Reliable tool to create, mount, and manage disc images and virtual drives with ease
Reliable tool to create, mount, and manage disc images and virtual drives with ease
Vote (2,837 votes)
Program license Free
Developer Daemon-tools
Version 4.49.1.356
Works under Windows
Vote
(2,837 votes)
Developer
Daemon-tools
Works under
Windows
Program license
Free
Version
4.49.1.356
Pros
- User Interface is well-designed and easy to use
- Is good at what it does, mounts and manages virtual devices quickly
- Is good at what it does, mounts and manages virtual devices quickly
Cons
- Many features are locked to paid versions
Daemon tools is a program designed to allow you to mount virtual images and interact with 'images'.
When we say the word 'images' this does not mean photos, rather it is a large file that contains all the data within a disc. This can include anything from the complex menus and routines in an interactive DVD to an entire video game. The program allows you to 'burn' data to discs, grab data from discs, mount virtual devices that otherwise would require hardware to perform — To summarize, this is not necessarily a photo editor.
Let's address the elephant in the room first and get that out of the way at once. There are those who are eager to use software like this for piracy purposes. We obviously do not recommend doing this.
So, why use Daemon Tools?
There are a lot of potential uses, most of which go beyond this short review. The most immediately apparent is for posterity. Simply put, DVDs or other disc types wear out eventually, gaining scratches and skips. Having a digital copy on hand can help keep your records and memories intact. Many people have used it to preserve digital copies of old VHS or damaged DVDs they made or own. You can even recreate the damaged DVD by burning the subsequent 'image' you gathered from the original onto a new disc.
Beyond that, there are a plethora of virtual devices you can create and utilize using this software. Of course, the options that are available to you depend on which version you get.
There are several versions of Daemon Tools available depending on exactly what you need from it. Generally, however, you're only going to choose between the Pro and the Lite (or free) version.
The Lite version is bare-bones, to say the least. Many of the more diverse and interesting options are locked from it, only available on paid versions of the software. However, you can still burn an image to a disc, grab an image from a disc, or mount and use a virtual device well enough. Regardless, you can purchase a full license at any time and upgrade to it from within the program itself.
The Pro or Ultra Editions have many more goodies. Everything from virtual Hard Disk Drives, TrueCrypt containers, dealing with iSCSI targets, and even connecting with mobile devices are at your disposal. You would be surprised just how diverse the options available are.
To be honest, considering they have sales fairly often and offer lifetime subscriptions, we can hardly fault them for wanting payment for their services. The program is good, functional, and reliable even for the free version. They've improved on their product for over 11 years, since the first stable release on Feb 4, 2009. Their hard work deserves some compensation.
When it comes to negatives, there simply isn't a lot to complain about — there's a reason Daemon tools is as popular as it is. Some reviewers have had complaints about the UI, but honestly, it's very well-organized and easy to navigate. Even if you know little about image mounting the menus are simple enough for you to find your way in a few minutes with a YouTube tutorial on hand.
Daemon Tools is a popular product and one that comes highly recommended!
Pros
- User Interface is well-designed and easy to use
- Is good at what it does, mounts and manages virtual devices quickly
- Is good at what it does, mounts and manages virtual devices quickly
Cons
- Many features are locked to paid versions
Pros
- Manage virtual devices
- Mount and dismount images
- Emulate protections
Cons
- UI doesn’t conform to Windows
DAEMON Tools is a Windows program that creates virtual devices and mounts images.
DAEMON Tools is a powerful program for Windows that lets you create and manage virtual devices. A virtual device is, for instance, a virtual drive that the OS recognizes as a physical device but is actually an interface pointing to a file on another device. These files are often called images, and they feature a directory and a collection of files just like a BD, DVD, or CD does.
DAEMON Tools doesn’t stop at reading image files. It lets you create them either by copying a disc or making them manually. You can edit images, and you can even use this program to burn images to disc via your Blu-ray, DVD or CD writer.
You can create, tweak, and discard virtual devices as needed. You can also maintain virtual devices so that they load with Windows and are available to you at all times. DAEMON Tools is even able to emulate various protection mechanisms. Therefore, if a CD you want to copy has copy protection, you simply copy everything as is, and Windows will be unaware that the image isn’t an actual physical disc.
It’s worth mentioning that these features don’t exist just to steal software. In fact, if you wanted to steal a game or whatnot, there are easier and faster ways to do it than with DAEMON Tools. Rather, this is a powerful tool for people who actually own the software. Let’s say you own a disc that can no longer be replaced. Rather than risk damage to the disc, you burn an image of it and access that instead.
There’s not a lot to complain about when it comes to DAEMON Tools. One issue is that the UI isn’t standard to Windows and it sticks out like a sore thumb. It isn’t a bad UI and whether this deviation bothers you comes down to personal preference. Additionally, most users usually won’t access DAEMON Tools via the central UI but rather through context menus, such as right-clicking a virtual drive in the system tray in order to mount or dismount an image.
Pros
- Manage virtual devices
- Mount and dismount images
- Emulate protections
Cons
- UI doesn’t conform to Windows
Pros
- Create and manage virtual drives
- Highly polished solution
- Emulates many protection mechanisms
Cons
- Outdated user interface
DAEMON Tools is a Windows program that lets you create virtual devices and mount images on them.
DAEMON Tools is an application that lets you create, manage and use virtual devices. The most common of these devices are virtual drives, such as a virtual CD or DVD. Mounting an image essentially means reading a file, but the difference is that the virtual CD-ROM, for instance, is reading that file as physical CD-ROM would read a physical CD, and Windows interacts with that virtual CD-ROM just as it would a physical version.
This has a number of applications, but perhaps the most common for the average user is that you can access a disc image without burning it to disc. This can be particularly convenient when you have a disc image that you’ll only use once or twice, so you avoid wasting a disc. Likewise, if you have a disc you use frequently, mounting an image you store locally can be more convenient as well as perhaps avoid wear and tear on the original disc, which you can keep somewhere safe.
Virtual devices don’t have to be one-and-done assignments; although they can be. Drives are registered with Windows and assigned a drive letter, and they’ll automatically be available at startup unless you force DAEMON Tools not to load with Windows. Images mount very fast, so there’s no problem swapping back and forth, but if you have to do that often, then you’re better offer creating another virtual drive. The program supports a wide range of disc image formats, including BWT, CCD, CDI, ISO, MDS and NRG.
DAEMON Tools can also emulate a number of different copy protection mechanisms, such as SecuROM. Although this feature can be used to access software illegally, it also has some very practical purposes. If you want to back up an original disc that’s copy protected, you don’t have to worry about stripping out that protection. The program will simply copy it into the image, and then it can emulate the protection mechanism in order to let that disc image operate as normal.
DAEMON Tools is one of the most highly polished tools for managing virtual devices and disk images, and although it’s quite suitable for home use, it’s employed in many professional environments. If there’s a downside to the application it’s that the UI is a bit outdated, but outside of creating a virtual device and some maintenance tasks, you’re generally be interfacing with DAEMON Tools through the Windows interface, so that isn’t much of a problem.
Pros
- Create and manage virtual drives
- Highly polished solution
- Emulates many protection mechanisms
Cons
- Outdated user interface
