A virtual disk, or disk image, is a file that is an exact copy of the contents of a CD, DVD or hard drive partition. Service and user information is copied into it, as well as the source file structure.
If you constantly use a CD to play your favorite game or listen to music, scratches, microcracks and other defects will inevitably appear on its surface. As a result, the disk may fail, and you will be left without your favorite entertainment. And, since to run many applications it is necessary to insert a CD into the drive, sooner or later this sad event will happen.
A good way out of the situation is to create a virtual disk. With the help of special programs, you can emulate a CD image and a virtual disk drive, and then access the new device as if it were a regular drive with normal media. A virtual disc can be burned to an optical disc, and then you will have a complete copy of a CD or DVD. A copy of the disc may be required even if you borrowed it for a while, but you do not want to part with such a useful thing forever.
There are many programs for emulating disk images with different capabilities. The extension of the new file will depend on which program was used to create it. Usually it is. ISO,. IMG,. NRG,. VCD,. VDF. Different applications that emulate virtual disks have different capabilities. Some small freeware and light versions of popular paid applications can create virtual disks, but cannot burn them to CD or DVD.
You can create images and write them back to discs using the popular Nero program. Insert the disc into the drive, start the program and select Nero BurningROM. Select Image Recorder from the list of recorders (on the right side of the taskbar) and click Copy Disc. In the "New Project" window, click "Copy" again, specify the folder where the image will be saved and its name.
To create a virtual optical drive, select the Nero ImageDrive option and enable it to start. Check the box "First drive" and confirm with OK. The virtual drive will now appear in the My Computer folder as a real device. To insert a disc into the virtual drive, start Nero ImageDrive and go to the First Drive tab. Click on the button with three dots and specify the path to the disk image, then click "Open".
To burn the image to disc, insert a blank disc into the drive and double-click on the file icon. Nero BurningROM will start automatically. Specify the optical drive as the recorder.
