How to install a virtual disk. Windows Virtual Disk via Daemon Tools
Today, no one is surprised that you can legally get games, music or movies on your computer without having them on disks or other storage devices. Users are accustomed to this, because it is convenient, it is cheaper and often does not take up space at home. But what to do when you already have an extensive collection of disks? You can create virtual disks from them and store them digitally in Windows OS.
What is a virtual disk
A virtual disk is a digital copy of a regular CD or DVD. This copy, with the help of special programs, can be used in the same way as any other disk, but without actually placing it in the drive. It would seem that this is not necessary, because you can simply upload the necessary files. But, firstly, this will not work with games, which often require a licensed disc in the drive. And secondly, storing discs “as is” may be more convenient, because you can build a digital collection by completely transferring your discs to your drive.
How to create a virtual disk on Windows 7
A copy of a disc can be created in different formats. ISO, MDS and CDI formats are popular, but in fact there are many more of them.
There are many programs designed to obtain a disk image from physical media.
Let's look at how to get a disk image using the popular Daemon Tools Lite program:
Click "Create Disk Image"
Set the settings for the image being created and click “Start”
That's how easy it is to make a digital copy of your CD or DVD. This copy is deleted just like any other file, you can simply move it to the trash. A prerequisite for deleting is that the disk should not be currently in use. It should be removed from the virtual drive.
Creating a virtual hard disk in Windows 10 (VHDX or VHD) is the process of creating a file that can use the extension ".vhdx" or ".vhd" and acts like a physical hard disk, but with the difference that it is stored on an actual hard drive. Using any format (.vhdx or .vhd) for the virtual drive, you can store any files, including documents, images, videos, boot files and the entire OS installation. The only differences between the two formats are that the .vhdx file supports a maximum size of 64 TB, is resilient to power failure, and provides better performance. Typically, a VHD comes in handy for adding additional storage to a Hyper-V virtual machine, and with its ability to support other OS installations, this storage virtualization technology can be used to create a dual-boot system without modifying an existing partition.
Working with virtual disks in Windows.
As more and more data began to be stored on a computer, tablet or phone, replacing filing cabinets, bookshelves, photo albums and CD holders, we quickly had to face the fact that there may not be enough space on the device for all information, including a collection of films or games. One solution is a hard drive. Virtual hard drive partitions take digital data storage to the next level. First, we'll look at what we're talking about when we mean a virtual image. And one of the most important points: the terms “virtual disks” and “virtual machines” can be used interchangeably. The digital storage space and high demand for it will continue to grow. Many web services that offer virtual imaging in the cloud come under scrutiny for their privacy policies. Unlike storing all your files on your own computer or a physical external drive, with a virtual drive you upload your files to a server. This means that technically you won't be the only one who has access to them.
A virtual disk is a type of logical partition that is used in virtualization solutions. It is similar to the regular one, but installed on a virtual machine or virtual server. A virtual image performs the same task as a hard drive does for a computer, except that it does it for a virtual machine. It is created by the virtualization manager, logically dividing and distributing space among one or more virtual machines. A virtual disk can be used to install guest operating systems, applications, and virtual machine data. The capacity of the virtual drive depends on the basic capacity requirements of the physical drive. In memory virtualization, a virtual disk is a logically isolated drive on top of a storage network. A cloud storage solution installed on a local computer is also used as a virtual hard drive.
Creating a laserdisc image
You can create a virtual disk image on Windows 7 using one of the many applications for working with images and virtual drives. Let's look at the process using PowerISO, WinISO and WinCDEmu as an example.
How to make an ISO image of a CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc with PowerISO
PowerISO can create an ISO file from a CD, DVD or Blu-ray by copying it step by step. All information, including download data, will be copied. You can launch ISO maker using the main program or the shell context menu. ISO file using the main program:
- Launch PowerISO.
- Click the "Copy" button on the toolbar, then select "Make CD/DVD/BD Image File..." from the pop-up menu.
- PowerISO will open the ISO Maker dialog box.
- Create and select a virtual drive containing the disk you want to copy.
- Click OK to start the ISO file creation process.
ISO file via shell context menu:
- Open My Computer and select the drive you want to copy.
- Right-click on the selected drive and a shell context menu will appear.
- Select the "Make Image File" menu.
- The ISO Maker dialog box will open.
- Select the output file name and set the output format to ISO.
- Click "OK" to start the process.
WinISO can meet your needs for working with all image formats such as .ISO, .BIN, .CUE, .NRG (Nero), .MDF, .MDS, .CCD, .IMG and .DVD.
- Step 1. Install and launch the software. Firstly, download WinISO for free from the official website, install and run it. After installation, launch the program.
- Step 2: Click the "Tools" button. Click the “Tools” button on the toolbar, and then “Make image from CD/DVD/BD”. Or you can simply click "Create". Creating a virtual disk for Windows 10 is done in a similar way.
- Step 3. Selecting and setting the recipient. A dialog box will appear. Select the drive containing the CD/DVD/BD and at the destination, select the desired output format, then enter the "File Name". After this, you can click the OK button to start creating the ISO file.
You can optimize the storage of data, applications, and anything else that can be burned onto a CD/DVD by creating ISO images and storing them on your hard drive. Installing a program from an ISO image is much faster than using a real optical disc. Double-clicking an image to mount it is faster than inserting it into the drive, and finding the right image using Windows Search is much more convenient than searching for the right CD on the shelf. To create an ISO image using WinCDEmu, follow these steps:
- insert the CD you want to rip into the optical drive;
- open the “Computer” folder in the “Start” menu;
- Right-click the CD icon and select Create ISO Image.
- Select a file name for the image. This is similar to saving a newly created document or image. Click "Save".
- Wait until the image is created. Once it's created, you can remove the physical CD from the drive and mount the image whenever you need it.
Virtual hard disk
In Windows 7, Microsoft introduced a new way to back up your data called Backup and Restore. It allows you to backup all your data to another location and provides the ability to create a system image. A system image is a large document with a VHD extension. It can be used to restore the entire system. In Windows 7, the image creation program was so popular that it remains in Windows 8 and Windows 10. There is a tool in the control panel - Backup and Restore (Windows 7). The convenience of backing up your computer using this method, in addition to the ability to completely restore it later, is that you can transfer the file to any Windows 7, 8 or 10 computer and access the data in the same way as from a regular hard drive. Therefore, if you only need to copy a few files from your backup, it is much easier to make a virtual hard disk using a VHD, rather than restoring a backup, which will first completely delete the data and then copy the data stored in the image.
Mounting VHD
To mount the image in Windows, click “Start” and type “Computer Management” in the search box. You can also go to Control Panel, then System and Security, then click Administrative Tools and then Computer Management. If you're in Icons view, click Administration. Now, in the menu on the left, click “Disk Management” and wait for the list of disks and partitions to appear. Then right-click Disk Management and select "Mount VHD". In the dialog box, click Browse, navigate to the location of the file you want to include, and click OK.
ATTENTION. If you do not select the Read Only checkbox, you will be able to add, edit, or delete files/folders from the VHD. This is really useful because you can attach your file, add some more data that you want to copy, and then just extract it.
Once the system finishes mounting, you will see the drive appear as a new device in My Computer. Windows will automatically assign a drive letter. Otherwise, right-click on Primary Partition and select Change Drive Letter. To remove a VHD, right-click on the gray area with the drive name and select "Eject VHD".
You can save a copy of the operating system and all personal data in a document using a free Microsoft tool. Go to Computer Management, click Disk Management, and then right-click Disk Management. Instead of selecting Mount, click Create VHD. This will bring up a window asking you to specify the document size, format, and location. It is recommended to choose the VHDX file format as it is less prone to hacking and can support larger sizes. If you select the VHD file format, it will recommend a fixed size. If you select VHDX, you will be offered dynamic expansion. It's better to leave the default settings. Be sure to enter the size of your virtual disk. You can change it to GB or TB in the dropdown.
Now another device will appear in disk management – marked “Unallocated”. In the gray section for the new image, right-click and select Enable Disk. Then you need to choose whether to use MBR or GPT. For compatibility with versions of Windows older than Vista, select MBR. For new features and larger hard drives, use GPT. Now right-click on the unallocated area and select New Simple Volume. This will bring up the New Volume Wizard. First, you must select the size of the new volume. This cannot be the size of the unallocated space.
Click Next and select a drive letter to assign to the partition. Then choose a formatting method. By default it is set to NTFS, but FAT32 can also be selected. Select NTFS if you are using virtual media to back up files from your computer. Click "Next" and "Done" and that's it! The new device will now appear in Disk Management.
Using a VHD in a virtual machine
The extension stands for virtual hard drive. This is a format that is structured to represent a standard hard drive and allows you to encapsulate the operating system and data into a single file. This document supports all standard operations. The document is located on our hard drive, but all content is written inside the document. All partitions, data, and the entire file system are saved in the document that is used for loading. Please note that the extension may include the operating system and/or data. The name can be selected during the setup process, but its extension will always be .vhd. You can create a new document using the available disk space.
The image looks like an unused hard drive. After creating a VHD, you can create one or more partitions in it and format them using the FAT, ExFAT or NTFS file system. When it comes to size, a VHD can be fixed in size or it can expand dynamically. A fixed VHD has a predetermined amount of space that is reserved on the physical media. This reservation also includes white space. It takes longer to create a VHD, but it performs better because the whole thing is a single block. A dynamically expanding VHD allocates physical disk space as virtual memory is used by the virtual machine. This means that the size of the .vhd file grows as our virtual machine is used. Additionally, dynamically expanding VHD files do not become smaller when files are deleted.
The existing image can be mounted (mounted) so that it appears on our existing operating system. You can also mount the image as a readable disk. Thus, the contents of the image cannot be changed. Mounted images can be extracted (unmounted) or deleted. The advantage of using VHD is the ability to download and configure multiple versions of the operating system. When setting up multiboot using standard parameters, you need to create a new partition and install Windows there. When using images, a new VHD is simply created. This means that you can have one partition with multiple files (multiple operating systems). Installing a virtual disk also offers greater flexibility when it comes to disaster recovery. We can copy an image from one computer that has been damaged to another with similar hardware. Users will have access to the same OS and data as on the old computer.
Management Tools
You can use DiskPart, Windows Disk Management, WIM2VHD, and BCDEdit to manage VHDs. The Disk Management MMC allows you to create, mount, and extract images. With DiskPart you can create, mount, extract, compress, expand and view image details. Common diskpart commands used for a virtual disk:
- create vdisk – creates an image with a VHD file size expressed in MB (the file name must have the extension .vhd);
- mount vdisk – mounts the image;
- extract vdisk – extracts the image;
- compress vdisk – reduces the image size;
- increase vdisk – expands the maximum size available in the image;
- vdisk details – displays information.
The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) includes a WIM2VHD emulator utility that you can use to create an image from a Windows installation source. Using WIM2VHD, you can create a new image of the specified type and size, apply the WIM, use the Unattend file to automate the Out Of Box boot portion of Windows when you first launch the generic image, and apply updates to it.
Creating a virtual disk
Creating a virtual disk is possible in all versions of the operating system. Let's look at the example of Windows 7.
- Launch the Computer Management utility using the Start menu search bar.
- Select the “Disk Management” subsection in the expanded window.
- Expand the "Action" item.
- Select the “Create virtual hard disk” option.
- Specify the path to the folder in which the file responsible for the virtual disk will be located. Please note that it must be placed on a section where there is enough free space.
- Enter the maximum size of the disk to be created.
- Choose from two formats: dynamic or fixed. The first mode will increase the disk capacity as new files arrive on it until its size approaches the figure specified in the previous step. The second mode allows you to immediately create a disk of the previously selected size.
- Save the file in VHD format and name it with the letter or word you want.
- Wait for the creation process to complete.
- Find the black block with unallocated virtual memory. It means that you have created a disk, but now you need to split it into volumes to start using it.
A black block with unallocated memory means that the disk needs to be divided into volumes to start using it
- Right-click on the disk and select "Initialize Disk".
- In the window that opens, select the disc to be created and its style. It is recommended to set the “Master Boot Record” option.
- Split the disk into volumes. Right-click on the unallocated memory and select “Create simple volume”.
- Specify how much of the unallocated memory will be allocated to the virtual disk partition. You can give away all the memory at once, or you can split it into several volumes.
- Assign a letter to the partition.
- Remember that you can always shrink or delete an already created virtual disk volume in the same program. If you are happy with the virtual disk allocation, you can start using it.
Video: how to create a virtual disk in Windows 7
Removing a virtual disk
Please note that by deleting a virtual disk, you will erase all the information located on it.
Third party programs
To expand the list of options for setting up a virtual disk and make them easier, you can use free third-party programs.
DAEMON Tools Lite
You can buy or download a trial version on the developer’s official website. The program has a simple and intuitive interface in Russian. With its help, you can create virtual disks and drives, edit and delete them.
DAEMON Tools Lite is a free and functional disk imaging application Video: how to use DAEMON Tools Lite
Alcohol 120%
The application supports the Russian interface, has a simple design and protects the created virtual disk from copying. You can download the trial version or buy the full version on the developer’s official website. It allows you to create and delete disks and virtual CD drives.
Video: how to use Alcohol 120%
Virtual drives
A virtual drive or virtual floppy drive performs the same functions as a physical floppy drive, but reads virtual discs rather than physical CD/DVDs. For example, a virtual disk can be downloaded from the Internet or from another computer if it has already been created there. And you can record on it everything the same as on a real one.
Creating a virtual drive
To create a virtual drive, you will need one of the third-party programs designed to work with virtual disks and drives:
- In the “Number of devices” line, select the number of drives that will be created.
- Click OK.
- Make sure that in the main menu of Explorer, in the Devices and Disks block, new drives appear, named with unique letters.
Removing a virtual drive
Removing a drive occurs in almost the same way as creating it:
- Download and install the UltraISO program from the official website of the developer.
- Click on the “Options” button in the top panel of the program.
- Select the "Virtual Drive" tab.
- In the “Number of devices” line, set the “None” option and click “OK”. Done, the drive has been removed.
Virtual disks and floppy drives can be useful if you have to install suspicious programs, additional operating systems, or transfer parts of the hard drive to other users. Remember that a virtual disk takes up space on a physical hard drive, so it is not additional memory to your computer, but only uses part of what is already available.
Good afternoon friends, today we will talk about how to make a virtual disk. All PC users know what an optical disk is and how to use it. Not everyone knows what a virtual disk is. An optical disk is a very convenient thing. Just 10 years ago, computer users stored the information they received on floppy disks. The capacity of such media is small - about 1.4 MB. At the moment, some people don’t really have a clue what it is, because... modern computers are produced without the so-called “Flopik” - a floppy disk drive.
Nowadays, users store information on optical disks. Unfortunately, in some cases this is inconvenient or not entirely appropriate compared to a virtual disk. Optical drives get scratched, break, and generally take up space in your computer desk drawers. In addition, disks often get lost, and finding them takes a lot of free time. If the disk is lost or becomes unusable, this leads to the loss of your information, which is unacceptable. Most of us add a new, larger hard drive to expand our data.
This is a good option, although information may be lost from there too. You can store information on Blu-Ray discs. This isn't a bad option either, although they can just as easily get lost or broken as optical discs.
But let's remember for a moment, you launch your favorite game or, and it completely refuses to work without the original disc in the drive. This is due to the fact that the creators of optical or Blu-Ray discs intentionally build this feature into the discs to increase sales of their product.
In this case, you will have to copy the disk as accurately as possible onto a blank and insert such a blank into the drive. Although, by the way, not every such recorded disc will launch a program or game.
How to make a virtual disk through Explorer
First, let's try to make a VZD, working directly through the computer system. This is done quite simply. Right-click on the “Computer” shortcut and select “Management”.
A new window will open. In this window, select “Disk Management”.
At the top of the main menu, click “Action” and select “Create a virtual hard disk.”
In a new window, we will indicate the location of the VZD by clicking the “Browse” button for these purposes.
We will see that we already have the disk selected. For me it is D. Your case may be different. Enter the name of this disk. For example, I will enter Virtual HDD, click on save.
At the bottom of the VZD management window we will see another disk that is not allocated (Disk 1). Right-click on it and click “Initialize disk”.
A window will open in which you can leave everything as default and click OK.
We will see the “Create Simple Volume Wizard”. Click next,
The “Volume Size” window will open, where we also need to click “Next”. We don’t need to change the drive letter, click “Next”. Let's move on to formatting the section, where we will leave everything as default. Click “Next”. All we have to do is complete our action by clicking “Finish”. Our virtual disk has been created!
How to make a virtual disk using DAEMON Tools Lite
You can also create a virtual disk with a virtual disk drive using third-party software. The most famous of these programs is Nero. This is a convenient program for creating a virtual disk. But the problem is that the modern version of Nero is paid.
Therefore, we will talk about a free analogue of this program, which is called DAEMON Tools Lite. In my opinion, this program is no worse than the paid Nero in helping you create a virtual disk. This program can also be paid, but we are now talking about the free version with the word Lite at the end.
We launch the program and start creating an image, insert the disk into the drive. Click “Create a disk image.” Next, we indicate the drive from which we will save the image and indicate the path where we will create this image.
After this, we move on to motivating the image being created. To do this, we need to select the image we have selected, located at the bottom of the catalog window, there we select the virtual disk (the program creates it automatically) into which we are going to mount it. If necessary, you can create an additional drive, click on the “Add virtual DT drive” button.
I hope you are now aware, “How to make a virtual disk? It's actually quite easy. All the best to you!
Another anecdote:
A disk image is a 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 mount a disk image in Windows so that its contents are available in a 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.
The creation of the Windows 8 version, from which the standard functionality for working with disk images migrated to all successor versions - Windows 8.1 and 10, coincided with the mass phenomenon of computer device manufacturers refusing to include 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 third-party software developers. 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 in disk imaging software. 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 invisible even for low-power devices, since it uses a minimum of 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 an extremely clear description of functions and a 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.
An important point during installation is choosing the free license option.
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 drives will be visible in the program window. 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, the free version does not provide for recording discs to discs.
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 Master download manager.
There are no limits to the tricks of developers who want paid versions of software products to be purchased from them. In the case of the trial version of Alcohol 52%, we will not just look at the demo window with an offer to buy the full version of the program, but we will even have to wait a few seconds until the “Ok” program launch button becomes active.
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 a program that opens a particular type of ISO file by default, find any of them in Windows Explorer and select “Properties” from the context menu.
Click the change application button.
If the program you need is 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!