Cannot image a compressed file?

Is there a rule where you cannot image a file that's already compressed? I'm trying to organize my files and tried making an image of the file which was in .zip and when I used a daemon tool to test it, it reported errors.

I'm using Nero 6 which seems to be working just fine with other files.

I'm also new to this and can't believe how efficient it can be, but I also noticed imaging a file(s) will increase size.

:(

By imaging, what do you mean? Are you writing a file to a CD-R? If so, I've never heard of that being called imaging.

The only imaging I know of is when you take a snapshot of a drive or directory structure such as what Norton Ghost does. You can then optionally burn it to CD for safe keeping.

In any case, if you are trying to back up files, then the format or file extension has nothing to do with being able to do it. Also, images (especially jpeg, png, and other compressed formats) tend to be difficult to compress again since they are already compressed to an extent.

I had a feeling the terminology was misused.

Well, I'm trying to archive my programs that I have accumulated over the years by using NERO to make it an ISO or in NERO's case, an .nrg

Through the discovery of daemon tools from another thread, I decided to try it and I was thoroughly shocked to find out you can use the contents of an "image" file without extracting or burning it. So I'm making an image of all my programs for archival purposes thinking it would reduce the clutter and size, but only the clutter has gone while size increased.

CD image files are for just that: burning the image to CD so you can have the data on a CD. ISO CD image files are not compressed at all, and although I am not familiar with NRG files, I doubt they are compressed either.

If you want to write the files to CD, you do NOT need to make an image file first; you can just write them straight to CD. However, if you want to compress the files for storage on your hard drive, put them into a ZIP, RAR, or ARJ file and store them that way. ZIP files are common, but not as compact as RAR or ARJ can be if set at maximum compression.

It's unfortunate the Daemon tool (Virtual Daemon Manager) is not able to make use of it while it's compressed. Having converted most of my files into images, I tried Rar compression and the compression is phenominal. Roughly about half the size is trimmed off. I"m impressed.