Comparison of disc image software

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Notable software applications that can access or manipulate disk image files are as follows, comparing their disk image handling features.

NameCreates [lower-alpha 1] Modifies? [lower-alpha 2] Mounts? [lower-alpha 3] Writes/Burns? [lower-alpha 4] Extracts? [lower-alpha 5] Input format [lower-alpha 6] Output format [lower-alpha 7] OS License
7-Zip YesNoNoNoYes CramFS, DMG, FAT, HFS, MBR, NTFS, ISO, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM [1] WIM Windows, Linux, Classic Mac OS Free software (GPL)
AcetoneISO YesNoYesYesYesCD, DVD, ISO, BIN, MDF+MDS, IMG, NRG, CUE, TOC, DMGCD, DVD, ISO, BIN Linux Free software (GPL)
Acronis True Image YesNoYesYesYesTIB, VHDTIB, VHD Windows Shareware
Alcohol 120% YesNoYesYesNo ISO, B5T, B6T, BWT, CCD, CDI, BIN+CUE, MDF+MDS, NRG, ISZ MDF+MDS, ISO Windows Trialware
Alcohol 52% FE YesNoYesNoNo ISO — Windows Adware
AnyDVD HDYesNoNoNoNo—ISO Windows Shareware
Archive Manager NoNoNoNoYes ISO — Unix-like Free software (GPL)
Ashampoo Burning Studio YesNoNoYesNo ISO, BIN+CUEISO, BIN+CUE Windows Shareware [lower-alpha 8]
BlindWrite YesNoNoYesNoB5T, B6T, BWA, BWI, BWS, BWT, BIN+CUE, ISO, MDF+MDSB5T, B6T, BWA, BWI, BWS, BWT, BIN+CUE, ISO, MDF+MDS Windows Shareware
Brasero NoNoNoYesNo ISO, CUECD, DVD Linux Free software (GPL)
Burnatonce NoNoNoYesNo ISO, CUE, TOC— Windows Freeware
CDBurnerXP YesNoNoYesNo ISO, MDF+MDS, NRG, BIN+CUEISO, MDF+MDS Windows Freeware
CDemu YesNoYesYesYesCSO, ECM, GBI, GZ, XZ, ISZ, DMG, ISO, UDF, NRG, CDI, CCD, SUB, IMG, BIN+CUE, TOC, B5T+B5I, B6T+B6I, MDF+MDS, MDX, CIF, C2D, DAA ISO, TOC Linux Free software (GPL v2)
genisoimage YesNoNoNoNo—? Linux,
Unix 		Free software (GPL)
isoinfo NoNoNoNoYes?— Unix,
Linux,
Amiga
Windows,
macOS 		Free software (GPL)
mkisofs YesNoNoNoNo—? Unix,
Linux,
Amiga
Windows,
macOS 		Free software (GPL)
CDRoller YesNoNoYesYes ISO ISO Windows Shareware
CDRWIN YesYesNoYesYes ISO, BIN+CUE, Audio File Types+CUE, ISO+CUE, Audio File Types+ISO+CUE, ISO+Audio File Types+CUEBIN+CUE Windows Shareware
CloneCD YesNoNoYesNo—ISO, UFD, IMG Windows Shareware
CloneDVD YesNoNoYesYes ISO ISO Windows Shareware
Daemon Tools YesAll editions
except Lite		YesYes [lower-alpha 9] All editions
except Lite		BIN+CUE, B5T, B6T, BWT, CCD, CDI, ISO, ISZ, MDF+MDS, MDX, NRG, VHD, VMDK and TrueCrypt [lower-alpha 10] ISO, MDF+MDS, MDX – VHD and TrueCrypt in Ultra edition Windows Freemium [lower-alpha 11]
DeepBurner YesNoNoYesNo ISO ISO Windows Freemium
Disco YesNoNoYesNoCDR, ISO, DMGCDR, ISO, DMG macOS Freeware
DiscJuggler ?????CDI, ISO CDI Windows Shareware
Disk Utility YesYesYesYesYesDMG, ISO DMG, ISO macOS Part of macOS
DiskImageMounter NoYesYesYesNoDMG, ISO DMG, ISO macOS Part of macOS
DVD Shrink YesNoNoNoYes [lower-alpha 12] ISO, NRG, IMG, MDF+MDSISO Windows Freeware
Furius ISO MountNoNoYesYesNoISO, IMG, BIN, MDF+MDS, NRG? Linux Free software (GPL)
Image for Windows YesNoYesYesYesTBI, VHD, VMDKTBI, VHD, VMDK Windows Shareware
ImgBurn YesNoNoYesNoAPE+CUE, BIN+CUE, CDI, CDR, DI, FLAC+CUE, GCM, GI, IBQ, IMG, ISO, LST, MDF+MDS, NRG, PDI, UDI, WVISO, IMG, BIN+CUE Windows Freeware
InfraRecorder YesNoNoYesNoISOISO Windows Free software (GPL)
ISO Recorder YesNoNoYesNoISOISO Windows Free software (BSD license)
IsoBuster YesNoNoYesYesDAO, TAO, ISO, BIN, IMG, CCD, CIF, FCD, NRG, GCD, P01, 2D, CUE, CDI, CD, GI, PXI, MDS, MDF, VC4, 000, B5T, B5I, B6T, B6I, DMG, HFV, DC42, IBP, IBQ, IBDAT, IBADR, NCD, FLP, E01, Ex01, S01, RMG, VMDK, UDF, DD, VHD, VHDX, VDI, WBFS, XISO, XBX, ST, GDI, DCM, VMU, DDF, GME, MCD, MCI, MCR, MEM, PS, PSM, SAVERAM, SRM, VCD, VGS, VM1, VMP, APA, DAT, PS2, VM2, VMC, RAW, DSK, IMAGE, IMA, ADF, HDF, N64, MPG, GCP, CSO, WBI, ZSO, DAX, JSO, IMGC, ISO.GZ, IMG.GZ, ISZ, 1Kn, 2Kn, 4Kn, 8Kn, 16Kn, 32Kn, 64Kn, 512e, 512, 128, 256, 2056, 2324, 2332, 2336, 2352, 2368, 2448 [7] [8] [9] ISO, TAO, BIN, CUE, IBADR+IBDAT, DSK, 1KN, 2KN, 4KN, 8KN, 16KN, 32KN, 64KN, IBR, IBP and IBQ [9] Windows Shareware
K3b YesNoNoYesYesISO— Unix-like Free software (GPL)
libguestfs YesYesYesNoYesraw, qcow2, VMDK, VHDraw, qcow2, VMDK, VHD Linux Free software (LGPL)
Loop device [10] NoNoYesNoNoRaw image— Linux, FreeBSD Free software
MagicISO YesYesWith MagicDisc YesYesBoth MagicISO and MagicDisc: ISO, BIN+CUE, IMA, IMG, CIF, NRG, IMG+CCD, MDF+MDS, VCD, VaporCD, P01, MD1, XA, VC4/000, VDI, C2D, BWI+BWT, CDI, TAO/DAO, PDI. [11] [12]
MagicISO only: DMG, FLP, DSK, BFI, BIF, WBT [11] 		ISO, BIN+CUE, UIF, NRG, DMG [13] Windows Shareware [lower-alpha 13] [14]
mount NoNoYesNoNoISO— Linux Free software (GPL)
Nero Multimedia Suite YesNoNoYesNoISO, NRGISO, NRG Windows Shareware
Nero Burning ROM YesNoNoYesNoISO, NRGISO, NRG Windows Shareware
Nero Linux YesNoNoYesNoISO, NRGISO, NRG Linux Shareware (Discontinued)
Norton Ghost YesNoYesYes?GHO, GHS, VMDK, V2I, IV2I, PQIGHO, GHS, VMDK Windows Shareware
Partimage YesNoNoYesNo Compressed file system images: Ext2, Ext3, Reiserfs, FAT16, FAT32, HPFS, JFS, Xfs, UFS, HFS and NTFS Ext2, Ext3, Reiserfs, FAT16, FAT32, HPFS, JFS, Xfs, UFS, HFS and NTFS Linux Free software (GPL)
PeaZip NoNoNoNoYesDMG, ISO, VHD, WIM [15] — Windows, Linux Free software (LGPL v3)
Roxio Creator [16] YesNoNoYesNoISO, C2D, BIN+CUE, GIISO, GI Windows Proprietary
commercial
Roxio Toast [17] NoNoNoYesNoISO, BIN+CUE, IMG, DMG, CDR, NRG— macOS Proprietary
commercial
UltraISO YesYesYesYesYesBIN+CUE, BWI+BWT, B5T+B5I, B6T+B6I, C2D, CDI, CIF, DAA, DMG, FCD, G2D, GCD, GI, IMA, IMG+CCD, IML, ISO, ISZ, LCD, MDF+MDS, NCD, NRG, P01+MD1+XA, PDI, PXI, TAO, DAO, UIF, VaporCD, VC4/000, VCD, VDI, XMD+XMF [18] BIN+CUE, CCD+IMG+SUB, ISO, ISZ, MDF+MDS, NRG Windows Trialware
Virtual CloneDrive NoNoYesNoNoISO, BIN, IMG, UDF, DVD, CCD— Windows Freeware
Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel NoNoYesNoNoISO— Windows Freeware
WADK YesYesYesYesNo WIM, WSM WIM, WSM Windows NT Freeware; DISM component is included with Windows
WinCDEmu YesNoYesNoNoISO, BIN, NRG, MDF+MDS, CCD, IMG— Windows Free software (LGPL)
File Explorer VHD onlyNoYesISO onlyNoISO, [19] [20] VHD [21] VHD Windows NT Part of Windows
WinISOYesYesYesYesYesISOISO Windows Freemium
WinRAR NoNoNoNoYesISO— Windows Shareware
WinZip NoNoNoNoYesISO— Windows Shareware
xorriso YesYesLinux
FreeBSD		Linux,
BSD,
Solaris		YesISOISO Unix,
Linux,
Cygwin,
macOS 		Free software (GPL)
NameCreates?Modifies?Mounts?Writes/Burns?Extracts?Input formatOutput format OS License
  1. ↑ Specifies whether the application can create a new disc image file, either by capturing the image of an actual disc, by composing a disc image file from locally stored files or an empty disc image.
  2. ↑ Specifies whether the application is able to manipulate the contents of an existing disc image file, including adding, changing or deleting files within or modifying disc image metadata.
  3. ↑ Specifies whether the application can emulate an optical disc drive. Such an application treats a disc image file like a virtual disc and virtually inserts it into that emulated virtual drive.
  4. ↑ Specifies whether the application can write the contents of a disk image file onto a physical media (such as an optical disc, a floppy disk, a hard disk drive or a USB flash drive) and create a physical replica.
  5. ↑ Specifies whether the application can copy some or all of the files within a disc image file to somewhere else.
  6. ↑ Specifies the types of disc image formats that the application can open.
  7. ↑ Specifies the types of disc image formats that the application can save to.
  8. ↑ Past version are made available as freeware from time to time
  9. ↑ Lite editions requires Astroburn [2]
  10. ↑ Daemon Tools supports the following non-image formats: ZIP, APE+CUE, FLAC+CUE, WAV+CUE
  11. ↑ All editions are trialware, except Lite edition, which is only shareware in Korea but freeware elsewhere. [3] [4] [5] [6]
  12. ↑ Opens DVD images (File menu or Ctrl-I)
  13. ↑ MagicDisc is Freeware

See also

Related Research Articles

Universal Disk Format (UDF) is an open, vendor-neutral file system for computer data storage for a broad range of media. In practice, it has been most widely used for DVDs and newer optical disc formats, supplanting ISO 9660. Due to its design, it is very well suited to incremental updates on both write-once and re-writable optical media. UDF was developed and maintained by the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA).

A disk image is a snapshot of a storage device's structure and data typically stored in one or more computer files on another storage device. Traditionally, disk images were bit-by-bit copies of every sector on a hard disk often created for digital forensic purposes, but it is now common to only copy allocated data to reduce storage space. Compression and deduplication are commonly used to reduce the size of the image file set. Disk imaging is done for a variety of purposes including digital forensics, cloud computing, system administration, as part of a backup strategy, and legacy emulation as part of a digital preservation strategy. Disk images can be made in a variety of formats depending on the purpose. Virtual disk images are intended to be used for cloud computing, ISO images are intended to emulate optical media and raw disk images are used for forensic purposes. Proprietary formats are typically used by disk imaging software. Despite the benefits of disk imaging the storage costs can be high, management can be difficult and they can be time consuming to create.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Rainier (packet writing)</span> Method used to write to recordable optical discs

Mount Rainier (MRW) is a format for writable optical discs which provides the packet writing and defect management. Its goal is the replacement of the floppy disk. It is named after Mount Rainier, a volcano near Seattle, Washington, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live CD</span> Complete, bootable computer installation that runs directly from a CD-ROM

A live CD is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading from a hard disk drive. A live CD allows users to run an operating system for any purpose without installing it or making any changes to the computer's configuration. Live CDs can run on a computer without secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive, or with a corrupted hard disk drive or file system, allowing data recovery.

An optical disc image is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. ISO images contain the binary image of an optical media file system, including the data in its files in binary format, copied exactly as they were stored on the disc. The data inside the ISO image will be structured according to the file system that was used on the optical disc from which it was created.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical disc authoring</span> Content publishing on optical disks

Optical disc authoring, including CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc authoring, is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded ("burned") onto an optical disc. This act is sometimes done illegally, by pirating copyrighted material without permission from the original artists.

InCD is a packet writing software developed by Nero AG for Microsoft Windows.

A No-disc crack, No-CD crack or No-DVD crack is an executable file or a special "byte patcher" program which allows a user to circumvent certain Compact Disc and DVD copy protection schemes. They allow the user to run computer software without having to insert their required CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. This act is a form of software cracking. No-CD cracks specific to a variety of games and other software distributed on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM can be found on the Internet from various reverse engineering websites or file sharing networks. No-CD cracks have legal uses, such as creating backups of legally owned software or avoiding the inconvenience of placing a CD or DVD-ROM in the drive every time the software is being used, although they can also be used to circumvent laws in many countries by allowing the execution of full versions of non-legally owned applications or time-limited trials of the applications without the original disc.

IMG, in computing, refers to binary files with the .img filename extension that store raw disk images of floppy disks, hard drives, and optical discs or a bitmap image – .img.

A CloneCD Control File is a text descriptor with the extension .ccd used by CloneCD to store the subcode data of a CD/DVD image. These files need to be combined with an image file to be burned. It may also come with a subchannel file.

Drive Letter Access (DLA) is a discontinued commercial packet writing application for the Microsoft Windows operating system that allows optical disc data storage devices to be used in a manner similar to floppy disks. DLA is a packet writing technology for CD and DVD media that uses the UDF file system.

Direct Access Archive, or DAA, is a proprietary file format developed by PowerISO Computing for disk image files. The format supports features such as compression, password protection, and splitting to multiple volumes. Popular Windows disk image mounting programs such as Alcohol 120% and Daemon Tools currently do not support the mounting of DAA images; Linux and BSD also do not support mounting images of this kind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IsoBuster</span> Data recovery software

IsoBuster is a data recovery computer program by Smart Projects, a Belgian company founded in 1995 by Peter Van Hove. As of version 3.0, it can recover data from damaged file systems or physically damaged disks including optical discs, hard disk drives, USB flash drives and solid-state disks. It has the ability to access "deleted" data on multisession optical discs, and allows users to access disc images and to extract files in the same way that they would from a ZIP archive. IsoBuster is also often used by law enforcement and data forensics experts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CDemu</span> Open source virtual drive software

CDemu is a free and open-source virtual drive software, designed to emulate an optical drive and optical disc on the Linux operating system.

Media Descriptor File (MDF) is a proprietary disc image file format developed for Alcohol 120%, an optical disc authoring program. Daemon Tools, CDemu, MagicISO, PowerDVD, and WinCDEmu can also read the MDF format. A disc image is a computer file replica of the computer files and file system of an optical disc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MagicISO</span>

MagicISO is a CD/DVD image shareware utility that can extract, edit, create, and burn disc image files. It offers the possibility of converting between ISO and CUE/BIN and their proprietary Universal Image Format disc image format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AcetoneISO</span> Open source virtual drive software

AcetoneISO is a free and open-source virtual drive software to mount and manage image files. Its goals are to be simple, intuitive and stable. Written in Qt, this software is meant for all those people looking for a "Daemon Tools for Linux". However, AcetoneISO does not emulate any copy protection while mounting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Disk Image</span> File format developed by Apple and used by macOS

AppleDisk Image is a disk image format commonly used by the macOS operating system. When opened, an Apple Disk Image is mounted as a volume within the Finder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daemon Tools</span> Software for virtual drives

DAEMON Tools is a virtual drive and optical disc authoring program for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.

References

  1. ↑ "7-Zip". 7-zip.org.
  2. ↑ "Main window and toolbar". Daemon Tools documentation. Daemon Tools. Archived from the original on 24 December 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  3. ↑ "FAQ: Is DAEMON Tools software free or not?". daemon-tools.cc. Retrieved 21 November 2011. DAEMON Tools Lite is free for home and non-business use. In case you want to use DAEMON Tools in any organization, you need to buy a license.
  4. ↑ "Installation". DAEMON Tools Lite Help. DAEMON Tools. Retrieved 21 November 2011. [Inside third screenshot] Support is provided only for Paid License users.
  5. ↑ "Daemon tool lite license problem". Archived from the original on 6 May 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2012. Due to some changes in marketing strategy Korea is no longer among the countries for which a Free version of DAEMON Tools Lite available.
  6. ↑ "DAEMON Tools Lite 5: 당사의 최상급 무료 이미징 소프트웨어 - DAEMON-Tools.cc". daemon-tools.cc.
  7. ↑ "IsoBuster". IsoBuster.
  8. ↑ "IsoBuster 4.1 Release notes". Support for DC42 image files, which are old style Mac floppy image files
  9. 1 2 "IsoBuster 4.3 Release notes". Introduction and use of *.1Kn, *.2Kn, *.4Kn, *.8Kn, ... file extensions for disk images of drives with higher than 512 bytes per sector
  10. ↑ Lawton, Kevin; Denney, Bryce; Guarneri, N. David; Ruppert, Volker; Bothamy, Christophe. Calabrese, Michael; Shwartsman, Stanislav (eds.). "8.8. Mounting a disk image using the loop device". Bochs User Manual. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  11. 1 2 "MagicISO Features - ISO CD image extractor, editor, converter". magiciso.com. Archived from the original on 11 April 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  12. ↑ "MagicISO Virtual CD/DVD-ROM Overview". Archived from the original on 13 April 2005.
  13. ↑ "MagicISO FAQ: How to convert ISO to DMG for Mac OS with MagicISO?". magiciso.com. Archived from the original on 6 May 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  14. ↑ "MagicISO Virtual CD/DVD-ROM Overview". Archived from the original on 13 April 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2012. MagicDisc is freeware.
  15. ↑ "Supported formats" . Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  16. ↑ "Minimum System Requirements". Roxio NXT Pro portal. Roxio. Archived from the original on 6 May 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2012. Disc image formats: read ISO, C2D, BIN/CUE and GI; write ISO and GI
  17. ↑ "System Requirements". Roxio Toast 11 Titanium portal. Roxio. Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  18. ↑ "ISO CD image extractor, editor and convertor - UltraISO Revision History". ezbsystems.com.
  19. ↑ "Burn a CD or DVD from an ISO file". windows.microsoft.com. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  20. ↑ "Accessing data in ISO and VHD files". Building Windows 8. Microsoft. 30 August 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  21. ↑ "Create and Use a Virtual Hard Disk on Windows 7". technet.microsoft.com. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
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