Iso2God Conversion Errors: How to Fix Failures Mid-Run

Most Iso2God conversion errors come down to the input or the destination, not the converter: a corrupt or incomplete ISO, not enough free space for the output, or a file that something else is holding open. This guide works through those causes in the order that finds the problem fastest, so you stop re-running the same failing conversion and hoping.

It applies to the Windows GUI (the r4dius fork, v1.6.0) and, where noted, to iso2god-rs. If your problem is that the program will not start at all, begin with our guide to Iso2God not opening or crashing on start instead — this page assumes the converter launches and the failure happens during a run.

Start with the ISO itself

A converter can only package what is actually in the image. An ISO that was interrupted during ripping or downloading, copied from a scratched disc, or truncated by a failed transfer will often load, show plausible metadata, and then fail partway through — sometimes very late, because the damaged area is reached late. Warning signs include a file size noticeably smaller than a full disc image, an ISO that other tools also refuse to open, and failures that always happen at roughly the same percentage on the same file.

1. Check the file size first. A full Xbox 360 disc image should be in the multi-gigabyte range; a file that is far smaller is incomplete, whatever its name says.
2. Try opening or listing the image with a second tool. If independent tools also choke on it, the image — not Iso2God — is the problem.
3. Re-rip the game from your own disc, or re-copy the image from its source, and convert the fresh copy. Do not keep patching around a bad dump.
4. If the fresh rip converts, delete the bad one so you do not pick it up again by mistake next time.

Know what kind of image you have

Not every disc image in circulation was made the same way. Redump-style images are full, faithful dumps of the original disc, and the r4dius fork explicitly added support for original Xbox Redump images. Older “scene”-style and variously rebuilt images can have different layouts, trimmed regions or rebuilt file systems. Iso2God reads the image’s structure to find the game partition and metadata; an image whose layout has already been altered by another tool can fail in ways a clean dump does not.

The practical rule: if one particular image fails in every converter while others succeed, suspect the image’s provenance and layout rather than your setup. Re-ripping your own disc to a clean, full image removes that whole class of doubt. Where a game offers both a Redump-style dump and an older rebuilt copy, convert the clean full dump.

Check the destination: disk space and the padding maths

Conversion failures near the end are very often space failures in disguise. Work out what the run actually needs before you start:

• The output itself. A GOD package is roughly the size of the game’s real data after your padding choice. With padding set to None, the output keeps the full mastered layout and can approach the size of the source image.
• Working room. The converter writes part files progressively; a drive that fills up mid-run stops the conversion wherever it happens to be.
• The rebuilt-ISO option. If you chose an output format that also rebuilds an ISO, you need room for both products at once.
• The source stays put. Unless you explicitly chose an option that deletes the source after conversion, the original ISO keeps occupying its space too.

As a working rule, have free space comfortably greater than the size of the source ISO on the output drive before you start, and more if you are rebuilding an ISO as well. Moving the output to a drive with real headroom fixes a surprising number of “mystery” late failures. The padding choices themselves — and the games that dislike Full removal — are covered in our padding explained guide and the page on what to do when padding removal broke a game.

Close whatever is holding the files open

File locks are the other quiet cause. If the source ISO is still open in another program — an image browser, a mounting tool, a torrent client still seeding it, or even a preview pane trying to read it — the converter may be unable to read or move it consistently. The same applies at the destination if a previous failed run left part files that something is scanning. Close other tools that touch the ISO, pause antivirus scanning of the working folder only in the sense of letting a scan finish (never by switching protection off), reboot if a lock will not clear, and convert from a local drive rather than a network share or a removable drive that might drop out mid-run.

The conversion that hangs near the end

Some users report a conversion that appears to stall at a very high percentage — often described as a freeze around 99% — and never quite finishes. Treat that as a symptom to investigate, not a diagnosis: the same stall can be produced by a damaged area of the ISO being reached late, by the output drive filling or slowing to a crawl, by a locked part file, or by the machine struggling with a very large image. Before assuming anything exotic, run the boring checks in order:

1. Look at the output folder. Are part files still growing, however slowly? A slow write to a nearly full or heavily fragmented drive can look exactly like a freeze.
2. Check free space on the output drive again — including space consumed by the run itself since it started.
3. Give a genuinely large conversion real time, then stop it, free space, close locking programs, and retry with a freshly ripped image.
4. Try the same ISO in iso2god-rs (see our iso2god-rs guide) with its --dry-run option first. A second, independent converter agreeing that the image is the problem is strong evidence; rs succeeding where the GUI stalls points the other way.

What you should not do is build a theory around a single percentage number. The percentage is just where the run happened to be when the underlying problem bit.

Multi-disc and very large images

Queue multi-disc games disc by disc, as the GUI expects, and convert one disc at a time when troubleshooting — converting a stack of large images back to back multiplies disk-space and heat/time variables and makes it harder to see which disc is at fault. XGD3 titles are larger again; our XGD3 conversion guide covers their size and timing differences.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my conversion fail at the same point every time?

A failure that repeats at the same percentage on the same ISO usually means the converter reaches the same damaged or unexpected area of that image each time. Re-rip the game from your own disc and convert the fresh image; if the fresh copy converts, the original file was the fault.

How much free space do I need to convert an ISO?

At minimum, more than the size of the GOD output, and comfortably more than the source ISO if you also rebuild an ISO or keep padding set to None. Running a drive close to full is one of the most common causes of failures late in a run.

Iso2God hangs near the end and never finishes. What should I check?

Check whether part files are still being written, confirm the output drive still has free space, close programs that may lock the files, and retry with a freshly ripped image. Testing the same ISO in iso2god-rs helps you tell an image problem from a GUI problem.

Where can I get a clean copy of the converter?

From the GitHub links on our download page. Verify the file with the SHA-256 given there before you troubleshoot anything else — and see the Troubleshooting hub for the other fixes in this series.