ISO image

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ISO image
Filename extension	`.iso`
Uniform Type Identifier	public.iso-image
Type of format	Disk image
Standard(s)	ISO 9660

An ISO image is an archive file (a.k.a. disk image) of an optical disc using a conventional ISO (International Organization for Standardization ) format that is supported by many software vendors. ISO image files typically have a file extension of .ISO but Mac OS X ISO images often have the extension ".CDR". The name "ISO" is taken from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media, but an ISO image can also contain UDF file system because UDF is backward compatible to ISO 9660.

1 Format
2 Typical uses
3 See also
4 Related file formats
5 References

Format

As would any other archive, ISO image includes all the data of files contained on the archived CD/DVD. They are stored in an uncompressed format. In addition to data of the files it also contains all the filesystem metadata, including boot code, structures, and attributes. ISO image does not support multi-track, thus cannot be used for audio CDs, VCD, and hybrid audio CDs.

These properties make it an attractive alternative to physical media for the distribution of software as it is simple to transfer over the Internet or via a LAN connection.

Typical uses

Some of the common uses include:

Distribution of software
Mount "virtual drives" which emulate physical CDs or DVDs. Better performance is achieved by running an ISO image since hard drive I/O speed is many times faster than a CD/DVD drive.
To use software titles that are written in such a way that they require a physical disk to be present in order to run. Games are commonly in this category.