Posts Tagged ‘ISO’

PartedMagic does more than partitioning

December 22nd, 2009

Oh no!, PartedMagic is not just another Linux utility oriented distribution. PartedMagic is meant to be one of the best disk manipulation live CDs, don’t let the name fool asides from including both command line and graphical oriented partitioning tools it can also do ghosting, recovery of data to name just a few thanks to the other tools bundled in the same CD/ISO.

PartedMagic

Features

  • Format internal and external hard drives.
  • Move, copy, create, delete, expand & shrink hard drive partitions.
  • Clone your hard drive, to create a full backup.
  • Test hard drives for impending failure.
  • Test memory for bad sectors.
  • Benchmark your computer for a performace rating.
  • Securely erase your entire hard drive, wiping it clean from all data.
  • Gives access to non-booting systems allowing you to rescue important data.
  • Runs from the CD, no install required.

Some of the included tools to name a few

Partimage, TestDisk, Truecrypt, Clonezilla, G4L, SuperGrubDisk, ddrescue

To download PartedMagic visit PartedMagic.com

How to mount an ISO on VMware Player

September 7th, 2009

VMware Player as the name suggest is meant to play or run virtual machines that were made on another VMware product, such as VMware Workstation. Asides from playing virtual machines you can also change the amount of allocated RAM. And that’s where the features end.

It took me a while to figure out that VMware Player has the built-in ability to mount an ISO image. This is a nice feature if you wish to install an operating system on a virtual machine or want to try an ISO without having to burn it into a CD/DVD. No need to modify the configuration file.

In case you need to blank virtual machine you can download one from this link, unzip and open it with VMware Player.

How To

Start an existing virtual machine or a blank virtual machine with VMware Player and on the top left click on Devices > CD/DVD (IDE) and click on Disconnect. This will cause the virtual CD/DVD drive to be disconnected.

VMware Player 1

Go back to Devices > CD/DVD (IDE) > Connect to Disk Image File (iso).

VMware Player 2

A new window will open where you can browse and select the ISO. Double click on the ISO to selected.

browser_iso

If you go back to Devices > CD/DVD (IDE) you will see that the ISO image has been mounted. Do not click on Disconnect.

VMware Player 3

Now head over to VMware Player > Troubleshoot > Reset. This will restart the virtual machine.

VMware Player 4

Wait for the virtual machine to boot and congratulations.

VMware Player 5

Unmount the ISO

Once you are done using the ISO the process to unmounted it is similar. Go to Devices > CD/DVD (IDE) and click on Disconnect /home/luis/windowsXPPRO.iso. This will tell the ISO image to unmount.

umount1

Go back to Devices > CD/DVD (IDE) and click on Connect to CDDVDW SH-S203N. This will cause the CD/DVD drive to reconnect.

umount2

To verify if the CD/DVD drive is functional go to Devices > CD/DVD (IDE), do not click on Disconnect.

umount3

Congratulations you have now successfully mounted and unmounted and ISO on VMware Player.