10 Free Software to Mount CD or DVD ISO Image File as Virtual Drives

Mounting CD, DVD images can save you a lot of time...by not burning the content.
XP has a nice toy tool for that, but unfortunately people have move on in terms of OS.

So, quickly, www.raymond.cc does come up with a list of top 10 free utilities to mount an image. There are not all free however, worthwhile going through the list, and finding popular names at a certain point in time in my life.:))

Hat off, www.raymond.cc:

The list below are arranged based on the file size (from small to big) of the installer. Reason is I am looking for a simple software to mount the Windows Automated Installation Kit ISO image.

1. Microsoft Virtual CDRom Control Panel
- There is no official page for this tool and you can’t even search for it in Microsoft website. What I like about this tool is it doesn’t require installation and the whole package is very small in size. The only drawback is it can only run in XP.

2. WinCDEmu
- Mounting an ISO image file using WinCDEmu is really easy. Just install and all you need to do is to double click on the ISO image file to automatically mount it to a drive letter. If you want to unmount, just right click on the drive and select Eject.

3. ISODisk
- Very straight forward interface for you to mount an image file. However this tool is unable to mount ISO-13346 (UDF) images. It can create ISO images from disc though…

4. MagicDisc
- MagicDisc is created by the same developer of the popular MagicISO. It can mount a wide range of CD/DVD image formats and can also create CD/DVD image from disc. Supports from Windows 98 to Windows 7!

5. Virtual CloneDrive
- Supports XP and Vista. Mounting a CD/DVD image is as easy as double clicking the file.

6. Pismo File Mount
- This tool works a little different by mounting the image file like a network mapped drive.

7. Phantom CD
- Phantom CD supports XP and Vista 32-bit. This software installer is quite huge in size compared to the above and it can only mount 1 drive letter plus cannot create image from disc.

8. DAEMON Tools Lite Commercial
- The “Commercial” keyword for the title of the software is a little confusing. Usually commercial means shareware but for this one, it is a freeware. Be careful during installation because it will ask to install Browser Toolbar and also set DAEMON Tools default Search Provider. It can create image from disc. Supports XP and Vista.

9. Gizmo Drive
- This is the only free virtual disc emulator that can create image from both disc and folder. Support both 32 and 64 bit of XP, Vista, 2003, 2008, and Windows 7.

10. Alcohol 52%
- Can create image from disc. You have to go to Virtual Drive option to set the number of virtual drives before mounting an image because by default it is set to 0.