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Program for opening mdf and mds files. How to open an MDF file - which programs are suitable

Program for opening mdf and mds files. How to open an MDF file - which programs are suitable

Often the user faces a problem with how to open an mdf file. Files with the mdf extension can be of different types, but most often they are CD-DVD disc images in the Media Disc Image File format.

A disk image is a file generated by a special program for copying CD-DVD discs to . Such a disk image stores the data that was recorded on the optical media, as well as additional information.

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Free programs for opening mdf files

To gain access to the data stored in the mdf file, you need to install a program for working with disk images and then mount the disk image as a virtual drive. To solve this problem, there are many different programs. Both paid and free. In this short review, we will analyze some of the most popular of them. Well, how to open mdf file?

One of the most popular programs for working with disk images is the free utility DAEMON Tools Lite. By installing this software, the user will no longer have problems opening mdf files. Moreover, DAEMON Tools Lite allows you to open not only mdf files, but also other popular disk image formats. Using DAEMON Tools Lite, create up to 4 virtual drives, which allows the user to open several mdf files at once.

Key features of DAEMON Tools Lite:

Mounting disk images. Supported formats: mdx, iso, b5t, b6t, bwt, mds/mdf, ccd, cdi, ape/cue, bin/cue, flac/cue, nrg, isz;
Creation and support of up to 4 virtual drives at once;
Virtual drives can work in SCSI mode. This makes it possible to improve disk emulation;
Create disk images. Only iso, mds/mdf and mdx are available for creating images;
Compressing disk images;
Protect disk images with a password;
Cataloging and managing a collection of disk images;
Work in the background;
File association support for mounting disk images from any folder;
Management of the main functions of the program using the gadget on;
Russian language support;

Like DAEMON Tools Lite, this program has a complete set of all the necessary functions for creating and connecting CD-DVD disc images. Alcohol 52% has support for a large number of languages, including Russian. That makes it possible to work perfectly with the program even for an inexperienced user. Alcohol 52% allows you to open mdf files, as well as disk images in CCD, ISO, BIN, CUE, CDI, NRG, BWT, BWS, BWI, BWA formats. In this case, the user can immediately connect up to 6 virtual drives.

Features of the program Alcohol 52%:

Support for all popular disc formats. Among which: CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-XA, CD+G, Photo CD, Video CD, Mixed Mode, Multi-session, DVD-ROM, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video;
Support for all ATAPI SCSI drives. Among which: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, DVD-RW;
Support for IEEE-1394 (Firewire) and ;

Fast and easy program for creating and connecting discs. In addition to mdf files, it also supports a large number of other formats. It also allows you to use up to 15 virtual disks at once.

Features of Virtual CD/DVD-ROM:

Mounting disk images. Supported formats: BIN (CDRWin), CIF (Easy CD Creator), IMA/IMG (Generic disk images), NRG (Nero - Burning ROM), MDF/MDS (Fantom CD), IMG/CCD (CloneCD), VCD (Farstone Virtual Drive), P01/MD1/XA (Gear), VaporCD (Noum Vapor CDROM), VC4/000 (Virtual CD), C2D (WinOnCD), VDI (Virtuo CD Manager), CDI (DiscJuggler), BWI/BWT (BlinkWrite ), TAO/DAO (Duplicator) and PDI (Instant Copy);
Compressing disk images. Works for formats: NRG, ISO, MDS, CUE and CCD in UIF;
Create disk images. For creation formats are supported: BIN/CUE, ISO, NRG and UIF.

Learn more about the MDF format

Well, we have already reviewed programs for opening MDF files and in conclusion we will analyze the MDF format itself. As we already know, the MDF (Media Disc Image File) format is designed to store disc images. At the same time, it is designed with the expectation of creating disk images that could bypass copy protection. Such systems can often be found on discs with computer games.

An MDF file is always accompanied by another MDS file. Both of these files are needed for the disk image to work correctly.

The MDF file stores all the data written to the CD. In this MDF, in many ways it resembles a regular ISO file. Because of this, the size of the MDF file is close to the size of the data written to disk.

The MDS file stores metadata about the original storage medium. This metadata makes it possible to bypass protection and run games using only a disk image, without real media. The amount of metadata is small, so the size of the MDS file is small.

WinMount International WinMount

WinMount is a Windows utility that impressively manages your files and disk with convenience. It features in compressing and decompressing, virutalizing compressed archive, mount CD/DVD, HDD images, has MOU as their new compression format, and WMT as their new HDD format. It is a powerful tool for compressing files and a virtual disk tool. Mounting compressed archives to a virtual folder or a virtual disk without decompressing is its main feature, while it takes all the process in virtual path, protect hard disk and save space. It supports various formats such as VMDK, VDI, VHD, FLAC, APE, CCD, CUE, ISZ, IMG, NRG, MDS/MDF, BWT, BIN, ISO, WIM, TAR, BZ2, GZ, ISO, ARJ, CAB, 7Z, ZIP, RAR, MOU. The application runs with Windows PPC, Win7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000. The software is downloadable in the Internet for free. For Winmount, it comes in 32-bit and 64-bit EXE /

MDF and MDS files are files that come in pairs. MDF and MDS files are a disk image that was captured using the Alcohol program. Below we will consider how and with what programs these files are launched on a computer.

MDF and MDS are two paired files. If any of these files are missing on the computer, the image will not work. To run the existing image on the computer, we need to run the MDF file.

There are many programs on the Internet to run an MDF file, but they still do not, but create a virtual drive on the computer and mount a disk image from MDF.

Launchers for MDF and MDS

1. UltraISO

A popular program for working with images. In this program, you can not only mount images, but also write information to disk, convert an image to another format, etc. The program is not free, but it has a free trial period.

Download UltraISO for free

2. Alcohol 120%

An excellent program for creating virtual drives and mounting MDF images. It has a simple interface, as well as huge popularity, so there is an answer to any of your questions about this program on the Internet.

The program is not free, but it has a free version called Alcohol 52%, which is enough for most everyday tasks.

Download Alcohol 120% for free

Download the program from the official site

3. Diemon Tools

No less popular program that is actively used for viewing different types disks. The program will create a virtual drive for reading disks, after which it will create an image from the MDF file that will be launched.

The program also has a free version, which is enough for most users.

Download Diemon Tools for free

Download the program from the official site

If you just need to view the contents of MDF and MDS files, which, in fact, they can be opened by any third-party archiver.

Each presented program is a convenient and popular tool among users for working with various images.

- The extension (format) is the characters at the end of the file after the last dot.
- The computer determines the file type precisely by extension.
- By default, Windows does not show filename extensions.
- Some characters cannot be used in the file name and extension.
- Not all formats are related to the same program.
- Below are all the programs with which you can open the MDF file.

WinCDEmu is a simple program that helps users create virtual CD and DVD drives. Allows you to quickly launch existing disk images on your computer. WinCDEmu integrates wonderfully into the operating system explorer. Manipulations with the launch of a virtual drive can be carried out through the context menu. Just right-click on the desired image and mount or unmount it. Thus, the user will be able to quickly mount the image, avoiding unnecessary manipulations. WinCDEmu, like its counterparts, supports the main formats for virtual images.

ISO Workshop is another program for working with optical disc images. The program has a convenient and simple interface, and also has some features that are quite rare in other similar products. For example, this program can work with images of the cue format, which makes it easy to burn an image of an album in uncompressed form to disk. This can be useful for creating your own music library, as well as in cases where a full-fledged flac album needs to be played on a music center or player. In addition, the ISO Workshop program works with other images. The most...

Free Any Burn is a program for burning optical discs that allows you to burn almost all image formats to media, as well as create them yourself. It has a small size, but the set of functions of this program is quite extensive. Free Any Burn, as mentioned above, can read images of any format, and then write them to any optical media. The main thing is to have recording equipment. At the same time, the program recognizes not only well-known formats, for example, NRG, but also some others, for example, cue. In the latter case, when burning this image, you get a full-fledged audio CD, unless, of course, fla...

Alcohol 52% - free program for emulation and imaging. This program allows you to create several virtual drives, and then burn any image on them. In this case, you can either take an image from the Internet or any source, or first create it from a disk. Emulating an image using a virtual drive in some cases allows you to abandon the use of physical media. This is necessary when you borrow a disc from a friend, or you just don't want to constantly take it off the shelf, but the program requires it. Then you can use the function to create a virtual drive.

IsoBuster is a data recovery program from Smart Projects. It is useful in that it can be used to open files on CD/DVDs if Windows cannot open them. Even when they cannot be read using your operating system, IsoBuster will restore the files. The peculiarity of the program is that it works directly with tracks, disc sessions and sectors. The free version of the program supports almost all CD and DVD formats, but alas, it does not support Blu-ray disk and HD DVD. The program also works with virtual drives, images and can convert files. There are also multilingual...

Astroburn Lite is a small free program for creating and burning discs. Astroburn Lite is a stripped-down version of its paid counterpart, and therefore not all functions are available in it. Nevertheless, the program supports writing to any type of media, and also works with most drives. The program allows you to add files to the project with just a couple of mouse clicks. The only thing she can't do is create folders, so it's better to do it yourself before recording. In addition, Astroburn Lite works great with almost all image formats. It is possible to record even audio albums recorded without...

IZArc is a convenient program for working with archives, featuring a clear and simple interface, as well as a number of additional features. The IZArc program supports a huge number of formats, including the most popular rar and zip. The unique algorithms used in the program allow you to increase the speed of working with archives. However, the main feature of the IZArc program is that it can easily convert archives from one format to another. This is especially necessary if you need to transfer some files to another user who does not have an appropriate archiver. In addition, the IZArc program allows you to view...

Knowing how to open an MDF file will help the user manage disk images, transfer backups, save important information in an easily accessible place for use. The format is designed to work with MS SQL databases, allows you to solve many problems in the field of filling and managing sites. Let's take a closer look at how to open this format and what will help us with this.

List of programs that support MDF formats

You can open MDF files with one of the following programs, they are simple enough to manage that a normal PC user can handle them.

Alcohol 120%. Can handle most .mdf files on a virtual CD/DVD. Available commercial and demo version of the program, which works 30 days after installation. Its functions are not curtailed, so you can use it for a month without problems.
MagicISO. Can open and modify a .MDF file. A commercial and trial version is available, but the latter has a limitation - it can be used to open no more than 300 MB of files, after which it asks for a code. Therefore, we do not recommend installing it.
You can modify and open an MDF file through UltraISO - a very simple program that even a child can handle. The free version runs for 30 days, after which you can reinstall it and use it for another month. Thus, you can avoid buying.
Daemon Tools can also be used to edit MDF and ISO files using a virtual disk. There is a commercial version and a regular, free version that will last you no more than 30 days, and there is still a limit on functionality. Through Daemon Tools, you can open files of any size, and this happens an order of magnitude faster than using other programs.
IsoBuster is a useful set of utilities for working with MDF formats. A big plus of the program is that the trial version has no time limit.

All versions are commercial, what to choose and what program can open an MDF file without a headache? We recommend using IsoBuster - a fairly simple program with an intuitive control panel that does not ask for updates and money after 1 month of use. It can convert .mdf/.mds files to ISO format, which is very useful if you will be using disk images.

How to open MDF with IsoBuster?

Step 1: install the program. When you install the archive, please note that the installer automatically selects several applications for installation. They are not viruses, but you should not clog your PC. Choose manual installation and install only the software you need, namely IsoBuster.

Step 2: run the program. The installer will automatically add a Quick Launch icon to the desktop and to the list of programs from where IsoBuster can be launched.

Step 3: open MDF. Click on the MDF file. It makes no difference whether you open an MDF file or an MDS file in an open window. The program will automatically load a suitable disk image. You can open MDF files by dragging them into the program window - this is also possible (drag and drop into the window where "No media present" will be written).

Step 4: extract the files. You need to right-click on the file in the window, then select "Extract" and specify the path where you want to unpack these files. You can select files right in the window and drag them to the desired location.

We figured out how to open MDF, it remains to download IsoBuster and follow the step-by-step instructions.