Applications are getting just too big to fit CDs nowadays. I hate having four or five CDs lying around when I know all that data would fit onto a single DVD-R. Say I have six CD images, Red Hat ISOs for example: is there some way I can burn all six of these images onto a DVD-R and have my computer see this new disk as six different CDs?
Hmmmm. Interesting question.
You can, as you are probably aware, definitely burn your six ISO files onto a single DVD. That’s very straightforward. The only problem, of course, is that your computer is likely to read that simply as a data disc with six files on it.
When i want to open multiple disc images simultaneously, i use an extremely handy little accessory called Daemon Tools. Once installed, it allows you to mount up to four virtual disc drives on your computer.
Once you mount the virtual drives—a very simple process involving a few clicks of the mouse—each drive appears as a new optical drive on your computer, and each one can be used to view a separate disc image.
Now, i’ve only ever used this tool with disc images that were on my hard drive. I’ve never tried to read multiple disc images off a single DVD, so i don’t know how well that will work. You’ll have to try it yourself.
There is another virtual CD drive tool called Fantom CD which, according to the website, can mount up to 31 virtual drives. I’ve never tried it, but it might be worth checking it out.
Hmm. I have used D-Tools in the past. I suppose I could burn the ISOs onto a data dvd, like you said, and then mount them using d-tools straight off the disk. Which would be fine for some purposes (multi cd applications), but not so good for others (operating systems)…