MagicDisc is a free software designed for creating and managing virtual CD drives and CD/DVD discs. It allows you to use almost all CD/DVD image without burning them onto CD or DVD. You can run programs, play games, or listen to music from your virtual CD-ROM. Its ability to create ISO also provides a good way for yo to back up your data in the ISO format and store in different computers.

Other than ISO, MagicDisc also supported the following image extensions: BIN (CDRWin), IMA/IMG (Generic disk images), CIF (Easy CD Creator), NRG (Nero Burning ROM), IMG/CCD (CloneCD), MDF/MDS (Fantom CD), VCD    (Farstone Virtual Drive), VaporCD (Noum Vapor CDROM) and many more other formats.

Installation

Download the MagicDisc here.

Double click the installer to install it. At the time of installation, it will show an error prompt about the device driver. Choose the second option. Choosing the first option will create several problems during your work session later on.

Mounting of image files

To mount an image file, right click on the magic disc icon at system tray and click on the “Mount” option.

Browse to the location of the image file that you want to mount and click “Open”. You should be able to see the content in the image file from Windows Explorer now.

To unmount, simply right click on the MagicDisc icon in the system tray and click “Unmount”.

Creating CD/DVD Image

Here’s the procedure to create an ISO file from a CD/DVD.

Insert the CD/DVD in the physical CD-ROM.

Right click the MagicDisc icon in the system tray and click “Make CD/DVD Image”.

Navigate to the location where you want to save the output file.

MagicDisc will proceed to create an ISO file from the CD/DVD.

Have you tried MagicDisc? I love to see your opinion in comment box below.

With the use of fuesiso and nautilus-actions, we can easily create an option in Nautilus to mount the CD images right from the context menu (mouse right click).

Here it goes:

First, install fuseiso and nautilus actions

sudo apt-get install fuseiso nautilus-actions
sudo usermod -a -G fuse username

Change the username to your login name

Logout and back in.

Download the userisomount.sh script to your home folder.

Copy it to /usr/local/bin/ folder and make it executable.

sudo mv ~/userisomount.sh /usr/local/bin/
sudo chown root:fuse /usr/local/bin/userisomount.sh
sudo chmod 754 /usr/local/bin/userisomount.sh

Download the Nautilus Actions Schemas for MOUNTING and UNMOUNTING disk images.

Open up Nautilus Actions Configuration (System->Preferences->Nautilus Actions Configuration). Import the two files into Nautilus Actions.

Save and close Nautilus Actions.

In your terminal, restart Nautilus

killall nautilus

You should be able to find a  Mount Disk Image on the context menu of your Nautilus now.

To mount a iso, bin or cue file, simply right click and choose Mount Disk Image from the menu.

Reference: Ubuntu community documentation

Virtual CloneDrive

Virtual CloneDrive is a third party software that works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, except that it exists virtually. Once you have installed VCD, it will mount itself as an empty CD ROM drive in your Windows Explorer. You can then use it to mount your ISO images (just like the action of putting CD into your CD-ROM).

1. Download and install Virtual Clone Drive. (If you are using Windows 2000 or XP, you must be an administrator to install it, else it won’t work). You will be prompted to restart your computer.

2. Open up your Windows Explorer. You should now see a new BD-ROM drive.

3. Right click on the BD-ROM and select Virtual CloneDrive->Mount

4. Navigate to the directory where you store your ISO file and select it.

5. Virtual CloneDrive will magically mount the ISO as a CD in the system. You will be able to run the application or view the content directly from the ISO file.

Virtual CloneDrive works across most version of Windows, including Windows 7 RC1.

Alternative method

If you are not the administrator of your Windows XP machine or you can’t get Virtual CloneDrive to work, the alternative software that you can use is Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel.

1. Download Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel package.

2. Double click the .exe file to extract the package. When prompted, remember to select Desktop as the directory to unzip the folder to.

3. You should now have three files on your desktop: VcdControlTool.exe, VCdRom.sys and a readme.txt file.

4. Copy the VCdRom.sys to your C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers folder.

5. Double click the VCdControlTool.exe to run it.

6. Click “Driver Control”

7. Click on the Install Driver and point the directory to the VcdRom.sys file in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers folder.

8. Click on Start follow by OK.

9. Back to the main window, click “Add Drive“. You should see a new drive mounted on your system.

10. Click on Mount and navigate to the directory where you save the ISO file. Select the ISO file. It will prompt you for special mount option. Ignore that and click OK.

11. You can now access your ISO file within your Windows Explorer. When you are done, unmount, stop, and remove the driver from the Virtual CD-Rom Control Panel.

What other ways do you use to mount ISO files in Windows?