Mount a windows 10 disk image. Opening an iso image on a computer. Mounting images in Deamon Tools

The file with the ISO extension is usually confusing for beginners. What kind of format is this? How to open it? What to do with the ISO file?

No panic. Opening ISO files is quite easy. And all that is needed is to install a program that reads ISO files. After that, you can easily open any of them with a double click.

What program can open an ISO file?

An ISO file is a virtual disk image created using special software. In other words, something like an archive. Anything can be stored in it: music, movies, etc.

There are many programs for unpacking ISO files:

• Alcohol 120%;
• PowerISO;
• Nero etc.

In this case, it is necessary to take into account what is inside the image. And starting from this, choose the right software.

If it is a Windows distribution, then it does not need to be opened or installed. In this case, you can copy the licensed image to a bootable USB flash drive, and then reboot and start the PC (or laptop) through the BIOS. After that, the installation of the operating system will begin.

If this is a book divided into chapters, music (for example, all albums of your favorite artist) or certain documents, then in this case you can play the ISO file in the truest sense of the word.

• free (only Lite version);
• takes up little space;
• simple and clear to use.

Reading an ISO file on Windows 7?

First, consider reading an ISO file on Windows 7 (it also works for XP). About Windows 8 and 10 it is written just below.

So, Daemon Tools is a free program for opening and unpacking ISO files. You can download it from developer site (link).

Using this program is very simple. When you install it, all ISO files will automatically open through it. Double-click on it with the left mouse button, after which the autorun window will immediately appear. Select the item "Open folder", and then look at the situation.

If this window does not appear, you may have disabled autorun. In this case, open "My Computer" and manually launch the virtual disk (RMB - Open).

If this is a game, run the setup.exe installation file. If it's a movie, music or something else, then just open them. Or copy to any other folder on your computer (for convenience).

You can also open Daemon Tools and add an image by specifying the path to it. Or just drag the file into the program window. And then double-click on it (or right-click and select "Mount").

After finishing installing the game or watching a movie, you need to delete the ISO file. Or rather, unmount it. You can do this in 2 ways:

After that, the virtual image will be deleted.

There is also another way to unzip an ISO file without Daemon Tools.

How to unzip an ISO file?

Daemon Tools is a specific program that not all users have installed. But everyone probably has WinRAR or 7-Zip. Therefore, if you are too lazy to install another program, you can simply extract the files from the ISO using an archiver.

It's very easy to do this:

Note: if the archiver is not in the list, then click "Select a program" and look for it in the expanded list.

If it is not there either, then click the "Browse" button, find the archiver folder and select the WinRAR.exe installation file.

This is how you can unpack an ISO file without third-party software.

How to unzip ISO file on Windows 10 and 8?

Which program to open the game ISO file on Windows 8 or 10? In this case, you don't have to install anything. After all, you can run it without extraneous software. All you need to do is select the file and double-click on it with the left mouse button. After that, the image will be mounted and the autorun window will start. At the end, don't forget to unmount it. To do this, open "My Computer", select the virtual drive, right-click and select "Eject".

That's all. Now you know how you can run the ISO extension on Windows 7, 8 and 10. And if you download movies or games with this extension again, you can easily open them.

This is a very common format. In the form of ISO files, which are the image of a CD or DVD disc, games or other programs are usually downloaded. Fortunately, Windows 10 has built-in tools for working with such objects. Let's take a closer look at what tools you can use to easily open a file with this extension or mount a separate virtual disk.

As already mentioned, any version of Microsoft Windows 10 (be it Insider Preview or any other) is able to open ISO files on its own.

At the same time, the OS also forms a virtual drive, which can be removed by right-clicking and selecting the "Extract" item.

The choice of a third-party tool for opening an ISO directly depends on its contents: if any game or application is provided in this form, then the right solution is not to open the file itself, but to mount the image. Before starting the procedure, make sure the file is on an NTFS volume.

In other words, the ISO will open in a specialized program that will create a separate virtual disk. Through such a drive, it will already be possible to install a utility or game. Let's figure out what programs can be used to do this.

Daemon Tools Lite

This is the most common and popular tool for mounting an ISO image. You can download the utility from, because in the Lite version it is absolutely free. The provided functionality will be more than enough.

This utility is installed in the same way as any other. You need to open the EXE file and follow the instructions. There is only one “BUT” - in the Windows security window that opens, you must activate the item “Always trust Disk Soft Ltd software”. To install, you just need to click on the appropriate button.

Before finally launching the program, be sure to check the presence of a checkmark in the “ISO” item so that the ISO format is automatically opened through this utility.

The further sequence of actions for opening ISO using DTL is as follows:

1. We find the downloaded ISO and launch it using the standard method. Due to the fact that it was associated with the program we are describing, the file will be read in it.

1. Activate the item "Always use this application to open .iso" and click "OK".

1. Click "Open" in the Microsoft security warning window.

1. If the procedure was successful, a new disk will appear at the bottom of the program window.

1. We open "This computer" and in the explorer we see in the list of hard drives a new drive with the program that was downloaded in the form of ISO.

1. The disk is available for opening and use. Double-clicking on it will start the automatic installation of the content. Right-clicking on a drive and selecting "Open" will expand the contents for future use.

To unmount a drive, you need to open the application, select the appropriate drive, right-click on it and click on the "Unmount" button.

As a result, the disk will be removed from the explorer.

Let's move on to the next tool with similar functionality.

UltraISO

UltraISO is the simplest tool for working with ISO, does not take up a lot of disk space, but provides a huge amount of possibilities. Only one of them interests us.

1. The program window will open, which will display the entire contents of the selected file.

1. To get the necessary files at your disposal, select them, right-click, click on "Extract to ..." and specify the extraction path.

1. The files are extracted to the correct folder and are ready to use. No additional drives were installed.

As you can see, the work in this utility does not take a lot of time. Let's move on to the next tool.

Alcohol 120%

Alcohol is a powerful disc burning utility. In addition, it allows you to connect a large number of virtual drives. Its functionality is really impressive, but in our case we will work with only a small part of it.

1. Find the right ISO.

1. Right-click on the added image in the application and click on "Mount to Device".

1. If everything went well, the virtual media status will display the image data.

1. We go to "This PC" and check for a virtual disk. If successful, open it and use the necessary data.

To get rid of the image, go to the utility, right-click on the virtual drive and select the "Unmount image" line. The image will be unmounted, and the virtual drive will be removed and removed from the list of connected hard drives.

Let's move on to the last tool from this category.

Nero

Nero is a whole package of utilities that contains all the necessary tools for working with multimedia. Projects themselves have the NRG extension. Unfortunately, the package no longer includes a utility that supports ISO - Nero Image Drive, however, the previous solutions should be more than enough to solve the problems that arise.

All described emulators are provided in Russian, so the user will not have questions about how to translate the interface.

Opening by archivers

Any ISO can be opened not only using specialized applications that mount images, or the tools of the OS itself, but also using modern archivers. This method is recommended to be used only if only data is needed from the ISO, and there is no need to create a disk image.

Consider the two most common archivers and the process of working with ISO using them.

WinRAR

WinRAR is the most widely used archiver today. The program is extremely easy to use and has the most intuitive interface.

Consider an alternative archiver, no less common among PC users.

7zip

7-zip is an absolutely free archiver that is in no way inferior to the previously described WinRAR. Download the utility from and install it on a computer or laptop.

Pay attention to which OS version is installed - x32 Bit or x64 Bit. Based on this information, you need to download and run the appropriate version of 7-zip.

To expand ISO via 7-zip:

1. We make a right click on the file, hover over "7-zip" and in the expanded add-on click on "Unpack".

1. Select the extraction path and click OK. The files will be unpacked to the folder specified by the user, nothing else needs to be done.
1. Select the existing files and click on the "Extract" button. Specify the appropriate path and click on OK.

That, in fact, is all. We have finished reviewing how to open an ISO file on Windows 10 with just a few clicks.

findings

The choice of a specific solution depends on the situation. If a game or program requires a disc, then you should use one of the emulators and create a special virtual media. If you only need to access files stored in ISO, you can do without programs and use any available archiver.

Video instruction

We attach detailed instructions in video format, in which the process of working with each tool described above is described step by step.

The newly installed Windows operating system cannot but please the eye. Virgin clean, without any processes slowing down the computer, unnecessary software and a bunch of games. Experts recommend regularly reinstalling the OS every 6-10 months for preventive needs and cleaning up redundant information. And for a successful reinstallation, you need a high-quality disk image of the system.

When You May Need a Windows 10 System Image

The main reasons for the urgent need for an OS image are, of course, reinstallation or recovery of the system after damage.

Damage can be caused by broken files on hard drive sectors, viruses and/or incorrectly installed updates. Often the system can recover itself if none of the critical libraries have been damaged. But as soon as the damage affects the bootloader files or other important and executable files, the OS may well cease to function. In such cases, it is simply impossible to do without external media (installation disk or flash drive).

It is recommended that you have multiple permanent media with a Windows image at once. Anything can happen: disk drives often scratch disks, and flash drives themselves are fragile devices. In the end, everything falls into disrepair. Yes, and the image should be updated periodically in order to save time downloading updates from Microsoft servers and immediately have the latest drivers for the equipment in your arsenal. This is mainly about a clean install of the OS, of course.

Burning an image to a disk or flash drive

Let's say you have a Windows 10 disk image, assembled or downloaded from the official Microsoft website, but there is little use for it as long as it just lies on the hard drive. It must be correctly written using a standard or third-party program, because the image file itself is of no value to the bootloader's attempt to read it.

It is important to consider the choice of media. Usually a standard DVD-blank with the declared 4.7 GB of memory or a USB flash drive with a capacity of 8 GB is enough, since the weight of the image often exceeds 4 GB.

It is also desirable to clear the flash drive of all contents in advance, and even better, format it. Although almost all burning programs format removable media before writing an image to it.

Create an image using the installer

Nowadays, special services have been created for obtaining images of the operating system. The license is no longer tied to a separate disk, which may become unusable for various reasons, or its box. Everything goes electronic, which is much safer than the physical ability to store information. With the release of Windows 10, the license has become more secure and mobile. It can be used on multiple computers or phones at once.

You can download the Windows image on various torrent resources or using the Media Creation Tool recommended by Microsoft developers. This small utility for writing a Windows image to a USB flash drive can be found on the official website of the company.

1. Download the installer.
2. Run the program, select "Create installation media for another computer" and click "Next".

   Choose to create installation media for another computer

3. Select the system language, edition (choose between Pro and Home versions), as well as 32 or 64 bits, again "Next".

   Define boot image parameters

4. Specify the media where you want to save the bootable Windows. Either immediately to a USB flash drive, creating a bootable USB drive, or as an ISO image to a computer and then using it:
   
5. Wait for the process of your choice to finish, after which you can use the downloaded product as you wish.

   After the process is completed, the image or bootable USB flash drive will be ready for use.

While the program is running, Internet traffic is used in the amount of 3 to 7 GB.

Video: How to Create a Windows 10 ISO Image Using the Media Creation Tool

Creating an image using third-party programs

Oddly enough, but OS users still opt for additional programs for working with disk images. Often, due to a more convenient interface or functionality, such applications outperform the standard utilities that are offered by Windows.

Daemon Tools

Daemon Tools is a well-deserved software market leader. According to statistics, it is used by about 80% of all users who work with disk images. To create a disk image using Daemon Tools, do the following:

Daemon Tools also allows you to create a bootable USB drive:

Video: how to burn a system image to disk using Daemon Tools

Alcohol 120%

The Alcohol 120% program is an old-timer in the field of creating and burning disc images, but still has some minor flaws. For example, it does not write images to a USB flash drive.

Video: how to burn a system image to disk using Alcohol 120%

Nero Express

Almost all Nero products are designed to work with disks in general. Unfortunately, not much attention is paid to images, but a simple burning of a disc from an image is present.

1. Open Nero Express, hover your mouse over "Image, project, copier." and select "Disk image or saved project" from the drop-down menu.

   Click on the item "Disk image or saved project"

2. Select the disk image by clicking on the desired file and click the "Open" button.

   Open the Windows 10 image file

3. Click "Burn" and wait for the disc to finish burning. Don't forget to check if the bootable DVD works.

   The "Record" button starts the process of burning the installation disc

Unfortunately, Nero still doesn't write images to flash drives.

Video: How to capture a system image using Nero Express

UltraISO

UltraISO is an old, small, but very powerful disk imaging tool. It can record both to discs and flash drives.

1. Open the UltraISO program.
2. To burn an image to a flash drive, select the required disk image file at the bottom of the program and double-click on it to mount it into the program's virtual drive.

   In the directories at the bottom of the program, select and mount the image

3. At the top of the program, click on "Boot" and select the item "Burn hard disk image".

   The "Burn hard disk image" item is located in the "Boot" tab

4. Select the required USB media that fits the size and change the recording method to USB-HDD+ if necessary. Click the "Burn" button and confirm the formatting of the flash drive if the program requests this request.

   The "Burn" button will start the process of formatting the flash drive with the subsequent creation of an installation flash drive

5. Wait for the recording to finish and check the flash drive for compliance and performance.

Burning boot disks with the UltraISO program takes place in a similar vein:

Video: how to burn an image to a USB flash drive using the UltraISO program

What problems can occur during the creation of an ISO disk image

By and large, problems during the recording of images should not arise. Only cosmetic problems are possible if the carrier itself is of poor quality, spoiled. Or perhaps there is a power problem during recording, such as a power outage. In this case, the flash drive will have to be formatted on a new one and the recording chain will be repeated, and the disk will, alas, become unusable: it will have to be replaced with a new one.

As for creating an image through the Media Creation Tool, problems may well arise: the developers did not really take care of decoding errors, if any. Therefore, you have to navigate the problem using the “poke” method.

If the download does not start and hangs already at 0%

If the download does not even start and the process freezes at the very beginning, the problems can be both external and internal:

• Microsoft servers are being blocked by antivirus programs or by the ISP. Perhaps a simple lack of connection to the Internet. In this case, check which connections your antivirus and connection to Microsoft servers are blocking;
• lack of space to save the image, or you downloaded a fake backup program. In this case, the utility must be downloaded from another source, and disk space must be freed up. Moreover, it is worth considering that the program first downloads the data, and then creates an image, so you need about twice as much space as stated in the image.

If the download hangs at a percentage, or the image file is not created after downloading

When the download freezes while loading the image, or the image file is not created, the problem is (most likely) related to the operation of your hard drive.

In the case when the program tries to write information to a bad sector of the hard drive, the OS itself can reset the entire installation or boot process. In this case, you need to determine the reason why the hard drive sectors became unusable by the Windows system.

First of all, check the system for viruses with two or three anti-virus programs. Then check and disinfect the hard drive.

Video: how to check a hard drive for errors and fix them

Creating an installation disk from an image is very easy. Every Windows user should have this kind of media on an ongoing basis.

Some programs, and especially games, are often distributed as an ISO image. This distribution format has its advantages, but it is not always the best for end users. The problem often arises with mounting the image in the system.
The Windows 8 and 10 operating system has built-in support for mounting ISO images. There, this is done literally in two clicks: you need to right-click on the image file and select the "Connect" item in the menu that appears.

But what about those who work, for example, in Windows 7 or even Windows XP? There is a solution!
I present to your attention the program WinCDEmu Portable. This small, free and portable utility does a great job of doing its job with little or no impact on the system. This distinguishes it from such "monsters" as DAEMON Tools Lite, Alcohol 52%.
It is also important that the program supports other formats. With the same ease with which the program mounts ISO, it can mount images in the following formats: CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG. In this regard, the utility can also be useful in Windows 10, where there is no standard support for these formats.

A little about the interface and features of working with the program.

After launch, a window will be displayed with the following text (free translation): WinCDEmu Portable will install the driver needed to create virtual CD/DVDs. You can uninstall the driver at any time using this program. Do you want to continue?
After confirmation, a very ascetic window will be displayed in which there is nothing superfluous :-)
Adding images to the list is carried out both by pressing the "Mount another image" button, and by dragging the image file onto the program window.
For the occasional need to mount an image, WinCDEmu is the best choice.

One of the great features of Windows 10 is the native ability to mount ISO and IMG files in File Explorer with a double-click. The operating system creates a virtual drive that mounts the contents of a disk image file and makes it available, just like you would insert a physical disk into an optical one. drive.

The ability to mount ISO files in File Explorer was first introduced in Windows 8. It was one of the best improvements the operating system has received.

ISO and IMG files are special disk file formats that can store the captured contents of an optical disc or removable drive. A disc image file is an exact copy of the contents of some DVD or CD media. It is also possible to manually make an ISO image file from any files you have on any disc, or convert ESD Image to ISO.

Mount ISO and IMG files in Windows 10, open File Explorer and navigate to the folder where your ISO file is stored.

Double-click the file or right-click on it and choose "Mount" from the context menu. This is the default context menu command.

The disk image will be mounted on a virtual disk in this PC folder. See screenshot.

Sometimes the file association for ISO or IMG files can be transferred by a third party application. For example, my favorite archiver 7-Zip can open ISO files. In this case, the ISO file is associated with 7-Zip if you set it as default from the control panel. When double-clicked, the ISO file will open in the corresponding application.

In this case, you can restore the default file associations or mount the file from the context menu.

Right-click on the ISO file and select "Open With - Windows Explorer". See the following screenshot:

Alternatively, you can restore the default file association. Do it like this.

Note: Windows 10 allows the user to mount ISO and IMG files that are stored on an NTFS partition on a device connected to your PC. Other file systems and locations are not supported. For example, if you are trying to mount an ISO file from a network share, it shows the following message:

[window title]
Failed to install file

Alternatively, Windows 10 allows mount ISO and IMG files with PowerShell.

Open PowerShell and enter the following command:

Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath<Полный путь к вашему файлу ISO>

You can copy the file path and paste it into the PowerShell console. See screenshot below.

Once you have finished working inside the mounted ISO image, you can unmount it.

In File Explorer, open This PC and select "Eject" from the context menu of the virtual drive.

Alternatively, in PowerShell, use the Dismount-DiskImage cmdlet as follows:

Dismount-DiskImage -ImagePath<Полный путь к вашему файлу ISO>

See the following screenshot.