Some people, like myself, might not know that there’s a better way to transfer CDs and DVDs across the internet, rather than the traditional method of burning ISO images.  By using some free software, which acts as a virtual drive on your PC, you can mount an ISO image to run much faster and efficiently. 

According to CyberNet, it works by taking an ISO image, BIN/CUE file, or any other supported format and displaying it as a virtual drive on your computer.  The drive should look just like any other CD drive in Windows Explorer, with the added benefit of it being much faster than using a physical CD-ROM drive.

There’s a handful of applications floating around the internet that can perform the function of providing a virtual drive for both PCs and Macs, but as fair warning, there are several applications that might install spyware/malware on your machine in addition.  You have to be careful, because a simple Google search for software like this will return mostly bad software first, before listing the good ones that are buried down deep.  There are a few free applications out there that are known to be free of any such malware or spyware; Virtual CloneDrive, MagicISO, and StarBurn.

MagicISO is probably the front-runner as it provides basic ISO mounting functionality along with some extras.  The other two work the same, don’t get me wrong, but MagicISO is made for this and only this, while StarBurn has it as a side feature to its burning capabilities.  Virtual CloneDrive is more or less the no-frills solution for mounting ISOs.

MagicISO can support up to 15 simultaneous virtual drives, and can do extra things like automatically mount the last used image file, compress ISO images- which really just converts it from an ISO image to UIF, and more.  You can even create ISO images from a CD/DVD if you’d like.

It all depends on your needs and whether or not you even think it’s necessary to go as far as to use virtual drives rather than burning ISOs.  Most people could probably care less, but if you’re a fan of transferring, downloading, and burning CDs and DVDs, it’s definitely worth your time. 

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Related:

Virtual teen site raises another $11 million

New details emerge on Midori, end of Windows coming, enter cloud computing

Microsoft offers new Vista enterprise licenses

Microsoft imposes Vista tax on Mac and Linux virtualization

Tools to aid Vista deployment for corporations

Entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 11:23 pm under Free Software, Microsoft, Vista, xp.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Justin Montgomery.