The free CD or DVD emulators allow you to create/emulate virtual CD or DVD drives in your computer. To the operating system, this appears asthough you have another one (or more) new DVD or CD drives. Instead of placing a physical CDROM or DVD into this virtual drive, you'mount' an ISO image of the real CD or DVD using the drive. The emulation software pretends to the operating system (eg, Windows) thatyou have placed a real CD or DVD into the drive and allows software running on the system to play the CD or DVD, or run programs from it.
Note: ISO images are merely a copy of the CD or DVD kept as a file on the computer. They are useful when you want toburn an entire ISO (copy of a CD/DVD) to a CD or DVD or use a CD orDVD emulation software to mount the image as if it were a physical CD. ISO images can be created by many of the programs listed on theFree CD and DVD Burners and Copying Software page.
WHAT CAN YOU USE A MAC MINI OR MAC PRO FOR? Many, many things. Use it as a server. Load ESXi on it and run macOS, Linux, or Windows Virtual Machines. Host Mac specific software (Filemaker, Daylite, Xcode, Jenkins, etc). Personal remote workstation. Off site backup/redundancy. Software development and testing. Plus many more use cases. It is completely free and hence can be used for non-commercial and personal use. With the help of this free ISO burning software, you'll be able to burn ISO files to DVD discs with ease. Pros. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Unix-like system. It doesn’t even need a virtual drive to emulate the physical CDs or DVDs.
Virtual CD/DVD drives are useful since many software (including a number from Microsoft as well as almost every Linux distribution)come as ISO images. It is also useful when you have to frequently access a particular set of CDs or DVDs and don't want to repeatedly swapthem in your physical drive, or if you want to speed up reading from a CD or DVD (all virtual CD/DVD drives are vastly faster thanthe physical drive, since they reside on your hard disk instead of the slower CD/DVD drive).
Some of the DVD / CD emulators listed here are able to mimic many features of a real drive, allowing you to play protected game CDs,something that may be good news for parents of young children, who tend not to have sophisticated CD/DVD handling skills and destroyCDs by the dozen. Others virtual drive software, such as the offering from Microsoft, merely imitate the basic features of a CD drive,allowing you to mount only normal CDs.
Related Pages
- Free 68k and PowerPC Macintosh Emulators - emulate a Mac
- Free x86 PC Emulators and Virtual Machines - emulate a PC to run multiple OSes
Free DVD and CD Emulators, Virtual CD / DVD Drive Software
Virtual Drive software, free download
WinCDEmu is an open source (and free) CD, DVD and BD (Blu-Ray) emulator for Windows. You can mount your ISO images simplyby clicking 'Select drive letter & mount' from the right-click menu in Windows explorer. It will then letyou specify a drive letter or if you prefer, automatically set one for you. Other options include the abilityto disable autorun from the ISO as well as to make the virtual drive automatically load the ISO when Windows starts up.The software can also create an ISO image for you from a CD or DVD in a real CD/DVD drive. There is also a portableversion available, which requires no installation (and consequently requires you to run it directly instead ofusing the right-click menu). Note though that, at the time this was written, the portable version seems to bea few versions behind the latest version.
Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel is a free CD-ROM emulator that allows you to mount ISO images of CDROMs in avirtual drive. It is a rudimentary program that does not support copy-protected discs. You will also needto use a third party program to makeyour ISO images (if you don't already have it). This is a Windows program.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/001C-use-disk-utility-to-create-a-jbod-raid-array-2260916-9991760b709a40a689e33a065f46cc55.jpg "Virtual drive mac free downloads")
You can create up to 6 virtual CD / DVD drives with this free version of Alcohol 52%. The reading speed of your virtual drive is 200X.The software supports CD-DA, CD+G, CD-ROM, CD-XA, Video CD, Photo CD, mixed mode, multi-session CDs and DVDs, DVD-ROM, DVD-Video,DVD-Audio, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. Note that the installer will ask if you wish to install anoptional Alcohol toolbar. (Update and Warning: it looks like they've changed the terms: you'll now need to havea Facebook account and use it to 'like' their page before you can download this software.)
DAEMON Tools is a CD-ROM / DVD-ROM emulator that allows you to mount your ISO imagesin a virtual CDROM / DVD drive. It is able to emulate a wide range of copy protections and is thus able to playISOs of such CD-ROMs / DVDs, besides the usual non-copy protected CDs and DVDs.This is a Windows program. Note that this is an ad-supported software (adware).
MagicDisc supports the mounting of a wide variety of images, including ISO, BIN, IMA/IMG, CIF, NRG, IMG/CCD, MDF/MDS, VCD,C2D, VDI, BWI/BWT, TAO/DAO, PDI, P01/MD1/XA, VaporCD, and compressed Universal Image Files (UIF). It can create up to 15 drives,and emulate audio CDs, VCDs, SVCDs, etc.
- How to Register Your Own Domain Name - how to get your own domain name
It will appear on your page as:
Powerful piece of software that helps you emulate and create virtual CD/DVDs that may contain games, movies, audio or software, while offering support for different formats, such as BIN, CIF, NRG, IMG/CCD, MDF/MDS and VCD
What's new in MagicDisc Virtual DVD / CD-ROM 2.7 Build 106:
- Supports Windows 7 x86/x64 Edition
- Fixed bug of mounting some cue file
- Some minor improvements and bug fixes
Free Mac Virtual Machine
Read the full changelogThe use of virtual CD/DVD drives is more comfortable than the classic CD-ROM approach because it simply offers users more flexibility. Virtual images can be accessed and managed via a wide range of emulators that allow you to mount them as if you inserted a CD/DVD disc in your CD/DVD-ROM.
One of the most popular software applications that deals with virtual images are Daemon Tools, quickly followed by MagicDisc Virtual DVD / CD-ROM. The latter comes at no cost and provides the means to emulate and create virtual CD/DVDs that may contain games, movies, audio or software.
Smooth installation
The installation process is not rocket science, so beginners need not worry. Deployment ends with an icon placed in the system tray, from where users can access all of the functions that the software utility brings to the table.
Supported virtual images
The list of supported virtual images includes the following: BIN, CIF, NRG, IMG/CCD, MDF/MDS, VCD, VDI, C2D, CDI, TAO/DAO to name the most important ones. Usage comes down to a simple routine: first, set the number of virtual drives that you need (the upper limit is 15) and then start mounting the images one by one.
Create encrypted ISO images
If you choose to make an ISO image, you can also equip it with a password for safe-keeping. In addition, you can compress ISO files to UIF images, and the other way around. The Options sub-menu allows you to enable or disable automount and auto-verify.
If you have any questions or doubts related to how to use MagicDisc, then feel free to check out the ‘How To’ menu for additional information.
An overall efficient app
All in all, MagicDisc Virtual DVD/CD-ROM is a great alternative to paid software. It allows you to play games or watch movies stored in ISO format (or other similar ones), and also create Windows bootable discs.
Filed under
Download Hubs
MagicDisc Virtual DVD / CD-ROM is part of these download collections: Virtual Drives, Open Virtual CD, Open MDF
MagicDisc Virtual DVD / CD-ROM was reviewed by Elena OprisMagicDisc Virtual DVD / CD-ROM 2.7 Build 106
add to watchlistsend us an update- runs on:
- Windows All
- file size:
- 1.3 MB
- filename:
- setup_magicdisc105.exe
- main category:
- CD / DVD / Blu-ray Tools
- developer:
top alternatives FREE
top alternatives PAID