Best Free CD-DVD Emulation Software [1]
Introduction
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.
In this review, free CD/DVD emulation software tools, or emulators, are rated based on the following features:
- Number of virtual disk drives allowed;
- Support ISO and other disk image formats;
- Able to create disk images from CDs/DVDs;
- User interface and other additional features.
Read also Reasons for Using CD-DVD Emulation Software and Disk Image Formats at the end of this article.
Rated Products
Platforms/Download: Windows (Desktop) [6] | [7]
Version reviewed: n/a
Gizmos Freeware [8]
| Our Rating: 5/5 |
|
Read more... [5]
Platforms/Download: Windows (Desktop) [11] | [7]
Version reviewed: n/a
Gizmos Freeware [8]
| Our Rating: 4/5 |
Read more... [10]
Platforms/Download: Windows (Desktop) [14] | [7]
Version reviewed: n/a
Gizmos Freeware [8]
| Our Rating: 4/5 |
Read more... [13]
To be reviewed:
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ISO Toolkit for Windows [15] allows you to run directly from the exe file without the need to install, mount ISO, NRG, or CD images, create bootable ISO images, clone ISO images from a CD/DVD, extract and convert between popular image formats.
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WinArchiver Virtual Drive [16] can mount not only all popular CD/DVD image files, but also all popular archives such as ZIP, RAR, 7Z and more. It's clean and lightweight, supporting up to 24 virtual drives.
Other CD / DVD Emulators
There are a number of other freeware products which were brought up in comments here or noted from other sources. As they are not rated in this review, I am listing them here with brief descriptions and links to the related sites for ease of reference.
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Alcohol 52% Free Edition [17] is a trimmed down version of the commercial product Alcohol 120%. The free version has a limited support for 6 virtual drives and installs an optional Search Toolbar in your browser upon installation of the software. The free program features a CD/DVD Manager and an Image Making Wizard to create image files in ISO, MDS, CCD and CUE format
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Phantom CD [18], a virtual CD/DVD/Blu-ray emulator, supports only one virtual drive, when tested on Windows 7, with mountable image formats including ISO, CUE and VDD. Creating image files is not supported.
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Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel is a free utility released by Microsoft without Product Support Services. It is available for download here [19]. This emulator runs on Windows XP and allows you to add available drives from A to Z or remove them, and mount/unmount images in ISO, UDF, CDFS, ROCK or JO formats. It does not allow you to create image files. Less user friendly. The download file includes a readme text on how to install the driver.
Related Products and Links
You might want to check out these articles too:
- Best Free CD / DVD Burning Software [20]
- Best Free CD Ripper [21]
- Best Free CD Recovery Utility [22]
Reasons for Using CD-DVD Emulation Software
Most users need this software for reasons such as:
- Run CD/DVD images from a hard disk without the need to burn them into disks
- Speed up access time as hard drives are much faster than optical drives
- Backup several disk image files to a new hard drive is much easier and faster than to burn several new CDs/DVDs
- Do not need to keep favorite software, music or game CD/DVD titles on the physical disk drive for them to run
- Prevent CDs/DVDs from scratches or wearing out due to frequent switching
- Keep a copy on the hard drive for running in case a CD/DVD becomes damaged, lost or stolen
- Free up desk space without the need of having disks scattered around, or carry one disk library on a hard drive without the burden of many physical disks
- Run disk images from a netbook or a notebook without a built-in disk drive, or with the disk drive turned off to save power
- Make a disk accessible to users on a network
- Encrypt disk images for security and decrypt themonly when accessed.
Disk Image Formats
These are some image formats used by the emulation software for mounting images to virtual CD/DVD drives or other devices.
- 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 Associationproofread
- UIF: Universal Image File
- VHD: Virtual Hard Disk image
Editor
This software review is copy-edited by Jojo Yee [23]. Please help edit and improve this article by clicking here [24].
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