Virtual drive: basic concepts and creation methods. Virtual disk
Users personal computers often encounter image files optical disks format ISO or MDF. These files contain various file information, multimedia content or installation “image” from Windows OS, as well as many other data.
Therefore, the PC user faces a task, the solution of which is to open these files, view them, or process information on these images. Most popular programs which can create a virtual DVD-ROM to read ISO images as well as write them to optical drives are Alcohol 120 And Ultra ISO. In this material, we will describe with examples how to create a virtual DVD-ROM, and also describe the process of creating ISO images using these utilities.
We create and mount images on a virtual DVD drive using Alcohol 120
Alcohol 120 appeared back in 2002. Since then, it has become very popular among Russian-speaking users. It gained popularity due to the ability to create virtual DVD drives and mount an image on them. The program can also write images to physical optical drives. You can download the program on its official website www.alcohol-soft.com. After downloading the installer, you can begin installing the program. On startup installation file, we will be taken to its start window.
In this window, click Next, and continue downloading and installing the utility to go to the next window. In this window, we will make a decision regarding the license agreement, after which the main utility installer will begin downloading to the computer. After downloading, the main installer window will launch.
Let's move on to the next step, where we will also resolve the issue of accepting the license agreement, and then click the Next> button. After completing these steps, the installer will ask you to restart a computer, with which we must agree.
After reboot the same wizard will start, in which you need to take again license agreement. Next we will move on to selection of installed components. Leaving all components unchanged, click the Next> button.
In the next window, select the installation location for the utility and click the Next> button. After these steps installation will begin. After installing the program, launch it from a shortcut on the Desktop, which will allow us to go to the main program window.
At the bottom of the program you can see that we have two optical drive, one virtual one that made Alcohol 120 and one physical. Now let's start creating an image file. To do this, insert a licensed disk with Windows 10 into our PC. Going to the program window, press the button “ Creating images" This action will open the Image Creation Wizard.
From this window you can see that the utility I myself chose the physical drive from which I need to make an image file, and also displayed all the information about the located disk in DVD drive e. To create an image file, all that remains is to do last action- press the Start button.
The recorded ISO image will appear in the main window of the utility. Clicking on it right click mouse, it can be mounted on the utility’s virtual disk.
The example shows that creating an ISO image and mounting it on a virtual DVD-ROM is not at all difficult. Also, if necessary, the created image file can be written to a new optical disk directly from the utility menu in the " Burning images to discs" With this action we will make another copy of the Windows 10 license disk.
Create and mount images on Virtual DVD-ROM using UltraISO
Program Ultra ISO as well as Alcohol 120 can burn images, create Virtual DVD drives and mount images on them. In addition, the utility can edit dozens of image formats, which is a big plus. You can download the utility from its official website https://ezbsystems.com/ultraiso. Even a novice user can figure out how to install the utility, as it is very simple. Therefore, there is no point in describing the installation process of the utility. After installing the utility, launch it from a shortcut on the Desktop. This action will move us to the main program window.
Before creating an image in Ultra ISO, insert the licensed disc with Windows 10 into the DVD drive. Now in the program window press the F8 key to call the image creation wizard. In the wizard, select the image type " ISO"and the DVD drive where our Windows disk 10. After installing the selected options, click the Make button, which will directly launch the creation process itself.
To mount our created image file, we need to press the F6 button, after which a wizard will appear in which we can choose the location of our image, mounting it on the virtual drive created during installation of the utility.
In the same way we can unmount the image file from the virtual DVD drive A.
As can be seen from the example, the utility is as easy to use as Alcohol 120.
Let's sum it up
The utilities discussed are quite easy to use and perform their task 100 percent. Therefore utilities Alcohol 120 And Ultra ISO have become so popular among millions of users around the world. In addition to the programs discussed, there are also such popular utilities that you can familiarize yourself with:
- Gizmo Drive;
- WinCDEmu;
- DAEMON Tools.
These programs have similar functionality as in the utilities under consideration. I would also like to note that these programs and the ones in question support both old and new Windows operating systems, so users, for example, with Windows XP will not have any problems running them.
We hope that our material introduced you better to Alcohol 120 And Ultra ISO, so you can create your own disk images and mount them on virtual drives.
Virtual drive is for reading virtual disks, and is an essential tool on almost any computer. Using the drive, you can view disk image files, or use them as a kind of NoDVD. However, not everyone knows how to create a virtual drive, and in this article we will look at an example of creating a virtual drive in the UltraISO program.
UltraISO is useful utility for creating and editing disk images of the most different formats. However, in addition to this, the program has one more advantage - it can create and use virtual drives, which in their functions differ from real ones only in that you cannot insert a real disk into them. But how to create such drives in the program? Let's find out!
Creating a virtual drive
First you need to run the program in any way known to you. Now you need to open the settings, which are located in the “Options” menu component. It is very important that the program must be running on behalf of administrator, or nothing will work out at all.
Now you need to open the “Virtual Drive” tab in the settings.
Now you need to specify the number of drives you need. Select the number of devices.
In principle, that's all, but you can rename the drives; to do this, you will need to go back to the drive settings. Select the drive whose letter you want to change, and select the drive letter, then click change.
If you still forgot to enable the program as an administrator, an error will pop up, which can be solved by reading the article at the link below:
That's the whole process of creating a virtual drive, now you can mount an image into it and use the files that are on this image. This turns out to be very useful when using licensed games when the game does not work without a disc. You can simply mount the game image into the drive and play as if the disc was inserted.
CD/DVDs are among the most popular external media information, but working with them in practice is not always convenient, and there are many reasons for this. These disks must be inserted into the drive and data exchange with them is noticeably slower than with hard drive. As a result, launching a program from a CD will take significantly more time. CD/DVD discs become unreadable if bad sectors or a lot of scratches, and this will happen sooner or later during their active use. For mobile users Another difficulty arises - when 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. To avoid similar problems it is possible by copying information from CDs to the hard drive, but this option It won't work for every program. For example, discs with games, licensed databases, educational programs, audio discs, etc. when copying them to a hard drive, they often refuse to work. In such cases, you will have to take a different route - create virtual CD/DVD drives on your computer and place images of frequently used disks in them. Technically, this involves performing two operations. First you need to create necessary files disk images (that is, virtual CDs) - this can be done using programs for burning and copying CD-DVD discs (such as, for example, Nero Burning ROM) and saving these images on your hard drive. And then you will have to use a special virtual drive emulator program, with which you will need to create the required number of virtual CD/DVD drives and connect a prepared disk image to each of them. As a result, you can work with virtual CDs in the same way as with real ones. Moreover, it will be much faster and more reliable. Why? Everything is very simple. On the one hand, access to information will accelerate, since hard drive it will read much faster than from a CD, and you won't have to insert a real disk into a physical drive to run the virtual disk. On the other hand, the likelihood of losing valuable data as a result of disk failure will be reduced, because the CD/DVD disks themselves are not inserted into the drive, and therefore their surface does not wear out. Moreover, it will be possible to work with several disks simultaneously.
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 for emulating virtual drives in terms of functionality. Current Package presented in three editions: DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced, DAEMON Tools Pro Standard and DAEMON Tools Lite. The DAEMON Tools Lite edition has the most modest capabilities - it does not have a graphical interface (access is done 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 from 16 to 32 virtual SCSI devices, and DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced can also emulate two virtual IDE devices, which is important for connecting some copy-protected CD/DVD drives. As for the images themselves, all three solutions provide for the creation of images from CDs, and not only from regular ones (Audio CD, Video CD, Mixed Mode CD, CD-Extra, Video CD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio formats are supported ), 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, the images can be easily protected with a password. Pro versions also provide image editing, which allows you to add files to the image, as well as replace and delete them. Working with images is implemented very conveniently - you can add them to the collection by specifying them manually or selecting them from the list of those found during an automatic search (images created in the program itself are added to the collection automatically), and in the collection itself you can place images in subdirectories (this is more convenient for further orientation). When creating images, they are compressed, which allows large number images on disk will be very useful, however, only MDS images can be compressed - images in other formats will first have to be converted to MDS format(only possible in DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced). Demo versions of the program (Russian localization available) are fully functional and operational for 20 days. The cost of commercial versions varies - for DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced it is 39.90 euros, for DAEMON Tools Pro Standard it is 16.90 euros, and for DAEMON Tools Lite it is 14.90 euros. Wherein DAEMON version Tools Lite is free for non-commercial use. Since the easiest to use is DAEMON utility Tools Lite, then we’ll start with it. GUI it does not, so all operations in this utility are carried out through the system tray. Connecting virtual drives in DAEMON Tools Lite is as easy as pie. 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 mount a virtual disk for each of the drives, simply specifying the corresponding image files for them on the hard drive (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 - the information panel and two windows: the image window and the drive window. The images window is designed to perform various types of 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 forgotten 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 don't remember where they are, you'll have to use the automatic search(button "Search for images").
If there are no images on the disk yet, you need to create them. To do this, insert the treasured disk into the CD/DVD-ROM, click on the “Create an image” button, select the appropriate physical drive (of course, if there are several drives) and, if necessary, change the disk reading settings on the “Drive” tab. And then on the “Image Catalog” tab, enter the name of the image and indicate the output format, after which they click on the “Start” button and after a couple of minutes they get the desired image.
After the collection is filled with images in one way or another, install the required number of virtual drives by clicking the “Add SCSI Virtual Drive” button the appropriate number of times - 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 process of the program.
Then a virtual image is installed on each of the virtual CD/DVD devices. To carry out such an installation, you should activate the first image and apply from context menu the "Mount image" command followed by specifying the desired virtual drive. After this, a similar operation will need to be carried out with all other images. If you need 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 SoftwareDistribution size: Alcohol 120% - 12.3 MB, Alcohol 52% - 11.5 MB
Spreading: shareware The Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52% programs are 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 to several drives simultaneously. In terms of virtual drive emulation, the programs' capabilities 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. Supports multiple 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 various 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 disc being written to (RMPS), the presence of bad sectors, etc. The demo version of the program (there is a Russian localization) is operational for 15 days and has restrictions on the number of virtual devices created (there can only be six of them). The cost of the commercial version of Alcohol 120% is $50, Alcohol 52% is $27. In addition, there is also a complete demon paid version 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 in the form of one vertical and two horizontal panels. The vertical panel is located on the left side of the main program window and is an operations panel intended for quick launch main components of the program. Located on the right side of the main program window horizontal panels- These are working database browser windows that provide management of images, virtual drives and physical CD/DVD devices.
Emulating virtual CD/DVD drives in Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52% requires three steps. At the first stage, a collection of images is formed. If images already exist, then you can connect them directly by simply right-clicking in a free area of the browser window, calling the "Add images" command from the context menu and specifying the desired images. Well, if you don’t remember where exactly the images are located on the disk, then you can use the image search (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, you will have to create them. 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), determine the data type and, if necessary, adjust the disk reading settings, and on the next screen enter the name of the image and click the “Start” button.
After the collection of images is formed, virtual drives are connected - the operation " is responsible for this Virtual disk" from the "Settings" group, after launching which you will need to determine the required number of virtual devices. Here you can also enable/disable the checkboxes "Remount images when rebooting the system" and "Mount image on Device 0 by double click". Enabling the first checkbox will ensure that virtual disks are saved in their virtual drives after rebooting or shutting down the computer. Enabling the second will allow you to mount the image file by double-clicking on it into the first free virtual drive. After this, you will also need to activate the "File Associations" subsection and check those extensions of image files that are supposed to be mounted in virtual devices. The result of these manipulations will be the appearance in the lower right subwindow of the program, in addition to the physical CD/DVD devices, of a list of virtual drives that have appeared. By the way, it’s worth noting that one virtual drive can be created during installation of the program, unless, of course, you uncheck the corresponding box during installation.
Well, now all that remains is to mount virtual CDs on virtual devices using the “Mount to device” command from the context menu. You can mount the image faster by simply double-clicking on it, however, this is only provided that the “Mount image on Device 0 by double-click” 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 GmbHDistribution size: 56.4 MB
Spreading: shareware Virtual CD is one of the most feature-rich (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 based on 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 (CD-ROM, DVD, Video CD, Super Video CD, Photo CD, Audio CD, CD-Text, CD-Extra, Mixed Mode CDs formats are supported), their compression is possible, and very effective. In addition, images can be converted to VC4 format and, if necessary, protected with a password. It is also possible to edit images into which you can easily 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 allows direct copying of data from disk to disk and deletion of data from rewritable CDs/DVDs. The demo version of the program (there is no Russian localization) is fully functional and operational for 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 management of virtual CDs and images.
In Virtual CD, it is more difficult to understand the options responsible for creating a collection, since they are scattered across different modules, and the total number of different 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, call the Add command from the context menu and specify specific images from the folder.
You can also add a new virtual drive in two ways - using the Add/Remove Virtual Drives command, activating it from the system tray, or in the CD Management module, calling the Drive Editor command from the context menu. In both cases, a device selection dialog box opens, where you should enable additional drives. By the way, if no more than four drives are required, then these operations will not be necessary, since by default the program automatically adds four virtual drives to the system during installation.
Mounting virtual CDs is easier, since this is done by simply dragging the image onto the drive in the CD Management window or installing the virtual CD on the drive through 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 many windows (and this slows down the process) - you can speed up the work by assigning hotkeys to a number of actions, as well as active use system tray commands, duplicate basic operations Toolbox and CD Management modules.
Hello.
In this article I would like to touch on two things at once: a virtual disk and a disk drive. In fact, they are interconnected, just below we’ll immediately make a short footnote to make it clearer what we’re talking about we'll talk in the article...
Virtual disk(the name “disk image” is popular on the Internet) is a file whose size is usually equal to or slightly larger than the actual CD/DVD disk from which this image was obtained. Often images are made not only from CDs, but also from hard drives or flash drives.
Virtual disk drive(CD-Rom, disk drive emulator) - roughly speaking, this is a program that can open the image and present you with the information on it, as if it were real disk. There are quite a lot of programs of this kind.
The best programs for working with virtual disks and drives
1. Daemon Tools
Link to the lite version: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/rus/products/dtLite#features
One of the best programs for creating and emulating images. Supported formats for emulation: *.mdx, *.mds/*.mdf, *.iso, *.b5t, *.b6t, *.bwt, *.ccd, *.cdi, *.bin/*.cue, * .ape/*.cue, *.flac/*.cue, *.nrg, *.isz.
You can create only three image formats: *.mdx, *.iso, *.mds. You can use a lightweight version of the program for home (for non-commercial purposes) for free. The link is given above.
After installing the program, another CD-Rom (virtual) appears in your system, which can open any images(see above) which you can only find on the Internet.
To mount the image: run the program, then right-click on the CD-Rom, and select the “mount” command from the menu.
To create an image Just run the program and select the “create disk image” function.
After this, a window will pop up in which you need to select three things:
The disk whose image will be obtained;
Image format (iso, mdf or mds);
The location where the virtual disk (i.e. image) will be saved.
Conclusions:
One of the best programs for working with virtual disks and drives. Its capabilities are probably enough for the vast majority of users. The program works very quickly, does not load the system, supports all the most popular Windows versions: XP, 7, 8.
2. Alcohol 120%/52%
Link: http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/downloadtrial.php
(to download Alcohol 52%, when you click on the link above, look for the download link at the very bottom of the page)
A direct competitor to Daemon tools, and many rate Alcohol even higher. In general, Alcohol is not inferior in functionality Daemon Tools: The program can also create virtual disks, emulate them, and burn them.
Why 52% and 120%? It's a matter of the number of options. If in 120% you can create 31 virtual drives, then in 52% - only 6 (although for me - 1-2 is more than enough), plus 52% cannot write images to CD/DVD discs. Well, of course, 52% is free, and 120% is a paid version of the program. But, by the way, at the time of writing, the 120% version is given for 15 days for trial use.
Personally, I have version 52% installed on my computer. A screenshot of the window is shown below. The basic functions are all there, you can quickly create any image and use it. There is also an audio converter, but I have never used it...
3. Ashampoo Burning Studio Free
Link: https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/7110/burning-software/Ashampoo-Burning-Studio-FREE
This is one of the best programs for home use(also free). What can she do?
Work with audio discs, video, create and burn images, create images from files, burn to any (CD/DVD-R and RW) discs, etc.
For example, when working with an audio format, you can:
Create Audio CD;
Create an MP3 disk (https://site/kak-zapisat-mp3-disk/);
Copy music files to disk;
Transfer files from audio disc to HDD into a compressed format.
Video discs are also more than decent: Video DVD, Video CD, Super Video CD.
Conclusions:
An excellent combine that can easily replace the whole complex utilities of this kind. As they say, install it once and always use it. Of the main disadvantages, there is only one: you cannot open images in virtual disk drive(it simply doesn’t exist).
4. Nero
Website: http://www.nero.com/rus/products/nero-burning-rom/free-trial-download.php
I couldn’t ignore such a legendary package for burning discs, working with images, and in general, everything related to audio-video files.
With this package you can do everything: create, record, erase, edit, convert video-audio (almost any formats), even print covers for recordable discs.
Minuses:
A huge package that contains everything you need and don’t need, many even 10 parts do not use the program’s capabilities;
Paid program ( free test possible for the first two weeks of use);
It puts a lot of stress on the computer.
Conclusions:
Personally, I haven’t used this package for a long time (which has already turned into a big “combine”). But in general, the program is very worthy, suitable for both beginners and experienced users.
5. ImgBurn
Website: http://imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
The program pleases you from the very beginning: the site provides 5-6 links so that any user can easily download it (from whatever country he is from). Plus add to this ten three different languages, supported by the program, among which there is Russian.
Basically, without even knowing in English, this program will not be difficult to understand even for novice users. After launch, you will see a window with all the features and functions that the program has. See screenshot below.
Allows you to create images of three types: iso, bin, img.
Conclusions:
good free program. If you use it in combination, for example, with Daemon Tools, then the possibilities are enough for your eyes...
6. Clone CD/Virtual Clone Drive
Website: http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html
If you are reading this page, then you are interested in the question of how to create a virtual drive in ultraiso.
There is nothing simpler, just a few words first, why might this be needed?
It cannot completely replace the real physical one - that’s a fact.
You can only insert a virtual disk into it, however, it is a useful and sometimes irreplaceable thing.
If you have created a virtual drive and disk, and the ultraiso program allows you to do all this, you can do almost all the work as on a physical one, with the exception of installing the operating system.
So as not to forget, I’ll tell you right away what you can find out in other ways by clicking on the link.
These functions are often used by gamers. Manufacturers are constantly trying to increase the protection against copying of their inventions.
Some record games in such a way that they won’t work without a disc in the drive. This is where virtual systems come to their aid.
Now to the point: “how to create a virtual drive in ultraiso”
It seems to me that the ultraiso program itself is already installed - run it. The following window will open, in which click “options”.
After that, at the very top, you will see “settings”, click. Another window will open.
Select “virtual drive” as shown in the figure, and opposite the “number of drives” option, set the number you need and click “OK”.
So, with the question of how to install virtual ultraiso drive, we figured it out. Now let's see if it really exists.
To do this, click start (bottom, left), and select “computer”. Then you should see something like in the picture (I installed two).
If there is, then you can safely place the same disk (ISO) in the virtual drive you created and start using it, this is done easily, provided that the disk is already available.
If you click on one of them right key mouse, a menu will open in which move the arrow to “ultraiso” and click on the “mount disk” option that appears.
After that, in a new window that opens, find the disk, select it, and click open. Further and further, the program will continue to work on its own, after which you will have complete analogue and disk and you can start performing tasks.
- I see from the comments that some people are unable to create a virtual drive using the ultraiso program, so how can I solve this problem? 99% of the time they should help.
In conclusion, I would like to say that sometimes it is impossible to make a copy of some disks, they are protected from this.
Then another program “Alcohol 120” will come to the rescue. It is capable of bypassing almost any copy protection.
A few more words about disks. So that they can work in what you create virtual drive ultraiso program, then they should be in iso format, otherwise nothing will work out.
I wrote above that using the actions described in this article, it is impossible to install operating system. This is not entirely true.
It’s possible, but again it’s virtual. More precisely, you can have several independent PCs on one platform. Then you won’t be afraid of any viruses; you ate one and installed another in a few minutes.