How to mount a CD/DVD ISO in Windows 7?

Question

Does Windows 7 have native support for mounting CD/DVD ISO images? If not, what is the best tool to use for that under Windows 7 64-bit? I am looking for a solution to allow installing MSDN downloads without burning them to CD/DVD.

Solution 1

My preference is Slysoft Virtual Clone Drive. It's great because:

• you can mount/dismount by right-clicking on the drive
• the drive remembers what has been mounted before
• you can mount an iso by right-clicking the ISO itself.

No issues with device driver signing, etc. I dumped Daemon Tools a while ago. Using it on Win7 7100 64 bit with no problem. Feels quite fast.

Solution 2

If you like free open source software, try http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/ I use it both on Windows XP and Windows 7. Works great and there is no risk of spyware etc.

Edit: There is a portable version as well.

Solution 3

By far the best free ISO mounting tool out there is Pismo file mount.

Some highlights:

• Works great on Windows Vista/7 x64 (not natively x64 but completely compatible)
• Drives only exist when an ISO is mounted and are removed when there is no ISO mounted
• Small memory footprint
• Has simple minimalist right click shell integration
• Unattended installation
• No Branding or silly logos to speak of (very clean professional feeling program)
• Fully featured command line control that is automatically working right after unattended install
• Plus all the normal features you would expect from an ISO mounting tool
• Free for corporate use

Some things you will want to pay attention to though is that by default it will not mount the ISO to a drive letter but instead mount it to a UNC path which can cause some software installers to fail when installing from the mounted path. Just make sure you specify that you want Pismo to mount to a drive letter when you are doing the mount and it will work fine.

Here is the unattended install of SQL to demonstrate my real world use of Pismo.

SET MSDNIsoPath=\\itapp\ISO Library\MSDN
SET ScriptPath=%~dp0
SET ScriptPath=%ScriptPath:~0,-1%
SET MountPath=m:
SET pfmMount=pfm mount -m %MountPath%
SET pfmUnMount=pfm unmount

echo -Installing Pismo File Mount
"%ResourcePath%\pfmap-051.exe" /q

echo.
echo Install and configure Microsoft SQL Server 2005 
echo -Installing Standard Edition
%pfmMount% "%MSDNIsoPath%\en_sql_2005_std_x86_dvd.iso"
%MountPath%\Servers\setup.exe /settings "%ScriptPath%\Configuration\Microsoft SQL Server 2005.ini" /qb /norestart
%pfmUnMount%

Solution 4

I have used Virtual Clone drives for a very long time but one application that made me change is: Pismo File Mount Audit Package. Quoting from their website

Pismo File Mount Audit Package is a Windows application that allows users to mount the contents of ZIP, ISO, Compact ISO, Compact File Set and Private Folder files to the file system as virtual folders.

Basically - this application can convert your ISO files as Folders and/or a virtual CD or DVD Rom. Solves multiple purposes and it is Windows 7 Compatible.

Solution 5

MagicDisk works with Vista. They have a download for Windows 7 as well, but I haven't tried it.

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Comments

[Admin]

I wish there was native Windows support for mounting ISO's for as many images as Microsoft has for download.

[Admin]

I believe windows 8 supports this by default (as usual, more than 5 years too late).

[tsilb]

VCD = perfect, except that it gets buggy with multiple virtual drives. Note Daemon Tools doesn't work at all yet.

[Sam Cogan]

Also, make sure you have the latest version of VCD. When I initially ran the windows 7 Beta with VCD I was get a bug with explorer hanging. The latest version fixes that.

[Frode Lillerud]

Confirmed - it works with Windows 7 RC

[Josiah]

Thoroughly impressed by this software, Freekin awesome: Right click 'Quick Mount' and there is the iso!

[LeWoody]

Works with Win Server 2008 also.

[Keith Twombley]

It is really slick, however when installing Office 2010 from the technet iso, the installer repeatedly asked me to browse to the file location; it seemed like it couldn't find all the files in the iso.

[Admin]

You can have Pismo give you a drive letter, you just have to right click and then select mount instead of just double clicking. The mount option will then present you a window where you can change some of the options including which drive letter it mounts to.

[Lamnk]

I use the excellent and free 7-zip for ISO content extraction too. If you need to burn, you can use the built-in Windows 7 burning tool.

[extraneon]

But why does the license exclude: Robert Bosch GmbH and its subsidiaries? Ah well, I'm not Robert so I'll just enjoy.

[BrianFinkel]

Pismo seems to have bugs... I could not install VS2010 from the DVD ISO with this tool. Expression studio install failed, as well. Both worked fine with SlySoft Virtual Clone Drive.

[BrianFinkel]

See my comment above. Pismo cause VS2010 and MS Expression installs to fail. SlySoft VCD worked fine.

[Merlyn Morgan-Graham]

Excellent program. I haven't had a problem with it (though I have only mounted about 15 ISOs with it).

[Kerry]

If you have issues with Pismo unable to find a path to file during setup or crashing during an install, try to NOT install directly from the mounted virtual drive letter. Instead, mount the ISO to a virtual drive letter with Pismo, copy all content from the virtual ISO drive into another folder on a non-virtual drive, and install from there. This "ISO unzipping" (sort of) and installing from a real drive with no virtual layer resolved my issues.

[Kerry]

If you have issues with Pismo unable to find a path to file during setup or crashing during an install, try to NOT install directly from the mounted virtual drive letter. Instead, mount the ISO to a virtual drive letter with Pismo, copy all content from the virtual ISO drive into another folder on a non-virtual drive, and install from there. This "ISO unzipping" (sort of) and installing from a real drive with no virtual layer resolved my issues.