How to create, mount, and burn ISO image files for free

Posted on September 24, 2007 at 7:53 am

Most online tutorials that I have found describing the process of creating, burning, and mounting ISO image files are written separately or are only about doing one thing, so this guide is going to describe some free software that you can use to create and manipulate ISO images files for all purposes. Basically, the software is split into three categories: software to create an ISO image file from a folder on the hard disk or from a CD/DVD, software to burn and image file to a CD/DVD, and software to mount an image file as a drive in Windows.

How to create an ISO image file

There are two free software applications that are very lightweight and get the job done quickly: Folder2ISO and LC ISO Creator.

folder2iso

Folder2ISO can be used to burn a folder to a CD or DVD. Actually, Folder2ISO takes your folder and creates an ISO image file first, then you can burn that ISO image file to a CD or DVD. You might be wondering what is the point of creating an ISO image of a folder and it’s really only useful when you’ve used a program like DVD Decrypter to extract the contents of the DVD onto your computer. Usually, you’ll see two folders under the movie folder called VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS.

To use Folder2ISO, simply click Select Folder and choose the folder you want converted into an ISO image. Then click Select Output and choose the destination folder (cannot be the same folder as chosen for Step 1). Finally, type a name for your ISO image file in the label box. Click Generate ISO and your file is created!

create iso from cd

Now the above process described how to create an ISO image file from a FOLDER. If you want to create one from a CD or DVD, you can use the other very tiny program called LC ISO Creator. The nice thing about both of these programs is that they do not even need to be installed, simply open the executable file to run.

So what’s the purpose of creating an image file from a CD or DVD you ask? Well, it’s great for backup purposes in case you lose your original CDs or DVDs. Basically, you can mount the image as a virtual drive on your computer at a later point and run anything off the CD just as if it were the actual CD itself. So if you buy Photoshop and create an image file, later on if you lose the CD, you can burn the image file to another CD and it’ll work exactly the same as the original CD.

For LC ISO Creator, select the drive you want to create the ISO image file from, then click the Create ISO button and choose the directory where you want to save the file to. You can track the progress on the grid as it is converted.

How to burn an ISO image file

If you already have an ISO image file or if you’ve just created one, your next step could either be to burn it for archive purposes or to mount it as a virtual drive. I’ll talk about mounting in the next step, but for right now we’ll go through two more free programs that you can use to burn your ISO image file to a CD or DVD: Active ISO Burner and ISO Recorder. 

active iso burner

Active ISO Burner is painfully simply to use! Simply choose the ISO file you want to burn, choose your burner if it’s not already selected by default and click Burn ISO! Nothing else to it!

Another program that uses the default cd burning capabilities in Windows XP to burn ISO images is ISO Recorder. The nice thing about this program is that since it’s integrated with Windows, you can simply right-click on an ISO image file and choose Copy image to CD from the context menu.

copy image to cd

How to mount an ISO image file in Windows

Finally, if you have downloaded an ISO image file or if you have created one from a CD or DVD, to actually use it on your computer, you have to mount it. Mounting an ISO image simply means creating a virtual CD/DVD ROM drive that Windows will then access just like the physical CD/DVD drive.

There are also two free ways you can go about doing this: one program is a small utility from Microsoft called Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel and the other is Daemon Tools.

microsoft virtual cdrom[6]

Once you download the program, you can read the instructions to install it. It’s not as easy to use as Daemon Tools, but it’s very small and works well. However, if you want something a little easier to use, check out Daemon Tools.

daemon tools

Once you’ve installed Daemon Tools, you’ll see a new icon in your taskbar that’s red and looks like lightening. Right click on it and choose Virtual CD/DVD-ROM and then click on Set number of devices and choose 1. A new virtual drive will be created on your computer usually with the next free letter on your computer, such as D: or E:.

Now that the drive exists, right-click on the icon again and go to Virtual CD/DVD-ROM and this time you should see something like Device:0 [E:] No media. Click on it and then choose Mount Image. Choose your ISO image file and click OK. Once it’s mounted, you can access the drive just as if there was a CD or DVD inside the drive.

And that’s about it! If you still have any questions or if you want to do something different with an ISO file, post a comment!

[tags]iso image, burn iso image, create iso image, mount iso image, dvd iso image, extract iso image[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

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Comments

51 Responses to “How to create, mount, and burn ISO image files for free”

  1. Madhur Kapoor said on : September 24th, 2007 at 8:16 am

    Nice utilities , currently i use Daemon tools but will give others a try .


  2. Alek Davis said on : September 24th, 2007 at 10:11 am

    Quote: “You might be wondering what is the point of creating an ISO image of a folder and it’s really only useful when you’ve used a program like DVD Decrypter to extract the contents of the DVD onto your computer. Usually, you’ll see two folders under the movie folder called VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS.” Both DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink can generate ISO image files instead of VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders. This is just a configuration setting which many users (myself included) miss.


  3. akishore said on : September 24th, 2007 at 10:19 am

    Hi Alek, thanks for the info! I didn’t know that either. Where is the option to save it out as an ISO image?

    Thanks,

    Aseem


  4. Alek Davis said on : September 24th, 2007 at 10:34 am

    In DVD Decrypter, check Mode – ISO – Read, and you can see that Destination turns into an ISO file (you can rename it). I do not have a video DVD to try DVD Shrink now, but if I remember it correctly, in the burn settings, you specify the output type, which can be VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders or ISO file, using a drop-down list box.


  5. Marc MacDonald said on : November 8th, 2007 at 10:49 pm

    Hey Alek, thanks for the info. I found the iso. options in dvd decrypter, and they work great. Thanks a lot man.


  6. Justin said on : November 12th, 2007 at 8:57 am

    Thanks alot for the info.


  7. andreea said on : December 20th, 2007 at 10:28 am

    hey alek..I have a problem…what if I want to mount 2 iso images from a CD?(autocad cd1&cd2)..I have daemon tools..I mounted the first iso image(named cd1) and it worked but when it asked me to insert disk 2, i try to mount my second iso image(named cd2) but it gave me this error:”unable to mount image.device 0 has outstanding open handles”…??…I also tried to set 2 devices with daemon tools and mount the two iso image but it gave me this error:”error 1308.source file not found:F:\Bin\AcadFEUI\ProgramFiles\Root\WebDepot\RTAnimDots.js. Verify that the file exists and that you can access it.”
    pls help!..i need this program..thanks!..&sorry for my english:D


  8. Alek Davis said on : February 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    andreea: Sorry, I did not get a notification for your comment, so I did not respond. I’m not sure what your problem is, but I suspect that before mounting the second ISO file, you need to unmount the first one, and then use the same drive letter for the second image. Just a guess.


  9. Rob said on : April 22nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm

    This article was very helpful.
    I wanted some free software to mount the iso at my work. I was happy to see Microsoft had “Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel”.
    Followed the procedure and I was able to mount the iso.

    thank you very much


  10. David said on : May 1st, 2008 at 10:25 am

    Hello Alek,

    I want to make room on my hard drive at home in my Laptop. I have alot of music files. Is there a way to burn them all on say like one cd. Maybe as an ISO image?? Are the instructions above the relate to this? I know that I can buy an external hard drive but I am trying not to buy anything.


  11. Alek Davis said on : May 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    David: It all depends on what you are planning to do with your music files. I am not sure I understand how you are planning to make an ISO image of them and what would be the point (since an ISO image will stay on the hard drive). You can just burn these music files directly to a CD (or DVD) or a number of CDs/DVDs; you do not really need to use an ISO image for this. BTW, to free some space, I would recommend to defragment the drive (you may need to do it a couple of times). You can also run a disk cleaner (either a built-in or third party; and do it before defragmenting). Another thing you can do is use built-in compression (unless your drive already uses it).


  12. Offsprung said on : May 20th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    A couple of things.
    DaemonTools is NOT free (not even the new “NeuteredDaemon”).
    MagicISO is free (a bit lame and no cmd-line, but better than the M$ one).

    And I cannot believe no one mentioned ImgBurn? FREE AND ROCKS!


  13. Alek Davis said on : May 20th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

    Offsprung: Thank you for pointing out that DameonTools is NOT free. It may have been in the past, but now it’s not free for commercial use (it IS FREE for non-commercial use, though). I need to check out this MagicISO thing.


  14. Alek Davis said on : May 20th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    Offsprung: Were you joking? I just checked: MagicISO is NOT free, it costs $29.95.


  15. Offsprung said on : May 20th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    In fact there is no such thing as DaemonTools anymore. Lite is what we were used too.
    I was referring to the mounter not creator and yes they hide very well…
    http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-history.htm
    Actually called MagicDisc.

    And worth mentioning again ImgBurn!!!! LightningUK rocks!


  16. Alek Davis said on : May 20th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

    Offsprung: Oh, cool, thanks for the link. I’ll give it a try. BTW, this page states that MagicDis is FREEWARE: http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm


  17. Offsprung said on : May 20th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

    Yes that was my point free and a little less clumsy than m$. Daemon whatever they call it is the best. I hear Nero ImageDrive mounter is based on it, command line and all the bells and whistles, just watch the non-commercial.


  18. Chip said on : May 21st, 2008 at 8:10 am

    Which of these products create an image of an entire hard drive?


  19. Offsprung said on : May 23rd, 2008 at 12:28 am

    This article is not about that.
    For free? Do not know of any.
    Norton Ghost or maybe Acronis, but neither are free.


  20. Offsprung said on : May 23rd, 2008 at 10:15 am

    I take that back you might try ImageX to create a WIM image as m$ does in vista for free. I tried to include the link but this did not seem to like the link.


  21. Cyberdude said on : June 4th, 2008 at 11:54 am

    I have been using MagicDisk for over 4 months and have been very pleased. I also use the free Virtual CloneDrive by SlySoft (http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html) on another PC. Both work well and are recommended.


  22. mmg1818 said on : June 21st, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    Iso recorder

    isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm


  23. Sam Moore said on : July 11th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    Thanks alot man, you have been a great help.


  24. philip said on : August 21st, 2008 at 5:27 am

    Well, I was able burn and iso file with Blindwrite (with free trial version) and it worked just great.


  25. michael said on : September 11th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

    Ive used iso files before mounting them with daemon tools but ive never burned them , this is the problem i got , ive extracted the iso file from the rar files, ive mounted it with deamon and it works but i want to use the iso on a different computer. I used magiciso along with a different number of programs to burn it onto a disc but its doesnt seem to be working, they say success and other things but then i check the disc and its blank. I got it to burn as a bootable cd but i am unable to mount it on the different computer, how can i burn the iso so that i can then mount it on a the other computer . Hope someone can help as i am racking my brain to avail. Thanks


  26. Kevin said on : October 7th, 2008 at 8:59 pm

    I’m trying to make a bootable disc, and i saved it as an ISO file. How can i burn it so it will be bootable, or like automaticly booted on startup.
    Thanks.


  27. Offsprung said on : October 9th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

    http://www.imgburn.com the best to manipulate the iso. Can even use it to extract the bootable part of a disk and add it to an iso.


  28. Will said on : October 25th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    My question is similar to Andrea’s. I copied a friend of mine’s game that he had divided into iso files, cd1.iso, cd2.iso and cd3.iso.

    What am I supposed to do with them? He joined the army and can’t remember what he did.


  29. mark said on : December 13th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    I downloaded a torrent of call of duty world at war. I am sort of inexperienced with mounting and burning ISOs to a cd. any tips?


  30. Thoraxe said on : January 7th, 2009 at 11:58 am

    yeah say if you want to make an ISO image and you have the install cd the scenamtic cd and the play cd do you need to make an ISO out of the three of them and also how do you make an ISO with out having a CD-Rom drive


  31. Stymie Joe said on : January 9th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    Just wanted to pass on a bit of a thank you for posting this info. Keep up the good work :)


  32. Heather said on : February 15th, 2009 at 2:36 am

    My installation will pop up and say “insert disk in the C Drive” for it to continue installing. How do I get the installation to recognize the iso mounted with Daemon Tools, which is not on a C Drive?


  33. Mapu 23 said on : February 21st, 2009 at 9:44 am

    Hi guys. I have a strange problem. I have downloaded a game. It is split into 59 VTY files. I manage to join them, but I cant find a way of creating an ISO file of it. Can anybody help me pls????


  34. Andy said on : May 7th, 2009 at 5:29 am

    Hi !!! I use IsoDisc 1 (freeware) to mount ISO’s and ImgBurn (freeware) very good) for all the rest. Also – there aren’t free mounters (.iso format only) for other image files – anyone finds it – pls – email me : yvoiceh@yahoo.com – as I’m going legal…

    – Peace !!!


  35. Garetty said on : May 24th, 2009 at 11:15 am

    Hey, I am trying to make a Windows 7 Boot disk. I am doing everthing it says to do on Windows 7 Installation, but when I burn the Disk, the disk tray opens and there is nothing on the disk after I close in and look in it.


  36. Gabrial said on : May 24th, 2009 at 9:07 pm

    I’m using Ubuntu 9.04 and I’m trying to install a game but when it tells me to insert Cd 2 I try to unmount the the first “CD” but it wont let me. Any help would be great. Thnx


  37. kerry said on : June 16th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    If you want to create ISO Image on Mac, I share you below resource:

    gleez.com/board/tech-corner/tips-tricks/how-create-iso-image-file-dvd-mac-os


  38. Orion said on : July 23rd, 2009 at 11:42 am

    I have repeativly followed directions and mounted my iso image and I can’t find where this virtual drive is. I just want to open the file… Please help! fyi, I’ve used daemon tools, infrarecorder, and magic iso.


  39. tommy said on : October 13th, 2009 at 10:03 am

    Thanks so much for this info! I had no idea how to mount a ISO file because right now I can’t burn it to a DVD! I’ll try the deamon tool and see if it works!

    thnks heaps!


  40. Jack said on : January 10th, 2010 at 3:47 am

    Hi,

    I have been using ImgBurn and loving it… But I suddenly got a new computer, put the ImgBurn Setup on my USB and installed it, but now instead of burning it into an .iso it burns into a RAR file… I really want to burn it into an .iso file… Can anyone help me… Please??


  41. na said on : February 22nd, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    Thanks! This was extremely helpful!


  42. Seth said on : March 7th, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    I have to let everyone know that ActiveBurner is not the best program for burning ISO images.

    The best program by far is ImgBurn! It’s free and works with Windows 7 too.


  43. Lester said on : March 17th, 2010 at 12:41 am

    Definitely the best program for burning ISO images is ImgBurn. For mounting, I would suggest MagicISO, it’s a good virtual CD/DVD-ROM app.


  44. Happy Camper said on : April 1st, 2010 at 5:38 am

    Seems to do what says it says no problem. Just paranoid about adware/rootkits etc. with all this free software.


  45. Karl said on : June 2nd, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    fantastic ISO too!l was lost without it! very easy to follow :-) 10/10


  46. Jordan said on : June 4th, 2010 at 8:39 am

    Help! I downloaded a game using DaemonTools, but whenever I try to play it it says ‘Please insert the correct CD-Rom and try again’. Any advice? Please?!


  47. Felix Johnson said on : July 12th, 2010 at 4:42 am

    I really liked what I got here. Nice work guys.


  48. Jesse said on : July 13th, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    I have a question. You said in order to create an iso image file, click on the Select folder and select a folder that I want to convert. You said:

    “…Then click Select Output and choose the destination folder (cannot be the same folder as chosen for Step 1)…”

    but for some reason my computer won’t let me select a different file as the output. Why is that?


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