Gone are those days of CDs and DVDs where you load the CD / DVD with the content, physically mount it on your PC and then play it back. It's time for the ISO editors who simplify the whole process by simply copying the contents of the CDs / DVDs and then easily transferring and saving them to another destination.
However, these are in ISO, IMG, or BIN formats and require special tools to open the files. If you have the right software at hand, you can boot ISO file formats into virtual CD / DVD drives to extract their contents. Those who work with Microsoft 8 and later already have access to the integrated ISO editing software.
But, if you are looking for advanced features or are still using an inferior version of the Microsoft operating system, here are some of the best free ISO mounting software you can get your hands on.
This robust ISO editing software is perfect for creating CD / DVD images. This further helps create ISO image files or perform various functions, including editing, within the built-in optical drive. It is compatible with almost all types of CD / DVD image file formats which include ISO formats.
Features:
- It allows you to open and remove the ISO file with just one click.
- Option to burn ISO files to CD / DVD / BluRay discs, burn BluRay files and create audio CDs, video DVDs and more.
- It makes it easy to burn audio CDs from different formats like BIN, MP3, APE, etc., and copy audio CDs in the same formats.
- It helps you to create and edit ISO / BIN image files.
- It allows you to boot the ISO file using the built-in virtual drive.
The option to create bootable USB drives, CD / DVD discs and ISO files or to change image files between ISO, BIN or other formats are among its other main features.
Price: Priced at $ 29,95.
Those looking for reliable ISO mounting software can rely on this tool which doubles as a great disc imaging application. You can mount images, link disks to different file formats like ESO, APE, MDX, etc., store all your favorite image files at your fingertips and more.
Features:
- It helps to boot all familiar variants of disk image files and mimics a wide range of disk files, up to 4 DT + SCSI + HDD devices.
- It allows you to define higher level options during the image creation process, create your winning image from files and folders, create a virtual audio CD, convert and archive images, and more.
- Store your files by making VHD backups and in TrueCrypt media. use iso
- It offers the ability to burn images to optical disc, burn data and create an audio CD, emulate data and partition details, and more.
- It helps you to create a bootable OS image on USB drive, encrypt your private data on a USB stick, or to switch between optical discs and USB drives.
It also allows you to connect to iSCI targets and use isolated images such as local ones, increase the number of virtual devices and boot unlimited images, reduce the use of physical drives and rather burn images to save time, and so on.
Price: free version available; Upgrade for $ 29,99.
This ISO editing software allows you to imitate your CD / DVD in just a few clicks. While it simplifies mounting ISO images (on optical drives), it also allows you to use an uploaded ISO image without copying / writing to a blank disc.
Features:
- It helps you to mount different image formats including ISO, IMG, etc. With just one click.
- Available in an exclusive portable version, it is extremely compact, even under 2MB.
- It helps you to create ISO images using a pop-up menu in Windows File Explorer.
- Provides support for a variety of virtual drives.
- There is no need to reboot once installed.
BD / DVD image and video data support, providing translation into over 20 20 languages, non-capturing drive letters when idle, or compatibility with Windows XP and higher (both 32 and 64-bit versions), are among its other significant features.
Price: free and open source.
This software is perfect for those who want to burn a DVD or ISO image file to a virtual drive. It allows you to select the file types you want to connect to the application. This can be done in a small Settings tab which offers several language options.
Features:
- Lightweight, free, easy to set up and easy to launch files.
- It allows you to create image files which you can then add to the virtual drive from your hard drive / network drive and finally use them as a regular DVD.
- Eliminates the need to use the main interface.
- It works with the most used image formats such as ISO, BIN, etc.
In addition, it also supports nearly 8 virtual drives simultaneously and is compatible with Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Price: free
Getting something free isn't bad, especially if you have free tools like this one. This software helps you to easily create CDs / DVDs and use them just as if you were using a physical one without even operating the optical drive.
Features:
- It allows you to create up to 15 virtual discs which can be configured like any physical disc, e.g. DVD, audio CD, etc.
- It helps you to create audio series, store them as ISO image files and play them just like an audio CD.
- It offers flexible options for mounting, compression, password protection, and so on.
Most importantly, this free software joins the developer pro version of the tool for more advanced functions.
Price: free.
If you want something that mimics the Windows optical disc drive, you can use this software for the purpose. Mount the image files on the Windows platform as if it were an original disk. This disk image file can be further evaluated with the help of the original disk name.
Features:
- Image files are automatically mounted in read-only state. This helps the physical image files remain unchanged.
- Provides support for the disk image file to be mounted as read / write in the “write cache” system.
- It facilitates the creation of RAM disks, which means mounting a disk in RAM which increases the speed relative to the hard disk.
- Supports mounting of ISO format CD image files.
With a simple, easy-to-use interface and the ability to allocate a drive letter or select a drive variant, this is one of the best free ISO mounting software out there.
Price: freeware.
This software greatly simplifies the whole process of burning ISO image files. Mount ISO and CD / DVD images to CD-R / RW, Blu-ray Disc and more. Most importantly, it is not necessary for you to boot virtual drives that mimic CD / DVD, but rather write the data immediately.
Features:
- Simple and easy to use with all complex settings hidden.
- Ability to choose drivers, define disc volume, choose burning speed and adjust burning cache size.
- It allows you to finish the burning process.
- It supports bootable CD image files.
- Compact, it requires no installation and is versatile.
It also allows you to finish a disc (where the data and music are already present) by choosing from the primary interface, and being portable it can also operate from a single USB driver.
Price: free
If you are looking for software that can burn ISO files, this may be the right choice for you. This software also burns and emulates CDs / DVDs / Blu-ray Discs.
Features:
- It helps you to create normal or bootable ISOs in various formats.
- It allows you to burn ISO files or any other disc image files to CD / DVD / BD.
- Option to search and get files from different disk images.
- It allows you to emulate any CD or DVD in ISO or BIN formats.
- Offers the ability to edit different disc image files in ISO or BIN formats.
- It allows you to create CD / DVD / Blu-Ray disc volumes on the spot.
In addition, it features a responsive user interface that allows you to create ISO images, remove files from discs, generate backups for discs, and more. It is also compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 (32 and 64).
Price: free
This is another great free ISO mounting software developed specifically for creating and managing emulated CD / DVD drives. It helps you to use almost all CD / DVD image formats and that too without burning these images to CD / DVD for easy access to your favorite content. Just like the CD / DVD-ROM, it lets you run applications, play games, and more.
Features:
- It allows you to create a number of drives, usually up to 16 (virtual) copied drives.
- Increase the speed of your game / application by 200x compared to traditional CD / DVD drive.
- It mounts and unmounts drives by default and runs automatically as soon as it starts up.
Overall, it offers a simple solution for those who want to mount and unmount CD / DVD drives. Furthermore, it takes up much less space of the CPU and PC memory, so it does not hinder the execution time of other processes.
Price: freeware.
This free ISO disk image tool is lightweight software also available for Windows 98 users. Besides the ability to copy image files from CD / DVD, it can also copy important archives. You can run applications or get your hands on files from a virtual drive without physical CD / DVD drives.
Features:
- The virtual drive operates at 200 times faster speed than the conventional CD / DVD ROM drive.
- Ability to mount archives in different formats, including ZIP, RAR, etc. As virtual disks on the fly.
- It offers a much easier and faster way to get archived files directly.
- Option to mount an archive file as a virtual disk and then use the files from the virtual disk.
Best of all, it supports almost all image formats and requires no configuration.
Price: free
If you want to work with backup issues, operating systems that play CDs, or programs that require a physical CD drive, this software is perfect for you.
Features:
- It helps you to mount up to 20 virtual CD / DVD drivers at the same time.
- It allows you to create ISO disc images and get your hands on the content saved in it just like when you burn files to CD / DVD.
- Quickly mount ISO image files from CD / DVD drives.
- You don't need to install any other virtual drive software.
Also, you can view files in Windows Explorer as soon as the archive is mapped to the virtual drive.
Price: free
This is an extension for your operating system that allows you to manage virtual and user type file formats. It is a fast and straightforward software that allows different programs to use the content in ISO, ZIP or private files. It can also find out any kind of application and user details using the file system console.
Features:
- Equipped with a clean and simple interface, it offers the possibility to insert files in the list with the help of the drag-and-drop function.
- It is an easy to use tool that simply requires you to enter items directly into the main interface and its audit package by default creates a virtual folder in the same place as the actual files.
- It allows you to mount ZIP, CD / DVS images and even create personal folders to save private data and programs in password protected media.
In addition, it also allows you to mount files on native portable devices and use command line functions. Above all, it can also be used by beginners.
Price: free
Conclusion
Just when we thought CD and DVD drives were the ultimate solution, we made ISO mounters go one step further. The 3rd party software, especially for those working on Windows 8 and Windows 10, makes it easy to convert disks and drives into virtual images and helps you save images or make changes from your PC memory. This reduces a lot of clutter that would otherwise be caused by optical discs and which are difficult to move from one place to another. So, take your pick from the list above and reduce your efforts to burn files to physical discs.
