A program for burning a virtual disk. How to create a virtual hard disk and virtual CD-ROM

A virtual disk image is extremely necessary for storing very important information. By creating ISO images, you can play any game without having the actual disc. It is enough to create an emulated disk, and then mount it into the drive and you can enjoy the information recorded on it. Today there are dozens of programs from developers from all over the world. Some of them can be purchased, others are distributed completely free of charge. Among such a variety, it is difficult for an inexperienced user to find a truly useful product. Let's look at the best options offered by software manufacturers for producing disk images.

Option 1: CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is a powerful utility that works with any disks and images. Capable of writing, overwriting, erasing data on a disk. It is a free product that has proven itself well among users. Allows you to create any boot disks and save multimedia files to your hard drive. CDBurnerXP easily creates a convenient virtual disk with a *.iso extension. Works with multisession disks in all windows operating systems (7,8,10). To create a virtual ISO image, the user needs to follow 3 simple steps:

Option 2: ImgBurn

Due to its ease of use and clear interface, this free program can be called one of the most convenient. However, even on the official website you will not find a pure executable file. The standard installer package also contains unwanted software.

If this fact doesn’t bother you or you need a powerful antivirus, feel free to take this application and use it. By the way, no suspicious activity was detected in Windows 10, but you should still be careful. Developer website: www.imgburn.com.
ImgBurn is a functional program with a simple interface. With its help, you can create a boot disk for installing the Windows 7 operating shell. When downloading by default, the program is downloaded in English, but, if desired, you can always download the crack file from the official source, and then insert the file with the Russian language into the Language folder.

The application can create virtual images from disks and files. Creating an image from a file is very simple: just click on the appropriate icon and add files and directories to create the image.

Option 3: ISO Workshop

ISO Workshop is another application option for creating an ISO image. Simple interface, works with *. cue. Working with files of this format allows you to record album images in uncompressed form.

The main function of ISO Workshop can be considered the ability to record an image, as well as extract from it. The program allows you to check disks for errors and also erase them. Link to the official resource: http://www.glorylogic.com/iso-workshop.html.

Just select “Convert” and the required window will open in front of you

Option 4: Ashampoo Burning Studio

A convenient program with an attractive interface is absolutely free. Supports a number of formats in addition to the well-known ISO. Works with any disks. Creating emulated drives is just one of the functions of Ashampoo Burning Studio. Using this software, you can easily rewrite discs several times and copy any discs. For those who need to create a virtual disk with files, you should follow the following recommendations:

Option 5: UltraISO

It is difficult to analyze utilities without such a giant as UltraISO. The program belongs to the paid representatives of the family of disk drive emulators. Works with a large number of files, creates virtual disks and writes images to a real optical disk.

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 on these issues, in this article we will try to fully cover the topic using specific examples.

Also in our article we will look at what is virtual hard disks and where they are used. After familiarizing yourself with the material, our readers will be able to easily create virtual hard drives and image disks in ISO format, as well as mount them onto 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 disks. To understand in detail why it is needed, we will look at an example where an image of a disk in ISO format will be mounted on a virtual DVD-ROM. For this example, we will use the Windows 10 operating system.

A nice thing for owners of computers with the Windows 10 operating system is that it already has a virtual DVD-ROM installed. Therefore, Windows 10 owners will not have to use third-party programs to mount images.

To mount an optical disk image into a virtual DVD-ROM, we need the image itself. For example, we will use image with the Linux operating system Ubuntu. You can download the 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 has a size of 1.1 GB.

Having downloaded the image, you can begin to mount it directly. To do this, right-click on the image file to open the context menu.

The mounted “virtual disk” can be opened and all its contents copied.

As you can see from the example, we mounted an image from the Ubuntu OS on a virtual DVD drive. Essentially, we were able to do almost what we do with a regular and optical disc when we insert it into a DVD drive and open it, only in our version all the components are virtual.

Creating a laserdisc image

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 will need the DAEMON Tools Lite program, which must be downloaded and installed. It is also worth noting that in addition to creating different image formats, DAEMON Tools Lite can also mount a huge number of formats into its own virtual DVD drive. After installing the program DAEMON Tools Lite In Explorer you will notice 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 installation DVD with the Windows 10 operating system. To make an image from the installation DVD with ten, insert it into the DVD drive. Now let’s run the utility and go to the “ New look».

In the utility window we find the button “ Create an 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, and also 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 written to a regular disc and installed 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 discs, be it XP or Vista. In addition, you can record images of games or software that will not run without a disc. In addition to the program DAEMON Tools Lite I would like to recommend other popular utilities that can create and allow you to open images 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. In addition to 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, which can be written to regular discs.

Virtual hard disk

A virtual hard disk is quite often used by IT specialists, as it allows them to solve many problems with backup, virtual machines and testing of various operating systems. Virtual hard disk is a container file that simulates the file structure of a hard drive.

Since such a disk is a file, it is therefore usually stored on a physical HDD or SSD. Starting with Windows 7, users now have the ability to create and mount a hard disk directly in the operating system.

Let's look at an example of creating a virtual hard disk using Windows 10. First, let's go to the " Execute"using the key combination Win + R and type the following command in it: diskmgmt.msc

This command will take us to the Disk Control Panel.

To create a new virtual HDD, you need to go to the " 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 with the format " VHDX" Unlike the "VHD" format, the " VHDX» can create containers up to 64 terabytes. Let's make our 100 GB virtual hard disk in the 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 drive, press the OK button, which will allow you to write it to the specified folder on the screw. Once created, the output will be 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 in 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 OK.

Now the simplest thing left is to select a file system and letter for our disk. To do this, go to it and select the item “ Create a simple volume».

After this, a wizard will launch 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.

From the example it is clear that creating a virtual HDD using OS tools is very simple, so we hope that you will no longer have the question of how to create a virtual hard disk. I would also like to note that with the created VHDX disk you can do the following operations:

Encrypt it using 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 drives. But don’t 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 asked to create or attach a virtual hard disk, which will be used to install Windows XP on it.

At this stage we can attach a VHD disk, which we will create using Windows 10. Therefore, we will try to attach our 30 GB VHD container, which we made in ten. After creating the virtual machine, you can view the attached VHD disk in its settings.

If there is little space in the virtual machine on XP, you can always attach new VHD virtual hard disk. Besides, you can connect containers with various file data to the virtual machine for XP. In the same way, you can use virtual machine from other software products. For example, VHD containers can be installed on VMware Workstation products.

Bottom line

From the material reviewed, it is clear that the use of virtual drives and hard drives helps solve many problems much better, especially since even a novice PC user can figure out how to create them. We hope that our material will help our readers better understand the question of how to create a virtual disk and how to use it for work.

Video on the topic

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

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

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

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

DAEMON Tools Lite is a free program for emulating CD/DVD drives and creating disk images. Using Daemon Tools Lite, you can convert physical optical discs (CD/DVD/Blu-ray) into virtual drives to run the disc image directly from your computer without using a physical drive.

Starting with version DAEMON Tools Lite 10, the program has a redesigned interface in the style of Windows 10, and some functionality of the program has been changed. The general concept of how the application works has changed: the free version of the program retains only basic functions; the addition of additional features now occurs only on a paid basis.

Computer games and many multimedia programs are recorded on physical media - optical CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs. From such an optical disk the game or program is installed on the computer.

Also, in many cases, in order for a game or program to work, an optical disc containing the game must be inserted into the computer drive. Basically, this is done to protect against the use of pirated software.

Currently, on the Internet you can find a huge number of games or programs saved in various disk image formats. Using a special program - a virtual drive emulator, the user can use the image with the game, running it directly on the computer in a virtual drive.

The DAEMON Tools Lite program creates a virtual drive on your computer that can be used as a regular physical drive. Therefore, the disk image can be launched directly from the computer, from the folder in which it is located.

To do this, the disk image will need to be mounted in a virtual drive. Daemon Tools can bypass disk protection: RMPS, SafeDisc, SecuROM, LaserLock.

Thus, the user can use the game disc image directly from the computer using an optical drive emulator, the Daemon Tools Lite program.

The manufacturer of the DAEMON Tools program has different functional versions of the program for emulating disk drives and for working with disk images. For normal use, the free version of the program - Daemon Tools Lite - is quite suitable.

DAEMON Tools Lite supports mounting disk images in the following formats:

.mdx, .mds, .mdf, .iso, .b5t, .b6t, .bwt, .ccd, .cdi, .cue (.ape, .bin, .flac, .wav), .nrg, .isz, . tc, iscsi, .vhd, .vmdk, .vdi, .zip.

In Daemon Tools you can create images from CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs in the following formats:

.iso, .mds, .mdx.

In total, you can create four virtual drives in the free DAEMON Tools Lite program. The virtual drive can be used exactly like a physical CD/DVD drive.

The virtual drive supports Blu-ray discs, so if you have a Blu-ray image on your computer, you can open this image using Daemon Tools Lite by mounting this image in the virtual drive.

You can download the free DAEMON Tools Lite program from the manufacturer's official website.

download daemon tools lite

Install DAEMON Tools Lite on your computer. When installing the program on your computer, select a free license.

In earlier versions of the program, after opening Explorer, you could see a new connected device: a virtual drive - BD-ROM drive. There was a program icon in the system tray, from where you could control the program’s operation, mount or dismount images.

In Daemon Tools Lite 10, there is no longer an icon in the notification area. You can control the program from the main program window, or directly from the context menu: opening images, if the corresponding formats were associated with this program.

Daemon Tools Lite program interface

The main part of the program's main window is occupied by the “Image Catalog” area. The images added to the program will be displayed here. Naturally, if necessary, you can delete images from this directory.

On the left side of the program window there is a vertical panel with tabs. In the free version of the program, you will be able to use the functionality from the “Images” and “New Image” tabs. To use additional features from the “Disc Burning”, “Virtual HDD”, “USB”, and “Writer Drive” tabs, you will need to pay.

In the lower left part of the program window, there are buttons “Settings”, “License”, “Help”.

At the very bottom of the program window there is a panel on which all virtual drives connected in DAEMON Tools Lite will be displayed. When you turn it on for the first time, using the “Scan” button, you can start searching for images on your computer to add the found images to the “image catalog.” You can add images to the catalog manually whenever you want.

In the images tab, you can add images to the “image catalog” using the “Add image” (plus) button, or find the image on your computer using the image search.

Daemon Tools Lite 10 Settings

You can enter the DAEMON Tools Lite settings from the main program window. To do this, click on the “Settings” button (gear) on the panel.

In the “Integration” tab you can change file associations with the DAEMON Tools Lite program.

How to mount a disk image in Daemon Tools Lite

You can mount a disk image with the game in DAEMON Tools from the main program window or from the context menu.

After you add the disk image to Daemon Tools Lite, you can select the image and then click on “Mount”. Otherwise, in the image catalog, you can right-click on the disk image and select “Mount” in the context menu.

Then the installation of this game on your computer will begin.

When mounting an image in the main program window, you can simply drag the image with the game from the image directory onto the “Quick Mount” button.

To add a disk image, you can simply click on the “Quick Mount” button, and then select the disk image on your computer to add it to the drive emulator.

After this, a virtual drive will appear in Explorer - BD-ROM drive with the added image.

How to unmount an image in Daemon Tools Lite

To unmount the image, in the main window of the DAEMON Tools Lite program, you will need to click on the “Unmount all drives” item. You can also move the mouse cursor to the image of the image that is displayed in the virtual disks panel, and then click on the red cross.

The creators of the program have developed a new driver for drive emulation, which works much faster than the previous one. Mounting and unmounting images occurs almost instantly.

How to create a disk image in Daemon Tools Lite

The process of creating a disk image can be started from the main window of the DAEMON Tools Lite program. To do this, in the “New image” tab you will need to click on the “Create image from disk” button. Other image creation options do not work in the free version of the program.

After this, a new window “Creating an image from disk” will open in the “Basic parameters” section. The "Drive" field will display your computer's disk drive. Insert a disc with a game or program into this drive.

You can choose a location to save the image on your computer. In the "Format" field, you can select the format (MDX, MDS, ISO) to save the disk image.

Other settings do not work in the free version of the program, including “Advanced settings”.

Once image creation is complete, the new disk image will be saved in the selected folder on your computer.

Conclusions of the article

A similar program can be installed on a computer that does not have a physical drive (netbooks, some laptops), since such a program - a CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc emulator, can help the user out more than once. You can use the virtual drive in DAEMON Tools Lite 10 like a real drive on your computer.

Using the free DAEMON Tools Lite program, you can create and use a virtual drive to install and run games and programs directly from your computer, without using a physical drive.

Daemon Tools Lite is a tool for emulating CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives, a free program for reading and creating virtual images of laser optical discs. Using Daemon Tools Lite, you can create up to 4 virtual CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives in the system and you can use them like regular optical drives, with the only difference that you need to insert electronic impressions, images of optical storage media into them. The Daemon Tools Lite utility is an excellent solution for a computer that does not have a laser drive. Install Daemon Tools Lite and you will be able to create *.iso, *.mdx and *.mds disk images, as well as mount images of *.iso, *.nrg, *.cue, *.vhd, *.ccd, formats into a virtual drive. *.bwt, *.b5t, *.b6t, *.cdi, *.isz, *.dmg.

Reading images

Using a virtual disk image allows you to store information more reliably, because the disk image file cannot be scratched, and the reading speed from a virtual drive is many times higher than the reading speed of a conventional drive; moreover, when accessing a virtual drive, there is absolutely no noise that occurs when a laser disk rotates. Storing information in the form of image files on disk is also convenient, because it does not take up space on shelves. Mounting disks is possible directly from the Explorer window; the program is built into its context menu during installation. Daemon Tools Lite implements algorithms to bypass copy protection Laserlock, CDCOPS, Protect CD, SafeDisc, Securom, StarForce and others, thanks to this, you can emulate both regular and protected disks.