Download the virtual image. How to create a virtual hard disk and virtual CD-ROM
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.
If you want to take advantage of a disk drive, but you don’t have one in hardware, then you can download a virtual disk for Windows 10, or more precisely, download a program that can create a virtual disk.
Peculiarities
Virtual disks allow you to solve the problem of the real lack of a drive in your computer. Although this problem is most often relevant not for computers, but for laptops and tablets, which in principle do not have disk drives. Therefore, we can recommend downloading a virtual disk:- Owners of laptops without a DVD drive;
- Tablet owners;
As for OS support, the distribution is presented for the 32-bit version. If you have Windows 10 64 bit, you need a different distribution. And if you don’t like this program for virtual disks, you can try using it, it also has similar functionality. Please note that none of these programs increase the actual space on your hard drive; for virtual disks, only what is available is used. If you have problems with space, you can use
MAME - an absolutely free product that will help you play old games on a modern computer that were supplied by developers for game consoles and slot machines. Literally the acronym stands for, Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. When used in conjunction with original arcade game disc images and disc data, MAME attempts to reproduce that game as accurately as possible on a more modern general purpose computer. MAME can currently emulate several thousand different classic arcade video games from the late 1970s to the present.
DAEMON Tools Lite - lightweight in capabilities and some functions, a free edition of the program, the purpose of which is to create virtual drives in the operating system. One of the main features of the application is the ability to create disks, or rather, emulate virtual disk images. The application can safely create images of CDs as well as DVDs. DAEMON Tools support for many modern or popular, in general, widespread image formats allows this software to be the most...
VirtualDVD - a small program, as the name of the application implies, creates a virtual disk drive in the Windows operating system. Distributed by the authors completely free of charge without restrictions, both in functionality and time. This emulator has support for the Russian language, both during installation and in the interface, so to speak, since there is no interface as such.
Alcohol 52% - one of the most famous disk drive emulators, the program creates a virtual CD/DVD drive in the system. Subsequently, you can insert either the created disk image, or an existing previously created one, into the virtual drive. The use of virtual devices has a number of significant advantages over physical ones. The main advantages include reading speed and reliability. When used at home, the user can fully appreciate the benefits of the virtual drive.
WinCDEmu – a free CD, DVD or BD drive emulator, the program is distributed freely, without restrictions, moreover, it is open source. Using this small tool, the user will be able to mount a CD image of such popular formats as ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG into a virtual CD ROM. This is one of the easiest ways to quickly and easily mount a disk image into a virtual drive.
Virtual CloneDrive - creates a virtual CD / DVD drive that behaves in the system in the same way as a physical CD / DVD drive, up to 8 virtual CD-ROMs are supported, but it exists only virtually. Image files generated from CloneDVD and CloneCD can be mounted to a virtual disk from a hard drive or from a network drive and are used in the same order as if you inserted them into a normal CD/DVD drive.
DVDFab Virtual Drive - free virtual disk, is a virtual DVD / Blu-Ray drive emulator. The program can emulate up to 18 discs to work with DVD/Blu-Ray images created by DVDFab and other programs. For example, to play a Blu-Ray backup on a computer with PowerDVD 8 or higher, you need to use DVDFab to create a backup copy of the Blu-Ray ISO image file, and use DVDFab Virtual Drive, mounting the image into the drive created by the program, and then PowerDVD will play yours, for example, a film. DVDFab Virtual Drive is a free program that does not require any costs.
Disk2vhd - a small program that makes it very easy to make a virtual VHD disk from a real one. You can use this virtual disk in Hyper-V or Virtual PC. The utility was created by system tools specialists Mark Rusinovich and Bryce Cogswell, programmers at NirSoft. This small tool can be a very useful tool when administering Windows systems. What is this utility for? If you are an administrator of the above-mentioned operating systems, then you have probably encountered problems more than once that led to you contacting support...
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 will immediately make a short footnote to make it clearer what will be discussed 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 a 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 versions of Windows: 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 to Daemon Tools: the program can also create virtual disks, emulate them, and record them.
Why 52% and 120%? It's a matter of the number of options. If in 120% it is possible to create 31 virtual drives, then in 52% - only 6 (although for me - 1-2 are 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 (and it's 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 an audio disc to your hard drive in 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 a whole range of utilities of this kind. As they say, install it once and always use it. Of the main drawbacks, there is only one: you cannot open images in a virtual disk drive (it simply does not 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 is 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 three dozen different languages supported by the program, including Russian.
In principle, even without knowing English, it will not be difficult for even novice users to understand this program. 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
Users who lived through the early 2000s probably remember the times when films, computer games, programs and music were delivered to our computers only using CD/DVD discs, which were common at that time. Nobody knew about free downloading of data on the Internet, torrents and YouTube. The situation was saved by optical drives, with the help of which information was transferred to the computer’s hard drive.
The rapid development of Internet technologies has called into question the need to have such a component as a “disk drive”. In today's desktop systems and laptops you rarely see a drive. All because of virtual disks, which replaced “blanks” and became commonplace. However, not everyone was able to make 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 for everyone who does not know how to use a virtual CD ROM.
When you might need it
Many may doubt the idea of using an innovation that has caught on with some people and simply continue to use the optical drive, using it to rewrite images and information onto physical media. However, the archaic version loses in some cases, the most common of which are:
- Missing or faulty disk drive. Any part does not have an eternal service life. Sooner or later, a problem may arise, and it’s good if it doesn’t happen at the most necessary moment (which, according to the “law of meanness,” happens often). In addition, the “system specialist” receiving the disk 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 creating it).
- Multichannel. I have rarely come across computers that had multiple disk drives at once. Users who often work with recording and reading discs had to constantly rearrange CD/DVDs. There are no such problems with virtual disks, which means you can work with several at once.
- Convenient data transfer. To exchange information recorded on a disc, you need to personally hand over 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, which, like an optical drive, reproduces (emulates) data from the drive. You can create a virtual disk using special software, such as Daemon Tools, Virtual Drive. Their operating principle is identical, and the functionality is largely similar. For example, we took the last one listed, since its capabilities and tools are very easy to cope with even for a user who is far from such processes.
- First, download the Alcohol 120% program installer using a link from the Yandex disk, or on the developer’s official website. Install it on your computer.
- Let's 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".
- In the menu that opens, manually select the number of virtual disks to be created. Confirm the result by clicking on the OK button.
The drive has been successfully created, which we can see in the “Device” panel or in the “My Computer” folder.
- 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).
- We 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.
- Now you need to read the previously added file. To do this, select the RMB image, and in the drop-down menu select the option "Mount to device".
Work is done. We can see the result in the “Computer” folder, where the installer located in the virtual drive will be listed among the reading devices.
After performing operations with the image, you need to remove 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 from the list "Dismantle image". The disk will be empty again.
If you want to remove the virtual drive altogether, you need to repeat similar steps as when creating it:
- In the available devices, click on the DVD/CD drive RMB. In the list that appears, click “Properties”.
- Set the value back to “0” in the section for selecting the number of virtual disks and click “OK”.
Adding a virtual hard disk
The above opportunities have been available to many for a decade now. The popularity of using a virtual data reader has led to the emergence of a similar phenomenon called a virtual hard disk. This technology allows you to create a file (with a VHD extension) that is displayed in Explorer as a standard partition on your hard drive. Everyone decides for themselves the rationality of using a virtual drive: some reorganize free space on volumes in this way, others even install an OS. Don't forget about the ability to create a secure file container, thus limiting information from attacks by other users.
We will create a virtual hard disk using standard Windows tools (this function is available on Windows 7, 8.1, 10). However, with the help of special software you can achieve a similar result. Daemon Tools Ultra, as well as Disk2vhd, cope with this task most effectively. These programs have separate sections dedicated to creating virtual disks (both drives and drives like HDDs).
- Open the “Run” service by simultaneously pressing the Win + R keys. Enter the command diskmgmt.msc into the empty line and click OK.
- The service will open "Disk Management". In the control menu, activate the "Action" tab, and in it select "Create a virtual hard disk".
- 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 possibility of extending the file.
- The file has been created, but the disk has not yet been initialized. By right-clicking on the disk, select the option "Initialize disk".
- In the next window, you need to specify the partition style (we recommend GUID if you intend to limit yourself to standard capabilities for working with the allocated space).
Connecting the drive after rebooting the PC
Unfortunately, working with a virtual hard disk requires remounting the VHD/VHDX file after each session is completed. Fortunately, we don’t have to create a new disk, initialize a partition, or create a volume. To return the virtual disk to work (emulate data), you must perform the following steps:
We hope that with the help of our article you learned how to create a virtual disk, and also determined the benefits of using it.
We also watch the video