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Last Update: Sat, 07/18/2009 - 02:18 — Jojoyee
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Introduction
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Having CD/DVD emulation software works like having multiple CD/DVD ROM drives.
The emulation software allows users to run a CD/DVD image directly from a hard disk after mounting the image to a virtual disk drive. This works the same as or even better than the traditional way for users to run a CD/DVD from a physical disk drive after mounting the CD/DVD onto it.
Depending on the emulation software, the number of virtual disk drives can be easily set to more than 10 or 20 at no extra cost, while the number of physical disk drives is usually limited to one that was bought as part of the PC.
Most users need this software for some reasons such as:
Serving most of the objectives, these free CD/DVD emulation software tools, or emulators, are reviewed and rated based on the following features:
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Discussion
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 Gizmo Drive is good emulation software which allows you to mount a disk image in ISO or other formats to a virtual drive using its driver. When an image is mounted, it appears as an actual CD/DVD-ROM drive or hard drive in Windows Explorer.It supports up to 26 virtual drives. Other types of images which can be mounted include VHD, IMG, BIN, CUE, NRG, CCD, MDS, MDF and GDRIVE.
In addition to mounting images to virtual drives, Gizmo Drive allows you to create ISO images from a disk or folder, and burn the contents of an ISO file or a folder to a recordable disk. It comes with a Gizmo Manager and Image Wizard to perform the various tasks.
User interface of this program is informative and helpful. Other additional features include creating a GDRIVE image for simulating a hard drive with compression and encryption, creating a virtual hard drive backed by system memory for better performance in accessing time sensitive data, etc.
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 MagicDisc, also known as MagicISO Virtual CD/DVD-ROM, is another emulator designed for creating and managing virtual CD/DVD drives.It allows you to run many types of CD/DVD images without burning them onto CDs or DVDs. It also allows you to create CD/DVD images from CDs/DVDs and save them into various formats including ISO, BIN/CUE, NRG, UIF.
This program with a simple interface supports up to 15 number of virtual disk drives.
Other features are available such as compress ISO, NRG, CUE, MDS and CCD formats into UIF format, or decompress UIF format into ISO format. The feature for burning images to disks is not supported.
 Another easy-to-use emulator is Virtual CloneDrive. It allows you to double-click an image file to mount it to a virtual drive.This program adds a Windows Explorer context menu for mounting and unmounting the images as well. In this version under review, it has increased the number of virtual drives up to 15, same as the number supported by MagicDisc.
Mountable image formats include ISO, CCD, IMG, UDF, BIN, etc., but NRG, MDF/MDS and some other formats are not supported. The program comes with a Virtual Sheep option which is designed to mark all virtual drives created by the software with its icon, so that you can differentiate them from the physical drives.
Auto-mounting the last image is also included as one of the options. On the down side, Virtual CloneDrive does not provide other features such as creating images from or burning them to disks.
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Other CD / DVD Emulators
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Disk Image Formats
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These are some image formats used by the emulation software for mounting images to virtual CD/DVD drives or other devices.
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| ISO | Standard ISO 9660 image, supported by most emulation software. | |
| BWT | BlindWrite image | |
| CCD /IMG /SUB | CloneCD image | |
| CDFS | CD File System image | |
| CDI | DiscJuggler image | |
| CUE /BIN | Cue sheet and binary image, introduced by CDRWIN. | |
| GDRIVE | Gizmo Drive image | |
| IMG /IMA | Floppy disk image | |
| ISZ | Compressed ISO image, developed by EZB Systems. | |
| JO | Joliet extension to ISO image, specified and endorsed by Microsoft. | |
| MDS /MDF | Media Descriptor image, proprietary to Alcohol Soft. | |
| NRG | Nero Burning ROM image | |
| PDI | Instant CD/DVD image | |
| ROCK | Rock Ridge extension to ISO image | |
| UDF | Universal Disk Format, developed by Optical Storage Technology Association. | |
| UIF | Universal Image File | |
| VHD | Virtual Hard Disk image | |
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2.7 
Unrestricted Freeware 
Windows 2000 to Windows 7 (32-bit /64-bit)
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Editor
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This article is maintained by volunteer editor Jojoyee. Registered site users are allowed to edit and improve this article wiki-style. |
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Tags
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CD DVD emulator, emulation software, freeware, free emulator, virtual drive, virtual burner, virtual RW, virtual ROM, mount CD DVD drive |
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Please rate this article
Alcohol 52% is freeware for 15 days only! This is not true freeware... Once I get to know of this, I lost all enthusiasm to download & use it.
I've checked the developer's homepage again and it still offers two versions of Alcohol 52%, one is free version which includes a search toolbar while the other a 15-day trial version.
What emulator means? Just something that will MOUNT image so we can use it!
If you want to consider burning images, than you must make another category and TRY that programs if they can burn anything, not just to say they can burn.
I can see that optional things during installation process were the most important thing here, not simpicity and reliability. Not to mention plug-ins. Is there any disk that you haven't mounted with Daemon Tools and Alcohol ever?! At least using sd4hide and similar things.
Just wondering if you should be taking MagicDisk off the freeware list. They appear to be charging for it now.
MagicDisc is still freeware. The version is 2.7.106. The link to download MagicDisc from their site is hard to find, I got the link from Google. Here is the link:
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm
Anupam Shriwatri
I'll share why I use MagicDisc, even though I pretty much despise all of its maker's other products...
MagicDisc's maker's other, commercial products are capable of creating a compressed ISO that uses an odd-ball format which even commercial ISO products which are able to read and use Magic's other unique formats can't read and decompress. Maybe they will, in time. But for now, it's very possible to run into an ISO file that SEEMS like it should be openable and usable by something like ImgBurn and others, but it can't be because it was not only created as an ISO by one of MagicDisc's maker's other products, but it was also uniquely compressed thereby, along the way.
By settling on the unassuming little, free MagicDisc as one's virdual drive mounter utility, one also gets the built-in ability to uncompress those uniquely-compressed ISOs so that the likes of ImgBurn (and others) can suddenly start using them. As long as a person has to have a virtual CD/DVD mounter sitting in one's system tray, why not let to serve an important additional purpose... that's what I always say.
So, despite the fact that other products listed here are more full-featured, if all one wants is a perfectly credible virtual mounter, MagicDisc is the one to have.
Plus, as others have pointed out here, Gizmo has become a behemoth suite that's sometimes ill-behaved; and Virtual Clone Drive installs strangely such that even if uninstalled, its driver and startup registry entries linger. And for that reason, it's not easy to really and truly turn off, either. MagicDisc, on the other hand, isn't easy to turn off and make stop auto-starting with Windows within its own settings, but at least if one uses something like AUTORUNS to disable its auto-startup, it actually works. With Virtual Clone Drive, I found that it would sneak itself back on now and then... and I never had the patience to dig-in and figure out why. It just so ticked me off that I removed it... hence my knowledge of how hard even THAT is... or at least CAN be.
I dunno... MagicDisc is just so straightforward and simple; and then it's also got that added, unique ability to uncompress its commercial cousin's weird and proprietary ISO compression schemes so that any ISO handler than then work with them. It's a double-whammy... and the one I most strongly recommend.
__________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
gregg [at] greggdeselms.com
Napa, California
I agree with everything you said! MagicDisc does have one (and only one from what I've found) REALLY annoying quirk though!
Let's say that you right click on the tray icon for whatever reason, but then you change your mind. Normally, with ANY program, you can just click anywhere, n anything and that right click popup/context menu will go away immediately. But not with MagicDisc! You MUST click on something in that context menu, to do something, to make it go away and that is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY annoying!!!
I have written to them about it. But I guess since it's free, they just don't give a crap. (:
But guess what? It is what reads almost all of the images, so we're stuck with it! I do find that while they claim to read Mac images (like .dmg), it simply does not.
that was painful to read
just FYI
MagicDisk fully supports windows 7 32/64!
it's right in the download page..
Many thanks for the update.
WARNING: Gizmo Drive has now been replaced by a suite called 'gizmo Central', which includes a lot of other stuff, including a 'gizmo Toolbar' on your desktop, that you can't get rid of, and which 'updates' itself repeatedly after install.
Another excellent CD/DVD Emulator is Daemon Tools.
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/home
I thought author has mentioned it.
I think Alcohol is best -- Daemon Tools Lite want to install toolbar, and many of others want to automatically start. Daemon Tools Lite need a reboot after install.
Alcohol 52% free also want to install toolbar. It also need a reboot during installation.
The advantage of Alcohol lie in its excellent file manager.
any chance to find a portable Free CD / DVD Emulation Software
You can use Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel if you have access to the windows/system32 folder. Just remember to delete the driver after you finish using it.
TotalMounter 1.30
See also a related thread in our Freeware Forum.
Virtual CloneDrive is now version 5.4.2.5
This is all fairly new to me, so need to ask this question.
How would a person go about backing up on an external hard drive ones purchased cd/dvds? For the reason that they don't last forever and eventually with too many scrathes, etc, they cease to work. Thus I would like to backup some of my purchased software that would allow me to burn another at a later date should the original cease to function.
Thanks.
You may use any of the emulators such as Gizmo Drive or MagicDisc to create ISO files from the software CD/DVDs. ISO files can be saved into any storage device such as external hard drives or thumb drives, etc.
To burn ISO files back to CD/DVDs, see Best Free CD/DVD Burning Software in the Related Products and Links in this page.
Hope the above is helpful.
No mention is made whether and which of these can support the mounting of an ISO image of a DVD-9 disk. I have some DVD-9 ISO files, and I'm having a hard time finding an emulator that can mount them. The registered version of MagicISO/Disk v2.5 couldn't handle them, and neither apparently can the free 2.7 version. WinCDEmu can't either; what occurs with these is that it tries to mount the ISO, but the contents are EMPTY. I tried to install Gizmo, but it barfed. I've downloaded Virtual CloneDrive and DaemonTools Lite, but I don't want to waste more time playing guessing games.
Site mentions CDburnerXP Pro will work with dual layer, try it, see if it works but u will need .net. Good luk.
Slysofts Virtual CloneDrive, the best
Hey, just so you all know, since this was a bit of a show stopper on my computer for a bit. Stay away from MagicDisc if you are trying Win 7 Beta, or I believe Vista as well. Even though it says it works with Vista, it most certainly isn't worth the problems that could happen. It made it so that windows explorer was unaccessable. Meaning, I couldn't get to any files or anything. The only thing that did save me was Revo Uninstaller, but heres the catch... It had to be run in "Safe Mode" boot up, and that was the only way it uninstalled. I say Revo because some versions of MagicDisc does not come with an uninstall exe, and obviously that can cause some issues. Alright, best of luck to all. Have a good one.
Not that I can say I have been running it exhaustively for weeks, but I have been running MagicDisc on Vista and mounting ISOs without problems.
WinCDEmu and the DAEMON tools on the other hand gave me fits. (No uninstaller for WinCDEmu and DAEMON tools brought the CPU to its knees from time to time for no apparent reason).
Well then scratch that for Vista. But as for Windows 7, I, along with many others on forums and such, are having problems with MagicDisc. Anyway, it was just a heads up.
I was not able to get any disk emulation software to work properly on Windows 7, and eventually the Release Candidate crashed and forced me to return to Vista. Well, it was a good preview into the future I guess.
Alcohol 52% toolbar is not mandatory. You can choose not to install it.
Thanks. The toolbar is optional and not mandatory. If not opted out, it will install by default. This is applicable to Free Edition Version 1.9.8.
Some say it is not optional, which is true if they are installing Free Edition Version 1.9.5.
Program (free edition) requires that you install a browser toolbar. Won't let you install the program without the toolbar.
You're wrong. You can install it without the toolbar.
not true at all!
Does anybody know of a freeware Virtual CD Burner? One that can write out cds to an image file. I know of two, Phantom Drive and Phantom Burner, but none of these is freeware. I need one to create a single multiboot disc that will contain all my bootable tools.
This is one of the hot subjects on the new with no available free tool. As you mentioned the Phantom Drive, Phantom Burner and probably the NoteBurner are the only options but they are sharewares as you mentioned.
Seems like the DRM owners and protectors somehow prevent such an effort.
By the way, sometimes this request is misunderstood. This is not to create an ISO from files/folders on the computer. This is in fact to be able to write an ISO image from an application. For instance, you have a playlist in your Windows Media Player and you want to make a CD of it. When you click the burn you can see only the physical Writers. However if you do not want to burn a physical DVD/CD but just to have an image of it, there is no direct way to do it. Or is it? Of course as free?
If you'd like to convert discs (CD/DVD) to an image, the best tool is ImgBurn, and is 100% free, no catches at all! It is a complete disc burning software, except for mounting virtual images and making video discs.
Actually I want to Burn from Nero to an image file, or, when some program prompts me to insert a blank cd to burn a recovery cd, I want that there should be a virtual drive that should be able to emulate a cd writer, so an image file is then created. I can then use magicIso/UltraIso to combine two or more such images to a multiboot disc.
Virtual CD 9 has this feature, but it is a commercial app.
Any Freeware suggestions, anyone?
This article currently covers free CD/DVD emulation software handling virtual ROM drives, basically allowing image mounting and running. So far I have not encountered any recommendable free emulation software handling virtual burners.
It would be a hot find and absolutely good to add in this article if there is one.
Well, it's Total Mounter (Post #25), so your list needs an update now.
And we can also list the commercial alternatives:
1. Virtual CD 9
2. Phantom Burner
3. Phantom Drive
4. Note Burner
All of them can create a virtual cd/dvd writer. (I haven't checked Note Burner though).
BTW, does anyone know of a decent freeware app that can mount zip & rar archives to a virtual drive. There's WinMount, but it's (what do you expect) commercial, and the last time I tried it on a 700 mb zip file, it took more than an hour to mount it, and my pc virtually grounded to a halt. It seems that it copies the entire archive contents to RAM, then sort of creates a RamDrive, so you can imagine what the results would be when you mount GB sized archives with it.
Many thanks for your valuable comment. I've created a thread in the Freeware Forum. Please check it out.
I'm also looking for something like that (Virtual CD Burner). I want to create music CDs, without actually burning it to a CD.
Hi, i'm #19 above. I found it. Total Mounter - free virtual CD/DVD RW Emulator.
I can't find a link to the homepage. Google it, though.
I use MagicDisc and I am particulary happy with it. It can even read some (not all, depending on version) Nero images.
regards
MC
I tried MagicDisk in combination with MagicIso (which is not for free) on my Win98 machine and am pretty disappointed. It caused high instability (many crashes with .UIF and .ISO), the GUI is buggy and it doesn't seem to be able to crack most copy protection.
#21 Addition
MagicDisc is in fact the same as magicIso My bad and yes its free with out the 3oo MB restriction. Live and learn. Tried Gizmo drive, don't like having to to reload the image files after each boot. So I am back with MagicDisc.
The problem with MagicDisk. it is not accurate enough to defeat some of the copyright protections.
That's when I breakout Alcohol 52%. It has good help files that give you step by step instructions to defeat those sneaky copyright protections.
(suggestion) I run both with no problem. six more drives :-) (winxp 32)
I have yet to try daemon tools because I am Leary about trojans and adaware.
Now for a gripe.
I Don't understand these protections. I paid for these games. CD's and DVD's wear out get scratched eaten by the dog etc. We pay for the software/programming not the plastic disc. what gives?
Because if they don't protect them, so many people would steal them/pass them around, that they'd be forced to double their price's. Even Department stores raise prices to cover for theft. (And come to think of it, the last time you wore a book out, did you get the publisher to replace it because you'd already paid for the info in it??)
Funny that this came out today. I spent a couple of hours last week looking for such a solution to use with my Father-in-law's new ASUS EEE1000H netbook (without an optical drive). I tried three of the items. I didn't like Daemon Tools or VirtualCloneDrive. I also tried microsoft's solution, but it is not particularly user friendly (I have no problem, but I want something easy for my Father-in-law.)
I'm looking forward to trying out Gizmo Drive and MagicDisc.
Eoin
Can any of these be used on XBOX 360? I would like to not have to worry about leaving a disc in the machine which the instructions warn vehemently against, while moving the system around (cleaning house, bringing to friends etc.)
**In a way I hope not bcs then I'll regret only getting the 60 GB version.
How about Alcohol 52%? It works well if you don't need a bunch of virtual drives. And I like the feature that lets me drag and drop a bunch of virtual discs into a catalog.
I'm going to give Gizmo a try though. And Virtual Clone Drive. I already use MagicISO as well as PowerISO.
Long ago I used Farstone Virtual Drive and loaded a PC with all my kids games and educational stuff and man, if you have kids, this is the way to go (virtual drives in general I mean). No scratching up the discs, losing them, jamming a drive, etc. And certainly they run way faster.
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