Download an additional disk for your computer. How to create a virtual hard disk and virtual CD-ROM

DAEMON Tools is the best program for creating virtual disks and mounting them (emulating), which significantly reduces disk space and allows you to create backup copies of all necessary files. The main difference between this program and many other similar ones is that the developers of the utility put the interests of their users much higher than everything else. This is evidenced by the constantly updating versions of the program, which is becoming more and more convenient to use and universal in application. The main advantages of the utility include:
- the ability to create images (CD/DVD/Blu-ray) as a file and mount them.
- the ability to replace physical wear of all types of disks.
- a convenient and clear interface will make absolutely no one use the program for all categories of users.
- allows you to use all possible image formats.
- provides the ability to copy boot disks, and also makes it possible to protect saved files with a password, which will ensure complete security for file storage.
In order to be able to use the program, you need to take the following steps.
First you need to download and install the program on your personal computer:

After this, select the desired program components to use and determine the program installation folder. Installation will take just minutes.

After installation, you need to launch the program and select the image creation tab, after which a window will open in which you need to select the disk drive parameters, writing speed, and location of the new disk image. Select the file for the image and its format. It is advisable to specify the maximum reading speed and, if necessary, you can specify a protection password.

When you have finished selecting the parameters, you need to click on the start button and the image will be created automatically in the previously specified folder.
A fairly convenient interface and ease of use are the main advantages of this program, which is designed to greatly secure and expand the range of capabilities of your disk images to 4 different units, which will replace the need to save disks and fear their failure.

Good day everyone!

Regular CD/DVD discs, no matter how sad it may be, are losing their popularity year after year (they used to be sold on every corner ☻). Still, the development of network technologies is doing its job...

Meanwhile, there is another side of the coin - the so-called virtual disks - a separate file(s) made from an exact copy of a physical CD/DVD. They are also called images. The most popular image formats: ISO, BIN, MDS/MDF, NRG, CCD. By the way, now many files are transferred over the network in images (for example, even to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows, you must first download the installation image with the system from the Microsoft website).

You can’t just open such an image, you need (you guessed it) a special one virtual disk drive (or drive. Also called CD/DVD emulators).

In general, I decided to construct this article in the form of questions and answers on working with images (of which there are always many). Along the way, I will present programs that best cope with the task. I think this will make it easier to present the basics to the inexperienced reader. So, let's get started...

The most popular questions about working with virtual disks

❶. How to create a virtual disk/ISO image, etc.

First of all, to get started, I recommend installing one program - Daemon Tools (Lite version, it is free and its capabilities for creating and emulating images are more than enough). And in general, in my opinion, it is one of the best (and most popular, by the way) programs for working with disk images. I definitely recommend installation and review.

Daemon Tools (Lite)

This program allows you to mount almost all types of images, and also emulates the simultaneous operation of up to 4 drives. In addition, the program allows you to burn ready-made images to physical discs, convert from one format to another, create protected images and much more (by the way, some of the functions are paid, unfortunately). The program organizes image storage quite well: you can always find the desired disk from your collection.

And so, let’s say we have several CDs with music and games that are often used, and you are simply tired of inserting them into the drive (and over time, the discs deteriorate, get scratched, and make noise when inserted into the drive). Therefore, it is logical that once you make images of these disks, you can easily and quietly use them.

1) First you need to insert the CD into an actual physical drive.

3) Then you need to specify the drive with the disk, specify the folder where the image will be saved, and the image format (in my example, I chose ISO). To start copying, click the "Start" button.

5) When the image is ready, you will see a message stating that the operation was completed successfully, as in the screenshot below.

In general, that's all. Now you can use this image (you just need to first create a virtual drive, more on that below).

❷. How to create a virtual disk drive/CD/DVD-Rom emulator

Let's use the same Daemon Tools...

First you need to run the program and click "Add drive" (in the left menu of the program).

A new drive should appear at the bottom of the window: in my case, under the letter "F: (blank)".

DAEMON Tools Lite - a new drive has appeared (F:)!

❸. How to open images: ISO, MDF, NRG, etc. and run the application from them

After the virtual drive has been created in Daemon Tools, you can start opening and reading images in it. In general, Daemon Tools opens almost any image: ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG (even archives in 7z, rar, zip, etc.).

At the bottom of the window - left-click on the virtual drive (which we created in the previous step). See screenshot below.

DAEMON Tools Lite - first left click on the drive

If automatic launch of CD/DVD discs is disabled for you (and nothing appears on the screen), go to “My Computer/This Computer”: among the drives there should be a virtual one, with the disk (i.e. image) that we opened.

If you are asked whether to allow this application to make changes, answer in the affirmative (at least for familiar drives...).

❹. How to burn an image to a physical CD/DVD

Daemon Tools, of course, can burn images to physical disks, but this feature is only available in the paid version of the program. Therefore, it is better to use analogues, especially since there are also free versions in this segment.

Why not Nero? Because the Nero package is paid, weighs several gigabytes, is very slow and clumsy. It’s unlikely that many will use even a tenth of its functions (not to mention the fact that most just need to burn a disc and that’s it...).

CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is a free program for burning CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. The program also works great with ISO images, allowing you not only to create them, but to burn them to physical discs. The program supports dozens of languages ​​(including Russian). Works on Windows XP/7/8/9/10.

Main features:

1. record data (files, documents, pictures, etc.) on any type of disk;
2. recording audio CDs;
3. creating and burning ISO images;
4. creating boot (installation) disks;
5. BIN/NRG image converter → to ISO;
6. possibility of printing covers.

After starting the program, click the button "Burn ISO image to disc" (see screenshot below).

Then specify the ISO image to burn, the physical drive, the writing speed (highlighted in yellow in the screenshot below - by the way, do not set the highest speed, errors are possible) and click "Burn disc". In general, that's all - in 10-15 minutes. your disc will be burned!

Burn Settings // CDBurnerXP

❺. What other programs can be used to work and read images?

Alcohol 120%

Alcohol 120% is an excellent and very powerful program for working with images. It does everything: creates images, mounts them into virtual drives, writes them, creates a library on your PC (for quickly searching and reading them).

Although the program is paid, there is a free trial period of 15 days (and there is also a free version with reduced capabilities). In general, I recommend you check it out!

Main features:

1. creation of up to 31 virtual drives;
2. creating disk images (format support: MDF/MDS, CCD, BIN/CUE, ISO, CDI, etc.);
3. recording from disk images: CD, DVD and Blu-ray;
4. erasing discs: CD-RW, DVD-RW and BD-RE;
5. search and create a library from image files on the PC hard drive;
6. Availability of an audio converter for working with audio CDs.

Ultra ISO

Official website: https://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/

A very powerful program for working with ISO images. Allows you to create them from real disks, record them, emulate them in a virtual drive, and, most importantly, edit them on the fly. Those. you can open the ISO image, remove the unnecessary file from it (or add it) and save the image. Actually, this is done very quickly!

In addition, the program will help you create a boot (installation) disk or flash drive. You can also try to compress current ISO images, etc. In general, I recommend that everyone who works with ISO have it on their PC...

Burn4Free

A very reliable and simple program for working with CD/DVD discs. Allows you to perform almost the entire range of tasks that the average PC user may need. With all this, it takes up very little space on your hard drive (several megabytes!).

Main advantages:

• burn CD/DVD discs in a few mouse clicks;
• the program is very easy and simple, the design is made in a minimalist style;
• you can copy audio discs in various formats (WAV, FLAC, WavPack, WMA, etc.);
• support SCSI - IDE/EIDE - SATA - USB;
• Russian language support;
• creating and burning ISO images;
• ability to record MP3 discs;
• support for all versions of Windows: 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2008, 2003, XP, 2000, 98;
• support for most drive models (more than 4000!).

In general, I’ll add on my own behalf that this program worked even in cases where its analogues refused to either start or see the drive. I recommend it to anyone who often works with ISO or optical discs to have in their arsenal.

Virtual Clone Drive

This program is free and designed to create a virtual drive. The program is very simple and reliable. Supports up to 15 virtual drives, fully integrated into Windows Explorer for easier and faster operation.

In general, compared to many similar programs in this spectrum, it stands out noticeably. I recommend you check it out.

Main features:

1. support for all popular image formats: ISO, BIN, IMG, UDF, DVD, CCD;
2. emulation of up to 15 virtual drives (CD, DVD, and Blu-ray);
3. there is a history of using images (for faster search and reading of the desired file);
4. convenient integration into Explorer (now any image can be opened with a couple of mouse clicks!).

Instructions complete...

Happy work!

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 - lightened 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 a 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 specialists in the field of system tools, 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...

), because it has all the necessary attributes for this. But still, the main attractiveness of the product lies precisely in the features of working with optical disk images.

Alcohol 120% allows you to create images of CD and DVD discs, can deal with some copy protections, and allows up to 31 virtual drives. However, even the simplest CSS encryption used in the production of licensed video products is beyond the capabilities of this program.

The main program management tools are located in the left sidebar. In image creation mode, you can divide a file into segments of arbitrary size. In addition, you can enable the mode of skipping read errors. There is a whole group of protections based on emulating disk damage. In the standard way, you will not be able to read its contents, since a reading error will occur in the most interesting place. Alcohol 120% allows you to skip such sectors while still creating an image file of the original disk.

Depending on the amount of source data, you will be offered different image formats. Standard CDs can be copied to CCD, CUE and ISO images, but if you are working with a DVD larger than 2GB, you will have to use the MDS format.

The next two sidebar menu items allow you to burn an optical disc from an image on your hard drive, as well as make an exact copy of the CD/DVD media.

Alcohol 120% contains a tool for searching images inside the local file system. You select the types of images you are looking for, and also specify the search area. In addition, you can switch to using additional extensions. In this case, files of any type will be included in the search.

The program allows you to independently change the letters of the logical partitions of virtual drives, set the DVD regional code, output analog audio to any virtual device (Direct Sound), and flexibly configure optical disc burning modes.

On the official project page you can also familiarize yourself with the Alcohol 52% program, which does not have its own optical disc recording module.

The program places its icon in the system tray. Left-clicking on the icon opens a list of all connected images, and also allows you to disable them altogether. Using the right mouse button you can call up the program properties.

The first item of the Virtual CD/DVD-ROM menu contains functions that allow you to specify the number of virtual drives, as well as manage the connection/disconnection of images. The Emulation menu contains a list of all available protections supported by the program. You can enable their emulation, either individually or all at once.

The program settings include only a few items. You can load the program when the operating system starts, automatically mount images, and use safe mode.

By default, the system tray icon is red. Depending on the formats of connected images and types of protection, the color may change to green and blue.

The last three guides reviewed 30 programs that were in one way or another related to copying information from optical media.

Over the past year, a positive trend has emerged in Russia: a gradual transition from rampant piracy to a more or less civilized use of licensed products. Official publishers have finally begun to pursue a clear and flexible pricing policy, making it accessible to the general public to watch licensed films. Often, a DVD with a licensed film costs the same as its pirated counterpart.

There is nothing more valuable than your health. They say that the cause of all diseases is our nervous system. If you are constantly worried about something, if you feel fear, remorse, then an exacerbation of many diseases is not far off. Constant fuss with low-quality screen copies and incomprehensible DVDRips, fuss around restrictions for free accounts on file-sharing servers, the wolf laws of peer-to-peer networks, mountains of unidentified blanks on the shelves - all this does not add to health and peace.

The other day I decided to download a movie from the Internet that I had been wanting to watch for a long time. When the download reached approximately halfway, the connection was lost, and the server did not support resuming. I was very upset and started to worry. But realizing that my experiences were not worth a penny, I got dressed and ran to the nearest store, buying a licensed disc there. The disk was protected from copying using CSS encryption, but I made a copy of everything on the hard disk using one of the programs discussed in the guidebooks. Suddenly, the disk gets scratched.

I really hope, friends, that you will not use the software described in the latest articles for illegal purposes. And this is not a matter of high morality. Just take care of yourself and your health.

CD/DVD disks are among the most popular external storage media, 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 a hard drive. As a result, launching a program from a CD will take significantly more time. CD/DVD discs become unreadable if they have bad sectors or many scratches, and this will sooner or later happen 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 their luggage. You can avoid such problems by copying information from CDs to a hard drive, but this option will not 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 will need to create the necessary disk image files (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 save 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? It's very simple. On the one hand, access to information will be faster, since it will be read from a hard drive much faster than from a CD, and to launch a virtual disk you will not have to insert a real disk into a physical drive. 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

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 will have to use the automatic search mode (the “Search for images” button).

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 use the “Mount image” command from the context menu, 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

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, 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 forming a collection of images, virtual drives are connected - this is the responsibility of the “Virtual Disk” operation from the “Settings” group, after launching which you will need to determine the required number of virtual devices. You can also enable/disable the checkboxes “Remount images on system reboot” and “Mount image on Device 0 by double-clicking”. 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 one will allow you to mount the image file by double-clicking on it into the first free virtual drive. After this, you will still need to activate the “File Associations” subsection and mark those extensions of the image files that are supposed to be mounted into 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 "Dismount image" command.

Virtual CD 9.3.0.1

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 additional drives should be enabled. 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 by actively using system tray commands, duplicating the basic operations of the Toolbox and CD Management modules.