Creating ISO with Imgburn
 

I have downloaded Imgburn. Is it possible to create an ISO image of my operating system while it is running, using imgburn. The idea is to have a ready-made ISO with all the downloaded programs and some other personal files and folders for re-installation when necessary, leaving less work to be done when starting with a clean installation. Is this possible with Imgburn?

The short answer to this is 'no'. ImgBurn can take a folder(s) and contain this in in an iso; however, the actual operating system requires a bootable iso. There are excellent recomendations on this website; ie, https://www.techsupportalert.com/bes...g-software.htm

I'm sure I've oversimplified. Another could add much more expertise than I

What about trying some live snapshot tool ? Is the kind of software that creates "snapshots" of whatever is going on your computer then you can "roll it back" ant any snapshot at will. Kinda System restore but work at boot level to restore. In my days I used Comodo Time Machine ( outdated now ) but it was a modification of Roll Back RX anyway. There is a free version of RbRX to download

Also, don't forget Windows support live backup copy if you have a secondary drive big enough to keep your data ( better if and HDD but USB works)

Thank you for your suggestions. I am doing regular backups that I can restore when the need arises. This ISO idea is one of my brain waves. Considering the number of replies I received, this doesn't look like such a great idea after all, does it!!

All is not lost.
Scroll down to Create an ISO image in Windows 7.
https://www.backup-utility.com/windo...stem-4348.html
While ISO files are the most used image files, there are others.

I dunno. I'm the kind of guy that has a bad idea and commit to it :D

You got some great advice. This topic has a high proportion of quality responses that are short and too the point. So I enjoyed reading it.

Melita, your idea would work if you swapped "Macrium Reflect" for ImgBurn and "image" for ISO.

The main reason that your idea won't work is that you are using meaning 1. and ImgBurn always uses meaning 3. See below where I've explained in some detail so it should be clear to everyone.

The second issue is that ImgBurn has no mechanism to interact with the Windows Shadow Copy service to copy files while they are being used by Windows.


Meanings of "ISO Image"
There are at least three different uses of the term "ISO image".

1. An ISO image is technically "a disk image of an optical disc", such as a CD or DVD, but people erroneously use the term for an image of any other disk/drive even a flash drive. This misuse is slowly diversifying over time as it gets applied to more types of devices.

2. However, even the correct term "ISO image" is not specific enough to implement because, as Wikipedia will tell you:
3. The most specific meanings are qualified by a specific formal standard for file system format:

• ISO 9660 - for CDs
• ISO 9660 enhancements like Joliet - again for CDs
• UDF (Universal disk format) ISO/IEC 13346 and ECMA-167 - for DVDs

I listed the specific meanings in that order because ImgBurn lists them in that sequence in the Image Options:

• Data Type: mode 1 or mode 2
• File System: ISO-9600; ISO9660 with enhancements from Joliet and/or UDF; and UDF
• UDF Revision, if UDF is the file system.