How to open mdf file? Files in MDF and MDS format - how to open them

Files with the extension MDF and MDS are files that come in pairs. MDF and MDS files are a disk image that was captured using the Alcohol program. Below we will look at how and with what programs these files are launched on the computer.

MDF and MDS are two paired files. If any of these files are missing on the computer, the image will not work. To run the existing image on the computer, we need to run the MDF file.

There are many programs on the Internet to launch an MDF file, but they still do not, but create a virtual drive on the computer and mount a disk image from the MDF.

Programs for launching MDF and MDS

1.UltraISO

A popular program for working with images. In this program you can not only mount images, but also write information to disk, convert the image to another format, etc. The program is not free, but has a free trial period.

Download UltraISO for free

2. Alcohol 120%

An excellent program for creating virtual drives and mounting MDF images. It has a simple interface, as well as enormous popularity, so any question you have about this program will be answered on the Internet.

The program is not free, but it does have a free version called Alcohol 52%, which is sufficient for most daily tasks.

Download Alcohol 120% for free

Download the program from the official website

3. Diemon Tools

No less popular program, which is actively used for viewing different types disks. The program will create a virtual drive for reading discs, after which it will create an image from the MDF file that will be launched.

The program also has free version, which is quite enough for most users.

Download Diemon Tools for free

Download the program from the official website

If you just need to view the contents of MDF and MDS files, which, in fact, can be opened with any third-party archiver.

Each program presented is a convenient and popular tool among users for working with various images.

Disk images have many saving options: in addition to the well-known ISO file, you can get MDS and MDF files. These two permissions are inextricably linked. The thing is that when creating an image from a CD and DVD, you get both files with different formats, and it is no longer possible to open one without the other. Here you will learn more about why the MDS file is needed and how to open it.

Why do you need an MDS and MDF file?

When you create a CD and DVD disk image and want the images to work exactly like a disk, you have to resort to these formats. Their operation is relatively simple: one file stores information about titles, timecode, playback order of tracks or films, and the other contains the films or audio recordings themselves. So you can't open an MDS file without an MDF. If you try to open the MDF, you will be able to get the contents out, but they will not be organized.

You can record such images again onto a disc, which will be automatically read in audio and DVD players. If you lose and delete the MDS file, the automation will stop working and you will receive separate parts of the files.

How to open MDS and MDF

Any program for unpacking images will work for you:

Ultra ISO;
Alcohol 120%;
Daemon Tools;
MagicISO;
ISO Buster.

If you need free software with a simple installation, it is better to choose the Daemon Tools program. The developer's official website presents several options for the utility, as well as detailed instructions.

Installing Daemon Tools

You can download the installer on the developer’s official website at https://www.daemon-tools.cc

Go to the website and select the “LITE” tab. This version of the program is lightweight, but has all the necessary settings and capabilities. The remaining versions are designed for advanced users and multitasking.

You can choose to buy the publication for you or download it for free.

Installation is quite simple and will not cause you any difficulties: accept license agreement, indicate the installation location, agree to the changes.

After this, the program will be in your Start panel, as well as on the desktop.

Mounting an MDS and MDF image

Speaking correct language, you do not open the image, but mount it, that is, you simulate a physical CD disk in your computer's optical drive. First, you need to create a virtual drive into which you will supposedly insert your image.

After opening the program, click on the “Add drive” line in the left menu.

Set absolutely any letter designation values, leave the drive type as DT, and DVD region as 1. To finish, click “Add drive”.

After this you can start mounting. Click on the round icon in the lower left corner “Quick Mount”.

Select MDS and MDF file, or only MDF. Click “Open”.

Mounting will take a few seconds, depending on the size of the files in the image.

Once the procedure is finished, you will be able to see the contents of your image.

As you can see, it is impossible to open the MDS file separately, since it comes together with the MDF content. You can try to understand the image yourself and organize the files, however, such an image will not be read on audio players, you will not be able to burn it to another disc for reading in various DVD installations.

Often the user is faced with the problem of how to open mdf file. Files with mdf extension there may be various types, but most often these are CD images DVD disc ov in Media format Disc Image File.

A disk image is a file created special program to copy to . This disk image stores the data that was recorded on the optical media, as well as additional information.

In order to access the data stored in the mdf file, you need to install a program for working with disk images and then virtual disk drive. There are many different programs to solve this problem. Both paid and free. In this short review we'll look at some of the most popular ones. So, how to open an mdf file?

One of the most popular programs for working with disk images is free utility DAEMON Tools Lite. After installing this software, the user will no longer have problems opening mdf files. Moreover, DAEMON Tools Lite allows you to open not only mdf files, but also other popular disk image formats. Using DAEMON Tools Lite, create up to 4 virtual drives, which allows the user to open several mdf files at once.

Key Features DAEMON programs Tools Lite:

Mounting disk images. Supported formats: mdx, iso, b5t, b6t, bwt, mds/mdf, ccd, cdi, ape/cue, bin/cue, flac/cue, nrg, isz;
Creation and support of up to 4 virtual drives simultaneously;
Virtual drives can operate in SCSI mode. This allows for improved disk emulation;
Creating disk images. Only iso, mds/mdf and mdx are available for creating images;
Compressing disk images;
Protect disk images with a password;
Cataloging and managing a collection of disk images;
Work in the background;
File association support for mounting disk images from any folder;
Control of the main functions of the program using a gadget on the desktop;
Russian language support;

Alcohol 52%

Like DAEMON Tools Lite this application has a full set of all necessary functions for creating and connecting images CD- DVD discs. Alcohol 52% has support large quantity languages, including Russian. This allows you to work comfortably with the program even if you are not too experienced user. Alcohol 52% allows you to open mdf files, as well as disk images in CCD, ISO, BIN, CUE, CDI, NRG, BWT, BWS, BWI, BWA formats. In this case, the user can simultaneously connect up to 6 virtual drives.

Other features of the Alcohol 52% program:

Supports all popular disc formats. Among which: CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-XA, CD+G, Photo CD, Video CD, Mixed Mode, Multi-session, DVD-ROM, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video;
Supports all ATAPI SCSI drives. Among them: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, DVD-RW;
Supports IEEE-1394 (Firewire) and USB interfaces;

MagicDisc Virtual CD/DVD-ROM

Fast and easy program to create and connect disks. In addition to mdf files, it also supports a huge number of other formats. It also allows you to use up to 15 virtual disks simultaneously.

Other features of the Virtual CD/DVD-ROM program:

Mounting disk images. Supported formats: BIN (CDRWin), CIF (Easy CD Creator), IMA/IMG (Generic disk images), NRG (Nero - Burning ROM), MDF/MDS (Fantom CD), IMG/CCD (CloneCD), VCD (Farstone Virtual Drive) , P01/MD1/XA (Gear), VaporCD (Noum Vapor CDROM), VC4/000 (Virtual CD), C2D (WinOnCD), VDI (Virtuo CD Manager), CDI (DiscJuggler), BWI/BWT (BlinkWrite), TAO /DAO (Duplicator) and PDI (Instant Copy);
Compressing disk images. Works for formats: NRG, ISO, MDS, CUE and CCD in UIF;
Creating disk images. The following formats are supported for creation: BIN/CUE, ISO, NRG and UIF.

More details about the MDF format

So, we have already looked at programs for opening MDF files and in conclusion we will look at the MDF format itself. As we already know, the MDF (Media Disc Image File) format is designed for storing disk images. However, it is designed to create disk images that can bypass copy protection systems. Such systems can often be found on computer game discs.

File in MDF format always accompanied by another file in MDS format. For correct operation The disk image requires both of these files.

The MDF file stores all the data recorded on the CD. In this respect, MDF is much like a regular ISO file. Because of this, the size of the MDF file is close to the size of the data written to the disk.

An MDS file stores metadata about the original storage media. This metadata allows you to bypass protection and run games using only the disk image, without the actual media. The amount of metadata is small, so the MDS file size is small.

MDF and MDS are two paired files. If any of these files are missing on the computer, the image will not work. To run the existing image on the computer, we need to run the MDF file.

There are many programs on the Internet to launch an MDF file, but they still do not, but create a virtual drive on the computer and mount a disk image from the MDF.

Programs for launching MDF and MDS

1.UltraISO

Download UltraISO for free

2. Alcohol 120%

The program is not free, but it does have a free version called Alcohol 52%, which is sufficient for most daily tasks.

Download Alcohol 120% for free

Download the program from the official website

3. Diemon Tools

An equally popular program that is actively used to view different types of discs. The program will create a virtual drive for reading discs, after which it will create an image from the MDF file that will be launched.

The program also has a free version, which is sufficient for most users.

Download Diemon Tools for free

Download the program from the official website

If you just need to view the contents of MDF and MDS files, which, in fact, can be opened with any third-party archiver.

Each program presented is a convenient and popular tool among users for working with various images.

– Igor (Administrator)

There are quite a lot various formats files and it is easy for beginners to get confused in them. For example, not everyone knows that in addition to the ISO format there are other archive files. Therefore, within the framework of this article, I will tell you what they are and how to open mdf and mds files.

So let's get started.

Note: If you are only interested in how to open an mdf file, then there is a corresponding video at the bottom of the article.

What are files with the mdf and mds extensions for?

The MDF or Media Disc Image File format is designed for storing images of CD and DVD discs. In other words, archive file, inside which all the data is stored, in much the same way as it happens with ISO file. Therefore the MDF file usually has enough large size. Along with this file, the kit always comes with a small file with the MDS extension, which stores all the specific data about the original disk. In order for disk data to be usable, both of these files are needed.

Note: Some programs use this format to store your information. Therefore, before trying to open them, I advise you to make sure that you have an mds file with the same name.

How to open mds file?

As already mentioned, an MDS file stores metadata about the disc, namely the CD or DVD title, track information, etc. Therefore, you cannot open it without an MDF file, which contains the data itself. So, if you hear the phrase “how to open an mds file,” then you should mean an mdf file, which will be discussed further.

Note: It is important to understand that although the MDS file is not opened, it should still be located next to the MDF file.

How to open mdf file?

By default, Windows 7 does not have tools for opening an mdf file, so you need to use programs to emulate CD and DVD drives (there are all the necessary links to programs inside the review). In principle, you can use any of them, but in this article I will show you how to do this with using Daemon Tools. The choice was made because it is simple, supports the Russian language and is very easy to use.

Open mdf file with Daemon Tools

First of all, download this program from the review, the link to which was left just above, or enter “Download Daemon Tools Lite” in the search engine. Please note that you need Lite version, since the rest are paid.

During the installation wizard steps, be sure to ensure that " Free license" as below

After the program is installed, an icon with a lightning bolt in a circle will appear at the bottom of the notification area (tray), which is intended for quick access to Daemon Tools. Now, you need to right-click on the icon and select the following "Virtual drives" -> "Add virtual SCSI drive", then wait until the drive is created (it may take a while).

Now that the drive is created, you can load the mdf file into it. To do this, right-click on the icon again and select “Virtual drives” -> “Drive 0:” -> “Mount image...”. After this, a window will open where you will need to select your mdf file.

After this, all the information from the mdf file, in other words, a CD or DVD disc, will be available in the created drive. For example, if you were given an image with a free toy, then most likely a window will appear to select an action (autorun, open as directory, etc.). If nothing appears, then open the corresponding drive letter in Explorer (it is listed next to the selected drive in the menu). For example, if you look at the figure above, “Drive 0:” is the drive with the letter “F”.

And for a snack, a corresponding video.