Extracting files from ISO image file

ISO file format

An ISO image is an archive file (also known as a disk image) of an optical disc
in a format defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
This format is supported by many software vendors.
ISO image files typically have a file extension of .ISO but Mac OS X ISO images often
have the extension .CDR. The name ISO is taken from the ISO 9660 file system
used with CD-ROM media, but an ISO image can also contain
UDF file system because
UDF is backward-compatible with ISO 9660.

The file format specified in the ISO 9660 standard is clearly a nearly universal file format, and standard disks can be read on a broad range of operating systems: MS-DOS, Windows, Unix, Linux and even Macintosh.

As with any other archive, an ISO image includes all the data of files contained on the archived CD/DVD. They are stored in an uncompressed format. In addition to data of the files it also contains all the file system metadata, including boot code, structures, and attributes. ISO images do not support multi-track, thus they cannot be used for audio CDs, VCD, and hybrid audio CDs.

These properties make it an attractive alternative to physical media for the distribution of software as it is simple to transfer over the Internet or via a LAN connection.

ISO image is an unattached file format (like CAB and Zip): it merges a series of files into one single file according to a definite format. The most important feature of an ISO image is that it can be burned to a DVD, VCD, or CD by using an ISO image burner, like ISO Maker. ISO images are not meant to be burned to DVD-RW, and they should be burned to DVD-R, because DVD-R is more widely supported.

Using WinTar

WinTar is a simple and cute 32-bit Windows version tarball archiver - a powerful tool which allows Windows users to create, manage and extract most popular Unix/Linux tarball and windows CAB format archive files.
WinTar can create and read several different archive formats, including most popular tar variants, several cpio formats, and both BSD and GNU ar variants. It can also write shar archives and read ISO9660 CDROM images.

WinTar can create and read/extract Windows CAB archive files and ZIP files.

Introduction: http://www.miscosoftware.com/WinTar/wintar.htm

Download: http://www.miscosoftware.com/WinTar/store/WinTar.exe

Extracting ISO archive files

In order to extract ISO files using WinTar you must first open the required archive or select the archive file in File List pane window. This may be achieved in one of several ways:

Target the archive file in the file list pane and select the archive file.
Double-click or press Enter on the archive name in Windows shell (Explorer or Desktop). If WinTar was associated with archives, an archive will be opened in WinTar. You may associate WinTar with archives after installation using File Association dialog;
Double-click or press Enter on the archive name in WinTar window;
Run WinTar from the command line with a single parameter - the archive name.

If an archive is opened in WinTar, its contents are displayed. Select files and folders, which should be extracted. You may do this using Shift + arrow keys or Shift + left mouse button as in Windows Explorer and other Windows programs.

Having selected one or more files, select File Extract Archive menu or click Extract to button at the main toolbar, or press Alt+E , enter the destination folder in the dialog box and click on OK. This dialog box also offers a few advanced options for archive extraction.