Is there any free disk mounting software WITHOUT malware? I mean seriously!

[asilentfire]

Deamon Tools Lite, Acohol, Gizmo-Drive, Magic Disk, Virtual Clone Drive.. and any other free mounting tool I can think of, all open up backdoors and toolbars, homepage redirects etc.. Basically they are ALL full of crap.

I need an image mounting tool for XP, but does such a thing exist?

The state of software today is depressing

 

[Jaspion]

I used Magic Disk for a long time, but I never had to install toolbars for it to work. I actually stopped using it in favor of HaoZip, which is a great archiver and also has a CD mounting function. I switched because Magic Disk couldn't mount one disk I needed and HaoZip nailed it, and has been working great since I started using it.

http://www.haozip.com/Eng/index_en.htm
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm

Be sure to download from the company's website, that's always safer as some software download websites bundle the programs you download with other potentially unwanted programs.

 

[Ink]

A lot of free software may be bundled with toolbars, adware or PUPs.

Some installers are sneaky into tricking the user to install the bundled adware/junkware.

You should be wary of using the default install choice and / or clicking 'Next' without reading to what you're agreeing too.

Also some sites like Download.com include their own adware.

 

[jim lin]

i found this from Microsoft mabe it will work

Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel
This utility enables users of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 to mount ISO disk image
files as virtual CD-ROM drives

The Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel utility enables users of Windows XP, Vista, and 7 to mount ISO disk image
files as virtual CD-ROM drives. This can be highly useful for reading disk images to install software or
recover backup files. Notes: This tool is not supported by Microsoft; use at your own risk. Windows 8 users
do NOT need this tool. Windows 8 natively supports ISO files. In Windows 8, you can simply open an ISO file
and Windows automatically assigns it a drive letter and reads it as a virtual drive.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38780

 

[Jaspion]

That is nice, but does it only work with .iso files?

 

[jim lin]

i'm not sure i downloaded it and this is how it says to use it so it could be a pain to use i'm not sure

Installation instructions
=========================
1. Copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder.
2. Execute VCdControlTool.exe
3. Click "Driver control"
4. If the "Install Driver" button is available, click it. Navigate to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys, and click Open.
5. Click "Start"
6. Click OK
7. Click "Add Drive" to add a drive to the drive list. Ensure that the drive added is not a local drive. If it is, continue to click "Add Drive" until an unused drive letter is available.
8. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click "Mount".
9. Navigate to the image file, select it, and click "OK". UNC naming conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

You may now use the drive letter as if it were a local CD-ROM device. When you are finished you may unmount, stop, and remove the driver from memory using the driver control.



James

 

[BoraMurdar]

One of the smallest and without adwares are UltraISO and PoweISO but freeware...
Try WinCDEmu
http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/

Features:

One-click mounting of ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG images.
Supports unlimited amount of virtual drives.
Runs on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions from XP to Windows 7.
Allows creating ISO images through a context menu in Explorer.
Small installer size - less than 1MB!
Does not require rebooting after installation.
A special portable version is available.
Translated to more than 20 languages.
Does not occupy drive letters when not used.
Supports data, DVD-video and BD-video images.
WinCDEmu is free for any kind of use - it is licensed under LGPL

 

[Overkill]

Magic Disk has no adware or any other extra crap, I just installed it and scanned it and all is fine
Link

 

[imsoadude]

I used virtual clone drive for the longest time and i didnt find any adware or malware just a simple right click and mount/unmount program...

 

[asilentfire]

Thanks guys! Magic Disk and Virtual CloneDrive look good, and I'm glad to learn about Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel!

Just goes to show that if you do a search for "<ProgramName> malware", its easy to be paranoid and believe everything has crap bundled with it.. I ended up getting Alcohol 52% btw, works fine!

 

[3link9]

Power ISO isn't bad, I never had or seen any problems with toolbars, adware, or any backdoor, etc.

 

[viktik]

OSFMount allows you to mount local disk image files (bit-for-bit copies of a disk partition) in Windows with a drive letter.

OSFMount also supports the creation of RAM disks, basically a disk mounted into RAM. This generally has a large speed benefit over using a hard disk. As such this is useful with applications requiring high speed disk access, such a database applications, games (such as game cache files) and browsers (cache files). A second benefit is security, as the disk contents are not stored on a physical hard disk (but rather in RAM) and on system shutdown the disk contents are not persistent.

Image Formats supported : ISO, NRG, IMG, BIN, VMDK, VHD, AFF, AFM ,AFD

LINK : http://www.osforensics.com/tools/mount-disk-images.html

 

[jackuars]

WinArchiver Virtual Drive for me. Its free...

Not only it supports 24 virtual drives with drive letters, you can also mount ZIP, RAR, 7Z, and other archives, which no other virtual drives offer you. It's lightweight too.