Starting from ESET v4, it comes with SysRescue which is a Live CD to boot up a badly infected computer to scan and clean up viruses. However when I wanted to create SysRescue Live CD, I was asked to download and install the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) first. The size of the file is shockingly huge at 1.34GB! After the download had finished, I thought it was a setup file where I could run and install the required WAIK. Then I found out that it was an ISO file. No big deal because I normally use PowerArchiver to extract the ISO file so I can access the files without burning it to a disc. It took merely 2 seconds to extract and there is only 1 README.TXT file in the extracted folder. In the text file it said:
This disc contains a “UDF” file system and requires an operating system that supports the ISO-13346 “UDF” file system specification.
Looks like the older version of PowerArchiver I was using at the time didn’t support extracting ISO-13346 (UDF) images. These days, Power Archiver and most other archiving tools such as 7-Zip and HaoZip are able to extract this type, but at the time I had this problem a lot of them didn’t. I certainly didn’t want to burn the ISO to a disc so the next solution to access the files in the ISO image was to use a Virtual CD/DVD-ROM emulator to mount the image file to a drive letter.
Here are 10 free virtual CD/DVD emulators that you can use to mount images. Some are very simple and small that are just meant for mounting image files but some have more features such as allowing you to create images from a CD/DVD and also emulate CD protections.
The list below is arranged based on the file size (from small to big) of the downloaded installer. The reason is I am looking for a simple software to mount the Windows Automated Installation Kit ISO image.
1. Microsoft Virtual CDRom Control Panel
- There is no official webpage for this tool and you won’t find much information about it on the Microsoft website because they offer absolutely no support for it. At the time of writing, even their own download link doesn’t work! What I like about this tool is it doesn’t require installation and the whole package is very small in size. The program requires a bit of manual work to install the driver though, so you need to read the Readme.txt carefully. Although it’s listed as only XP compatible, I have test it successfully with Vista and Win 7 32-bit.
2. ISODisk
- Very straight forward interface for you to mount an image file and also create an ISO image from a physical disc. However this tool is unable to mount ISO-13346 (UDF) images and there are no double click or right click integration options even though it has to be installed. It supports XP and Vista, Windows 7 32-bit worked but I couldn’t mount to any drive letters above J:.
3. WinCDEmu
- Mounting an ISO image file using WinCDEmu is really easy. Just install and all you need to do is to double click on the ISO image file to automatically mount it to a drive letter. If you want to unmount, just right click on the drive and select Eject. WinCDEmu also has a simple option to create an ISO from a CD/DVD, just right click on the drive in Explorer and Choose “Create ISO Image”. A portable version is available but isn’t as up to date as the installer. There is support for XP to Windows 7 including 64-bit.
4. Alcohol 52%
- Be VERY CAREFUL during install as I counted 4 screens in total for you to opt-out of installing adware! The free version supports up to 6 virtual drives, RMPS protection emulation, can create images from physical discs and a CD/DVD manager that gives detailed information about drives and discs. There is also a downloadable Audio Converter option but again be careful because this installer contains as much if not more adware than the main installer! Alcohol 52% works on Windows 2000 up to Windows 7.
5. MagicDisc
- MagicDisc is created by the same developer of the popular MagicISO. It can mount a wide range of CD/DVD image formats and can also create a CD/DVD image from disc. The program has no GUI and works entirely from the right click context menu in the system tray icon. It supports just about everything from Windows 98 up to Windows 7. Make sure you download the correct version as there are 4 different ones! One for 98,2000 and ME, one for Windows 7 (x86 and x64), and a separate 32-bit and 64-bit version for XP, 2003, 2008 and Vista.
- Virtual CloneDrive is very simple to use, supports a number of different formats and allows up to 8 virtual drives at the same time. While there are no extra options like creating an ISO, usage is as easy as double clicking on an image file to auto mount it as a drive. This is just a simple no frills image mounting utility. Supports from Windows 98 up to Windows 7 64-bit.
- This tool works a little different by mounting ISO images and even ZIP files as a virtual folder. Simply right click on an ISO or ZIP, select “Quick Mount” and the file will turn into a readable folder which you can then browse or execute files. Included is a converter to change various disc image formats to an encrypted ISO, and also an interesting tool to create a Self Mounting Compact File Set. Pismo supports 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions from XP to 7.
8. Phantom CD
- Phantom CD supports XP, Vista and Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. This software installer is quite huge in size compared to the above tools and it can only mount 1 drive letter. There are absolutely no options or extras such as creating an image from disc, you can mount, eject or load the last image. That’s it. This does make you wonder why Phantom CD is nearly 8MB and offers less than something like WinCDEmu which is under 1MB. It also requires a reboot on install and uninstall.
9. Gizmo Drive
- The Gizmo Drive tool is part of a larger suite of tools called Gizmo Central, although you can turn off the other tools during install. This is the only free virtual disc emulator that can create an image from both disc and folder. There are some other useful options like mounting virtual hard disc (VHD) files, and also a function to burn a folder or ISO to disc. Gizmo Drive also has a very handy ace up its sleeve, and that is the built in support to create a RAM Disc. Have a read of our RAM disc article to see how it performs. It works on Windows 2000 up to Windows 7 64-bit.
10. DAEMON Tools Lite
- Be careful during installation because it will ask to install adware. You will also need to select the “Free License” during the install process, and there is also an option to install an online service called Mountspace which has been mentioned in this article. The number of supported image formats is huge and you can also create an image from a physical CD, DVD or Blu-Ray disc. Up to 4 virtual drives are supported including a SCSI virtual drive which can emulate disc protections. Supports from Windows 98 up to Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit.
Thanks for posting this Raymond. Yes, never heard before about Microsoft Virtual CDRom Control Panel. Will give a try. I’m currently using Virtual clone drive. Its easy and doesn’t require a restart during installation unlike daemon tools.
I love gizmo
Thanks a lot
I’ve had a lot of success mounting using WinCDEmu on windows 7. It’s a piece of cake. Just install, find the image, then right-click over it and choose “mount”. You can mount it with any letter too. Piece of cake!
That’s really amazing. Thanks very much.
Everyone has their preference for a basic ISO handler. Mind is PowerISO, which is commercial, but which can be easily found for free on the torrent sites. It’s best-of-breed (yes, even better than MagicISO); and it will now handle MagicISO native files…
…that is, unless they’re compressed. Occasionally, one will encounter an ISO file that was created and then, further, compressed using MagicISO. PowerISO can’t handle that, so that’s where the little free MagicDisc utility (mentioned above) comes in.
MagicDisck can uncompress any file compressed by its parent MagicISO product. Once its uncompressed, then PowerISO (or, really, most any freeware or commercial ISO handler) can take it from there.
So, then, my point is, one should use whatever primary ISO handler that one wants to use. Most of them (including PowerISO) will mount any ISO as a virtual drive. However, because of the MagicISO compression thing, the smartest thing one can do is download and use that free little MagicDisc and let it sit in the system tray. Because it will mound multiple virtual drives, you can just let it be what you use for that purpose. But its REAL value will kick in whenever (if ever) you encounter a MagicISO-compressed ISO that you wish to use with something like PowerISO or ImgBurner or some other much more sophisticated and feature-rich ISO handler.
All of the choices in the primary article are nice and interesting, but with that free little MagicDisc utility running in one’s system tray, one need only add whatever is one’s choice of primary, feature-rich, freeware or commercial ISO handler software, and one will have all one needs… ever.
NOTE: Rememeber that when I say “all one needs” and “ever,” I’m referring strictly to ISO handling, not DVD or CD ripping or decoding or anything else. There are fine utilities for those things. This article just covers CD/DVD virtual drive mounting and the free utilities that will get it done. My point with this posting is to suggest that there’s only one choice from the above because of the vexing problem of how to handle ISO files (of whatever format) which are further compressed by MagicISO. Only the MagicDisc utility, above, will do that, so since one is likely to encounter MagicISO-compressed files in one’s downloading experience, one might as well just get the one tool from the above list that will not only mount virtual drives, but will also handle the vexing MagicISO-related decompression problem. From there, use whatever ISO handler you like.
Or so it is my advice, for whatever that’s worth.
I personally use Virtual Clone Drive, it’s really light weight, size and resources wise, plus it has a sheep on it! but for making my ISO’s and such I use IMGburn.
Alcohol 120 is the best in terms of overall features. Daemon Tools is the best in mounting images and virtual drives. It just lacks writing capability which Alcohol 120 has. My problem is both good programs can’t be installed in my Windows 7 system as of the moment. I think they both installs SPTD layer or something which Windows 7 Beta won’t allow for now. UltraISO works on Windows 7 and I’m using it. You should try it. You can open image files with it without mounting it to virtual drives. You also can edit the image file’s contents and save it. I’m just scouting for other programs of the like for now. Just passing by.. hehe..
i’m using Alchohol 120% and MagicISO. It works great! I use 2 softwares becuase MagicISO can’t mount some files (like MDS) so I use Alchohol 120% (And the other way around)
Thanks Raymond for the info…
gizmo drive been excellent thanks raymond cc
I tried Gizmo drive and it rocks!Thanks for the link
Thanks raymond for the best is magicdisc..
Virtual CloneDrive for me!
Great programs Raymond ,I use allways Power ISO its very good too .
Thx man :-)
I always use Daemon Tools for mounting disk images, I think its the best small utility. :)
Power Achiever 2009 (professional) can also mount an ISO file and it makes the mounted drive physical.
Microsoft Virtual CDRom Control Panel is small and works nicely but it can not make a physical drive like Nero Image or StarBurn. I use StarBurn GAOTD and it works perfectly
ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver is the best ;) thanks john_lennon
Is there any free portable application to mount!
dang i needed this but incase some doesnt work u guys should also try daemon tools
I’ve not been able to run MagicISO in Windows7! For me only POWERISO worked! :(
another one, very good and with source code is ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver: ltr-data.se/opencode.html#ImDisk . The community is active. It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’s not really a program but a driver. Works on XP/Vista.