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Virtual iso disk for windows 7. How to create a virtual hard disk and virtual CD-ROM

Free program for creating virtual disks and working with them. DAEMON Tools Lite also supports image files created by other programs (Alcohol 120%, Nero, etc.).

It’s good that in our modern life there is a place for such a useful invention as CDs. They are inexpensive, easy to transport and relatively durable. However, this durability is only possible if a number of conditions are met. We often neglect them and, as a result, end up with a non-working disk, which can then only be used to decorate a room :-)

It also happens that we cannot play our favorite game or use the necessary program without a disk. No matter how hard we try to preserve it, over time it will become unusable. To get rid of this problem once and for all, you need to use special disk drive emulator programs.

One of the most common and, most importantly, free emulator is the program Daemon Tools. It exists in three versions, but only free Daemon Tools Lite. This is what we will talk about.

Installing a Daemon Tools Lite virtual disk

So, you have downloaded the installation distribution of the program. Launch installation. You will be offered select language programs (choose Russian;-)). Then the standard one will start "Installation Wizard". Here you will read and accept the license agreement, and you will also be asked integrate panel Daemon Tools into the browser, and make the Daemon Tools page the starting page. I would recommend that you abandon all these additional settings (it’s unpleasant to turn off the Daemon Tools page every time you want to access the Internet - it’s annoying!).

Installed! Will appear on the desktop and in the tray label programs.

Launching Daemon Tools Lite

You will manage the program from the tray, so the shortcut from the desktop can be removed if desired.

You will have another one in the “My Computer” folder. DVD drive.

This is why we installed the program. You can create up to such drives with Daemon Tools Lite 4 pieces. The program supports many image file formats: *.b5t, *.b6t, *.bwt, *.ccd, *.cdi, *.cue, *.nrg, *.pdi, *.isz, and can also create them herself in the following formats: *.mdf/mds(native program format) and *.iso(standard image file). This means that with Daemon Tools you can open images created earlier using programs such as Alcohol 120, Blind Write, Nero, etc.

You can manage the program by right-clicking on the tray icon. The following will open menu:

The program has Daemon Tools panel, making it easier to access many features. But more about her a little later.

Let's see the tab Virtual CD/DVD-ROM. Here you can set the number of drives (from 1 to 4), and also mount the image on the virtual disk. To do this you need to go to the first option ( Drive 0: No data) and press "Mount image". A Windows Explorer window will open, in which you select the desired image file, and then click "Open". All!!! The virtual disk is ready for use. Now you can open it, copy it or run applications installed on it. You can do the same with three more possible disks: add support for another disk drive and mount the image on it.

Daemon Tools Lite Settings

Now let's look at the tab "Settings".

IN "General" You can configure those parameters related to launching the program. "Autostart" allows you to download Daemon Tools along with the system. "Automatic connection"– this is something like autoloading a disk image for user convenience. If you have the option to check for updates enabled, the program itself will notify you about the availability of a new version. The disk image may be locked by one of the locking systems. In this case, it will not start. You can check this in advance by checking the option "Image lock check". Now, if the image is locked, the program should display a message indicating the encryption algorithm. Knowing it, you can bypass the protection. You can also configure here language programs.

IN "Panel Options" You can:

  • enable or disable the Daemon Tools panel;
  • place it on top;
  • show the panel on top of all windows;
  • configure its integration with the desktop;
  • configure the display of the panel after double-clicking on the program shortcut in the tray.

IN "Settings" on the tab "Hotkeys" You can configure buttons for quick access to the Daemon Tools panel and mounting/unmounting virtual disks. On the tab "Integration" You can check the boxes for those disk image formats that will be automatically opened using Daemon Tools. On the tab "Compound" You can set up an Internet connection to access the manufacturer’s website through a proxy server. And finally, the most fun thing about the tab "Additional". Here you can configure the encryption algorithms that Daemon Tools will bypass when creating images of protected disks. The list is small, but the fact that it exists at all is already pleasing!!!

Now let's get back to what I promised to talk about earlier. This Daemon Tools panel.

Having it can make life much easier for any user. As they say, from right to left :-). The first thing we see is the search bar Daemon Search. With its help, you can search the Internet using it as a search engine.

On the next section of the panel there are two buttons: "Mount"n"Drive" And "Image Creation". The first allows you to quickly mount an image on a virtual drive. You just need to press it and in the window that opens, click on the icon "Add file". Once the image is added to the list, you can quickly download it by double-clicking. "Image Creation" allows you to make an image of any of your disks yourself. To do this, press the button and select the drive in which you have the disk. After that, select the disk reading speed and the final saving path on the computer (by default: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\DAEMON Tools Images\NewImage.mds). Can also be customized Name And format disk image (*.mds or *.iso). To do this, click the button located next to the line with the saving path and below, under the Explorer window, enter a name in the first window, and select the file type in the second.

The next section of the panel allows you to enter settings, which we have already talked about.

The last window displays Availability in virtual drives disks. If you left-click on this window, an explorer window will open where you can select the desired image file. Also on this panel there is up arrow button. By clicking on this button, you will see a small window in which there will be an option unmount all drives. After clicking this button, all virtual disks are automatically unmounted. This is useful, for example, if you need to quickly increase the performance of your system, since each virtual disk requires the allocation of RAM.

This is such a good program we have. Of course, this is not such a “monster” as, for example, Alcohol, which is preferred by many users, but for everyday work you don’t need much. This is an excellent option for owners of systems that do not have disk drives (old computers, netbooks, etc.), as well as those who save every megabyte of RAM and physical memory on their computer!

P.S. This article is intended for free distribution. You are welcome to copy it while preserving the authorship. Ruslan Tertyshny and everyone P.S. and P.P.S.

Daemon Tools Lite is a tool for emulating CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives, a free program for reading and creating virtual images of laser optical discs. Using Daemon Tools Lite, you can create up to 4 virtual CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives in the system and you can use them like regular optical drives, with the only difference that you need to insert electronic impressions, images of optical storage media into them. The Daemon Tools Lite utility is an excellent solution for a computer that does not have a laser drive. Install Daemon Tools Lite and you will be able to create *.iso, *.mdx and *.mds disk images, as well as mount images of *.iso, *.nrg, *.cue, *.vhd, *.ccd, formats into a virtual drive. *.bwt, *.b5t, *.b6t, *.cdi, *.isz, *.dmg.

Reading images

Using a virtual disk image allows you to store information more reliably, because the disk image file cannot be scratched, and the reading speed from a virtual drive is many times higher than the reading speed of a conventional drive; moreover, when accessing a virtual drive, there is absolutely no noise that occurs when a laser disk rotates. Storing information in the form of image files on disk is also convenient, because it does not take up space on shelves. Mounting disks is possible directly from the Explorer window; the program is built into its context menu during installation. Daemon Tools Lite implements algorithms to bypass copy protection Laserlock, CDCOPS, Protect CD, SafeDisc, Securom, StarForce and others, thanks to this, you can emulate both regular and protected disks.

Screenshots of Daemon Tools Lite


A lot of users of personal computers on the Windows platform often ask questions - what are virtual disks and how to create virtual disk. To increase the awareness of our readers on these issues, in this article we will try to fully cover the topic using specific examples.

Also in our article we will look at what it is virtual hard disks and where they are used. After familiarizing yourself with the material, our readers will be able to easily create virtual hard drives and image disks in ISO format, as well as mount them onto a virtual device and burn them to DVD without any problems.

Virtual optical drive and its applications

The main purpose of a virtual disk drive is mounting images optical disks. To understand in detail why it is needed, we will look at an example where an image of a disk in ISO format will be mounted on a virtual DVD-ROM. For this example, we will use the Windows 10 operating system.

A nice thing for owners of computers with the Windows 10 operating system is that it already has a virtual DVD-ROM installed. Therefore, Windows 10 owners will not have to use third-party programs to mount images.

To mount an optical disk image into a virtual DVD-ROM, we need the image itself. For example, we will use image with the Linux operating system Ubuntu. You can download the 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.

Having downloaded the image, you can begin to mount it directly. To do this, right-click on the image file to open the context menu.

The mounted “virtual disk” can be opened and all its contents copied.

As you can see from the example, we mounted an image from the Ubuntu OS on a virtual DVD drive. Essentially, 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 disk. To create an image, we will need the DAEMON Tools Lite program, which must be downloaded and installed. It is also worth noting that in addition to creating different image formats, DAEMON Tools Lite can also mount a huge number of formats into its own virtual DVD drive. After installing the program DAEMON Tools Lite In Explorer you will notice a new drive named ""

This “” is precisely 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 let’s run the utility and go to the “ New look».

In the utility window we find the button “ Create an 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, and also 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 a DVD image with Windows 10.

After creation, we will receive an ISO image file named “J_CCSA_X86FRE_RU-RU_DV5.iso”, which can be mounted or written to a regular disc and installed a new Windows using it.

The example shows how easy it is to burn an image for 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 record images of games or software that will not run without a disc. In addition to the program DAEMON Tools Lite I would like to recommend other popular utilities that can create and allow you to open images of optical disks:

  • Alcohol 120%;
  • Gizmo Drive;
  • WinCDEmu.

It is especially important to use these utilities on an OS that does not have built-in virtual DVD drives, for example, in OS Windows XP. In addition to XP support, 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, which can be written to regular discs.

Virtual hard disk

A virtual hard disk is quite often used by IT specialists, as it allows them to solve many problems with backup, virtual machines and testing of various operating systems. Virtual hard disk is a container file that simulates the file structure of a hard drive.

Since such a disk is a file, it is therefore usually stored on a physical HDD or SSD. Starting with Windows 7, users now have the ability to create and mount a hard disk directly in the operating system.

Let's look at an example of creating a virtual hard disk using Windows 10. First, let's go to the " Execute"using the key combination Win + R and type the following command in it: diskmgmt.msc

This command will take us to the Disk Control Panel.

To create a new virtual HDD, you need to go to the " 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 100 GB virtual hard disk in the new format " VHDX", and also set the switch to dynamic creation mode, in which our disk will grow as it fills.

After setting the parameters of our hard drive, press the OK button, which will allow you to write it to the specified folder on the screw. Once created, the output will be a virtual hard disk named “virtual disk.vhdx”. From the image below you can see that our disk was automatically mounted, but it is still not visible in the system.

For the system to see our VHDX disk, it must be initialized. This can be done by right-clicking on the VHDX disk and selecting “ Initialize disk».

In the window that appears, do not change anything and click OK.

Now the simplest thing left is to select a file system and letter for our disk. To do this, go to it and select the item “ Create a simple volume».

After this, a wizard will launch in which you need to assign a drive letter and select a file system. After completing the wizard, the virtual hard disk will appear in Explorer.

From the example it is clear that creating a virtual HDD using OS tools is very simple, so we hope that you will no longer have the question of 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 using 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 drives. But don’t 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 stage of creating a virtual machine for XP, you will be asked to create or attach a virtual hard disk, which will be used to install Windows XP on it.

At this stage we can attach a VHD disk, which we will create using Windows 10. Therefore, we will try to attach our 30 GB VHD container, which we made in ten. After creating the virtual machine, you can view the attached VHD disk in its settings.

If there is little space in the virtual machine on XP, you can always attach new VHD virtual hard disk. Besides, you can connect containers with various file data to the virtual machine for XP. You can use virtual machine from other software products in the same way. For example, VHD containers can be installed on VMware Workstation products.

Bottom line

From the material reviewed, it is clear that the use of virtual drives and hard drives helps solve many problems much better, especially since even a novice PC user can figure out how to create them. We hope that our material will help our readers better understand the question of how to create a virtual disk and how to use it for work.

Video on the topic

A virtual disk image is extremely necessary for storing very important information. By creating ISO images, you can play any game without having the actual disc. It is enough to create an emulated disk, and then mount it into the drive and you can enjoy the information recorded on it. Today there are dozens of programs from developers from all over the world. Some of them can be purchased, others are distributed completely free of charge. Among such a variety, it is difficult for an inexperienced user to find a truly useful product. Let's look at the best options offered by software manufacturers for producing disk images.

Option 1: CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is a powerful utility that works with any disks and images. Capable of writing, overwriting, erasing data on a disk. It is a free product that has proven itself well among users. Allows you to create any boot disks and save multimedia files to your hard drive. CDBurnerXP easily creates a convenient virtual disk with a *.iso extension. Works with multisession disks in all windows operating systems (7,8,10). To create a virtual ISO image, the user needs to follow 3 simple steps:

Option 2: ImgBurn

Due to its ease of use and clear interface, this free program can be called one of the most convenient. However, even on the official website you will not find a pure executable file. The standard installer package also contains unwanted software.

If this fact doesn’t bother you or you need a powerful antivirus, feel free to take this application and use it. By the way, no suspicious activity was detected in Windows 10, but you should still be careful. Developer website: www.imgburn.com.
ImgBurn is a functional program with a simple interface. With its help, you can create a boot disk for installing the Windows 7 operating shell. When downloading by default, the program is downloaded in English, but, if desired, you can always download the crack file from the official source, and then insert the file with the Russian language into the Language folder.

The application can create virtual images from disks and files. Creating an image from a file is very simple: just click on the appropriate icon and add files and directories to create the image.

Option 3: ISO Workshop

ISO Workshop is another application option for creating an ISO image. Simple interface, works with *. cue. Working with files of this format allows you to record album images in uncompressed form.

The main function of ISO Workshop can be considered the ability to record an image, as well as extract from it. The program allows you to check disks for errors and also erase them. Link to the official resource: http://www.glorylogic.com/iso-workshop.html.

Just select “Convert” and the required window will open in front of you

Option 4: Ashampoo Burning Studio

A convenient program with an attractive interface is absolutely free. Supports a number of formats in addition to the well-known ISO. Works with any disks. Creating emulated drives is just one of the functions of Ashampoo Burning Studio. Using this software, you can easily rewrite discs several times and copy any discs. For those who need to create a virtual disk with files, you should follow the following recommendations:

Option 5: UltraISO

It is difficult to analyze utilities without such a giant as UltraISO. The program belongs to the paid representatives of the family of disk drive emulators. Works with a large number of files, creates virtual disks and writes images to a real optical disk.

DAEMON Tools Lite is a free program for emulating CD/DVD drives and creating disk images. Using Daemon Tools Lite, you can convert physical optical discs (CD/DVD/Blu-ray) into virtual drives to run a disk image directly from your computer without using a physical drive.

Starting with version DAEMON Tools Lite 10, the program has a redesigned interface in the style of Windows 10, and some functionality of the program has been changed. The general concept of the application has changed: in the free version of the program only basic functions remain; the addition of additional features now occurs only on a paid basis.

Computer games and many multimedia programs are recorded on physical media - optical CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs. From such an optical disk the game or program is installed on the computer.

Also, in many cases, in order for a game or program to work, an optical disc containing the game must be inserted into the computer drive. Basically, this is done to protect against the use of pirated software.

Currently, on the Internet you can find a huge number of games or programs saved in various disk image formats. Using a special program - a virtual drive emulator, the user can use the image with the game, running it directly on the computer in a virtual drive.

The DAEMON Tools Lite program creates a virtual drive on your computer that can be used as a regular physical drive. Therefore, the disk image can be launched directly from the computer, from the folder in which it is located.

To do this, the disk image will need to be mounted in a virtual drive. Daemon Tools can bypass disk protection: RMPS, SafeDisc, SecuROM, LaserLock.

Thus, the user can use the game disc image directly from the computer using an optical drive emulator, the Daemon Tools Lite program.

The manufacturer of the DAEMON Tools program has different functional versions of the program for emulating disk drives and for working with disk images. For normal use, the free version of the program - Daemon Tools Lite - is quite suitable.

DAEMON Tools Lite supports mounting disk images of the following formats:

  • .mdx, .mds, .mdf, .iso, .b5t, .b6t, .bwt, .ccd, .cdi, .cue (.ape, .bin, .flac, .wav), .nrg, .isz, . tc, iscsi, .vhd, .vmdk, .vdi, .zip.

In Daemon Tools you can create images from CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs in the following formats:

  • .iso, .mds, .mdx.

In total, you can create four virtual drives in the free DAEMON Tools Lite program. The virtual drive can be used exactly like a physical CD/DVD drive.

The virtual drive supports Blu-ray discs, so if you have a Blu-ray image on your computer, you can open this image using Daemon Tools Lite by mounting this image in the virtual drive.

You can download the free DAEMON Tools Lite program from the manufacturer's official website.

download daemon tools lite

Install DAEMON Tools Lite on your computer. When installing the program on your computer, select a free license.

In earlier versions of the program, after opening Explorer, you could see a new connected device: a virtual drive - BD-ROM drive. There was a program icon in the system tray, from where you could control the program’s operation, mount or dismount images.

In Daemon Tools Lite 10, there is no longer an icon in the notification area. You can control the program from the main program window, or directly from the context menu: opening images, if the corresponding formats were associated with this program.

Daemon Tools Lite program interface

The main part of the program’s main window is occupied by the “Image Catalog” area. The images added to the program will be displayed here. Naturally, if necessary, you can delete images from this directory.

On the left side of the program window there is a vertical panel with tabs. In the free version of the program, you can use the functionality from the “Images” and “New Image” tabs. To use additional features from the “Disc Burning”, “Virtual HDD”, “USB”, and “Writer Drive” tabs, you will need to pay.

In the lower left part of the program window, there are buttons “Settings”, “License”, “Help”.

At the very bottom of the program window there is a panel on which all virtual drives connected in DAEMON Tools Lite will be displayed. When you turn it on for the first time, using the “Scan” button, you can start searching for images on your computer to add the found images to the “image catalog.” You can add images to the catalog manually whenever you want.

In the images tab, you can add images to the “image catalog” using the “Add image” (plus) button, or find the image on your computer using the image search.

Daemon Tools Lite 10 Settings

You can enter the DAEMON Tools Lite settings from the main program window. To do this, click on the “Settings” button (gear) on the panel.

In the “Integration” tab you can change file associations with the DAEMON Tools Lite program.

How to mount a disk image in Daemon Tools Lite

You can mount a disk image with the game in DAEMON Tools from the main program window or from the context menu.

After you add the disk image to Daemon Tools Lite, you can select the image and then click on “Mount”. Otherwise, in the image catalog, you can right-click on the disk image and select “Mount” from the context menu.

Then the installation of this game on your computer will begin.

When mounting an image in the main program window, you can simply drag the image with the game from the image directory onto the “Quick Mount” button.

To add a disk image, you can simply click on the “Quick Mount” button, and then select the disk image on your computer to add it to the drive emulator.

After this, a virtual drive will appear in Explorer - BD-ROM drive with the added image.

How to unmount an image in Daemon Tools Lite

To unmount the image, in the main window of the DAEMON Tools Lite program, you will need to click on the “Unmount all drives” item. You can also move the mouse cursor to the image of the image that is displayed in the virtual disks panel, and then click on the red cross.

The creators of the program have developed a new driver for drive emulation, which works much faster than the previous one. Mounting and unmounting images occurs almost instantly.

How to create a disk image in Daemon Tools Lite

The process of creating a disk image can be started from the main window of the DAEMON Tools Lite program. To do this, in the “New image” tab you will need to click on the “Create image from disk” button. Other image creation options do not work in the free version of the program.

After this, a new window “Creating an image from disk” will open in the “Basic parameters” section. The "Drive" field will display your computer's disk drive. Insert a disc with a game or program into this drive.

You can choose a location to save the image on your computer. In the "Format" field, you can select the format (MDX, MDS, ISO) to save the disk image.

Other settings do not work in the free version of the program, including “Advanced settings”.

Once image creation is complete, the new disk image will be saved in the selected folder on your computer.

Conclusions of the article

A similar program can be installed on a computer that does not have a physical drive (netbooks, some laptops), since such a program - a CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc emulator, can help the user out more than once. You can use the virtual drive in DAEMON Tools Lite 10 like a real drive on your computer.

Using the free DAEMON Tools Lite program, you can create and use a virtual drive to install and run games and programs directly from your computer, without using a physical drive.