A disk image is a virtual file - a copy containing all the information from any physical medium. You can't do without a program for mounting disk images if your computer has content presented in the format of a virtual clone of a CD / DVD disk. Below, we will look at five ways to mount a disk image in Windows so that its contents are available in a virtual drive.
How to make a disk image using regular Windows tools
First, let's look at the regular functionality of mounting CD / DVD images in the version of Windows 8.1.
The creation of the version of Windows 8, from which the standard functionality for working with disk images migrated to all successor versions - Windows 8.1 and 10 - fell on the mass phenomenon of the refusal of manufacturers of computer devices from completing their drives. CD/DVD drives were becoming obsolete, and the lack of a drive reduced the cost of individual laptop models and PC builds. Microsoft, in fact, had no choice but to implement the standard ability to connect disk images, at least in the popular ISO format, so as not to take bread from third-party software developers at all. So, if in the Windows 7 version, mounting disk images is possible only through third-party software, then users can view the contents of the disk itself in ISO format using the system tools.
So how do you mount an ISO disk image in Windows 8.x and Windows 10? In Explorer, select the ISO file, call the context menu and select the "Connect" command.
That's it - the image is mounted and visible in the virtual drive. You can start viewing its contents in the system explorer.
Disk imaging programs
Mounting images in Deamon Tools
Deamon Tools is the market leader in disk imaging software. The first version of Deamon Tools appeared in 2000, and, despite the fact that its analogues were released to the software market earlier, it immediately quickly gained popularity due to its friendly user interface and free Lite edition, which was more than enough for home non-professional use. . Daemon Tools works with almost all disk image formats. The operation of the program is imperceptible even for low-power devices, since it uses a minimum of system resources. The free Lite version contains limitations - in particular, it is the ability to mount only 4 virtual drives at a time. Whereas in the paid version of Pro Advanced, 32 drives can be mounted on a computer.
Relatively recently, Daemon Tools has changed dramatically, and the classic interface has been replaced by dullness and wretchedness, but with an extremely clear description of functions and a clear internal organization of sections. The functionality of the program has been replenished, but not everything is available in the Lite version. Naked demonstration of individual functions without the ability to use them is a marketing ploy to encourage users to purchase a paid version.
Daemon Tools Lite 10 is available for free download on the developer's website.
An important point during installation is the choice of the free license option.
Among the innovations of the Daemon Tools version is the option to scan the computer for disk images and display them in the internal library. Well, let's take advantage of this opportunity.
After scanning, all possible virtual CD/DVD and hard drives will be visible in the program window. Select the required type, open the context menu and execute the "Mount" command.
As before, disk images can be added to the Daemon Tools interface one at a time using the quick mount button.
To unmount a virtual drive, call the context menu on its connection icon at the bottom of the program window and select the appropriate command.
How to mount an image in UltraISO
UltraISO is a mega program designed for professional use. Among its features are the creation of CD/DVD images, burning them to a disc and editing them without unpacking, optimizing the structure in order to save space, converting from one format to another, etc. This program is also a reliable and proven tool for creating bootable flash drives.
UltraISO is a paid software product. The free trial version is of little use when it comes to the full use of most of the features. So, the trial version has limitations, due to which it will not be possible to create or burn an ISO file that weighs more than 300 MB. In our case, when it comes to mounting a disk image into a virtual drive, this restriction does not apply. Therefore, you can safely download the trial version with a Russian-language interface from the UltraISO developer website.
After launching UltraISO, you will see a small window telling us about the limitations of the trial version and encouraging us to buy the paid version. Click the "Trial period" button.
In the program window, open the "File" menu and click the "Open" button.
Adding an image file.
Open the "Tools" menu and select "Mount to virtual drive" among the commands present.
A small window will appear where you need to select the mount button. The button next to it - "Unmount" - must be used, respectively, to extract the CD / DVD disk image from the virtual drive.
How to burn an image to disk in Alcohol 52%
Alcohol 52% Free Edition is a free stripped-down version of the well-known CD/DVD emulator Alcohol 120%. Unlike the latter, paid Alcohol 52% allows you to mount a limited number of virtual drives at the same time - up to 6 pieces. In the free version of Alcohol 52% Free Edition, this number is completely reduced to a minimum - only 2 parallel virtual drives. Also, the free version does not provide for burning discs to discs.
A free trial version of the utility can be downloaded from the link from the official website of the developer.
At the time of writing this article, it was not possible to download the program installer using the browser downloader, but the problem was successfully solved using the Download Master download manager.
There are no limits to the tricks of developers who want paid versions of software products to be purchased from them. In the case of the trial version of Alcohol 52%, we will not only look at the demo window with an offer to buy the full version of the program, but we will even have to wait a few seconds until the “OK” program launch button becomes active.
In the Alcohol 52% program window, expand the "File" menu and select "Open".
Add the necessary file to the program window, call the context menu on it and select the "Mount to device" command.
To extract the image from the virtual drive, open the context menu again and select the "Unmount..." command accordingly.
The fastest way to mount and unmount a virtual drive
The ways of working with virtual drives inside programs are discussed above. But there is also a more convenient, faster way to mount and unmount a virtual drive. If Daemon Tools Lite, during installation, registers with a program that opens ISO files by default, you can mount the drive by opening the image as a regular file by double-clicking the mouse from the system explorer. In the case of the UltraISO program, the disk image will be instantly added to the program window for further actions. But Alcohol 52% will simply open, as with a normal start, however, it is also convenient.
If the default program was not assigned during installation, this can be done manually at any time. To assign a program that opens a particular type of ISO file by default, find any of them in Windows Explorer and select "Properties" in the context menu.
Click the change application button.
If the desired program is not in the list, select "Advanced", scroll down to the bottom of the list and click the option to search for another application.
Specify the program launch file in the installation folder.
Apply the changes.
Now, in the system explorer, the CD / DVD image file will be displayed as the default program icon and will open in this program at startup.
The easiest way to unmount a virtual drive is in the system explorer. Among the commands of the context menu called on the mounted drive, there is a function to eject the disk.
After that, the virtual drive will disappear.
Have a great day!
A lot of users of personal computers on the Windows platform often ask themselves questions - what are virtual disks and how to create virtual disk. To increase our readers' awareness of these issues, in this article we will try to fully cover the topic with specific examples.
Also in our article we will consider what is virtual hard drives and where they are used. After reading the material, our readers will be able to easily create virtual hard disks and image disk in ISO format, as well as mount them on a virtual device and burn them to DVD without any problems.
Virtual optical drive and its applications
The main purpose of a virtual drive is mounting images optical discs. To understand in detail why it is needed, we will look at an example where an image disk in ISO format will be mounted on a virtual DVD-ROM. For this example, we will use the Windows 10 operating system.
A pleasant moment for owners of computers with the Windows 10 operating system will be that a virtual DVD-ROM is already installed in it. Therefore, owners of Windows 10 will not have to use third-party programs to mount images.
To mount an optical disc image into a virtual DVD-ROM, we need the image itself. For example, we will use image with Linux operating system ubuntu. You can download an image of this operating system on its official website http://www.ubuntu.com. In our example, we will use the image 64-bit Ubuntu version 15.10, which has a size of 1.1 GB.
After loading the image, you can proceed to its direct mounting. To do this, right-click on the image file to open the context menu.
Mounted "virtual disk" can be opened and copied all its contents.
As you can see from the example, we mounted the Ubuntu OS image on a virtual DVD drive. In fact, we were able to do almost what we do with a regular and optical disc, when we insert it into a DVD drive and open it, only in our version all the components are virtual.
Creating a LaserDisc Image
In the previous example, we looked at how to open an image disk in a virtual DVD drive. Now let's deal with the situation when you need to create an image of an optical disc. To create an image, we need the DAEMON Tools Lite program, which must be downloaded and installed. It is also worth noting that in addition to creating various image formats, DAEMON Tools Lite it can also mount a huge number of formats into its own virtual DVD drive. After installing the program DAEMON Tools Lite in Explorer you can see a new drive named ""
This "" is just the drive of the program in question DAEMON Tools Lite. In this example, we will create an image of the original installation DVD with the Windows 10 operating system. To make an image from the installation DVD with ten, insert it into the DVD drive. Now run the utility and go to the section " New look».
In the utility window we find the button " Create image from disk” and press it. These actions will take us to the image creation window.
In this window, you can select the DVD drive from which the ISO image will be created, as well as select the location to save it.
We will also select the image ISO format and confirm the creation by clicking the Start button, which will start creating the Windows 10 DVD image.
After creation, we will receive an ISO image file called "J_CCSA_X86FRE_RU-RU_DV5.iso", which can be mounted or burned to a regular disc and installed with it a new Windows.
The example shows how easy it is to burn an image to a virtual DVD-ROM using DAEMON Tools Lite. In the same way, you can burn images for all licensed Windows discs, be it XP or Vista. In addition, you can burn images of games or software that do not start without a disc. Apart from the program DAEMON Tools Lite I would like to advise other popular utilities that can create and allow you to open images of optical discs:
- Alcohol 120%;
- GizmoDrive;
- WinCDEmu.
It is especially important to use these utilities on an OS where there are no built-in virtual DVD drives, for example, in OS Windows XP. In addition to supporting XP, each of these programs, including DAEMON Tools Lite, will be able to burn ISO images to DVD disk. In addition to supporting the ISO format, these utilities can mount other formats, including their own, they can be written to regular discs.
Virtual hard disk
A virtual hard disk is quite often used by IT specialists, as it allows you to solve many problems with backup, virtual machines and testing various operating systems. Virtual hard disk is a container file that mimics the file structure of a hard drive.
Since such a disk is a file, therefore it is usually stored on a physical HDD or SSD. Starting with Windows 7, users have the ability to create and mount a hard disk directly in the operating system.
Consider an example of creating a virtual hard disk using Windows 10. First, let's go to the utility " Run"Using the key combination Win + R and type in it the following command: diskmgmt.msc
This command will take us to the Disk Control Panel.
To create a new virtual HDD, you need to go to the menu " Action / Create virtual hard disk", which will open a window to create such a disk.
Starting with Windows 10, it became possible to create a disk with the format " VHDX". Unlike the "VHD" format, the " VHDX» can create containers up to 64 terabytes. Let's make our virtual hard disk 100 GB in the new format " VHDX”, and also put the switch in dynamic creation mode, in which our disk will increase as it fills up.
After setting the parameters of our hard disk, press the OK button, which will allow you to write it to the specified folder on the screw. After creating the output, we will get a virtual hard disk named "virtual disk.vhdx". The image below shows that our disk is automatically mounted, but it is still not visible in the system.
In order for the system to see our VHDX disk, it must be initialized. You can do this by right-clicking on the VHDX disk and selecting " Initialize disk».
In the window that appears, do not change anything and press the OK button.
Now the simplest thing left is to choose a file system and a letter for our disk. To do this, go to it and select the item " Create a simple volume».
After that, a wizard will start in which you need to assign a drive letter and select a file system. After the wizard completes, the virtual hard disk will appear in Explorer.
The example shows that creating a virtual HDD using the OS is very simple, so we hope that you will no longer have a question - how to create a virtual hard disk. I would also like to note that with the created VHDX disk you can do the following operations:
- Encrypt it with BitLocker;
- Install an additional OS on it;
- Move and open it on another computer;
- Connect it to a virtual machine.
Computers based on the Windows XP operating system, which is still quite popular, do not support VHD disks. But do not be upset, because in the utility we reviewed earlier DAEMON Tools Lite there is support for VHD disks and it fully compatible with Windows XP.
Using a VHD Disk in a Virtual Machine
Let's create a virtual machine based on the Windows XP operating system using the VirtualBox program. At the step of creating a virtual machine for XP, you will be prompted to create or attach a virtual hard disk that will be used to install Windows XP on it.
At this point, we can attach the VHD disk that we will create using Windows 10. So we will try to attach our 30 GB VHD container that we made in ten. After creating a virtual machine, you can view the attached VHD disk in its settings.
If there is not enough space in the virtual machine on XP, then you can always attach new VHD virtual hard disk. Besides, you can connect containers with various file data to a virtual machine for XP. In the same way, you can use the virtual machine from other software products. For example, VHD containers can be installed on VMware Workstation products.
Outcome
From the material considered, it can be seen that the use of virtual drives and hard drives helps to solve many problems much better, especially since even a novice PC user will figure out how to create them. We hope that our material will help our readers to better understand the question - how to create a virtual disk and how to use it for work.
Related videos
Some programs, and especially games, are often distributed as an ISO image. This distribution format has its advantages, but it is not always the best for end users. The problem often arises with mounting the image in the system.
The Windows 8 and 10 operating system has built-in support for mounting ISO images. There, this is done literally in two clicks: you need to right-click on the image file and select the "Connect" item in the menu that appears.
But what about those who work, for example, in Windows 7 or even Windows XP? There is a solution!
I present to your attention the program WinCDEmu Portable. This small, free and portable utility does its job well and has little to no impact on the system. This distinguishes it from such "monsters" as DAEMON Tools Lite, Alcohol 52%.
It is also important that the program supports other formats. With the same ease with which the program mounts ISO, it can mount images in the following formats: CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG. In this regard, the utility can also be useful in Windows 10, where there is no standard support for these formats.
A little about the interface and features of working with the program.
After launch, a window will be displayed with the following text (free translation): WinCDEmu Portable will install the driver needed to create virtual CD/DVDs. You can uninstall the driver at any time using this program. Do you want to continue?
After confirmation, a very ascetic window will be displayed in which there is nothing superfluous :-) 
Adding images to the list is carried out both by pressing the "Mount another image" button, and by dragging the image file onto the program window.
For the occasional need to mount an image, WinCDEmu is the best choice.
Last week we asked you to share your favorite disk image tools, then we rounded up the five most popular responses for a vote. Now we're back to highlight your favorite. DAEMON Tools led the pack by a comfortable margin with 40% of the vote.
Softpedia.com DAEMON Tools Lite is a software solution that will impress you, especially thanks to its advanced features that can deal with virtually all image formats on the market. Reliable application that creates virtual drives on your computer, providing you with the possiblity to emulate CDs and DVDs for instant access.
PCWorld.com If you spend a lot of time swapping and hence waiting on CDs or DVDs to mount, Daemon Tools Lite is worth its weight in gold. Even if you don "t, it" s a program you should download to keep in your bag of tricks--you "ll find a use for it eventually.
Download.com The advantage is that you can burn the images you"re using with DAEMON Tools Lite right away or just test an image before burning it to see if it was created correctly. DAEMON Tools Lite works with most image formats.
Filecluster.com Pros
- Small and highly stable program.
- Low resource requirements.
- Simple and functional interface...
Software.Informer.com DAEMON Tools Lite manages to be more comprehensive and feature-rich than many of its competitors. And that "s quite remarkable, especially considering that DAEMON Tools Lite is free while many of its competitors are not.
downloads.tomsguide.com As a disc imaging tool, Daemon Tools Lite's free nature automatically makes it a lot better than many competing applications simply because it offers most of what they offer at the vastly reduced price of free.
www.techadvisor.co.uk When you have a disc that you know you"ll need to access regularly, then, DAEMON Tools Lite allows you to create an image in just a couple of clicks. This then shows up in its Image Catalog for speedy reloading later, and you can put the real disc away.
techgyd.com Daemon Tools Lite is one of the best software for emulating and organizing your disc images. The software is very easy to use and fulfills all your disc related requirements. The virtual drives support is amazing.
maddownload.com If you are looking for the best software to work with ISO, MDX, MDS, and MDX files? Well, you have come to the right place. DAEMON Tools Lite is an easy and ready to use downloadable software compatible with Windows. It is well known reputable software that gives you the power of having a DVD-ROM emulator right into the comfort of your own home.
GIGA.de Mit dem Daemon Tools Lite Download könnt ihr virtuelle Images erstellen, speichern und einbinden sowie virtuelle Laufwerke emulieren.
