Best application to mount disc images for Windows 7?

I always used Toast for Macs, but am new to Windows 7 and was wondering what you would recommend for burning dvds/mounting disc images. Preferably something with an intuitive and straightforward interface, doesn't need to have a lot of bells and whistles. Thanks.

 

virtual clone drive

 

Alcohol 52%

 

Not quite...

Although it's a good program, and I used it for years, Daemon Tools Lite installed a driver (SPTD Duplex Secure) that was flagged by ImgBurn that it may cause problems with burning. The driver is impossible to get rid of. (check Google)

Alcohol also installs the same driver.


DVDfab Virtual Drive is simple and lightweight.

 

I use combination of IMGBurn and Virtual CloneDrive.

First to burn/create images I need and second obviously to mount them Both are simple to use, powerful in features and of course: free.

 

out of curiosity, why would one still wants to burn DVD image nowadays ? I use Virtual CloneDrive mainly for reading DVD install image but even that I found can be replaced with just boot up a virtual PC(or your VM of choice) and copy and paste from within.

 

SPTD is another 'artifact' of XP that just won't die off.....

SPTD was pretty necessary back in the day when XP had no idea how to deal with mounted/virtual file systems. SPTD emulates a SCSI CD/DVD drive that you would then 'mount' your ISO files to.

XP sp3a quietly added support for virtual/mounted filesystems via filesytem drivers (no emulated hardware device necessary). Vista and Win7 are able to use add-in filesystem drivers (including ISOs) out of the box.

Anyway, I'd prefer to not use any virtual ISO mounter that requires the use of SPTD.

 

@newposter

do you mean I can mount an ISO file under vista/w7 without additional program ? that is new to me and would love to know how.

 

Supposed to but not according to this.

Mount an ISO image in Windows 7 or Vista - How-To Geek

 

nope (original post edited for a tad more clairty, thanks for pointing it out).....

It gets down to whether or not the OS in question can support add-in device drivers for filesystems or if it's necessary to go old-school and emulate hardware devices. XP in pre-SP3a days needs the emulated hardware devices. Vista and Win7 can support filesystem drivers.

Not just for ISO images. If you hunt around the net you'll find wintel device drivers for just about all of the popular Unix/Linux filesystems as well. A lot of these cost $$$ in r/w form, their free versions let your read-only.

 

I find virtual drives to be quite challenging when I install OS or run test CD's in random client computers Some of those will not even boot from USB well.

Other than those occasions... I don't really burn any discs.

 

Magic disc is a very simple program that does the job right.

 

Late to this party but the BEST UN-installer for SPTD Duplex is from their website;

DuplexSecure - FAQ

..+1 to KLF

 

i just use winrar to unpack the iso file. for me, they're nothing more than a zip file. physical media? except for blurays (to rip), haven't touched them in years. nor created.

 

I use Daemon Tools Lite, but older version, 4.35.6.0091. I prefer it to new versions because it starts up in tray and I can use it though tray too. Also WinRAR or 7zip will have no problems to extract the contents of some CD/DVD image formats.

 

With ImgBurn at the time (not sure now since I upgraded to W7 and reformatted the XP machine), burns could be faulty.

I still question if the instructions actually remove the driver. Try it.

 

That tool only disables the driver, it doesn't uninstall it.

 

One MD user here too, very easy to use!

 

Your right, +1. I used regedit to search (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\ Services\sptd) and it could not find it after using the tool. I manually went there..and still there..just disabled, lol.