Can you install XP from .toast file?

[ziomatrixacs]

OK guys, I hope I dont raise any eye brows. I assure you, my Windows Xp disc is 100% legal (and I can prove it)

With that said, I have a few questions. I want to buy VM fusion to run XP home, but I might not have access to the disc when I get my next computer (long story) So, I used Toast 9 to make a "disc image" file of it and it came out as a .toast file. Could I mount the toast file and install XP with VM fusion like that? Or do I need the physical disc? Since I probably wont have the real disc with me, would it be possible (and legal of course) to make a bootable copy of it with toast?

Thanks guys!

[icemanjc]

I've done the same in VMware fusion so that I do not need a disc every time. But, VMware only excepts .iso, so either you'll have to convert it from the beginning from the disc into .iso or i'm pretty sure you can just change the extension name from .toast to .iso in finder.

[ziomatrixacs]

Yeah, I figured I couldnt do much with a .toast as is. Do I need to install toast on my new computer in order to convert it? Couldnt I just mount the .toast file and install xp through that virtual disc? If not, how could I convert it to .iso? I never knew changing the file extension would do that, I thought it was somehow encoded and only readable by toast or something.

[ziomatrixacs]

Yeah, I figured I couldnt do much with a .toast as is. Do I need to install toast on my new computer in order to convert it? Couldnt I just mount the .toast file and install xp through that virtual disc? If not, how could I convert it to .iso? I never knew changing the file extension would do that, I thought it was somehow encoded and only readable by toast or something.

[icemanjc]

Originally Posted by ziomatrixacs

Yeah, I figured I couldnt do much with a .toast as is. Do I need to install toast on my new computer in order to convert it? Couldnt I just mount the .toast file and install xp through that virtual disc? If not, how could I convert it to .iso? I never knew changing the file extension would do that, I thought it was somehow encoded and only readable by toast or something.

Usually it is specially coded, but with what i've read is that .toast is really an iso just without the name. So you can just give it a try. What you do is open VMware make a new Windows XP file and it will give you an option to choose from either a disc or a disk image file, choose disk image file and then locate the iso file.

[fryke]

The whole thing sounds rather, well, strange. Tell us the long story. Come on. You have your own private legal Windows XP disc and "won't have access to it" when you get your next computer? Come on...

Anyway: If the image's format doesn't work with VMware, simply use Toast to burn it to a new disc. Voilà.

[ziomatrixacs]

Originally Posted by fryke

The whole thing sounds rather, well, strange. Tell us the long story. Come on. You have your own private legal Windows XP disc and "won't have access to it" when you get your next computer? Come on...

I understand, I know it sounds a little fishy. Heres the story. I am enlisted in the Airforce, and will be leaving in late December if it goes as planned. I currently use an old Ibook that I am growing out of, so I want to buy a new MacBook Pro. I wont have enough after BMT, so it would be a few months after that once I get a steady income again. My mom has a PC that recently crashed (dead hard drive), so we got a copy of XP from a small computer shop down the road since CompUSA didnt give me an XP disc with the PC when she bought it. So when I leave for BMT, I wont have my ibook or ipod or anything else but tooth paste and a flash drive! So mom needs to keep the real CD. So if I get stationed in japan or some random place over season, Ill have XP on my flash drive and she doesnt have to send it over there and then I send it back. I dont think Id buy a computer then either, Id probably get some PAL format or something! Im not sure how that would work with customs either. Id rather just make sure I have a digital copy I could use.
What about my Ibook? I will probably have 2 weeks off after BMT, I could get it then. Why cant I install XP then? I wont have enough for my mac book pro then, so no computer to install it onto. If I get stationed in the states, which I probably will, I COULD have it mailed to me but that would probably be a PITA..

Basically, the disc must stay at home just in case the PC crashes, so I wont have access to it while I am at my duty station, and it would be a PITA to mail it back and forth. So, I want to make a toast copy and use that to install XP.

[fryke]

Wouldn't that mean the same copy is installed on both your mom's PC and your MBP later on? ... Anyway: Burn the toast image to a CD-R. Problem solved.