Hello everyone, the author of the blog site is with you, today we will talk about creating virtual drives and disks, their purpose and consider a few useful programs. Many new laptops no longer have an optical drive, so they can't play CDs or DVD discs to watch movies, install a game or software. If it becomes necessary to have an optical drive in a computer purely for show, then you can use the services of programs that allow you to create virtual disk drives.
Saving the image backup disk in case of disaster - or just setting up new hard drives- is critical and time-consuming, and any confusion or problems with the software can be frustrating. Video tutorials and online communities are great support options and are something you can rely on for most manufacturers of such software. The best options offer big choice direct and indirect information resources for you.
Our practical tests designed to mimic typical, real-world software experiences. For our tests on disk imaging software, we purchased the software from the company or used full-featured tests whenever possible. Companies have nothing to do with our testing methodology, and our rankings do not apply to them prior to publication.
Before touching on the topic of virtual drives and virtual disks, I will say a couple of lines of text about virtual ISO images, it is also important to read the article, which discusses additional software tools. The same article discusses additional programs on the topic of this article.
What is a virtual disk and why does it have different extensions
CD / DVD images are a file that contains a copy of all the files of a given optical drive while maintaining a number of other parameters (boot sectors, autoload, type file systems and so on). Most often they have the ISO extension, but this is not the rule. May have extensions NRG, BIN and others. It all depends on the burning program in which the impression was created. Yes, ISO files are usually created with .
Imaging Software: Our Verdict and Recommendations
The software is cheaper than any other item in our lineup and still has decent cloning, storage and virtualization functionality. It has a modern, easy-to-navigate interface and plenty of options for creating, converting, burning, and editing image files.
From creating a simple backup to mounting a cloned image to a virtual machine, there are many uses for disk imaging, and the applications we've reviewed have the tools you need to get your job done. Whether you're planning for the next catastrophic system failure, hoping to deploy your own clone army virtual machine or worry about downloading erroneous programs, the right disc imaging software can make this possible.
It is important to note that virtual disk images are often created as a transitional link when copying primary data, or quite purposefully. Because they can be used to create identical copies of the original drive, you can use them as a backup and then store them on your hard drive. One of the advantages of using snapshots, compared to physical drives, is that they do not become unusable with frequent use. As you may have guessed, by creating a virtual drive on the computer Windows disk, you can then mount an image on it, which will be perceived by the system as a physical medium.
These days, it's all about uploading. And if you ask me is this The best way go because optical drives are now quite outdated. Disk backups are annoying to do and even more annoying to save them. Meanwhile, digital files are much easier to manage and think about buying a drive to store backup files?
And yes, it's entirely possible that your computer will be able to read and run these digital copies without having to write them to physical discs first! The wrong thing most people do is just copy and paste the contents of the disc into your computer. This may work if the disk contains nothing but data files. But this will backfire if the drive is meant to be run, e.g. video games, installers operating system etc.
Origin of virtual drives and disks
Virtual drives originated at a time when CDs and DVDs were still ubiquitous. There were many reasons, the main ones were computer games. Those, over time, began to spread on several media, and the player had to constantly alternate them.
There was, therefore, nothing more difficult than creating a virtual media image, saving it as an ISO file or some other file (depending on the program used), and mounting it in a Windows virtual optical drive. This approach saved the player from a lot of inconvenience, although in most cases, it was about the fact that the player did not have the original disc, or he needed to return the original.
Instead of just copying individual files, the disk image records the full state of the disk when the image was created. Disk images are much easier to deal with because you can connect them to virtual disks, thus avoiding the need to connect a physical optical drive to your computer.
What is a virtual drive for?
Virtual Disk is a piece of software that can download and run disk images. If the disk image is a digital equivalent physical disk, then the virtual disk is the digital equivalent of the physical disk. You can think of "installing a disk image on a virtual disk" as "inserting a digital disk into a digital disk".
Game and software manufacturers began to prevent this problem and tried to develop various degrees of copy protection for original discs. The virtual disc drive kept up with them, and several specialized programs were created that were only intended to photocopy the game and were able to emulate the various protection mechanisms of the original discs.
For me, the biggest reason for using disk images and virtual disks is performance. Not only hard disks and SSDs are faster than optical drives, you also bypass having to wait for the optical drive to spin up.
If you need a copy of a video game or operating system, you can get off the Internet for free. It's really that simple. Now you can move the image on the disk wherever you want, for example external HDD for safe storage. When you need to run an image, you'll want to mount it to a virtual drive, as described below.
Things are a little different today, with optical storage taking a backseat, and there are changes in the gaming space as well. And although the development of programs for creating virtual disk images is not so rapid, they themselves are very convenient and are used everywhere.
Specialized programs for mounting virtual media into virtual drives work in such a way that one or even several drives appear in the system with the casts in them, which are perceived as real optical media.
Many free apps can actually mount images for you, including my computer no longer has optical discs. This way you only need to install one thing. If you're only going to mount one disk image at a time, that one disk will probably be all you need and you won't need to create any others.
If you want to create additional virtual disks, follow these steps. This is the biggest cause of user frustration today, but is it justified? Most of the time it doesn't matter which one. . Some people use disk imaging as a way to encourage copyright infringement, but most users just use it for legitimate backups and copies. It must be said that we only indulge the latter.
What is and why you need a virtual disk image
Many computer users have had to deal with installing an operating system from a CD or DVD drive. We will not touch on such things now, but simply take it as a fact - there is a CD-ROM, when booted from which a console window appears with instructions for installing WindowsXP. We used such a disk once, second, third, ... tenth, and ... realized that it is not eternal and it would be possible to create a copy of it and save it on a computer. Next, burn all the copied files to a brand new CD, which will be in reserve.
Disk image. Applications
And if you don't already backups, we recommend starting right away. It's much easier than you think and you never know when it will come in handy. Think of it like insurance: we never tire of reminding you that you back up and keep your data safe.
What drives are you backing up? How to help support our free projects. Using virtual disks, these files can be quickly accessed at any time. It does not require installation. This requires not only the necessary equipment, but also time, nerves and money in the form of disk blanks.
But now, the day of the PI is coming, the old CD with the installation XP has fallen into disrepair, and we decided to use our reserve. However, to our surprise, the system stubbornly refuses to boot from the new installation CD. The reason for this inappropriate situation is that the computer is dumb. The user understands that on this disk, at its root, there is a file like setup.exe, by running which, it should start Windows installation xp. However, the computer does not care what is there and how it is called, it focuses on the boot sectors of the disk, and if there is nothing to execute there, then it will simply ignore the contents of the drive. This is where the concept of a virtual disk image comes into play.
Create Virtual Disks - "Insert Virtual Disks"
You can also delete the image in normal mode- in File Explorer, right-click on the drive to open the " Accounts", and select "Extract".
Disc number and supported formats
In this case, however, the images cannot simply be double-clicked to install - otherwise it will be integrated into the first drive and previously mounted. Through context menu, which is achieved by right-clicking on the image file, you can select the drive in which the disc should be inserted.
Simply copying the files will not save the correct placement of the data in the right sectors. For this they serve special programs, which allow you to make a snapshot of the desired optical drive and save it in one file, making a virtual image file desired disk. It is so accepted that in most cases, a virtual disk is saved in a file with the ISO extension, hence the more popular expressions such as iSO file / image came from. There are several formats that provide storage of a disc impression at once ISO, CUE, MDF, CDI, BIN and so on, but the ISO format is the most commonly used and most supported by various programs.
Additional information and other features
This can be done using the "Upload image file" function. This is also the reason for the lack of a portable version of the program. In addition, you can instruct the program to automatically mount the last inserted image on startup, or create a history of the most recently used image files. The program can also be integrated into the taskbar - through the appropriate icon you can access it at any time and manage virtual drives and mounted images.
If there are flash drives, why then create virtual disks?
Logically, but everything is not as simple as it seems. So, some games could not be launched without the presence in the drive installation disk, and here virtual disk images came to the rescue, which were then mounted on virtual drives perceived by the system as physical devices. Among other things, it is convenient to store various (rescue disks) in virtual disks, which can then be easily added to a multiboot flash drive - we use a virtual disk image with Windows 7, 10, LINUX in addition, and several RESCUE DISKs, and create our own multiboot flash drive in case of critical situations.
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Due to unrelated system files these movies, music albums and games have yet to be launched from the disc. When using virtual disks, you don't have to look for a physical copy of the disk before using it. Content can also be accessed on tablets or netbooks that do not have external storage.
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Among other things, you can create your own virtual ISO disk image, which will contain files and folders from hard drive. So, if you have a large collection (several gigabytes) of documents and books on the same topic, then you can put them all in one ISO file. Remember that the process of copying one file is faster than several. And unlike a RAR/ZIP archive, access to packed files will be much faster, just mount virtual disk images on virtual drives and that's it, you can work.
Virtual disks - our program highlights
A manual is often available so that the use of virtual disks can be achieved directly and without problems. Using the software, up to four virtual disks are created on your hard drive. With a few clicks on a request, multiple virtual disks can be created.
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This allows you to use image files without writing them to a blank disk.Mouse click image file
If the image is present in the data type associated with the software, it can simply be installed to the virtual drive by double-clicking on it. Alternatively, you can integrate image files by right-clicking them and then selecting "Upload Image File" or by opening the program icon in the information area of the taskbar by right-clicking the program icon.
How to create and open a virtual disk
Strange as it may seem, but the creation or opening of virtual ISO images disks or files is also vague. Let's note a number of factors related to virtual ISO disk images:
- Ability to group multiple files into one with the extension ISO, CUE, MDF, CDI or BIN.
- Opening a previously created snapshot for editing without the need to bind to a virtual drive.
- Creation of a virtual drive/drives with the ability to mount virtual images of any disk format (ISO, CUE, MDF, CDI, BIN, and so on).
- Availability additional features to create snapshots of copy-protected drives.
As you can see, there are quite a few aspects. For the most part (if not to say that with all), the programs discussed in this article cope, and the famous NERO can do a lot.
Makes the burner often redundant
Among other things, you can also specify whether the software should remember recently uploaded files or automatically insert the latest image. It is also recommended that you restart your computer after installation. You must agree to the correct operation of the program. This opens up many possibilities.
Create virtual disks
The biggest benefit of virtualized hard drives: The drive is disconnected from computer equipment. First, you initialize the virtual disk file. Now the red mark is gone and you can format your virtual drive. To do this, right-click in the area indicated on the right, labeled "Not Assigned".
DAEMON Tools line for working with virtual images and drives
I could not ignore such a popular product as DAEMON Tools. On the official website, users are offered several options for programs, from the free DAEMON Tools Lite to the super functional and paid DAEMON Ultra. I will say right away that to work with virtual drives and virtual disks, you will have enough free version DAEMON Tools Lite. If you plan to create entire virtual hard disks and are well versed in computer hardware, then DAEMON Tools Ultra will help you.
Convert hard drive to virtual drive
In the next step, list the command. To create a virtual disk, click this command. You can change the details. Wait until the disk is created. Close the window command line double click. This can be done by entering " Backup and Recovery" in the search box on the taskbar and clicking the entry for the same program. Go to "Create a system image" in the left column. In the next window, select the target drive.
They are in the first subfolder. We have summarized the most important innovations in this video. Another way to access this window is to right click on "Computer" and then click on "Manage", the "Computer Management" window will open, and then go to "Disk Management".
How to create a virtual disk with DAEMON Tools Lite
DAEMON Tools Lite- this is one of the most famous and popular software products for emulating virtual optical drives. This allows you to save the original media, which, in case of intensive use, simply becomes less durable. The program is also useful for owners of computers that lack CD/DVD drives, for example, those popular in Lately laptops.
The appropriate option is selected and the window is accepted. Display disk space. As you can see in the previous figure, the disk has already been created, but you need to assign a volume or label, that is, a letter that does not match with another physical or virtual block that the machine has. To do this, right-click on the part where is Disco? is unknown and the option "Initialize Disk" is selected, which will bring up the following window.
Mounting images using regular Windows tools
You can now see how the virtual drive no longer appears as "Unknown" but as "Primary". Finally, right-click on the part where it says "Unassigned" and select the "New Simple Volume" option. Where to do the next steps.
The application automatically installs a special driver for virtual drives. In the system, such a device is visible, like any other equipment of this type, for example, a DVD drive. IN physical device we put the disk on a tray and close the drive, in DAEMON Tools Lite - the role of the disk completely replaces the image file on the hard drive. We mount the image on the drive, that is, we indicate in the program from which file to read the data. The mounted image behaves like a normal disk, such as launching the game's main menu. The only trouble is that when reading from such a virtual device, there is no automatic sound generation of the mechanical components of the drive. In addition, several such virtual devices can be created simultaneously.
This solution is very convenient, however, it requires the creation of an appropriate virtual disk image (its exact copy), which will be located on the computer. DAEMON Tools Lite also comes to the rescue here - the program can create virtual image files of any disk and save it in one of the popular formats, such as ISO. The formats themselves, the program supports, however, much more, more than 10, in particular, MDS, CUE / BIN, NRG, CCD, CDI, and, of course, ISO. In addition, if, for example, the original disc is lost, and we still have its virtual cast, we can burn the appropriate media using the additional Astroburn Lite application recommended by DAEMON Tools Lite.
The main features of the package:
- Creation of virtual DT and SCSI drives - if you do not go into technical issues, then some CD / DVD copy protection programs take into account the drive connection interface. DT - suitable for emulating simple snapshots without copy protection, a virtual SCSI drive is needed if you need to mount an image of a virtual protected disk.
- Create a virtual disk from media in mdx, mds or ISO format.
- Ability to mount virtual disks of various formats on virtual drives.
DAEMON Tools Pro - program for virtual disks and drives
DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced is the largest release of the DAEMON Tools package. This is very popular instrument to emulate virtual optical disc drives, recording and media management. The application is appreciated among users from all over the world for several reasons. First of all, it is distinguished by its simplicity and clear action. It also offers all the functions you need for everyday use. The package can be divided into several main modules:
Management and maintenance of virtual drives
The application allows you to create virtual devices that will be visible from Windows Explorer and standard elements. What is very important, the tool does an excellent job with the most popular technologies that protect media from copying. Also important is the large number of supported virtual disk image formats (MDX, MDS/MDF, ISO, B5T, BWT, CCD, CDI, BIN/CUE, APE/CUE, FLAC/CUE, NRG, ISZ). The built-in manager allows you to change settings for DT, SCSI and IDE controllers. We can change the visibility of the drives, the letters assigned to them, the mount point, manufacturer/model name, DVD region or search.
Disk Image Editor
The application has been equipped with a module for managing the contents of CD/DVD/DVD DL virtual disk images, which is served by drag and drop. Information about the current disk space usage will also be useful. DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced allows you to convert pictures to MDF/MDS, MDX or ISO formats. The data can be additionally password protected, compressed or split into chunks.
Data recording
The tool offers basic functions related to burning discs. The user can delete the contents of a rewritable disc and record a normal/protected snapshot.
Other features:
- maintenance of ISO9960, ISO9960 + Joliet and UDF systems,
- built-in search system disk images,
- viewing media and drive information (manufacturer, write speed, model, revision, supported recording modes, free/used space, project type and name),
- the ability to disable some confirmations and messages,
- catalog and history of recently used images,
- creating boot disks/images,
- mounting images to local NTFS folders,
- agent running in the system tray (next to the clock).
It is possible to use the program via the command line, which will be especially useful for system administrators. The program integrates with Explorer. The installer also allows you to copy a Windows gadget that offers access to the application's most commonly used features.
The main features of the package:
- In addition to DT and SCSI virtual drives, you can also add virtual IDE and HDD drives to the system. Simply put, the program allows you to add to the system not only a virtual drive, but also virtual hard disk of given size and file system.
- More advanced options for creating virtual disks or data. Plus, there are tools for writing information to media.
Creating a Virtual Disk with DAEMON Tools Ultra
If you believe the information on the manufacturer's website, then this version of the DAEMON Tools package offers the most features. In fact, everything that was said above can be attributed to this version. The following qualities are distinctive:
- Create bootable flash drives.
- Support for RAM disks.
- Simulation of virtual burners.
- Ability to set a password on a flash drive.
Personally, I didn’t particularly like this version, because the program interface and the menu in the taskbar are too cut off.
Working with virtual disks and drives in MagicDisc
Magic Disc is a free and very simple program for working with virtual drives and disks. Since I am not a demanding PC user, and I do not need to create complex virtual systems to deceive the protection, then, having become acquainted with MagicDisc, I decided to use these tools instead of Daemon Tools. The program can be downloaded from the official website magiciso.com. On the same site, there are several add-ons to the program that allow you to create virtual disks and edit them.
setup_magicdisc.exe- page address magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm. After starting the program, the MagicDisc icon will appear in the taskbar near the clock. If you right-click on the icon, a menu will appear in which you can specify the number of virtual drives, as well as select a virtual disk file to mount. You can immediately proceed to create a virtual image from a given disk, saving it in ISO, NRG, UIF or BIN / CUE format. If desired, you can add password protection.
Setup_MagicISO.exe– address of the page magiciso.com/download.htm . This is a complete program for creating and editing virtual images with a wide range of features. To use the tool without restrictions, you need to register it.
Thank you for your attention. Blog Author
A 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.).
How 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 possible only under certain conditions. We often neglect them and, as a result, we get a non-working disk, which then can only be used to decorate the room :-)
It also happens that we cannot play our favorite game or use the right program without disk. No matter how hard we try to save it, over time it will become unusable. To get rid of this problem once and for all, you need to use special drive emulator software.
One of the most common and, most importantly, free emulator is the program Daemon Tools. It exists in three versions, but only free is Daemon Tools Lite. She will be discussed.
Installing the Daemon Tools Lite Virtual Disk
So, you have downloaded the installation distribution of the program. Run installation. You will be offered choose language programs (choose Russian ;-)). Then the standard will run. "Setup Wizard". Here you will read and accept license agreement and you will be prompted integrate panel Daemon Tools into the browser, and make the Daemon Tools home page. I would recommend that you refrain from all these advanced settings(it's unpleasant every time you want to get into the Internet, turn off the Daemon Tools page - it's annoying!).
Installed! On the desktop and in the tray will appear label programs.
Launch Daemon Tools Lite
You will control the program from the tray, so the shortcut from the desktop, if desired, can be removed.
In the "My Computer" folder, you will have another DVD drive.
This is why we installed the program. With Daemon Tools Lite, you can create up to 4 pieces. The program supports many image file formats: *.b5t, *.b6t, *.bwt, *.ccd, *.cdi, *.cue, *.nrg, *.pdi, *.isz, and can also create them itself in the following formats: *.mdf/mds(native format of the program) and *.iso(standard image file). This means that with Daemon Tools you will be able to open images created earlier with programs such as Alcohol 120, Blind Write, Nero, etc.
You can control the program by clicking on the tray icon with the right mouse button. The following will open menu:
The program has Daemon Tools panel, which simplifies access to many features. But 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), as well as mount the image on a virtual disk. To do this, go to the first option ( Drive 0: No data) and press "Mount Image". A Windows Explorer window will open, in which you will select desired file image, and then click "Open". All!!! The virtual disk is ready to go. Now you can open it, copy it or run applications installed on it. You can do the same with three more possible drives: add support for another drive and mount the image on it.
Daemon Tools Lite Settings
Now let's take a look at the tab. "Settings".
IN "General" You can configure those parameters that relate to the launch of the program. "Autostart" allows you to load Daemon Tools with the system. « Automatic connection» - this is something like autoloading a disk image for the convenience of the user. If you have enabled the option to check for updates, the program itself will signal you about the presence new version. The disk image can be blocked by one of the blocking systems. In this case, it will not start. This can be checked in advance by checking the box "Image Lock Check". Now if the image is locked, the program should display a message indicating the encryption algorithm. Knowing it, you can bypass protection. You can also set up here language programs.
IN "Panel Options" You can:
- enable or disable the Daemon Tools panel;
- put 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" tab "Hotkeys" You can customize buttons to quickly access the Daemon Tools panel and mount/unmount virtual drives. On the tab "Integration" you can check off 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 in 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 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 it, you can search the Internet using it as a search engine.
There are two buttons on the next section of the panel: "Mount" n "Drive" And "Creating an Image". The first allows you to quickly mount the image to a virtual drive. You just need to click it and in the window that opens, click on the icon "Add file". After the image is added to the list, you can quickly download it with a double click. "Creating an Image" 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 save path on the computer (by default: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\DAEMON Tools Images\NewImage.mds). You can also set up Name And format disk image (*.mds or *.iso). To do this, click the button located near the line with the saving path and at the bottom, 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 about which we have already spoken.
The last window displays Availability V virtual drives disks. If you click on this window with the left mouse button, an explorer window will open, where you can select the desired image file. Also on this panel 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 will be 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.
Here 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 a great 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. It is welcome to copy it with the preservation of authorship Ruslan Tertyshny and all P.S. and P.P.S.
