Is there any way to stream disc images (ISO's) from one computer to another?

To start - I do not mean videos/DVD's, and I do not have Windows file sharing set up (and to be honest, am looking for a solution involving a program that I could maybe start and stop fully).

On my main desktop, I started backing up all of my discs (especially software) to my second hard drive, as I found that when mounting them (e.g. via MagicDisc), the installation went literally ten times faster (hard drive throughput is much higher than CD's/DVD's).

On my laptop, I do the same, but I have to copy the entire ISO via my network, then mount it, and then install. You can see what I don't want to do though - I don't want to have to copy the entire ISO every time I want to install something.

Is there some kind of solution to allow me to "stream" disc images from my desktop to my laptop, over my home network, to MagicDisc?

Is there a solution without using Windows file sharing?

(I tried FTP before - that failed miserably!)

Breakthrough

Posted 2009-09-22T11:49:25.370

Reputation: 32 927

It looks like the consensus is no you can't do it without using file sharing, but if you do go that route you can stop and start it by stopping and starting the server service. – Col – 2009-09-22T12:21:07.233

no can do without file sharing being enabled on the server. – None – 2009-09-22T13:17:54.177

@Col: Look at T. Kaltnekar's answer. I'm looking for stuff like that, as his has nothing to do with WFS. – Breakthrough – 2009-09-22T14:19:06.620

Answers

You can try HTTPDisk (download link at the bottom of the page)

HttpDisk is a virtual disk driver for Windows that uses HTTP to mount disk or CD/DVD images from a web server.

However in that case you need to share ISO images via HTTP server which would involve a lot more than simply sharing windows folder and mounting image from there.

T. Kaltnekar

Posted 2009-09-22T11:49:25.370

Reputation: 7 636

That looks pretty interesting actually... I know for Windows, there is a portable distribution of XAMPP, which I can just fire up whenever I'd need to use this! – Breakthrough – 2009-09-22T14:18:30.223

I use MagicDisc and just mount them directly over the network. I keep all my ISO images on a central file share and have MagicDisc installed on every machine. When I need an ISO I just mount it normally from the file share directly.

BinaryMisfit

Posted 2009-09-22T11:49:25.370

Reputation: 19 955

Is there a solution without using Windows file sharing? – Breakthrough – 2009-09-22T11:56:42.547

I am using SMB on a Linux box to do this, and afp for Mac. Unfortunatly I am not aware of any way to stream ISO's, and breaking it down this would apply to any binary file. If there is alternatives to SMB the principle should still be the same. – BinaryMisfit – 2009-09-22T12:04:55.353

1Also to be honest, SMB is not evil. It does the job and works. – BinaryMisfit – 2009-09-22T12:05:44.057

share the drive/folder with your ISO images over the network and map the drive/folder on the client.

install WinCDEmu on the client.

open the mapped network drive on the client, double click an ISO Image to mount.

to release the ISO, open My Computer, right click on the virtual CD/DVD drive and select Eject.

Molly7244

Posted 2009-09-22T11:49:25.370

Reputation:

Just share the folders they are in with windows file sharing, then mount then on the share.

MDMarra

Posted 2009-09-22T11:49:25.370

Reputation: 19 580

Is there a solution without using Windows file sharing? – Breakthrough – 2009-09-22T11:54:44.347

Why not use Windows file sharing? It might help if you provide an explanation why this is not an option. – EmmEff – 2009-09-22T14:17:02.693

You could use dropbox

An online storage would be best, have it on both computers and then access it whenever you want

admintech

Posted 2009-09-22T11:49:25.370

Reputation: 6 970

2This would require a considerable amount of time top upload the ISO and then it has to be downloaded again by the Laptop – Paul Woodward – 2009-09-22T12:16:54.363

Using winrar, you could split the files to smaller rar's making it easier to copy and move around – admintech – 2009-09-22T12:17:50.713

You can put you ISO files on an USB external storage device, and plug it either on you main desktop computer or on your laptop.

mouviciel

Posted 2009-09-22T11:49:25.370

Reputation: 2 858

netcat for the win :)

akira

Posted 2009-09-22T11:49:25.370

Reputation: 52 754