Mounting .ISO's Into An NT File System?

haplo21112 asks: "We all know how to mount an ISO image into the Linux file system: mount -t iso9660 -o loop image.iso /mnt/isoimage. Unfortunately the rather large software distribution server I am stuck with here at work is 2000 based, but we would love to replicate this functionality somehow on the NT System. I have done many Google searches to find a way of doing this and come up empty. There seem to many utilities that will mount the .ISO as a 'virtual' CD rom drive, but this doesn't really solve the problem since we are talking about mounting something on the order of 200 .ISO images this way. I am looking to replicate the Linux functionality, create a directory, and mount the ISOs as subdirectories."

Comments

SMB shares under Linux on a separate box?

[renehollan]

This probably isn't exactly what you want, and I am by no means an expert when it comes to SBB, but couldn't you use a Linux box, and Samba to export SMB shares of loopback mounted .iso images?

At least your Windows boxen would see them, no?

Norton Virtual CD + Drive Mapping in Win2k

[DeMorganLaw]

I got a free copy of norton virtual drive with my last motherboard, it copies the contents of the CD and stores them as a fake partition. As far as I know win2k also will let you mount/map... a partition as a directory onto another drive partition. However I don't know what kind of partition Norton makes the virtual drives, if they are fat, kinda screwed in a 2K enviormentl. No permissions and doubt you can map them to a folder. My $0.02

Windows 2000 directory restructuring

[man_ls]

Windows 2000 has a lot of directory restructuring tools available for you.

SUBST, JOIN, and the like tools from old-school MS DOS let you map directories to drive letters and vice versa.

Windows 2000 also includes a copy of what is, pretty much, Vetrias Voulme Manager, used for making software RAID arrays (called "Dynamic drives") and such. Maybe you could use it (It's found in Administrative Tools>Computer Managment) to do something of that nature. There's a LOT of options about removable media, media pools, and volume management there.

Also check in the MSKB. It's actually helpful if you know what you're looking for.

Re:Windows 2000 directory restructuring

[haplo21112]

Been there done that in both cases.
The MSKB and technet got a good three over, by myself and 4 other people in my group....MS simply does not support this....

Nero - by Ahead software has this capability

[seigniory]

Aside from being one of the best pieces of software to burn CS (and so much more), NERO by Ahead Software

http://www.nero.com/en/function.htm

Has a SCSI/Image interpreter that mounts .iso images as drives on your Win32 system.

build an ISO server

[cr@ckwhore]

Interesting topic, because I was just thinking about this the other day. I'm planning on building an ISO server, and you should consider the same.

The server will be based on Linux, and have plenty of disk space to hold the large number of ISO files. I'd write a script that would read a directory listing and mount all ISO files via the /dev/loopN and iso9660 support.

From there, the ISO mount points are going to be accessible via an SMB (Samba) share.

This will allow users on the network to use their "Network Neighborhood" or "Computers Near Me" interfaces to browse the files. In fact, most users will probably never know about the ISO files, nor will they know that they're browsing a linux machine. Its going to be ultra transparent.

Links

[Webmoth]

You may find the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles informative, if not the answer to you questions:

How to Create and Manipulate NTFS Junction Points (Q205524)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=k b; EN-US;Q205524

How Single Instance Storage Identifies Which Volumes to Manage (Q226545)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=k b; en-us;Q226545

Dynamic vs. Basic Storage in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (Q175761)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=k b; EN-US;Q175761

(Be sure to remove spaces in the URLs. The slashcode on slashdot has a bug that inserts spaces in long words.)

I think that Windows 2000/XP may not support filesystems that are not seen as physical volumes (partitions) or logical volumes on a dynamic partition. I have not been able to find anything that indicates file-based filesystem images are supported.

Re:An explanation

[nosferatu-man]

Support for mounting filesystems as directories is an NTFS feature, and was available in NT 5.0 (Windows 2000).

Peace,
(jfb)

3rd party utility

[dpu]

it's called ISOBuster. www.isobuster.com. it supports an obscene number of image formats, reads all kinds of discs... the list goes on. i'm not sure if it can mount an image as a folder or drive letter, but the guy who wrote the app has a few other utilities... maybe one of them will help too.

Two Products

[danFL-NERaves]

There are at least two products which let you mount ISO files as volumes under NT/2000/XP.

1. DAEMON Tools (currently v2.88)

2. FarStone Tech's Virtual Drive (currently v6.2)

My recommendation is DAEMON Tools. It is a quick and dirty freeware solution which has proven rock solid on my systems. It mounts ISO and a variety of other CD image file types as lettered drives. It's really built for use on a workstation but once the drives are mounted they can be shared like any other normal drive. (Tools to create CD images are not included.)

Virtual Drive (Network Edition) is commercial software and comes in a variety of languages. It has a prettier interface and includes CD management tools (ISO creation). Personally it didn't impress me but YMMV.

How about using partitions...or even DFS...

[NOT-2-QUICK]

This may or may not be feasible as I have never attempted such a thing (I have no need for 200+ ISO's)... Essentially, I am aware of two technologies within win2k/ntfs that may allow for such a configuration as I believe that you are looking for.

First, a functionality exists in win2k through which to mount drive partitions as folders... Unlike the idea of using subst & such, this is not constricted by the magic number of 26 drive letters. Simply identify/create the partitions (logical, extended, dynamic, physical drives whatever...) and edit the properties to have them mounted as folers. The ISO's could then be stored in partitions/drives mounted as folders with appropriate names. More can be gleamed on this topic by reading this Microsoft article at Technet.

A second alternative, that while being more complicated may provide for greater flexibility would be to implement DFS (Distributed File System). Through this package you can map ANY drive/partition on any workstation to appear as a shared folder on a server. As the name suggests, this would allow for a more distributed strategy that would allow you to leverage several machines in distributing your ISO's. More can be read on DFS at this site...

I hope this information proves to be useful for you and that I am not misunderstanding you intentions!!! As many others have pointed out, Linux would far and away be a better, more compact solution; however, like you I am saddled with the responsiblity of working at a Microsoft centric company...and for the record - IT SUCKS!!!