Windows XP SP1.

I just got an .iso file, (CD image), from a friend who owed me a copy of 'x' program, and I finally got it on a CD, great. I put the CD in, nothing happens.

OK, probably no autorun system. I go to the disc, and it's a burned disc with the ISO as the file. Crap.

I put the ISO image on my hard drive and get some freeware/trial programs to burn it (ISO Recorder Power Toy, MagicISO) and took out a blank disc I had, put it in the drive, and began burning the ISO to the disc with MagicISO.

I wait a few minutes because my CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive can only burn at 4x, and when the disc finally pops out of the tray, I put it back in and get ready to run the program.

Nothing Happens.

I open the disc from My Computer, there's nothing written to it.

I do the SAME thing with the ISO Recorder Power Toy, same thing! The disc is STILL BLANK

I know my drive can burn because it's done it before.

I've tried enabling drag-and-drop on the disc, but in retrospect, I'm not 100% sure why I thought that would help...

anyways, anyone got any ideas? I want to have my PC dual-boot with Gentoo Linux/XP by the end of the week and the only file type it comes in is ISO...

If you have Nero burning software then go to recorder and click burn image. Other than that I can't help you, but maybe some of the other guys can.

You cna get a program call dameontools, it acts as a vitual cd room drive. Use it to open the iso, then it runs as if you put in the cd.

and if you have a newer version of nero it has a virtual drive also ,there will be an icon in control panel to axcess it ,not sure if this is the case with the oem version of nero !,
but you don't need to open the iso ,if you have burning software that can burn image files .like nero or alchol120% ,the 2 i use .

The best thing to do is have a program like Alcohol 120%, Nero or Easy CD Creator that allows you to burn the .iso image. Drag-N-Drop won't work; you'll need a program that reads "other image formats" (that's what it's called, even though it's the standard). That should put you in good shape.

Check out this link. It seems to have some freeware tools for iso burning:
http://members.home.nl/lsnoek/iso.htm

Alright, got that one working.

New question: I got my iso file (Linux installer something).... and it's too big a file to fit on a CD, I'd need a DVD-R. Is there any way I can just 'extract' it or something to my hard drive and run it from there? I'd rather not go and spend a hundred bucks on a DVD burner.

First yes there is a way to do that with a iso file ,with the virtual drive created with alcohol120 or nero ultra ,for programs that you want to install in windows ,but i dont think it will work for what you want to do ,you want to install linux ,so you don't want to install that within windows .

Are you just assumming its to big because of it size or did you actually try and burn it and get the error message that it will not fit the disk !

you could download winrar, uncompress the iso file (from winrar), then burn the cd with whatever cd burning program you use or install it directly from your hard drive