IsoBuster settings for archiving

[Alex-A]

I am making images of 1000+ VCD, CD, and DVDs of folk music I've collected over years while traveling in Asia using IsoBuster.

This is my first time doing this.

I am using the 'Extract CD <image> : RAW (*.bin, *.iso)' option.

I get as a result two files, one without filename extension and one with the .cue extension. Is there a way to have the result be just one file, something like 'CD.iso' instead of two? It just seems to me that might be a bit more convenient after doing 1000.

Is the no extension file a real .iso file or does it need to be converted with another program? Which program? Once this is done I just want to simply mount the ISOs one by one and use them as I like.

Am I doing this right and can anyone suggest anything? I just want to have a backup of all this great stuff I don't want to lose and want it to be convenient enough years down the road.


Thank you,

Alex

[Cornucopia]

Alex-A,

Just like with Media files, where there is the "payload" data plus some "meta-data" or info regarding the data, Disc Images need both data + metadata.

It is possible for the disc image file format to support both data+metadata within one file (e.g. Nero's NRG, or Roxio's CIF), but is also possible for the disc image format to NOT support this, where the data is in one file and the metadata is in the other. Now, metadata is never all that large, and can easily (usually) be stored as simple text or XML. Such is the case with CUE files.

BIN files are the RAW disc image data, but they're no good without a CUE file to help interpret it. They need to be interpreted, because disc images (particularly for CD's) can refer to one or more tracks, each with different track types (Audio, M1, M2, M2F1, M2F2) and even multiple sessions. Plus there can be varying amounts of gaps between the tracks. All this has to be laid out clearly for the data to be useful.

DVDs & BDs have narrowed the possibilities somewhat, because now there's really only ONE track type (M1/M2F1), but there could possibly be some of those other options to gunk up the works.
ISO's are usually a clear subset of possibilities, where there is just ONE session (closed) and just ONE track (closed), with just ONE track type/mode (M1/M2F1) with just cooked data (no raw, no subcode), so it is possible for an ISO to exist without any metadata file necessary (but there ARE exceptions).

BTW, your "NO Extension" files are likely BIN files where your .BIN filetype registration has been modified to the point of looking like it has no extension. OR you just didn't save them correctly and somehow omitted the filetype at a particular point in the saving. I just ran 5 test extractions of varying kinds, and ALL saved some filetype, whether .BIN, .ISO, .CUE, .MD5, etc.

Once plugins for further discimage filetypes become available, you could even save to the type of your choice, but for now, I'd suggest just living with BIN+CUE. It's pretty standardized and universal. You could stick with ISO, but if you did, you couldn't make use of AudioCD's, VideoCD's, CDG's, CD-I's, Game CD's, etc.

*Notice: In ISOBuster's [Options] menu, there is a setting to decide whether to default to .TAO and .BIN or to default to .ISO. If you choose ISO, it'll have an ISO extension, but it'll still be a RAW .BIN file on the inside.

Scott

[Alex-A]

Awesome answer. I am starting to gain greater admiration for the .cue file. Currently doing the imaging hoping that nothing eventual happens in the process.

[aedipuss]

if you want all your file extensions to show back up, open a hard drive folder press alt, go to tools/folder options/view and uncheck hide extensions of known file types.

[Alex-A]

I always do that the day I install windows.