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Last post Author Topic: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?  (Read 22513 times)

tranglos

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Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« on: December 21, 2009, 03:56 PM »
Are there any alternatives to Daemon Tools for mounting CD and DVD images as virtual drives? Preferably free or inexpensive. Daemon Tools is quite pricey, and I don't know what else is there, or what will run under Windows 7.

Number99

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2009, 04:14 PM »
Daemon Tools has a Lite version that's free: http://www.daemon-to.../eng/products/dtLite

f0dder

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2009, 04:20 PM »
Don't mess with daemon-tools if you don't need it's piracy features.

Check out MagicDisc or Virtual CloneDrive instead :)
- carpe noctem

tranglos

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2009, 04:25 PM »
Daemon Tools has a Lite version that's free: http://www.daemon-to.../eng/products/dtLite

Indeed, thanks! I was only looking at the Store page, where the Lite version is listed at 14,90 Euro. That page does not mention it's free for personal use - only the one at your links does.

tranglos

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2009, 04:26 PM »
Check out MagicDisc or Virtual CloneDrive instead :)

Oh wow, I already have Virtual CloneDrive! It was a freebie when I registered CloneCD/DVD, but I never used it and totally forgot about it :) I. Am. Getting. Old.

Thanks!

Josh

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2009, 04:40 PM »
MagicDisc...EWW!!!!! I hate programs which make a format that can only be opened in their program. YUCK!

f0dder

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2009, 04:44 PM »
MagicDisc...EWW!!!!! I hate programs which make a format that can only be opened in their program. YUCK!
So what? It supports .iso and .cue/bin, just produce your images in another app - MagicDisc works just fine for mounting the stuff, which is the important part.
- carpe noctem

Josh

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2009, 04:49 PM »
Virtual Clone Drive is a program I can recommend for someone not looking to shell out cash. For the commercial aspect, however, daemon tools simply cannot be beat in terms of ease of use and feature support.

gexecuter

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2009, 05:10 PM »
Pismo file mounter is pretty good since it doesn't install any special driver tough it can only handle ISO images however you can pair it up with AnyToISO Converter (last free version) to get the most out the program.
Mouser is made of win and awesome!

f0dder

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2009, 05:18 PM »
Pismo file mounter is pretty good since it doesn't install any special driver tough it can only handle ISO images however you can pair it up with AnyToISO Converter (last free version) to get the most out the program.
If it doesn't install drivers, you're going to have to extract files from your ISO archives rather than accessing them directly - that kinda sucks.
- carpe noctem

gexecuter

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2009, 05:40 PM »
Pismo file mounter is pretty good since it doesn't install any special driver tough it can only handle ISO images however you can pair it up with AnyToISO Converter (last free version) to get the most out the program.
If it doesn't install drivers, you're going to have to extract files from your ISO archives rather than accessing them directly - that kinda sucks.

Really? it's been awhile since i have tried the app tough.
Mouser is made of win and awesome!

f0dder

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2009, 05:45 PM »
Yep - without a driver component, applications can't directly access files from inside the ISO images; the best you can get without a driver is a shell extension that handles things transparently, but that would involve extracting/re-inserting files from the image...
- carpe noctem

4wd

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2009, 10:36 PM »
PFM is read-only for ISO images.

I use it all the time for ISOs that don't need to be "inserted" into a drive, (eg. DVD Video).

It's a simple matter of right-click->Quick Mount and then double-click the ISO to access the files via Explorer/DOpus.  Applications can directly access the files in the ISO but will have to save any changes to somewhere else, (as is the case for a real CD/DVD ROM).

If you need to mount the ISO to a drive letter, then there is also Microsoft's own free VirtualCD Control Panel.  Standalone, (un)install the driver, (un)mount images - pretty basic but good to carry around on your Flash drive.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2009, 10:43 PM by 4wd »

Target

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #13 on: December 21, 2009, 10:50 PM »
and another one - never used it so can't vouch for it, but it may be worth a look

http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/

lanux128

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2009, 11:09 PM »
you can also try Alcohol 52% Free Edition which is the lesser version of 120% and is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use. This version allows creation of only 6 virtual drives while the retail version supports up to 31 virtual drives.
   
http://www.free-down...hol_52__Free_Edition
« Last Edit: December 21, 2009, 11:10 PM by lanux128 »

Deozaan

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #15 on: December 21, 2009, 11:15 PM »
I used to use Alcohol and PowerISO until I found the freeware Gizmo Central with Gizmo Drive. Now I just use Gizmo Central. I'm running it on Windows 7 right now with no problems.

http://arainia.com/software/gizmo/

Gizmo Central also has a useful Gizmo Hasher which calculates and compares a variety of checksums.

Actually it has more than that, too. Such as a Scripter which I think is kind of like AHK. An Editor, and a database thingy.

I only use Gizmo Drive and Gizmo Hasher, so I can't really comment on the other 3.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2009, 11:18 PM by Deozaan »

f0dder

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #16 on: December 22, 2009, 05:29 AM »
It's a simple matter of right-click->Quick Mount and then double-click the ISO to access the files via Explorer/DOpus.  Applications can directly access the files in the ISO but will have to save any changes to somewhere else, (as is the case for a real CD/DVD ROM).
Are you 100% sure it doesn't either extract the files temporarily from the ISO, or actually does install a driver?
- carpe noctem

y0himba

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #17 on: December 22, 2009, 07:24 AM »
I gotta second Elby Virtual Clone Drive.  :Thmbsup:  I own Daemon Tools Pro but haven''t used it in 6 months or so since trying Virtual Clone Drive.

f0dder

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #18 on: December 22, 2009, 07:53 AM »
Just checked out Pismo File Mounter in a virtual machine, here's from the install log:
2009-12-22 13:52:57.691  Copying file "C:\Settings\Administrator\Desktop\pfmap-154.exe\pfmfs.sys" to "C:\WINXP\system32\Drivers\pfmfs_359.sys".
- carpe noctem

4wd

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #19 on: December 22, 2009, 04:37 PM »
Just checked out Pismo File Mounter in a virtual machine, here's from the install log:

Hey, I didn't say it didn't install a driver :)

I just pointed out how it worked.  With the SDK you could write modules for all kinds of archive/image access.

Tuxman

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #20 on: December 22, 2009, 07:27 PM »
+1 vote for Alcohol 52%.  :Thmbsup:

ewemoa

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #21 on: December 22, 2009, 08:37 PM »
and another one - never used it so can't vouch for it, but it may be worth a look

http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/

FWIW, this has been working ok for my limited use.

f0dder

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #22 on: December 23, 2009, 07:58 PM »
Just checked out Pismo File Mounter in a virtual machine, here's from the install log:

Hey, I didn't say it didn't install a driver :)
Indeed not, sorry - gexecuter did, though :)
- carpe noctem

ewemoa

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #23 on: April 12, 2010, 06:49 AM »
and another one - never used it so can't vouch for it, but it may be worth a look

http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/

FWIW, this has been working ok for my limited use.

I forgot that ImDisk can work with iso images.  I use ImDisk for other purposes but may be its iso image support is worth trying out.

Innuendo

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Re: Alternatives to Daemon Tools?
« Reply #24 on: April 12, 2010, 08:12 AM »
I have tried every virtual disc program available & there are only two products in this category of software worth using, IMHO. Those two are Daemon Tools and MagicDisc. Every other virtual disc program leaves out support for half of the disc image formats that exist.