An ISO image (.iso) is a disk image of an ISO 9660 file system. ISO 9660 is an international standard originally devised for storing data on CD-ROM. More loosely, it refers to any optical disc image, even a UDF image. A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to show its format. ... A Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) is a string that uniquely identifies the type of a class of items. ... A disk image is a computer file containing the complete contents and structure of a data storage medium or device, such as a Hard drive, CD or DVD. The term has been generalized to cover any such file, whether originated from an actual physical storage device or not. ... Standards are produced by many organizations, some for internal usage only, others for use by a groups of people, groups of companies, or a subsection of an industry. ... ISO 9660, a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization, defines a file system for CD-ROM media. ... A disk image is a computer file containing the complete contents and structure of a data storage medium or device, such as a Hard drive, CD or DVD. The term has been generalized to cover any such file, whether originated from an actual physical storage device or not. ... ISO 9660, a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization, defines a file system for CD-ROM media. ... It has been suggested that Crash counting be merged into this article or section. ... The optical lens of a compact disc drive. ... The Universal Disk Format (UDF) is a format specification of a file system for storing files on optical media. ...

As is typical for disc images, in addition to the data files that are contained in the ISO image, it also contains all the filesystem metadata, including boot code, structures, and attributes. All of this information is contained in a single file. These properties make it an attractive alternative to physical media for the distribution of software that requires this additional information as it is simple to retrieve over the Internet. A computer file is a collection of information that is stored in a computer system and can be identified by its full path name. ... See Filing system for this term as it is used in libraries and offices In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ... The simplest definition of metadata is that it is data about data. ... In computing, booting (booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Computer program. ...

Some of the common uses include the distribution of operating systems, such as Linux or BSD systems, and LiveCDs. It has been suggested that Maintenance OS be merged into this article or section. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD, sometimes called Berkeley Unix) is the Unix derivative distributed by the University of California, Berkeley, starting in the 1970s. ... Gnoppix 0. ...

Most CD/DVD authoring utilities can deal with ISO images: Producing them either by copying the data from existing media or generating new ones from existing files, or using them to create a copy on physical media. Most operating systems (including Mac OS, Mac OS X, BSD, Linux, and Windows with Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM panel) allow these images to be mounted as if they were physical discs, making them somewhat useful as a universal archive format. In computing, CD authoring or DVD authoring is the process of recording source material—video, audio or other data—onto a compact disc or DVD in a particular format. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD, sometimes called Berkeley Unix) is the Unix derivative distributed by the University of California, Berkeley, starting in the 1970s. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... Mounting, in computer science, is the process of making a file system ready for use by the operating system, typically by reading certain index data structures from storage into memory ahead of time. ... A disk or disc is anything that resembles a flattened cylinder in shape. ...

Console emulators, such as ePSXe, and many other emulators that read from CD/DVD, are able to run ISO/BIN (and other similar formats) instead of running directly from the CD drive. Better performance is achieved by running an ISO since there is no waiting for the drive to be ready and the hard drive I/O speed is many times faster than the CD/DVD drive. A console emulator is a program that allows a computer to emulate a video game console. ... ePSXe is a proprietary emulator of the PlayStation video game console. ...

See also

Most Optical disc authoring software (CD burners) can write ISO files to disc. Optical disc authoring software is computer software for authoring optical discs including CD-ROMs and DVDs. ...

See List of ISO image software for a list of software programs that can read and/or write ISO image files. The following is a list of software programs that can read and/or write ISO image files, broken down by platform support. ...

Related file formats

• BIN/CUE
• BWT, BWI, BWS, BWA
• CCD
• CSO (.cso)
• DAA (.daa)
• MDF/MDS (.mdf)
• UIF (.uif)
• NRG (.nrg)
• DMG (Apple disk image) (.dmg)
• CTOS Image