How about a feature to mount RAR of ZIP archives as a CD?

[Underheaven]

Re: I'll celebrate my 150th post by...writing a rant.

I started to make a post here, then I realized that this has been a never ending debate in the 'Daemon Tools Suggestions' forum, and everyone probably feels pestered about it. So nevermind.

[laur3ooo]

mounting archives on virtual drives

Actually there is a program that can sort of do this. Mount archives as disc drives, I mean... It's called PowerISO and it's a commercial product. I know it can access and mount, on it's own drive btw, it's own archive format, .daa files, not sure about rar/ace/zip/etc though, because i haven't use it in a while (i had some trouble with some of its older versions and havent used since). Now about the compression ratio, i can't remember how much compression there was in the .daa, because, as I already said, I haven't used it in a while. But there is an alternative. I did see, and use/mount, a compressed ISO. Not a rar/ace/ziped one, but an ISO that had a compression ratio of about 48% on it's own and, to my knoledge D-Tools didn't have any trouble mounting it. I can't tell you what program was used to make that ISO because i got that image as is. And furthermore when i rar-ed that iso the rar was even 60% smaller. Trust me it's true, the ISO is abou 912 MB, the rar about 379, and the extracted files from the iso add to about 1.9 GB or so. Gonna try and use Nero InfoTool to see wich program made that ISO. Tell me if you are still interested... and I will get back to you... :wink:

[evlncrn8]

there was a program i used a long time ago in win98 called zipfolders (or a name very close to that) which did exactly what the user requested, it worked transparently, a zip file became a folder, anything copied to/from the folder was compressed/decompressed on the fly, transparently to the user, there were also other utilities that compressed the system memory and so on, so the entire concept is possible, but it is a lot of work, a hell of a lot

[Underheaven]

Re: XP built in zip support and Zipfolders and PowerISO and DT compressed images

Doesn't XP do something similar in making dragging, droping, and even file searching within zip files look as easy as using a normal folder? I think it does but I'm not sure of the specifics or limitations as I normally use Winzip exclusively.

[bojo]

xp does do that. ive only ever seen it done to small files though. no one uses .zip for a large file lol.

if you really need room. you could make a script or something that extracts, and then mounts your image. then deletes it.

if you had enough ram and system specs this would be good. but still. pointless.

i think either way, the zip or rar would have to be extracted, if only partly.

seems to be easier just to have your files on your hdd. i mean a 200gb hdd isnt more than 150 AUD?. I know some people mite say that thats alot of money, but think about how much it would cost if the daemon guys were being paid to make the rar thingy!

[Antax]

Just to add my 2 cents and maybe to shead a little more light on why this might be a handy feature. No its not going to make a major difference in my life if its not there but it would be nice to have if its not that difficult to add. After all it just a suggestion.

I have a lot of DVDs and 2 little kids who love to watch these DVDs. Problem is they are terrors on DVD discs. So I archived them all to my PC in BIN/CUE flies then rar'd them up to take up a little less space. I then put an xbox in each of there rooms with a chip to be able to run XBMC which will read the BIN file directly from the rar files without extracting them. I was wanting to build a Windows Media Center for the living room but then if I want to watch a movie I have to go to the PC andf extract the archived BIN/CUE file and mount it.

[pinger]

[QUOTE=laur3ooo]Actually there is a program that can sort of do this. Mount archives as disc drives, I mean... It's called PowerISO and it's a commercial product. I know it can access and mount, on it's own drive btw, it's own archive format, .daa files, not sure about rar/ace/zip/etc though, because i haven't use it in a whileQUOTE]

So. PowerIso can't use rar/zip files as archives. It olny use a standard images format as bin iso ngr ect.

But returning to the subject, mounting rar archives as drive is very great idea.

Of course that you can decompress entire archive THEN COMPRESS that AGAIN to BIN or ISO but this is waste of time!

Why to do that? thats because some programs must be run from CDROM drive, they can decety that they are running from hdd or CDDRIVE! thats why mounting rar achives as IMAGE DRIVE is so good idea.

I have a lot of compressed games, programs and archived on cd's. And what now? if i want ude it i must decompress it to hard drive and.. bla bla bla. Thats a waste of time :/

Beside, rar archives are more FLEXIBLE, you can add files when you can. So you can add files to standard iso and bin files too? yes you can! But when i changed in PowerISO a name of image that program started to repack all files again! it spend on it a lot of time! The same situation is when I add some files ! it repacking it again. Thats sic. And that's why deamon should be able to work with standard rar files.

Uff, thanks a lot, and sorry 4 errors

[missingxtension]

It is a usefull feature

you know one thing that is more unix like and would be a hell of a feature would be that daemon could be able to mount zip rar and actual uncompressed folder into a virtual cd. for example to be able to create a virtual cd for my porn (an example i dont have that stuff but i know it migh touch a soft spot with some ppl and someone might actually do it) collection in a drive by itself
i know thats what links are for but links cant replace hardware emulation and its a pain to have to use nero (alcohol imgburner etc isobuster) to make an iso or to modify. after all it is daemon tools or tools for images

[missingxtension]

sorry for the double post im not talking about an image creator either!!!
i just saw the post

[arisma]

if you see that feature usefull, i vote for it.
But for now, they seems that have enoght work.

[landercut]

Found this thread from google...

I was googling for some application that can mount rar-files or seamlessly uncompress then (like ZipFolder) when I found this thread. If Deamon would be able to mount a rar file that would really be a killer feature in my opinion.

[tsaukpaetra]

RarDrive

Indeed it would be quite nice.
I have a profile on the school computer that I use to store my java games and other such stuff. However, I find that people go around messing with my stuff!
I tried to use WinRar with encryption to help protect my stuff, but now I have to extract everything (I don't want to have to search for just a specific game you know) just to use it.
If there was some way to use a Rar File as a drive, All I would need to do is create shortcuts and they would probably work fine!

What has already been said probably holds true that it would be hard.

But i'm still saying it would be nice :wink:

[jsnb76]

Mount Rar Files over the Network

WinMount does this. It creates an index file, takes a while though, then it mounts any rar/zip file as a drive. It's just a really cheesy program.

It would be Great for Mounting Compressed rar images over the network.

Drive emulation is the next Big Thing:
Vista has a deployment image
Mac's .dmg or .sitx would be great to mount
A way to mount Ghost .gho or .vdk? images
Virtual PC/VMWare/Parallels all have image formats

Even if the the Mounted Drives were read-only, that would be great!

DaemonTools could then take over the world

-Jason

[Artl]

Mac's .dmg or .sitx would be great to mount
A way to mount Ghost .gho or .vdk? images

You can open .gho with "Ghost Explorer".
(But the version of Ghost Explorer have to match the Ghost-version which you crated the Image.)

.dmg is IMHO a Standard Iso-format.
But the file-system HFS+ is not compatible with (i expect) windows.
So you need something like TransMac, MacDrive, or simmilar.

.sit and .sitx and all this other extensions (even .sae etc.) you can open with Stuffit for Windows.

If you want to open Audio/Sample-discs you can use CDXtract.

Of course, maybe nothing new for you...
I hope i could help a little bit.

PS: why you want mount HFS-Images on Windows?

[jsnb76]

Mount Rar Images & DMG/Virtual PC/Ghost/DriveImagePro/Parallels/

The Biggie Being the ability to Mount a Rar image as an emulated drive:

Why: Because Storing Split Rar Images over a Network is the most feasable way to access files that are larger than the fat32 2gig limit. Basically to store images(ghost images for example) compressed and split on a Unix/Mac/Somthing besides windows server. Then Once the Rar is mounted, having a way to mount the ghost image. Ghost Explorer does not let you 'mount' the image, very unfun if you want steer around in that image in anything other than ghost explorer, do searches, image that image with another program.

Basically, when a folder/rar/driveimage/cdimage is in an emulated state, the computer os can utilize the data within natively.

Drive images like: DMG/Virtual PC/Ghost/DriveImagePro/Parallels/Alcohol/ are all very useful formats to store data within. All of which should be looked at universally and accessed universally.

Daemon Tools is not on the Macintosh Unix World Yet, but easily can be soon.

Daemon Tools, from my perspective, is only a read-only viewer of my favorite iso & alcholsoft images. The ability to also add RAR/DMG/Virtual PC/Ghost/DriveImagePro/Parallels/ images and other's I can't think of, would make it a tool of necessity by any technician. I have over 12 years working in the corporate world between windows and macintosh computers. I know what technicians need, especially cross-platform.

Understanding the mac dmg can be mounted through an array of other shareware/freeware softwares, the other drive image formats are essential to having the freedom to store my data on any server as a rar, mount it, then be able to mount a 'ghost' image within that mounted rar would be extraordinary.

I don't program, but i build and fix any wintel or apple desktop. Programmers are my best friends, they make my life easier.

Many Thanks,

Jason Isaac Brodsky
Desktop Confidence