want to install a full-blown ISO image application like PowerISO. Yes, it's shareware, but the application will let you do almost anything with an ISO or UIF file - extract it, modify, load it in a virtual drive, convert to a different format, and burn to a physical disc. PowerISO only works on Windows, though.
To summarize, ISO is a widely known, open disc archive file that is supported by most disc applications. Some general-purpose archivers can also extract .iso files, but they generally can't do anything else with them.
