Than create a virtual disk. How to create and use a virtual drive in Windows. How to make a virtual disk through explorer

Virtual HDD is a file that stores various information: from simple text documents to full working operating system. They are used for various purposes. For example, a new OS is installed and fully customized to the user's requirements. It makes a virtual copy of the partition and saves it to portable media. In the event of a crash or unrecoverable errors of the current system, the user can easily restore it from the image.

Disk virtualization possible different ways. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

Create a virtual disk using the system

The first option is to use standard means Windows. To do this, right-click on the menu " Start” and select “”.

Select the menu " Action", Further " Create virtual disk ».

Click on the button " Review' to set the location created file and come up with a name for it.

The next parameter is size. Set the required value and specify the unit of measurement: Megabytes (MB), Gigabytes (GB) or Terabytes (TB).

Next, select disk space format. The first option is a standard format that was created in 2005 by Microsoft called vhd. But it has limitations: it supports virtualization files up to 2040 GB in size.

If the user needs to create a file big size, then it follows useVHDX. It supports up to 64 TB and 4K sector size, which allows you to work with larger hard drives (over 2 TB). VHDX is also more fault tolerant than the previous solution. The standard was developed by Microsoft in 2014.

And the last parameter that needs to be specified is type of virtual disk space. If "Fixed size" is selected, the file will take up the full size specified by the user.

In the second option, only the data that is indicated on the this moment. Later, when adding new information, the size will gradually increase, depending on the stored data, until it reaches its limit. It is calculated depending on the requirements that the user specified in the line "Virtual hard drive».

Once all the information has been entered, click the " OK».

For further work, it is necessary to perform initialization procedure. Right-click on the left column and select the option " Initialize disk". In a new window, the user will be required to specify the format of the partition to be initialized.

MasterBootrecord is an obsolete format, but it is supported by all versions of Windows. At the moment, it is almost never used in modern operating systems.

GUIDPartitiontable was introduced in new versions of operating systems about Microsoft in 2010 year. Works with versions of Windows starting with Vista.

After initialization, you need to mark the space for the desired file system. Default better useNTFS- it allows you to work with files larger than 4 GB. To do this, right-click on the unallocated area and select the item " Create a simple volume».

Using the tips of the setup wizard, execute necessary actions. By default, the program suggests using all free space as a single logical partition. If there is no need to create additional volumes, then leave it as is.

The next step is letter assignment logical partition. Here you can also use a function like " Mount volume as emptyNTFS folder». This action means that the volume of the virtual volume will be added to the specified partition in the OS. This method is often used in large organizations, since workstations have small hard drives, and purchasing new ones takes a long time.

The third option Do not prescribe” means you can do it later.

It is recommended to choose letters coming at the end of the Latin alphabet. It will be convenient for further work with them.

The next window offers format volume and select file system. Considering that the partition has just been created and there is nothing on it yet, we leave everything as it is.

At the end, the setup wizard will give you all the basic information about upcoming operations and ask you to confirm.

Connecting a drive manually

Consider a situation where a user already has a virtual volume and wants to mount it. To do this, open "" as indicated in the previous paragraph. Select the menu " Action", Further " Join».

You will need to specify the path where the file is located. Given that in the future it will be necessary to work with it and make changes, set the parameter " Only for reading" Do not do it.

Confirm the mount operation by pressing the "OK" button

Disconnecting a drive

If the virtual partition is no longer required by the user, then it can be disabled. To do this, you need to open Control” and select the virtual volume by right-clicking on it.

The context menu will open. Then select the option " Disconnect».

The system will ask for confirmation. Press the button " OK».

Creating Volumes and Partitions

In order to split a virtual volume into logical partitions, in the " Control»Select the newly created virtual volume and run the setup wizard.

Here we indicate the size that the user needs, for example, 3 GB and click "OK"

A 3 GB logical partition was created, and another 2 GB remained free.

VHD management with DISKPART

All of the above operations can be done using diskpart utilities. First you need to right-click on the Start menu and select the option " WindowsPowerShell (administrator)", in the seven, just press Win + R, and enter in the window" Powershell».

In the command line that opens, type diskpart.

Now the user is in the console utility for working with disk space. DiskPart supports the following commands:

  1. Creation.

create vdisk file=e:\VHD\test1.vhd maximum 3000 type=expandable

Createvdisk– command to create a virtual disk.

file= e:\ vhd\ test1. vhd- the path where the created file will be stored and an indication of its name.

maximum 3000– size of the created file in megabytes.

type=expandable– format of the created file. IN this example choose dynamic. For fixed, you need to specify the command: type=fixed

  1. Volume selection for further work with it.

select vdisk file=c:\vhd\vhd1.vhd

  1. Mount chapter.

attach vdisk

  1. Unmount volume.

detach vdisk

  1. Appoint letter.

assign letter=G

  1. Format section for user requirements

format fs=ntfs label=vhd1

FS= NTFS- file system format

Label=vhd1- the label of the disk being formatted

  1. DiskPart Command Assistant
  1. Exiting the program

How to install the system on a virtual disk

To install an operating system on a virtual partition, you will need distribution kitWindows. Starting the process Windows installation according to the usual scenario. When an inscription appears on the user's screen about choosing a disk for installing the OS, we call command line keyboard shortcut « Shift" + "F10". We enter the DiskPart utility.

As a result, after all operations with the DiskPart utility, a virtual disk will be added to the selection window. To display it, press the button Refresh»

Too many users personal computers on Windows platform often ask questions - what are virtual disks and how to create virtual disk. To increase our readers' awareness of these issues, in this article we will try to fully cover the topic with specific examples.

Also in our article we will consider what is virtual hard disks and where they are used. After reviewing the material, our readers will be able to easily create virtual hard disks and image disk in ISO format, as well as mount them on virtual device and burn to DVD.

Virtual optical drive and its applications

The main purpose of a virtual drive is mounting images optical discs. To understand in detail why it is needed, we will look at an example where an image disk in ISO format will be mounted on a virtual DVD-ROM. For this example, we will use the Windows 10 operating system.

A pleasant moment for owners of computers with the Windows 10 operating system will be that a virtual DVD-ROM is already installed in it. Therefore, owners of Windows 10 will not have to use third-party programs to mount images.

To mount an optical disc image into a virtual DVD-ROM, we need the image itself. For example, we will use image with operating Linux system ubuntu. You can download an image of this operating system on its official website http://www.ubuntu.com. In our example, we will use the image 64-bit Ubuntu version 15.10, which has a size of 1.1 GB.

After loading the image, you can proceed to its direct mounting. To do this, right-click on the image file to open the context menu.

Mounted "virtual disk" can be opened and copied all its contents.

As you can see from the example, we mounted the Ubuntu OS image on a virtual DVD drive. In fact, we were able to do almost what we do with a regular and optical disc, when we insert it into a DVD drive and open it, only in our version all the components are virtual.

Creating a LaserDisc Image

In the previous example, we looked at how to open an image disk in a virtual DVD drive. Now let's deal with the situation when you need to create an image of an optical disc. To create an image, we need the DAEMON Tools Lite program, which must be downloaded and installed. It is also worth noting that in addition to creating various image formats, DAEMON Tools Lite it can also mount a huge number of formats into its own virtual DVD drive. After installing the program DAEMON Tools Lite in Explorer you can see a new drive named ""

This "" is just the drive of the program in question DAEMON Tools Lite. In this example, we will create an image of the original installation DVD with the Windows 10 operating system. To make an image from the installation DVD with ten, insert it into the DVD drive. Now run the utility and go to the section " New look».

In the utility window we find the button " Create image from disk” and press it. These actions will take us to the image creation window.

In this window, you can select the DVD drive from which the ISO image will be created, as well as select the location to save it.

We will also select the image ISO format and confirm the creation by clicking the Start button, which will start creating the Windows 10 DVD image.

After creation, we will receive an ISO image file called "J_CCSA_X86FRE_RU-RU_DV5.iso", which can be mounted or burned to a regular disc and installed with it a new Windows.

The example shows how easy it is to burn an image to a virtual DVD-ROM using DAEMON Tools Lite. In the same way, you can burn images for all licensed Windows discs, be it XP or Vista. In addition, you can burn images of games or software that do not start without a disc. Apart from the program DAEMON Tools Lite I would like to advise other popular utilities that can create and allow you to open images of optical discs:

  • Alcohol 120%;
  • GizmoDrive;
  • WinCDEmu.

It is especially important to use these utilities on an OS where there are no built-in virtual DVD drives, for example, in OS Windows XP. In addition to supporting XP, each of these programs, including DAEMON Tools Lite, will be able to burn ISO images to DVD disk. In addition to supporting the ISO format, these utilities can mount other formats, including their own, they can be written to regular discs.

Virtual hard disk

A virtual hard disk is quite often used by IT specialists, as it allows you to solve many problems with backup, virtual machines and testing various operating systems. Virtual hard disk is a container file that mimics file structure hard drive.

Since such a disk is a file, therefore it is usually stored on a physical HDD or SSD. Starting with Windows 7, users have the ability to create and mount a hard disk directly in the operating system.

Consider an example of creating a virtual hard disk using Windows 10. First, let's go to the utility " Run"Using the key combination Win + R and type in it the following command: diskmgmt.msc

This command will take us to the Disk Control Panel.

To create a new virtual HDD, you need to go to the menu " Action / Create virtual hard disk", which will open a window to create such a disk.

Starting with Windows 10, it became possible to create a disk with the format " VHDX". Unlike the "VHD" format, the " VHDX» can create containers up to 64 terabytes. Let's make our virtual hard disk 100 GB in the new format " VHDX", and also put the switch in dynamic mode creations, in which our disk will increase as it fills up.

After setting the parameters of our hard disk, press the OK button, which will allow you to write it to the specified folder on the screw. After creating the output, we will get a virtual hard disk named "virtual disk.vhdx". The image below shows that our disk is automatically mounted, but it is still not visible in the system.

In order for the system to see our VHDX disk, it must be initialized. You can do this by right-clicking on the VHDX disk and selecting " Initialize disk».

In the window that appears, do not change anything and press the OK button.

Now the simplest thing left is to choose a file system and a letter for our disk. To do this, go to it and select the item " Create a simple volume».

After that, a wizard will start in which you need to assign a drive letter and select a file system. After the wizard completes, the virtual hard disk will appear in Explorer.

The example shows that to create a virtual HDD means The OS is very simple, so we hope that you will no longer have a question - how to create a virtual hard disk. I would also like to note that with the created VHDX disk you can do the following operations:

  • Encrypt it with BitLocker;
  • Install an additional OS on it;
  • Move and open it on another computer;
  • Connect it to a virtual machine.

Operating system based computers Windows systems XP, which is still quite popular, does not support VHD drives. But do not be upset, because in the utility we reviewed earlier DAEMON Tools Lite there is support for VHD disks and it fully compatible with Windows XP.

Using a VHD Disk in a Virtual Machine

Create with VirtualBox programs virtual machine based on Windows XP operating system. At the stage creating a virtual machine for XP, you will be prompted to create or attach a virtual hard disk that will be used to install Windows XP onto it.

At this point, we can attach the VHD disk that we will create with Windows 10. Therefore, we will try to attach our 30 GB VHD container, which we made in the top ten. After creating a virtual machine, you can view the attached VHD disk in its settings.

If there is not enough space in the virtual machine on XP, then you can always attach new VHD virtual hard disk. Besides, you can connect containers with various file data to a virtual machine for XP. In the same way you can use the virtual machine from others software products. For example, VHD containers can be installed in VMware products workstation.

Outcome

It can be seen from the considered material that the use of virtual drives and hard drives it helps to solve many problems much better, especially since even a novice PC user will figure out how to create them. We hope that our material will help our readers to better understand the question - how to create a virtual disk and how to use it for work.

Related videos

Sometimes PC users are faced with the acute question of how to create a virtual hard disk or CD-ROM. Let's learn how to perform these tasks in Windows 7.

The methods for creating a virtual disk, first of all, depend on which option you want to end up with: a hard drive image or a CD / DVD. Usually, hard files drives have a VHD extension, and ISO images are used to mount a CD or DVD. In order to carry out these operations, you can use the built-in tools of Windows or turn to the help of third-party programs.

Method 1: DAEMON Tools Ultra

First of all, consider the option of creating a virtual hard disk using third party program to work with drives - DAEMON Tools Ultra.

  1. Run the application with administrator rights. Go to tab "Tools".

  2. A window opens with a list of available program tools. Choose an item "Add VHD".

  3. The window for adding a VHD opens, that is, creating a conditional hard drive. First of all, you need to register the directory where it will be placed given object. To do this, click on the button to the right of the field "Save as".

  4. The save window opens. Enter it in the directory where you want to place the virtual drive. In field "File name" you can change the name of the object. The default is "New VHD". Next click "Save".

  5. As you can see, the selected path is now displayed in the field "Save as" in the DAEMON Tools Ultra shell. Now you need to specify the size of the object. To do this, by toggling the radio button, set one of the two types:
    • fixed size;
    • Dynamic expansion.

    In the first case, the volume of the disk will be exactly specified by you, and if you select the second item, the object will expand as it fills up. Its actual limit will be the size of the empty space in the HDD partition where the VHD file will be placed. But even when choosing this option, it is still in the field "Size" you need to set the initial volume. Just a number is entered, and the unit of measurement is selected to the right of the field in the drop-down list. The following units are available:

    • megabytes(default);
    • gigabytes;
    • terabytes.

    Be careful when choosing the right item, because in case of an error, the difference in size compared to the desired volume will be an order of magnitude larger or smaller. Then, if necessary, you can change the name of the disk in the field "Mark". But this is not a prerequisite. After performing the described actions, to start the formation of the VHD file, click "Start".

  6. The process of generating the VHD file is in progress. Its dynamics is displayed using an indicator.

  7. After the procedure is completed, the following inscription will be displayed in the DAEMON Tools Ultra shell: "VHD creation process completed successfully!". Click "Ready".

  8. So the virtual hard drive created using the DAEMON Tools Ultra program.

Method 2: Disk2vhd

If DAEMON Tools Ultra is a universal tool for working with media, then Disk2vhd is a highly specialized utility designed only for creating VHD and VHDX files, that is, virtual hard disks. Unlike previous method, applying this option actions, you cannot make an empty virtual media, but only create a snapshot of an existing disk.


Method 3: Windows Tools

A conditional hard drive can also be created using standard system tools.

  1. Click "Start". Right click mice ( PKM) click on the name "Computer". A list opens where you can choose "Control".

  2. The system management window appears. In its left menu in the block "Memory Devices" go by position "Disk Management".

  3. The drive management tool shell starts. Click on a position "Action" and select an option "Create Virtual Hard Disk".

  4. The creation window opens, where you should specify in which directory the disk will be placed. Click "Review".

  5. The object browser window opens. Move to the directory where you plan to place the drive file in VHD format. It is desirable that this directory is not located on the HDD partition on which the system is installed. A prerequisite is that the partition is not compressed, otherwise the operation will fail. In field "File name" be sure to indicate the name by which you will be identified given element. Then press "Save".

  6. You are returned to the virtual disk creation window. In field "Location" we see the path to the directory selected in the previous step. Next, you need to assign the size of the object. This is done in almost the same way as in the DAEMON Tools Ultra program. First of all, choose one of the formats:
    • fixed size(set by default);
    • Dynamic expansion.

    The values ​​of these formats correspond to the values ​​of the types of disks that we previously considered in DAEMON Tools.

    • megabytes(default);
    • gigabytes;
    • terabytes.

    After performing the above manipulations, press OK.

  7. Returning to the main partition management window, in its lower area you can see that an unallocated drive has now appeared. Click PKM by its name. Typical template for this item "Disk #". From the menu that appears, select an option "Initialize Disk".

  8. The disk initialization window opens. Here you just need to click OK.

  9. After that, the status of our element will be displayed in the list "Online". click PKM by empty space in the block "Unallocated". choose "Create a simple volume...".

  10. Welcome window launches "Volume Wizard". Click "Further".

  11. The next box shows the size of the volume. It is automatically calculated from the data that we put in when creating the virtual disk. So you don't need to change anything here, just click "Further".

  12. But in the next window, you need to select the letter of the volume name from the drop-down list. It is important that there is no volume with the same designation on the computer. Once the letter is selected, press "Further".

  13. You don't have to make any changes in the next window. But in the field "Volume Label" you can replace the default name "New Volume" to any other, for example "Virtual Disk". After that in "Explorer" this element will be called "Virtual Disk K" or with another letter that you chose in the previous step. Click "Further".

  14. Then a window will open with the total data that you entered in the fields "Masters". If you want to change something, then click "Back" and make changes. If everything suits you, then click "Ready".

  15. After that, the created virtual drive will be displayed in the computer management window.

  16. You can access it using "Explorer" In chapter "Computer", which lists all drives connected to the PC.

  17. But on some computer devices ah after a reboot in the specified section, this virtual disk may not be displayed. Then run the tool "Computer Management" and go back to the department "Disk Management". Click on the menu "Action" and choose a position .

  18. The drive attachment window will open. click "Review…".

  19. The file browser tool appears. Change to the directory where you previously saved the VHD object. Select it and click "Open".

  20. The path to the selected object will be displayed in the field "Location" window "attach virtual hard disk". click OK.

  21. The selected drive will be available again. Unfortunately, on some computers you have to do this operation after every restart.

Method 4: UltraISO

Sometimes you need to create not a hard virtual disk, but a virtual CD drive and run a file in it ISO image. Unlike the previous one, this task cannot be performed solely with the help of operating system tools. To solve it, you need to use third-party software, for example, UltraISO.


We figured out that virtual disks can be of two types: hard disks (VHD) and CD / DVD images (ISO). If the first category of objects can be created both with the help of third-party software and using the internal tools of Windows, then the task of mounting an ISO can only be handled by using third-party software products.

Good afternoon friends, today we will talk about how to make a virtual disk. All PC users know what an optical disc is and how to use it. And what is a virtual disk, not everyone knows. An optical disc is a very handy thing. Even some 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 do not really have a clue what it is, because. modern computers released without the so-called "Flopik" - a floppy disk drive.

Now users store information on optical discs. Unfortunately, in some cases this is inconvenient or not entirely appropriate compared to a virtual disk. Optical discs scratch, break and generally take up free space in the drawers of your computer desk. In addition, discs are often lost, and their search takes a lot of free time. If the disk is lost or has become unusable, this leads to the loss of your information, which is unacceptable. Most of us add a new larger hard drive to increase our information.

This a good option, although information may be lost from there as well. You can store information on Blu-ray discs. This is also not a bad option, although they can also be lost or broken, like optical discs.

But let's remember for a moment, you launch your favorite game or, and it completely refuses to work without the presence in the drive original disc. This is due to the fact that the creators of optical or Blu-ray discs intentionally embed this function into disks to increase sales of their product.

In this case, you will have to copy the disc as accurately as possible onto a disc and insert such a disc 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

In the beginning, let's try to make VZD, working directly through the computer system. This is done quite simply. Right-click on the "Computer" label and select the "Management" item.

We will open a new window. In this window, select "Disk Management".

At the top of the main menu, click "Action" and select the item "Create a virtual hard disk."


In a new window, we indicate the location of the VZhD by clicking the "Browse" button for these purposes.


We will see that we already have a disk selected. I have it D. Your case may be different. Enter a name this disk. For example, I will enter Virtual HDD, click on save.


At the bottom of the VZhD management window, we will see another disk that is not allocated (Disk 1). Right-click on it and click "Initialize Disk".


We will open a window in which you leave everything by default and click OK.


We will see the "Create a Simple Volume Wizard". Click next,


We will open the "Volume Size" window, where we also need to click "Next". We do not need to change the drive letter, click "Next". Let's move on to partition formatting, where we will leave everything as default. Click "Next". It remains for us to 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 make a virtual disk with a virtual disk drive using third-party software. The most famous of these programs is Nero. This is a handy virtual disk creation program. 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 will help you make 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 Disk Image". Next, we specify the drive from which we will save the image and indicate the path where we will create this image.

After that, we move on to motivating the created image. To do this, we need to select the image we have chosen, located at the bottom of the catalog window, there we select the virtual disk (the program creates automatically) into which we are going to mount it. If necessary, you can create an additional drive, click on the "Add virtual drive DT" button.

I hope you are now aware, “How to make a virtual disk? It's actually pretty easy. All the best to you!

Another anecdote:


The disk image is virtual file- a copy containing all the information from any physical medium. You can't do without a program for mounting disk images if your 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 regular Windows tools

First, let's look at the regular functionality of mounting CD / DVD images in the version of Windows 8.1.

Time of creation Windows versions 8, from which the regular functionality for working with disk images migrated to all successor versions - Windows 8.1 and 10 - fell on the mass phenomenon of refusal of manufacturers of computer devices from completing their drives. CD/DVD drives were becoming obsolete, and the lack of a drive reduced the cost of individual laptop models and PC builds. Microsoft, in fact, had nothing else to do, how to implement regular opportunity connecting disk images, at least only in the popular ISO format, so as not to take bread from third-party software developers at all. So, if in the Windows 7 version, mounting disk images is possible only through third-party software, then users can view the contents of the disk itself in ISO format using the system tools.

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 the system explorer.


Disk imaging programs

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 to the software market earlier, it immediately quickly gained popularity due to its friendly user interface and the free Lite edition, which was more than enough for home non-professional use. Daemon Tools works with almost all disk image formats. The operation of the program is imperceptible 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 mount only 4 virtual drives at a time. Whereas in the paid version of Pro Advanced, 32 drives can be mounted on a 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 replenished, but not everything is available in the Lite version. Naked demonstration of individual functions without the ability to use them is a marketing ploy to encourage users to purchase a paid version.

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

An important point during installation is the choice of option free license.

Among the innovations of the Daemon Tools version is the option to scan the computer for 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 desired type, open the context menu and select 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 in UltraISO

UltraISO is a mega program designed for professional use. Among its features are the creation of CD/DVD images, burning them to a disc and editing them without unpacking, optimizing the structure in order 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 O full use most of the possibilities. So, the trial version has limitations, due to which it will not be possible to create or burn an ISO file that weighs more than 300 MB. In our case, when it comes to mounting a disk image into a virtual drive, this restriction 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 buy the paid version. Click the "Trial period" button.

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

Adding an image file.

Open the "Tools" menu and select "Mount to virtual drive" among the commands present.

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 emulator Alcohol 120%. Unlike the latter, 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 burning discs to discs.

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

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 solved using the download manager Download Master.

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 full version program, but you 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 required file into the program window, call 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 "Unmount..." command accordingly.

The fastest way to mount and unmount a virtual drive

The ways of working with virtual drives inside programs are discussed above. But there is also more convenient, more fast way mount and unmount the virtual drive. If Daemon Tools Lite installs a program that opens ISO files by default during installation, you can mount the drive by opening the image as a regular file double click mouse from the system explorer. In case of program UltraISO the disk image will be instantly added to the program window for holding further action. But Alcohol 52% will simply open, as with a normal start, however, it is also convenient.

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

Click the change application button.

If desired program not listed, select "Advanced", scroll down to the bottom of the list and click the option to search for another app.

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 default program icon and will open in this program at startup.

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

After that, the virtual drive will disappear.

Have a great day!