How to open files from a hard disk image. ISO

The disk image is virtual file- a copy containing all the information from any physical medium. There is no way to do without a program for mounting disk images if the computer has content presented in the format of a virtual clone of a CD/DVD disk. Below we will look at five ways to Windows system mount the disk image so that its contents are available in the virtual drive.

How to make a disk image using standard Windows tools

First, let's look at the standard functionality for mounting CD/DVD images in Windows 8.1.

Time of creation Windows versions 8, from which the standard functionality for working with disk images migrated to all successor versions - Windows 8.1 and 10 - was due to the massive phenomenon of manufacturer failures computer devices from the configuration of their drives. CD/DVD disks were becoming obsolete, and the lack of a drive reduced the final cost of individual laptop models and PC assemblies. Microsoft, in fact, had no choice but to implement the standard ability to connect disk images, at least only in the popular ISO format, so as not to take bread away from developers third party software. So, if in the version of Windows 7 mounting disk images is only possible using third-party software, then users will be able to view the contents of the disk itself in ISO format using the system.

So how do you mount an ISO disk image in Windows 8.x and Windows 10? In Explorer, select the ISO file, call the context menu and select the “Connect” command.

That’s it – the image is mounted and visible in the virtual drive. You can start viewing its contents in System Explorer.

Programs for creating a disk image

Mounting images in Deamon Tools

Deamon Tools is the market leader software to create a disk image. The first version of Deamon Tools appeared in 2000, and, despite the fact that its analogues were released onto the software market earlier, it immediately quickly gained popularity due to its friendly user interface and free Lite edition, which was more than enough for home non-professional use . Daemon Tools works with almost all disk image formats. The program's operation is unnoticeable even for low-power devices, since it uses a minimum system resources. The free Lite version contains limitations - in particular, it is the ability to simultaneously mount only 4 virtual drives. Whereas in the paid version Pro Advanced, 32 drives can be mounted on the computer.

Relatively recently, Daemon Tools has changed dramatically, and the classic interface has been replaced by dullness and wretchedness, but with the utmost clear description functions and clear internal organization of sections. The functionality of the program has been expanded, but not everything is available in the Lite version. Naked demonstration of individual functions without the possibility of using them is a marketing ploy to encourage users to purchase the paid version.

Daemon Tools Lite 10 is available for free download on the developer's website.

Important point during installation - select an option free license.

Among the innovations in the Daemon Tools version is the option to scan your computer to detect disk images and display them in the internal library. Well, let's take advantage of this opportunity.

After scanning, all possible virtual CD/DVD and hard disks. Select the desired type, open the context menu and execute the “Mount” command.

As before, disk images can be added to the Daemon Tools interface one at a time using the quick mount button.

To unmount a virtual drive, call the context menu on its connection icon at the bottom of the program window and select the appropriate command.

How to mount an image using UltraISO

UltraISO is a mega-program designed for professional use. Among its capabilities are the following: creating images of CD/DVD discs, burning them to discs and editing without unpacking, optimizing the structure to save space, converting from one format to another, etc. This program is also a reliable and proven tool for creating bootable flash drives.

UltraISO is a paid software product. The free trial version is of little use if we are talking about making full use of most of the features. Thus, the trial version has limitations due to which it will not be possible to create or burn an ISO file whose weight is more than 300 MB. In our case, when we are talking purely about mounting a disk image into a virtual drive, this limitation does not apply. Therefore, you can safely download the trial version with a Russian-language interface from the UltraISO developer website.

After launching UltraISO, you will see a small window telling us about the limitations of the trial version and encouraging us to purchase the paid version. Click the “Trial period” button.

In the program window, open the “File” menu and click the “Open” button.

Add the image file.

Expand the “Tools” menu and select “Mount to virtual drive” among the available commands.

A small window will appear where you need to select the mount button. The button next to it - “Unmount” - must be used, respectively, to extract the CD/DVD disk image from the virtual drive.

How to burn an image to disk in Alcohol 52%

Alcohol 52% Free Edition is a free, stripped-down version of the well-known CD/DVD emulation program Alcohol 120%. Unlike the latter, the paid Alcohol 52% allows you to mount a limited number of virtual drives at the same time - up to 6 pieces. In the free version of Alcohol 52% Free Edition, this number is completely reduced to a minimum - only 2 parallel virtual drives. Also free version does not provide for recording discs onto blanks.

A free trial version of the utility can be downloaded from the link from the developer’s official website.

At the time of writing this article, it was not possible to download the program installer using the browser downloader, but the problem was successfully resolved using the download manager Download Master.

Tricks of developers who want paid versions to be purchased from them software products, no limits. In the case of the trial version of Alcohol 52%, we will not just look at the demo window with an offer to buy full version program, but you will even have to wait a few seconds until it becomes active button launch the "OK" program.

In the Alcohol 52% program window, expand the “File” menu and select “Open”.

Add the required file to the program window, open the context menu on it and select the “Mount to device” command.

To extract the image from the virtual drive, open the context menu again and select the “Dismount...” command accordingly.

The fastest way to mount and unmount a virtual drive

The methods for working with virtual drives within programs are discussed above. But there is a more convenient, faster way to mount and unmount a virtual drive. If Daemon Tools Lite is installed with a program that opens ISO files by default, you can mount the drive by opening the image as a regular file by double-clicking from the system explorer. In the case of the UltraISO program, the disk image will be instantly added to the program window for further actions. But Alcohol 52% will simply open, as with a normal launch, however, it is also convenient.

If the default program was not assigned during installation, this can be done manually at any time. To designate the program that opens a particular type of ISO file by default, find any of them in Windows Explorer and in context menu select Properties.

Click the change application button.

If the desired program not in the list, select "Advanced", scroll down to the end of the list and click the option to search for another application.

Specify the program launch file in the installation folder.

Apply the changes.

Now in the system explorer the CD/DVD image file will be displayed as the program icon by default and will open in this program upon startup.

The easiest way to unmount a virtual drive is in System Explorer. Among the commands in the context menu called on the mounted drive, there is a function to eject the disk.

After this, the virtual drive will disappear.

Have a great day!

Hi all!

I have some unpleasant news for you: in a couple more years, CD-DVD discs, as storage media for computers, will die out... as unnecessary.

Don't you agree? Then please comment!

When you download something from the Internet, very often you come across files with the following extension: .iso or .nrg or .mdf.

These extensions denote a disk image file or, in other words, a virtual optical disk, a kind of archive into which all the files from the real disk are collected. And working virtual disk, like a simple CD or DVD-ROM, with all the goodies in the form of autorun or menu. Only now, you need to open such a disk with a special program, which will be discussed below.

A small remark: In fact, if you need files from a virtual disk, it is not at all necessary to use special programs; a simple archiver, for example 7zip, is quite enough. Open the disk image with an archiver and unpack it like a simple archive.

There are many programs for virtual disks, but I have always stuck to the option of being universal and free, so I use the program Daemon Tools, which will be discussed further. You can download the program.

Download and install

Oops, I almost forgot - download it Lite version, all other versions are paid...

Have you downloaded it? Amazing! Launch the file and perform the installation. The installation scheme is standard with the only caveat: when you are asked about the version, answer like this:

Although, if you have a paid version, then choose the option for the paid version accordingly.

Well, a few more points to install:

In this window we leave everything unchanged:

And in this window, we cancel the collection of statistics, there is no need for any bourgeois to know what images we are installing

It seems that everything is left, the only difficult choice left is whether to install Yandex Elements or not. I don’t like them, so I’m canceling them, and you decide for yourself.

Usage

The installation was successful, I hope? Let's move on...

Actually, there is nowhere to move, all that remains is to launch the program from the Start menu or from the Desktop and take advantage of the achievements of modern technologies.

There should be a window like this, in which we see two windows above and below and a row of buttons between them.

We will need the button on the far left called Add Image. Click on it and find required file, for me this is a course on Photoshop, for you it can be a movie, a game or anything else, but only in the required disk image.

After selecting a file and clicking OK, the file should appear in the top window.

All. Left or right click mouse select the mount item or click on the triangle (third button from the left). It’s even easier to mount the image by double-clicking on the file.

The virtual disk is working, if the image contains autorun, then after installation the autorun should work. If there is no autorun, you can open the disk in a standard way: Start –> My Computer –> Virtual Disk.

Conclusion

There are a lot of programs for working with virtual disks, for example ALCOHOL120% and Nero, but they are all paid and represent a whole multimedia center that allows you to create virtual disks, burn real ones and much more, but is such a combine needed? home computer, this is still a big question.

Do you still have any questions? Ready to answer!

P.S. A little dessert, be sure to watch to the end, great cats:

Thanks everyone for your attention! See you in the next article...

Sincerely yours !

An ISO file, also called an optical disc image, is an ideal representation or BD. It allows you to accurately duplicate the entire contents of a disk in a single container. This article introduces the ISO disk image and the most effective methods for using it.

Purpose and format

An ISO file is like a box containing parts of something that needs to be assembled, like a disassembled children's toy. The box containing the individual pieces is not a real toy, but if you take them out and put them together, they become something you can play with.

An ISO file works much the same way. It itself, if not opened, assembled and used, is unsuitable for anything.

Disk images do not have a special format. They are a sector-by-sector copy of the data on an optical disk, stored in binary format. The file contains the image file system, including data stored unchanged.

File extension

Some non-ISO 9660 disc images are marked with a UDF extension.

Images may have other designations. For example, uncompressed IMG files are in ISO format, so their extensions are interchangeable.

You should be aware that the ISO designation is also used for Arbortext IsoDraw Document files, which are CAD drawings created with the PTC Arbortext IsoDraw application. They have nothing to do with the ISO disk image.

Where can I find ISO files?

Disk images are often used to distribute large programs online because all of their components can be written as a single file.

An illustration of this could be the free password recovery tool Ophcrack, which contains an operating system and several software products. Everything the application needs is packaged in one file. The distribution name of one of the Ophcrack versions looks like ophcrack-vista-livecd-3.6.0.iso.

This is of course not the only program that uses ISO files. Many applications are distributed this way different types. Most bootloaders come in ISO format. antivirus programs. For example, the Bitdefender Rescue CD looks like bitdefender-rescue-cd.iso.

In all of these examples and many more, all the necessary components of any executable tool are included in the ISO image. This makes it easy to download and burn to a disc or other device.

Even Windows 10, like previously Windows 8 and 7, Microsoft company distributes directly in ISO format. This allows the operating system to be removed or mounted on virtual machine.

How to Burn ISO Files

The most common way to use disk images is to burn them to a CD, DVD or BD. This process is different from saving music and documents because the software must "harvest" the contents of the ISO file for a CD, DVD or BD respectively. Experts advise using this method in case you need to install an operating system, install software on many different PCs, or run diagnostic applications. Availability of physical boot disk provides greater flexibility when installing the OS or testing the operation of the equipment.

Burning an ISO image is not only a way to distribute software. In some cases this is a necessary necessity. For example, many diagnostic tools are used only outside the operating system. This means that before you can open the ISO disk image file, you will have to burn it to some kind of removable media, from which the computer can boot.

All of the above also applies to USB devices, which have become much more popular than optical disks.

If you need to perform actions on the ISO file using Windows, but its extension is already associated with another application, you should go to its properties and change the default program for opening an ISO disk image to isoburn.exe, stored in the system folder C:\Windows\system32\.

Recording software

Windows 10, 8 and 7 allow you to burn ISO images to discs without using third-party software. Just double-click on the file and then follow the wizard's instructions. Owners of other operating systems may need additional application. Typically, computers with a CD burner will already have this software installed. If it is not there, then, according to experts, best choice The programs are PowerISO, Active ISO Burner, Free ISO Burner, ImgBurn, ISOBurn, ISO Workshop. All these applications are free, allow you to create intros, menus, sections and provide high-quality and fast image recording.

How to extract ISO files

Some programs are distributed in ISO format but are not intended to be downloaded. For example, in this form it is proposed Microsoft Office. The image is designed to be written to an optical or virtual disk, but since it doesn't need to be run outside of Windows, it won't boot from it.

How to open an ISO disk image if there is no physical copy of it? Most archivers, such as the free programs 7-Zip or WinRAR, can handle this task. They are capable of extracting the contents of the ISO file into a separate folder. It can be viewed like any other directory on your computer. Although this folder cannot be captured as an image, being able to access its contents can be useful. For example, if you downloaded Microsoft Office as an ISO disk image, instead of transferring it to physical media, you can extract setup files and then install the program as usual.

Each archiver requires a different sequence of actions. You can quickly get to the contents of a disk image using 7-Zip. To do this, right-click on the ISO file name and select 7-Zip and the “Extract to” option from the context menu.

How to create a disk image

There are programs (many of which are free) that allow the user to create an image of a CD, DVD, BD from physical media or a set of selected files.

The most common reason for this is to save backup copy installation disk or a movie on DVD or Blu-ray.

One of best programs that allow you to do this - BurnAware Free. The application is free and can create disk images of all types. After installing and launching the program, you need to select Copy to ISO and the disk drive. By clicking the Browse button located in the center of the screen, you must select the location where the image will be recorded, enter its name and click the Save button. Then, insert the disk to be copied into the previously specified drive and press the Copy button. The progress of the process will be displayed on the screen. It will complete after a message appears indicating that the file was saved successfully.

Alternative applications are ISO Recorder, ISODisk, ImgBurn and InfraRecorder.

Operating macOS systems and Linux allow you to create a disk image using built-in tools. In the first case, the disk utility copies the data to a CDR file, which can be converted to ISO using the terminal command hdiutil convert img.cdr -format UDTO -o img.iso.

In Linux OS, just run the command sudo dd if=/dev/dvd of=/path/img.iso, where /dev/dvd is the path to the optical disk and /path/img is the path and name of the disk image file.

If command line is inconvenient to use, you can use the Brasero (for Linux) and Roxio Toast (for Mac) applications.

How to open an ISO image without a disk

Mounting an ISO file that you created yourself or downloaded from the Internet involves the application used to mount it, forcing the computer to mistake it for a real disk. Therefore it can be used as if it were recorded on a real CD, DVD or BD.

But how to open a disk image can be done using an emulator. This will require you to select the drive letter that will represent the ISO file. Despite the fact that this letter represents a virtual disk, Windows considers it real, which allows it to be used as such.

Mounting Applications

One of the popular free programs for opening an ISO disk image file is WinCDEmu. The application is easy to use and comes in a portable version. Toward better software of this type experts also include Pismo File Mount and Daemon Tools programs.

A Windows users 10 or 8, you won’t need to think about how to open an ISO disk image, since mounting it is integrated into the operating system. Just right-click on the image name and select the “Mount” option. The OS will automatically create the virtual disk and no additional software is required.

Although installing an ISO file is very useful in some situations, you should be aware that opening an ISO disk image is not possible if the operating system is not running. This means that it is completely pointless to mount an ISO file that needs to be used outside of Windows (for example, to run some diagnostic tools hard drives and memory testing programs).

When you are finished working with the virtual disk, you can delete it. To do this, click on it and in the “Management” tab select the “Extract” option. As a result, the disk containing the contents of the ISO image file will be removed from the list of available devices.

Almost every computer user has encountered a situation where, having downloaded a movie or game, instead of a regular file, he discovers something incomprehensible. And when I try to open it, the machine asks to insert a disk. Is not system error, but a special format, and an approach to it that is not quite ordinary. There are several ways to solve the problem of how to open a disk image, but it is worth remembering that such files can be different, so you should pay attention to the extension.

How to open an iso disk image file?

If this is the format you have, then you can unpack it, first of all, using a standard archiver program. In this case, the most obvious answer to the question of how to open a disk image file without a disk is the following: contact ZIP archiver. You need to right-click on the iso file, then select an archiver from the list and click on the “open” button. Can also be used Winrar program, if you have it installed. The algorithm of actions will be slightly different: you must first launch the archiver itself, and then select objects to open in its menu.

However, sometimes simply opening a disk image is not enough, you still need to run it, and for this you need special program for mounting images. It allows you to simulate a virtual disk, which the computer perceives as real and launches without problems. You can download such a useful free resource as Daemon Tools or something similar. Install this program on your PC and then simply open the files you need double click mice. They are activated automatically.

Another way is to use the Ultra iso utility. It also opens files of this type automatically, for this All you have to do is launch it. The Alcohol 120% application is similar.

How to open a bin disk image?

There is another format that can confuse the user - these are files with the bin extension. A notepad program will help you open such a disk image. You just need to right-click on the file and select “open with...” from the menu. However, this allows you to see the text part of the file, but not activate it. This is usually sufficient, since standard bin objects are not intended to be active work with them. But if you still need to run them, you can use the already mentioned Daemon Tools program.

How to open a disk image V operating system Windows 7 and Windows 8? It’s very simple; this can be done using the operating system itself. Come on, as if you didn't know? Windows 8 now has a built-in tool for working with ISO images, if necessary, eight can even burn an ISO image to disk. But in the case of Windows 7, this number will not work; we will have to install free program DAEMON Tools Lite. Judging by your letters, this topic is interesting to you, let's look at both options.

How to open a disk image

Hello friends! If you downloaded any disk image on the Internet, it will probably be in ISO format; this format is the most common for disk images. Naturally, to work with an image, you will need to open this image. For example, this will be an image with a game; in order to start installing the game, we will connect the image to the virtual drive, then open the image itself and run the game installer file. If you have Windows 8 installed, you can do it this way.

Note: You may be interested in our articles -,.

We point the mouse at the image and right-click once, the options “Connect” and “Burn disk image” appear in the menu,

If we choose the second option, then our image will be written to a DVD disc, but if we select “Connect”, then Windows 8 will create virtual disk drive(in our case (J:)) and connect your image to it, select the first option “Connect”, and our image is connected to the virtual drive (J:).

To open disk image you just need to enter it like a regular folder. We find in it executable file games and launch it. The game is being installed. This way, friends, you can open any image. Very convenient, isn't it?