Virtual dvd drive for windows 10. Virtual disk

CD / DVD-disks are among the most popular external storage media, however, working with them in practice is not always convenient, and there are many reasons for this. These disks must be inserted into a drive and data exchange with them is noticeably slower than with a hard drive. As a result, launching a program from a CD will take noticeably longer. CD / DVD disks stop being read if bad sectors or a lot of scratches appear on them, and this will sooner or later happen during their active use. Another difficulty arises for mobile users - going on a business trip, they have to take with them the entire set of disks that may be required for work, which is also unpleasant, since it increases the size of the luggage. You can avoid such problems by copying information from CDs to a hard drive, but this option will not work for every program. For example, discs with games, licensed databases, tutorials, audio discs, etc. when copying them to a hard drive, they often refuse to work. In such cases, you will have to go the other way - create virtual CD / DVD drives on your computer and place images of frequently used discs in them. Technically, this involves two things. First, you need to create the necessary disk image files (that is, virtual CDs) - this can be done using programs for burning and copying CD-DVDs (such as, for example, Nero Burning ROM) and save these images to your hard disk. And then you will have to use a special program-emulator of virtual drives, with which you will need to create the required number of virtual CD / DVD drives and connect to each of them according to the prepared disk image. As a result, you can work with virtual CDs in the same way as with real ones. Moreover, it will turn out to be much faster and more reliable. Why? Everything is very simple. On the one hand, access to information will speed up, since it will be read from a hard disk much faster than from a CD, and you do not have to insert a real disk into a physical drive to start a virtual disk. On the other hand, the likelihood of losing valuable data as a result of disc failure will decrease, because CD / DVD discs themselves are not inserted into the drive, and therefore their surface does not wear out. Moreover, it will become possible to work with several disks at the same time.

DAEMON Tools 4.30.0305

Developer: DT Soft Ltd.
Distribution size: DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced and DAEMON Tools Pro Standard - 11 MB; DAEMON Tools Lite - 7.4 MB
Spreading: Shareware DAEMON Tools is one of the most attractive solutions in terms of functionality for emulating virtual drives. This package is presented in three editions: DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced, DAEMON Tools Pro Standard and DAEMON Tools Lite. DAEMON Tools Lite has the most modest capabilities - it does not have a graphical interface (access is made through the system tray) and allows you to create up to four virtual drives and mount images on them. The other two versions already have a convenient graphical interface and provide the creation of 16 to 32 virtual SCSI devices, and DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced can also emulate two virtual IDE devices, which is important for connecting a part of copy-protected CD / DVD disks. As for the images themselves, all three solutions provide for the creation of images from CDs, and not only from ordinary ones (formats Audio CD, Video CD, Mixed Mode CD, CD-Extra, Video CD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio ), but also from copy protected ones including SafeDisc, SecuROM, LaserLock, RMPS, Hide CD-R, CD / DVD-Cops, ProtectCD, StarForce and Tages. At the same time, almost any image file formats are supported (B5T, B6T, BWT, CCD, CDI, CUE, ISO, MDS, NRG, PDI, ISZ). If desired, images can be easily password protected. The Pro versions also provide image editing, which allows you to add files to the image, as well as replace or delete them in it. Working with images is implemented very conveniently - you can add them to the collection by specifying them manually or by choosing from the list of those found during automatic search (images created in the program itself are added to the collection automatically), and in the collection itself it is allowed to place images in subdirectories (this is more convenient for further orientation). When creating images, their compression is provided, which will be very useful with a large number of images on the disk, however, you can compress only MDS images - images in other formats will first have to be converted to MDS format (possibly only in DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced). Demo versions of the program (there is a Russian-language localization) are fully functional and workable for 20 days. The cost of commercial versions is different - for DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced it is 39.90 euros, for DAEMON Tools Pro Standard - 16.90 euros, and for DAEMON Tools Lite - 14.90 euros. At the same time, the version of DAEMON Tools Lite for non-commercial use is free. Since the DAEMON Tools Lite utility is the easiest to use, we will start with it. It does not have a graphical interface, so all operations in this utility are carried out through the system tray. Connecting virtual drives to DAEMON Tools Lite is as easy as shelling pears. First, you will need to install the required number of virtual devices - right-click on the program icon in the system tray, select the Virtual CD / DVD-ROM command and specify the required number of drives.

And then, sequentially for each of the drives, mount a virtual disk by simply specifying the corresponding image files on the hard disk for them (command Virtual CD / DVD-ROM> "Drive ..."> "Mount image"). To remove an image from a virtual drive, you will need the "Unmount Image" command.

The technology for working with DAEMON Tools Pro is somewhat more complicated. The window of this utility is implemented in the form of three panels - an information panel and two windows: a window for images and a window for drives. The images window is designed to perform various operations on images, and the drives window allows you to manage physical and virtual CD / DVD devices.

The first step in DAEMON Tools Pro is to create a collection of images. If the images were created earlier and you have not yet managed to forget which specific folder on the disk they are located in, then you need to click on the "Add images" button and immediately place them in the collection. If you do not remember where they are, you will have to use the automatic search mode (the "Search for images" button).

If there are no images on the disk yet, then you need to create them. To do this, insert the coveted disc into the CD / DVD-ROM, click on the "Create image" button, select the appropriate physical drive (understandably, if there are several drives) and, if necessary, change the disc reading settings on the "Drive" tab. And then on the tab "Catalog of images" enter the name of the image and indicate the output format, then click on the button "Start" and in a couple of minutes get the desired image.

After the collection is filled with images in one way or another, the required number of virtual drives is installed, the corresponding number of times by clicking the "Add SCSI Virtual Drive" button - the connected drives appear in the program's virtual drives window. It should be noted that one virtual drive is created automatically during the installation of the program.

A virtual image is then installed on each of the virtual CD / DVD devices. To carry out such an installation, activate the first image and use the "Mount Image" command from the context menu, followed by specifying the required virtual drive. After that, a similar operation will need to be carried out with all other images. If it is necessary to remove an image from a virtual drive, use the "Unmount" command from the context menu.

Alcohol 120% 1.9.8.7612 and Alcohol 52% 1.9.8.7612

Developer: Alcohol Software
Distribution size: Alcohol 120% - 12.3 MB, Alcohol 52% - 11.5 MB
Spreading: shareware Programs Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52% represent one of the most popular solutions for creating virtual CD / DVD drives. Alcohol 120% includes all the functions of Alcohol 52% and additionally allows you to burn CDs and DVDs from image files or "on the fly" - from source CDs. It is possible to record on several drives at once. With regard to emulation of virtual drives, the capabilities of the programs are identical. With their help, it is easy to connect up to 31 virtual drives on your computer and mount virtual CDs on them in almost any image file format. Source images are added in the image search mode or automatically - the latter if they are created in the Alcohol environment. Support for many CD formats (CD-DA, CD + G, CD-ROM, CD-XA, Video CD, Photo CD, Mixed Mode, Multi-session CD, DVD-ROM, DVD-Video and DVD-Audio) and a variety of protection systems including SafeDisc 2/3/4, SecuROM NEW 4/5/7, LaserLock, Starforce 1/2/3/4, VOB ProtectCD V5. When emulating, you can ignore the media type, the physical signature of the recordable disk (RMPS), the presence of bad sectors, etc. The demo version of the program (there is a Russian-language localization) is operational for 15 days and has a limit on the number of created virtual devices (there can be only six of them). The cost of the commercial version of Alcohol 120% is $ 50, Alcohol 52% - $ 27 In addition, there is also a completely free version of Alcohol 52% FE 1.9.5.4, which allows you to create up to six virtual devices. The Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52% window is implemented as one vertical and two horizontal panels. The vertical panel is located in the left part of the main program window and is a panel of operations designed to quickly launch the main components of the program. The horizontal panels located in the right part of the main program window are working windows of the database browser that provide management of images, virtual drives and physical CD / DVD devices.

Emulating virtual CD / DVD drives in Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52% programs requires three steps. At the first, a collection of images is formed. If the images already exist, they can be connected directly, simply by right-clicking in the free area of ​​the browser window, calling the "Add Images" command from the context menu and specifying the necessary images. Well, if you do not remember where exactly the images are located on the disk, then you can use the search for images (the "Search for images" operation in the "Basic operations" group), and only then connect the images.

If the image files do not exist on the disk, then they will have to be created. It is not difficult to do this in Alcohol 120% (or in Alcohol 52%). To do this, you just need to activate the "Create images" operation, select a physical drive (only if there are several drives), define the data type and, if necessary, adjust the disc reading settings, and on the next screen enter the name of the image and press the "Start" button.

After the formation of the collection of images, virtual drives are connected - this is the responsibility of the "Virtual disk" operation from the "Settings" group, after which you will need to determine the required number of virtual devices. It will also be possible to enable / disable the checkboxes "Remount images on system reboot" and "Mount image on Device 0 by double-clicking". Enabling the first checkbox will ensure that the virtual disks remain in their virtual drives after restarting or shutting down the computer. Enabling the second will allow you to mount the image file by double clicking on it to the first free virtual drive. After that, you will still need to activate the "File Associations" subsection and mark those image file extensions that are supposed to be mounted in virtual devices. The result of these manipulations will be the appearance in the lower right pane of the program, in addition to the physical CD / DVD devices, of the list of virtual drives that have appeared. By the way, right there it is worth noting that one virtual drive can be created already during the installation of the program, unless, of course, you uncheck the corresponding checkbox during the installation.

Well, now all that remains is to mount virtual CDs to virtual devices using the "Mount to device" command from the context menu. You can mount the image even faster - just by double-clicking on it, however, this is only provided that the "Mount image on Device 0 by double-clicking" checkbox was not disabled when connecting virtual drives. To remove an image from a virtual drive, use the Unmount Image command.

Virtual CD 9.3.0.1

Developer: H + H Software GmbH
Distribution size: 56.4 Mb
Spreading: Shareware Virtual CD is one of the most multifunctional (but also the most difficult to learn) solutions for emulating virtual CD / DVD-ROM devices, managing virtual CDs and organizing network access to them. The program allows you to create up to 23 virtual drives and connect image files to them in a fairly wide range of formats. These images can be created directly in the Virtual CD environment, connected according to the results of an automatic search, or directly manually. Working with collections of virtual CDs is implemented in the program taking into account the fact that their number can be large - therefore images can be divided into categories, sorted, grouped, searched in the library, etc. When creating images (formats CD-ROM, DVD, Video CD, Super Video CD, Photo CD, Audio CD, CD-Text, CD-Extra, Mixed Mode CDs are supported), their compression is possible, and very efficient. In addition, images can be converted to VC4 format and password protected if necessary. Editing of images is also provided, in which it is easy to add new files or delete unnecessary ones - this function can be useful not only when using image files on virtual drives, but also in the process of testing them before burning them to a real CD. The latter is also implemented in Virtual CD, in addition, the program can directly copy data from disc to disc and delete data from rewritable CD / DVD. The demo version of the program (no Russian localization) is fully functional and operational within 30 days, the cost of the commercial version is $ 39.95.Virtual CD is a combination of two interface modules - Toolbox and CD Management (both modules are called from the system tray, and Toolbox can also be launched from the start menu). The Toolbox module provides direct access to all the main functions of the program.

The CD Management module provides virtual CD and image management.

In Virtual CD, it is more difficult to deal with the options responsible for creating a collection, since they are scattered across different modules, and the total number of various settings is large. If we are talking about adding existing image files to the collection, then this can be done both through the Toolbox module and through the CD Management module. In the first case, open the Main Tasks in Virtual CD tab and launch the Find Virtual CDs automatic image search function.

In the second, the Add command is called from the context menu and specific images from the folder are indicated.

There are also two ways to add a new virtual drive - using the Add / Remove Virtual Drives command, by activating it from the system tray, or in the CD Management module, by calling the Drive Editor command from the context menu. In both cases, a device selection dialog box opens, where additional drives should be enabled. By the way, if no more than four drives are required, then these operations will not have to be carried out, since by default the program automatically adds four virtual drives to the system during its installation.

Mounting virtual CDs is easier, since this is done by simply dragging and dropping the image onto the drive in the CD Management window, or by installing a virtual CD to the drive via the system tray. The Eject command is responsible for removing an image from a virtual drive.

It should be noted that many operations in Virtual CD require the sequential opening of multiple windows (and this slows down the process) - you can speed up the work by assigning a number of actions to hot keys, as well as the active use of system tray commands, duplicating the basic operations of the Toolbox and CD Management modules.

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.

Read about how to create and work with disk images, as well as with what programs, in our today's article.

Disk image. Applications

A disk image is a file that contains a complete copy of the content and data structure on a drive.

A disk in this case means any hard (HDD), flexible (FDD) or optical (CD / DVD) disk or Flash drive.

Advice! The main advantage of a virtual image is the fact that the disk image contains absolutely all information for duplicating the structure, content and location of the data carrier, repeating its set of sectors and ignoring the file system.

Virtual disks are used to:

1. Reserve copy.
   Unlike conventional backup programs, which copy only those files to which you have access, in the case of creating an image, in addition to the actual data, the bootloader and files that could be locked by the OS will also be copied.
2. Distribution of software. For distribution (including via the Internet) of operating systems (OS) and software (software) of a large size (for example, distributions of OS BSD, Linux).
3. Creation of virtual hard disks in virtual machines. Before you start working with a virtual machine, you need to create a virtual hard disk on which the operating system will be installed later.
4. Replication of systems of the same type.
   If it is necessary to install the operating system and software on computers with the same hardware configuration.
   A more rational step would be to install and configure the OS and software on one computer, after which an image is created along with all the system settings and installed on other computers.

The .ISO format is the most popular disk image format, but it has the disadvantage of not supporting multi-session data.

Other popular formats are DMG and .IMG, as well as proprietary .MDS / .MDF (Alcohol, Daemon Tools), NRG (Nero Burning ROM), .VCD (VirtualCD) and others.

An overview of programs for creating a disk image

Alcohol 52%

The program settings allow:

check the accuracy of reading data from physical devices;

improve the quality of scanning bad sectors;

simultaneous work with 6 virtual drives;

work with formats: BIN, BWA, BWI, BWS, BWT, CCD, CDI, CUE, ISO, ISZ, NRG, MDS;

DAEMON Tools

As you can see from the table, for the tasks of an average user, the functionality of the free version is enough, which allows you to create and mount all existing types of images and emulate up to 4 drives.

The program has a clear Russian menu.

Ultra ISO

Ultra ISO- this program allows you to create, edit, convert images in various formats (b5i, b5t, b6i, b6t, bin, bwi, bwt, ccd, cdi, cue, daa, dao, dmg, icf, iso, ima, img, isz, lcd, mdf, mds, nrg, pxi, sub, tao, uif, vc4).

In addition to creating images from CDs, it is also possible to create images from hard drives and

Users who met the early "zero" probably remember the days when films, computer games, programs and music were delivered to our computers only with the help of CD / DVD disks that were widespread at that time. Nobody knew about free downloading of data on the Internet, torrents and youtube. The situation was rescued by optical drives, with the help of which information was transferred to the hard disk of the computer.

The rapid development of Internet technologies has called into question the need to have such a component as a "floppy drive". In today's stationary systems and laptops, you rarely see a drive. All because of virtual disks, which supplanted the "blank" and became widespread. However, not everyone has made a comfortable transition to the new technology. In this article we will try to correct this situation and explain in detail the essence of the creation process, the nuances of use and other questions that have repeatedly arisen from everyone who does not know how to use a virtual CD ROM.

When you may need it

Many may doubt the idea of ​​using the innovation that has taken root by some and simply continue to use the optical drive, rewriting images and information with it on physical media. However, the archaic version loses in some cases, the most common of which are:

• Missing or defective drive. Any part does not have an eternal life. Sooner or later, a problem may arise, and it’s good if it does not happen at the most necessary moment (which, according to the “law of meanness”, happens often). In addition, the "sistemnik" who receives a disc with information from you may simply not have an optical drive. But a virtual CD-ROM is available on any modern PC (if you devote some time to its creation).
• Multichannel. I rarely came across computers in which there were several drives at once. Users who often write and read discs had to constantly rearrange CD / DVD. There are no such problems with virtual disks, which means you can work with several at the same time.
• Convenience of data transfer. To exchange information recorded on a "blank", you need to personally transfer the media to the receiving party. In the case of virtually recorded images, the transfer is carried out online, over the Internet.

Creating a virtual CD-ROM

To read virtual images (iso files; mdf, bwi, mds and others), you need to create a virtual CD-ROM that, like an optical drive, reproduces (emulates) data from the drive. You can make a virtual disk using special software, such as Daemon Tools, Virtual Drive, Their principle of operation is identical, and the functionality is largely similar. As an example, we took the last of the listed ones, since its capabilities and tools are very easy to cope with even for a user who is far from such processes.

1. First, download the installer for the Alcohol 120% program using the link from the Yandex disk, or on the developer's official website. Install it on your computer.
2. We launch the program. First of all, we need to create a virtual CD drive. To do this, in the "Settings" section, select the option "Virtual disk".

1. In the menu that opens, manually select the number of virtual disks to be created. We confirm the result by clicking on the OK button.

The drive has been successfully created, which we can observe in the "Device" panel or in the "My Computer" folder.

1. Now let's open the finished image. To do this, select the "File" tab, and in the menu that opens, click on "Open ..." (or simply use the key combination Ctrl + O).

1. Find the image file we need, select it with LMB and click on the "Open" button.

The image has been added to the library for processing.

1. Now you need to read the file added earlier. To do this, select the RMB image, and in the drop-down menu, select the option "Mount to device".

Work is done. The result can be observed in the "Computer" folder, where among the readers there will be an installer located in the virtual drive.

After the performed operations with the image, it is necessary to extract it from the virtual drive. To do this, using the Alcohol 120% program, in the menu of available drives, select our BD-ROM with the right mouse button and select the function in the list "Dismantle image"... The disk will be empty again.

If you want to remove the virtual drive altogether, you must repeat the same steps as when creating it:

1. In the available devices, click on the DVD / CD drive of the PKM. In the list that appears, click "Properties".

1. Put the value "0" back in the section for selecting the number of virtual disks and click "OK".

Adding a virtual hard disk

The above features have been available to many for a decade. The popularity of the virtual reader has led to a similar phenomenon called the virtual hard disk. This technology allows you to create a file (with the .vhd extension), which is displayed in the explorer as a standard partition on the hard disk. Everyone decides the rationality of using a virtual drive: some thus reorganize free space on volumes, others even install the OS. Do not forget about the possibility to create a secure file container, thus limiting information from the encroachments of other users.

We will create a virtual hard disk using standard Windows tools (this function is available in Windows 7, 8.1, 10 systems). However, a similar result can be achieved with the help of special software. Daemon Tools Ultra, as well as Disk2vhd, handle this task most effectively. These programs have separate sections devoted to creating virtual disks (both drives and drives like HDDs).

1. Open the "Run" service by simultaneously pressing the Win + R keys. In an empty line, enter the command diskmgmt.msc and click "OK".

1. The service will open "Disk Management"... In the control menu, activate the "Action" tab, and in it select "Create virtual hard disk".

1. In the window that appears, you need to specify the location of the file to be created, select the format (VHD / VHDX), and also determine the file extension option.

1. The file has been created, but the disk has not yet been initialized. By clicking on the RMB dial, select the option "Initialize Disk".

1. In the next window, you must specify the style of the section (we recommend the GUID if you intend to limit yourself to the standard capabilities of working with the allocated space).

Connecting the disk after restarting the PC

Unfortunately, working with a VHD requires reconnecting the VHD / VHDX file after each session ends. Fortunately, we don't have to create a new disk, initialize a partition, and create a volume. To return a virtual disk to work (emulate data), you need to do the following:

We hope that with the help of our article you have learned how to create a virtual disk, and also determined the benefits of using it.

And also watch the video

Depending on the emulator program, you can install five or six or even 10-20 virtual drives on your computer, and all this will not cost the user a dime, while the number of physical drives is usually limited to one or two.

Most users use CD / DVD emulation software for the following purposes:

Run CD / DVD images from your hard drive without having to burn it to a physical optical disc.
- Increase in the speed of access to data (the speed of the hard disk is much higher than the optical one).
- Backup multiple disk image files to a new hard drive, which is much easier than burning multiple new CD / DVDs.
- Preventing CD / DVD discs from scratching or wearing out with frequent use.
- Save a copy of the optical disc to your computer hard drive in case of damage, loss or theft.
- Freeing up workspace by getting rid of a large number of physical disks.
- Run disk images from a laptop or netbook that does not have built-in CD / DVD drives or with the drive turned off (to save battery power).
- Granting access to the disk for users on the network.
- Disk encryption for security.

Considering most of the above goals, all of the following CD / DVD emulators are reviewed and rated according to the following parameters:

The number of virtual drives available.
- Supports ISO and other image formats.
- Ability to create a disk image from CD / DVD.
- Interface and additional functions.

Overview

- this wonderful product allows you to mount an ISO file (or a disk image in another format) on a virtual drive created with this program. After the image is mounted, it will appear in Windows Explorer as a "real" CD / DVD or hard drive.

Gizmo Drive supports up to 26 virtual drives. In addition to ISO, it works with other images, including VHD, IMG, BIN, CUE, NRG, CCD, MDS, MDF and GDRIVE.

In addition to running disc images on virtual drives, Gizmo Drive will be useful when creating ISO images (both discs and individual folders), or for burning the contents of an ISO file or folder to an optical disc. To perform various tasks, the program provides a special manager and image wizard.

The user interface of Gizmo Drive is informative and helpful. Additional features of the program include creating GDRIVE images to simulate a hard disk with compression and encryption, creating a virtual hard disk with support for system memory to improve performance in accessing time-dependent data, etc.

Another emulator designed for creating and managing virtual CD / DVD drives. It allows you to run many types of disc images without burning them to CD or DVD. Also, this program will help you create disc images and save them in various formats (including ISO, BIN / CUE, NRG and UIF).

MagicDisc Virtual DVD / CD-ROM has a simple interface and supports up to 15 virtual drives simultaneously. Other features supported by this program include compression of various formats (ISO, NRG, CUE, MDS, CCD) to UIF, and UIF to ISO recovery. The function of writing images to CD / DVD discs is not supported by this program.

Another easy-to-use emulator is called. With its help, a disk image can be mounted on a virtual drive in just two mouse clicks. As with the aforementioned programs, this is achieved using auxiliary commands that appear in the context menu of Windows Explorer and are used to mount and unmount images.

In the latest versions of Virtual CloneDrive, you can install (just like MagicDisc Virtual DVD / CD-ROM) up to 15 virtual drives. The original useful features of the utility can also include automatic mounting of the last image and special icons that denote virtual drives (to distinguish them from physical ones).

The list of supported formats for Virtual CloneDrive includes ISO, CCD, IMG, UDF, BIN, etc., but NRG, MDF / MDS and some others are not supported. This, as well as the lack of the ability to create and burn disc images is a disadvantage of this program.

Other programs

In addition to the aforementioned products, there are a number of free programs that perform similar functions. Below you can view a list of some of them:

Alcohol 52% Free Edition is a stripped-down version of the commercial product Alcohol 120%. The free version is limited to 6 virtual drives, and installs the search bar in your browser (can be disabled). Additional features include a CD / DVD manager and a wizard for creating images in ISO, MDS, CCD and CUE formats.

DAEMON Tools Lite only supports 4 virtual drives. Supported formats include ISO, ISZ, CCD, CDI, CUE, MDS, NRG, BWT, PDI, etc. DAEMON Tools Lite also allows you to create images in ISO and MDS formats. This program, like the previous one, installs an additional search bar in your browser and changes the main search provider.

Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel is a free utility from Microsoft that runs on Windows XP and allows you to add or remove virtual drives A to Z. Supported formats: ISO, UDF, CDFS, ROCK or JO. Cons - not very user-friendly interface and lack of the ability to create images.

WinCDEmu is an open source program that allows you to mount CD / DVD images with a simple click on the desired file. To dismantle the image, you just need to double-click on it again, or remove the corresponding drive using the context menu. The utility supports ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS / MDF, CCD, IMG formats and works in operating systems from WinXP to Win7. Cons - the lack of an uninstaller, and the impossibility of creating images.