A lot of users of personal computers on the Windows platform often ask questions - what are virtual disks and how to create virtual disk... To increase the awareness of our readers in these issues, in this article we will try to fully disclose the topic with specific examples.
Also in our article we will consider what is virtual hard disks and where they are used. After reviewing the material, our readers will be able to easily create virtual hard disks and image disk in ISO format, as well as mount them on a virtual device and burn them to DVD without any problems.
Virtual optical drive and its applications
The main purpose of a virtual disk drive is mounting images optical discs. To understand in detail why it is needed, we will consider an example where an ISO image of a disc will be mounted on a virtual DVD-ROM. For this example, we will be using the Windows 10 operating system.
A nice moment for owners of computers with the Windows 10 operating system will be the fact that a virtual DVD-ROM is already installed in it. Therefore, Windows 10 owners will not have to use third-party software to mount images.
To mount an optical disc image to a virtual DVD-ROM, we need the image itself. For example, we will use image with Linux operating system Ubuntu... You can download an image of this operating system on its official website http://www.ubuntu.com. In our example, we will use the image 64 bit Ubuntu version 15.10 which is 1.1 GB in size.
Having loaded the image, you can proceed to its direct mounting. To do this, right-click on the image file to open the context menu.
The mounted "virtual disk" can be opened and all of its contents copied.
As you can see from the example, we have mounted the Ubuntu OS image on a virtual DVD drive. In fact, we were able to do practically what we do with a regular and optical disc, when we insert it into the DVD drive and open it, only in our version all the components are virtual.
Laser disc imaging
In the previous example, we looked at how to open an image disk in a virtual DVD drive. Now let's deal with the situation when you need to create an image of an optical disk. To create an image, we need the DAEMON Tools Lite program, which must be downloaded and installed. It is also worth noting that in addition to creating various image formats, DAEMON Tools Lite can also mount a huge variety of formats to its own virtual DVD drive. After installing the program DAEMON Tools Lite in Explorer you can see a new drive named ""
This "" is precisely the drive of the program in question. DAEMON Tools Lite... In this example, we will create an image of the original Windows 10 installation DVD. To make an image from the 10 installation DVD, insert it into the DVD drive. Now let's run the utility and go to the section " New image».
In the utility window we find the button " Create image from disk"And press it. These actions will take us to the image creation window.
In this window, you can select the DVD drive from which the ISO image will be created, as well as select the location to save it.
We will also select the image ISO format and confirm the creation by clicking the Start button, which will start creating a DVD image with Windows 10.
After creation, we will receive an ISO image file named "J_CCSA_X86FRE_RU-RU_DV5.iso", which can be mounted or burned to a regular disc and installed with a new Windows using it.
The example shows how easy it is to burn an image for a virtual DVD-ROM using DAEMON Tools Lite... In the same way, you can burn images for all licensed Windows disks, be it XP or Vista. In addition, you can record images of games or software that do not start without a disc. Besides the program DAEMON Tools Lite I would like to advise other popular utilities that can create and allow you to open an image of optical disks:
- Alcohol 120%;
- Gizmo Drive;
- WinCDEmu.
It is especially important to use these utilities on an OS that does not have built-in virtual DVD drives, for example, in OS Windows XP. Besides XP support, each of these programs including DAEMON Tools Lite, will be able to burn ISO images to DVD disk. In addition to supporting the ISO format, these utilities can mount other formats, including their own, they can be burned to regular discs.
Virtual hard disk
A virtual hard disk is quite often used by IT specialists, as it allows you to solve many problems with backup, virtual machines and testing of various OS. Virtual hard disk is a container file that mimics the file structure of a hard disk.
Since such a disk is a file, so it is usually stored on a physical HDD or SSD. Starting with Windows 7, users have the ability to create and mount a hard disk directly in the operating system.
Let's consider an example of creating a virtual hard disk using Windows 10. First, let's go to the utility “ Execute"Using the Win + R key combination and type the following command in it: diskmgmt.msc
This command will transfer us to the Disk Control Panel.
To create a new virtual HDD, you need to go to the menu " Action / Create virtual hard disk"Which will open a window to create such a disk.
Starting with Windows 10, it became possible to create a disk from the " VHDX". Unlike the "VHD" format, the " VHDX»Can create containers up to 64 terabytes... Let's make our 100 GB virtual hard disk in a new format " VHDX", And also set the switch to dynamic creation mode, in which our disk will grow as it fills.
After setting the parameters of our hard disk, press the OK button, which will allow it to be written to the specified folder on the screw. Once created in the output, we get a virtual hard disk named "virtual disk.vhdx". From the image below, you can see that our disk was automatically mounted, but it is still not visible on the system.
For the system to see our VHDX disk, it must be initialized. This can be done by right-clicking on the VHDX disk and selecting “ Initialize disk».
In the window that appears, do not change anything and click the OK button.
Now the simplest thing is left, to choose a file system and a letter for our disk. To do this, go to it and select the item " Create simple volume».
After that, a wizard will start, in which you need to assign a drive letter and select a file system. After completing the wizard, the virtual hard disk will appear in Explorer.
The example shows that creating a virtual HDD using OS tools is very simple, so we hope that you will no longer have a question - how to create a virtual hard disk. I would also like to note that with the created VHDX disk, you can do such operations as:
- Encrypt it with BitLocker;
- Install an additional OS on it;
- Move and open it on another computer;
- Connect it to a virtual machine.
Computers based on the Windows XP operating system, which is still quite popular, do not support VHD disks. But do not be upset, because in the utility we reviewed earlier DAEMON Tools Lite there is support for VHD disks and it fully compatible with Windows XP.
Using a VHD disk in a virtual machine
Let's create a virtual machine based on the Windows XP operating system using the VirtualBox program. At the stage of creating a virtual machine for XP, you will be prompted to create or attach a virtual hard disk that will be used to install Windows XP on it.
At this point, we can attach the VHD disk, which we will create using Windows 10. So we will try to attach our 30 GB VHD container, which we made in the top ten. After creating a virtual machine, you can view the attached VHD disk in its settings.
If there is not enough space in the virtual machine on XP, then you can always attach new VHD virtual hard disk... Besides, you can connect containers with different file data to the virtual machine for XP... In the same way, you can use a virtual machine from other software products. For example, VHD containers can be installed on VMware Workstation products.
Outcome
From the material reviewed, it can be seen that the use of virtual drives and hard disks helps to solve many problems much better, especially since even a novice PC user will understand their creation. We hope that our material will help our readers to better understand the question - how to create a virtual disk and how to use it for work.
Related Videos
), because it has all the attributes necessary for this. Still, the main attraction of the product lies precisely in the peculiarities of working with optical disc images.
Alcohol 120% allows you to create images of CD and DVD discs, knows how to deal with some copy protection, allows for up to 31 virtual drives. However, even the simplest CSS encryption used in the production of licensed video products is beyond the power of this program.
The main management tools for the program are concentrated in the left side panel. In imaging mode, you can split the file into segments of arbitrary size. In addition, you can enable the skip read errors mode. There is a whole group of protections based on emulating disk corruption. You will not be able to read its contents in the standard way, as a read 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 DVDs that are more than 2GB in size, you will need to use the MDS format.
The next two items of the side panel menu 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. Alternatively, you can switch to using additional extensions. In this case, the search will include files of any type.
The program allows you to independently change the letters of logical partitions of virtual drives, set the regional DVD code, output analog audio sound to any virtual device (Direct Sound), flexibly configure the modes of burning optical discs.
On the official page of the project, 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 mounted images, and also allows them to be disabled in general. With the right mouse button, you can call the properties of the program.
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 along with the start of the operating system, automatically mount images, use safe mode.
By default, the system tray icon is red. Depending on the formats of the connected images and types of protections, the color can change to green and blue.
In the last three guidebooks, 30 programs were considered, one way or another related to copying information from optical media.
Over the past year, there has been a positive trend in Russia of a gradual transition from widespread piracy to a more or less civilized use of licensed products. The official publishers finally began to pursue a clear and flexible pricing policy, making licensed films available to the general population. Oftentimes, a DVD with a licensed movie costs the same as a pirated one.
There is nothing more valuable than your health. They say that our nervous system is to blame for all diseases. If you are constantly worried about something, if you experience fear, remorse, then the exacerbation of many diseases is not far off. Constant fuss with low-quality screen copies and vague DVDRip, fuss around restrictions for free accounts on file-sharing servers, wolf laws of peer-to-peer networks, mountains of unidentified blanks on the shelves - all this does not add health or peace.
The other day I decided to download a film from the network that I had wanted to watch for a long time. When the download reached about halfway, the connection was cut, and the server did not support resume. I was very upset and began to worry. But realizing that my worries 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 on the hard disk using one of the programs discussed in the guidebooks. Suddenly, the disc gets scratched.
I really hope, friends, that you will not use the software described in the last articles for illegal purposes. And it's not a matter of high morals. Just take care of yourself, your health.
Hello.
In this article, I would like to touch on two things at once: a virtual disk and a floppy drive. In fact, they are interconnected, just below we will immediately make a short footnote to make it clearer what will be discussed in the article ...
Virtual disk(the name “disk image” is popular on the Internet) is a file, the size of which is usually equal to or slightly larger than the real CD / DVD disk from which this image was obtained. Often, images are made not only from CDs, but also from hard drives or flash drives.
Virtual floppy drive(CD-Rom, drive emulator) - roughly speaking, this is a program that can open an image and present the information on it to you as if it were a real disk. There are a lot of programs of this kind.
The best software for working with virtual disks and floppy drives
1. Daemon Tools
Lite version link: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/rus/products/dtLite#features
One of the best programs for creating and emulating images. Supported formats for emulation: * .mdx, * .mds / *. Mdf, * .iso, * .b5t, * .b6t, * .bwt, * .ccd, * .cdi, * .bin / *. Cue, * .ape / *. cue, * .flac / *. cue, * .nrg, * .isz.
Only three image formats can be created: * .mdx, * .iso, * .mds. You can use the light version of the program for home free of charge (for non-commercial purposes). The link is given above.
After installing the program, another CD-Rom (virtual) appears on your system, which can open any images(see above) which you can only find on the Internet.
To mount the image: start the program, then right-click on the CD-Rom and select the "mount" command from the menu.
To create an image just run the program and select the "create a disk image" function.
After that, a window will pop up in which you need to select three things:
The disk, the image of which will be obtained;
Image format (iso, mdf or mds);
The location where the virtual disk (i.e. the image) will be saved.
Conclusions:
One of the best programs for working with virtual disks and floppy drives. Its capabilities will probably be enough for the absolute majority of users. The program works very quickly, does not load the system, supports all the most popular versions of Windows: XP, 7, 8.
2. Alcohol 120% / 52%
Link: http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/downloadtrial.php
(to download Alcohol 52%, when you click on the link above, look for the download link at the very bottom of the page)
Direct competitor to Daemon tools, and many rate Alcohol even higher. In general, in terms of functionality, Alcohol is not inferior to Daemon Tools: the program can also create virtual disks, emulate them, and record.
Why 52% and 120%? It's about the number of options. If in 120% you can create 31 virtual drives, then in 52% - only 6 (although for me - and 1-2 is more than enough), plus 52% cannot write images to CD / DVD discs. And of course, 52% is free, and 120% is a paid version of the program. But, by the way, at the time of this writing, 120% of the version is given for 15 days for trial use.
Personally, I have 52% version installed on my computer. A screenshot of the window is shown below. The main functions are all there, you can quickly make any image and use it. There is also an audio converter, but I have never used it ...
3. Ashampoo Burning Studio Free
Link: https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/7110/burning-software/Ashampoo-Burning-Studio-FREE
This is one of the best programs for home use (and it's free). What can she do?
Work with audio discs, video, create and burn images, create images from files, burn to any (CD / DVD-R and RW) discs, etc.
For example, when working with an audio format, you can:
Create Audio CD;
Create MP3 disk (https: // site / kak-zapisat-mp3-disk /);
Copy music files to disk;
Transfer files from audio disc to hard drive in compressed format.
With video discs it is also more than worthy: Video DVD, Video CD, Super Video CD.
Conclusions:
An excellent harvester that can easily replace a whole range of utilities of this kind. What is called - installed once - and you always use it. There is only one of the main drawbacks: you cannot open images in a virtual disk drive (it simply does not exist).
4. Nero
Site: http://www.nero.com/rus/products/nero-burning-rom/free-trial-download.php
I could not ignore such a legendary package for recording discs, working with images, and in general, everything related to audio-video files.
With this package, you can do everything: create, record, erase, edit, convert video-audio (almost any format), even print covers for recordable discs.
Minuses:
A huge package in which everything is needed and not needed, many even 10 parts do not use the program's capabilities;
Paid program (free test is possible for the first two weeks of use);
Loads the computer heavily.
Conclusions:
Personally, I have not used this package for a long time (which has already turned into a large "combine"). But in general, the program is very decent, suitable for both beginners and experienced users.
5. ImgBurn
Website: http://imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
The program pleases from the very beginning of acquaintance: the site contains 5-6 links so that any user can easily download it (from whatever country he is). Plus add to this a dozen of three different languages supported by the program, including Russian.
In principle, even without knowing the English language, it will not be difficult to understand this program even for novice users. After starting, you will see a window with all the capabilities and functions that the program has. See screenshot below.
Allows you to create images of three types: iso, bin, img.
Conclusions:
Nice freeware. If you use it in a compartment, for example, with Daemon Tools, then the possibilities will be enough "for the eyes" ...
6. Clone CD / Virtual Clone Drive
Website: http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html
Last week we asked you to share your favorite disk image tools, then we rounded up the five most popular responses for a vote. Now we "re back to highlight your favorite. DAEMON Tools led the pack by a comfortable margin with 40% of the vote.
Softpedia.com DAEMON Tools Lite is a software solution that will impress you, especially thanks to its advanced features that can deal with virtually all image formats on the market. Reliable application that creates virtual drives on your computer, providing you with the possiblity to emulate CDs and DVDs for instant access.
PCWorld.com If you spend a lot of time swapping and hence waiting on CDs or DVDs to mount, Daemon Tools Lite is worth its weight in gold. Even if you don "t, it" s a program you should download to keep in your bag of tricks - you "ll find a use for it eventually.
Download.com The advantage is that you can burn the images you "re using with DAEMON Tools Lite right away or just test an image before burning it to see if it was created correctly. DAEMON Tools Lite works with most image formats.
Filecluster.com Pros
- Small and highly stable program.
- Low resource requirements.
- Simple and functional interface ...
Software.Informer.com DAEMON Tools Lite manages to be more comprehensive and feature-rich than many of its competitors. And that "s quite remarkable, especially considering that DAEMON Tools Lite is free while many of its competitors are not.
downloads.tomsguide.com As a disc imaging tool, Daemon Tools Lite "s free nature automatically makes it a lot better than many competing applications simply because it offers most of what they offer at the vastly reduced price of free.
www.techadvisor.co.uk When you have a disc that you know you "ll need to access regularly, then, DAEMON Tools Lite allows you to create an image in just a couple of clicks. This then shows up in its Image Catalog for speedy reloading later, and you can put the real disc away.
techgyd.com Daemon Tools Lite is one of the best software for emulating and organizing your disc images. The software is very easy to use and fulfills all your disc related requirements. The virtual drives support is amazing.
maddownload.com If you are looking for the best software to work with ISO, MDX, MDS, and MDX files? Well, you have come to the right place. DAEMON Tools Lite is an easy and ready to use downloadable software compatible with Windows. It is well known reputable software that gives you the power of having a DVD-ROM emulator right into the comfort of your own home.
GIGA.de Mit dem Daemon Tools Lite Download könnt ihr virtuelle Images erstellen, speichern und einbinden sowie virtuelle Laufwerke emulieren.
CD / DVD-disks are among the most popular external storage media, however, 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 disk. As a result, launching a program from a CD will take significantly longer. CD / DVD-disks stop being read if bad sectors or a lot of scratches appear on them, and this will sooner or later happen during their active use. Another difficulty arises for mobile users - 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 the 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, tutorials, audio discs, etc. when copying them to a hard drive, they often refuse to work. In such cases, you will have to go the other way - create virtual CD / DVD drives on your computer and place images of frequently used discs in them. Technically, this involves two things. First, you need to create the necessary disk image files (that is, virtual CDs) - this can be done using programs for burning and copying CD-DVDs (such as, for example, Nero Burning ROM) and save these images to your hard disk. And then you will have to use a special program-emulator of virtual drives, with which you will need to create the required number of virtual CD / DVD drives and connect to each of them according to the prepared disk image. As a result, you can work with virtual CDs in the same way as with real ones. Moreover, it will turn out to be much faster and more reliable. Why? Everything is very simple. On the one hand, access to information will speed up, since it will be read from a hard disk much faster than from a CD, and you do not have to insert a real disk into a physical drive to start a virtual disk. On the other hand, the likelihood of losing valuable data as a result of disc failure will decrease, because CD / DVD discs themselves are not inserted into the drive, and therefore their surface does not wear out. Moreover, it will become possible to work with several disks at the same time.
DAEMON Tools 4.30.0305
Developer: DT Soft Ltd.Distribution size: DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced and DAEMON Tools Pro Standard - 11 MB; DAEMON Tools Lite - 7.4 MB
Spreading: Shareware DAEMON Tools is one of the most attractive solutions in terms of functionality for emulating virtual drives. This package is presented in three editions: DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced, DAEMON Tools Pro Standard and DAEMON Tools Lite. DAEMON Tools Lite has the most modest capabilities - it does not have a graphical interface (access is made through the system tray) and allows you to create up to four virtual drives and mount images on them. The other two versions already have a convenient graphical interface and provide the creation of 16 to 32 virtual SCSI devices, and DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced can also emulate two virtual IDE devices, which is important for connecting a part of copy-protected CD / DVD disks. As for the images themselves, all three solutions provide for the creation of images from CDs, and not only from ordinary ones (formats Audio CD, Video CD, Mixed Mode CD, CD-Extra, Video CD, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio ), but also from copy protected ones including SafeDisc, SecuROM, LaserLock, RMPS, Hide CD-R, CD / DVD-Cops, ProtectCD, StarForce and Tages. At the same time, almost any image file formats are supported (B5T, B6T, BWT, CCD, CDI, CUE, ISO, MDS, NRG, PDI, ISZ). If desired, images can be easily password protected. The Pro versions also provide image editing, which allows you to add files to the image, as well as replace or delete them in it. Working with images is implemented very conveniently - you can add them to the collection by manually specifying them or by choosing from the list of those found during automatic search (images created in the program itself are added to the collection automatically), and in the collection itself it is allowed to place images in subdirectories (this is more convenient for further orientation). When creating images, their compression is provided, which will be very useful with a large number of images on the disk, however, you can compress only MDS images - images in other formats will first have to be converted to MDS format (possibly only in DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced). Demo versions of the program (there is a Russian-language localization) are fully functional and workable for 20 days. The cost of commercial versions is different - for DAEMON Tools Pro Advanced it is 39.90 euros, for DAEMON Tools Pro Standard - 16.90 euros, and for DAEMON Tools Lite - 14.90 euros. At the same time, the DAEMON Tools Lite version for non-commercial use is free. Since the DAEMON Tools Lite utility is the easiest to use, we will start with it. It does not have a graphical interface, so all operations in this utility are carried out through the system tray. Connecting virtual drives to DAEMON Tools Lite is as easy as shelling pears. First, you will need to install the required number of virtual devices - right-click on the program icon in the system tray, select the Virtual CD / DVD-ROM command and specify the required number of drives.
And then sequentially mount a virtual disk for each of the drives, simply by specifying the corresponding image files on the hard disk for them (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 - an information panel and two windows: an image window and a drive window. The images window is designed to perform various 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 managed to forget 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 do not 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, then you need to create them. To do this, insert the coveted disc into the CD / DVD-ROM, click on the "Create image" button, select the appropriate physical drive (understandably, if there are several drives) and, if necessary, change the disc reading settings on the "Drive" tab. And then on the tab "Catalog of images" enter the name of the image and indicate the output format, then click on the button "Start" and in a couple of minutes get the desired image.
After the collection is filled with images in one way or another, the required number of virtual drives is installed, the corresponding number of times by clicking the "Add SCSI Virtual Drive" button - 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 of the program.
A virtual image is then installed on each of the virtual CD / DVD devices. To carry out such an installation, activate the first image and use the "Mount Image" command from the context menu, followed by an indication of the required virtual drive. After that, a similar operation will need to be carried out with all other images. If it is necessary 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
Developer: Alcohol SoftwareDistribution size: Alcohol 120% - 12.3 MB, Alcohol 52% - 11.5 MB
Spreading: shareware Programs Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52% represent one of the most popular solutions for creating virtual CD / DVD drives. Alcohol 120% includes all the functions of Alcohol 52% and additionally allows you to burn CDs and DVDs from image files or "on the fly" - from source CDs. It is possible to record on several drives at once. With regard to emulation of virtual drives, the capabilities of the programs are identical. With their help, it is easy to connect up to 31 virtual drives on your computer and mount virtual CDs on them in almost any image file format. Source images are added in the image search mode or automatically - the latter if they are created in the Alcohol environment. Support for many CD formats (CD-DA, CD + G, CD-ROM, CD-XA, Video CD, Photo CD, Mixed Mode, Multi-session CD, DVD-ROM, DVD-Video and DVD-Audio) and a variety of protection systems including SafeDisc 2/3/4, SecuROM NEW 4/5/7, LaserLock, Starforce 1/2/3/4, VOB ProtectCD V5. When emulating, you can ignore the media type, the physical signature of the recordable disk (RMPS), the presence of bad sectors, etc. The demo version of the program (there is a Russian-language localization) is operational for 15 days and has a limit on the number of created virtual devices (there can be only six of them). The cost of the commercial version of Alcohol 120% is $ 50, Alcohol 52% - $ 27 In addition, there is also a completely free version of Alcohol 52% FE 1.9.5.4, which allows you to create up to six virtual devices. The Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52% windows are implemented as one vertical and two horizontal panels. The vertical panel is located in the left part of the main program window and is a panel of operations designed to quickly launch the main components of the program. The horizontal panels located in the right part of the main program window are the working windows of the database browser that provide management of images, virtual drives and physical CD / DVD devices.
Emulating virtual CD / DVD drives in Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52% programs requires three steps. At the first, a collection of images is formed. If the images already exist, then they can be connected directly, simply by right-clicking in the free area of the browser window, calling the "Add Images" command from the context menu and specifying the necessary images. Well, if you do not remember where exactly the images are located on the disk, then you can use the search for images (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, then they will have to be created. 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), define the data type and, if necessary, adjust the disc reading settings, and on the next screen enter the name of the image and press the "Start" button.
After the collection of images is formed, virtual drives are connected - this is the responsibility of the "Virtual disk" operation from the "Settings" group, after which you will need to determine the required number of virtual devices. It will also be possible to 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 the virtual disks remain in their virtual drives after restarting or shutting down the computer. Enabling the second will allow you to mount the image file by double clicking on it to the first free virtual drive. After that, you will still need to activate the "File Associations" subsection and mark those image file extensions that are supposed to be mounted in virtual devices. The result of these manipulations will be the appearance in the lower right pane of the program, in addition to the physical CD / DVD devices, of the list of virtual drives that have appeared. By the way, right there it is worth noting that one virtual drive can be created already during the installation of the program, unless, of course, you uncheck the corresponding checkbox during the installation.
Well, now all that remains is to mount virtual CDs to virtual devices using the "Mount to device" command from the context menu. You can mount the image faster - just by double-clicking on it, however, this is only provided that the checkbox "Mount image on Device 0 by double-clicking" was not disabled when connecting virtual drives. To remove an image from a virtual drive, use the Unmount Image command.
Virtual CD 9.3.0.1
Developer: H + H Software GmbHDistribution size: 56.4 Mb
Spreading: Shareware Virtual CD is one of the most multifunctional (but also the most difficult to learn) solutions for emulating virtual CD / DVD-ROM devices, managing virtual CDs and organizing network access to them. The program allows you to create up to 23 virtual drives and connect image files to them in a fairly wide range of formats. These images can be created directly in the Virtual CD environment, connected according to the results of an automatic search, or directly manually. Working with collections of virtual CDs is implemented in the program taking into account the fact that their number can be large - therefore images can be divided into categories, sorted, grouped, searched in the library, etc. When creating images (supported formats CD-ROM, DVD, Video CD, Super Video CD, Photo CD, Audio CD, CD-Text, CD-Extra, Mixed Mode CDs), their compression is possible, and very effective. In addition, images can be converted to VC4 format and password protected if necessary. Editing of images is also provided, in which it is easy to add new files or delete unnecessary ones - this function can be useful not only when using image files on virtual drives, but also in the process of testing them before burning them to a real CD. The latter is also implemented in Virtual CD, in addition, the program can directly copy data from disc to disc and delete data from rewritable CD / DVD. The demo version of the program (there is no Russian localization) is fully functional and operational within 30 days, the cost of the commercial version is $ 39.95.Virtual CD is a combination of two interface modules - Toolbox and CD Management (both modules are called from the system tray, and Toolbox can also be launched from the start menu). The Toolbox module provides direct access to all the main functions of the program.
The CD Management module provides virtual CD and image management.
In Virtual CD, it is more difficult to deal with the options responsible for creating a collection, since they are scattered in different modules, and the total number of various 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, the Add command is called from the context menu and specific images from the folder are indicated.
There are also two ways to add a new virtual drive - using the Add / Remove Virtual Drives command, by activating it from the system tray, or in the CD Management module, by calling the Drive Editor command from the context menu. In both cases, a dialog box for selecting devices opens, where additional drives should be enabled. By the way, if no more than four drives are required, then these operations will not have to be carried out, since by default the program automatically adds four virtual drives to the system during its installation.
Mounting virtual CDs is easier, since this is done by simply dragging and dropping the image onto the drive in the CD Management window, or by installing a virtual CD to the drive via the system tray. The Eject command is responsible for removing the image from the 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 a number of actions to hot keys, as well as the active use of system tray commands, duplicating the basic operations of the Toolbox and CD Management modules.
