How to open mdf file in Windows OS? Learn more about how to open a file with the MDF extension. Programs to open

The mdf extension stands for "Media Disc Image File" in English. Most often, this is an image of a CD or DVD disc that is created using a special program, most often it is alcohol 120. Usually, images created using alcohol 120 have not one image file in mdf format, but two, usually it is also mds. The file with the mdf extension is the main one; the image itself is stored in it. And mds is, so to speak, auxiliary.

What program to open the mdf file

Next, I propose to consider several programs that work with mdf files. There are quite a few of them, but I will tell you about the three most popular. The principle of operation of the emulator program is as follows: it creates a virtual drive on the computer, and already works with images from it. For the operating system, the real drive does not matter or not, but the read and write speed increases tenfold.

1. How to open mdf file through daemon tools

And since open a file in mdf format using the daemon tools program. Run the daemon tools program and drag the mdf file into the daemon tools program window.

After that, our image should appear in the image directory. Next, right-click on it and select mount to drive. After that, the image in mdf format can be opened through a virtual CD-ROM.

Among the advantages of this program, I would highlight:

Create multiple drives (up to 36 in pro version);
Ability to bypass various types of protection;
Support for all operating systems Windows families, also available for MacOS;
Can work with 14 types of extensions, including mdf;
Wide functionality (reading, creating, compressing images, writing, splitting a file, etc.);

There are few disadvantages:

There is no way to unmount the disk;
Very stripped down free version, only works in the tray;
When installing, it tries to impose a lot of unnecessary programs.

Download daemon tools http://www.daemon-tools.cc/rus/downloads

2. How to open mdf file through alcohol 120

And since open an image in mdf format through alcohol program 120%. First of all, we launch alcohol. Next, click File Open and specify the path to our image, select the desired image and click open. After that, our image should appear on the right side of the program.

Now you need to right-click on the image and select Mount to Device from the drop-down menu. After that, our image will be mounted into a virtual drive under the beech (I:).

If the image does not start automatically, you can find it by going to My Computer and opening the virtual drive under the letter (I :), your letter may be different.

I will highlight the main characteristics:

Supports recording images from multiple media simultaneously;
The number of virtual drives up to 31, in the free version 6;
Works with 12 types of extensions;
Allows you to copy from disk to disk;
Can erase information from media;
Works with CD, DVD and Blye-ray.

Flaws:

Compatible with Windows OS only.

Download alcohol 120 http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/downloadtrial.php

3. How to open mdf file via ultraiso

I see the main difference from the programs discussed above in the possibility of creating boot disks and flash drives (having a boot sector) for installing DOS, Windows NT and Linux systems. Such drives are needed to reinstall the operating system or, for example, to treat viruses when the main system is infected and have to boot from disk.

And so we launch the ultraiso program in the menu, look for the Tools tab and in the drop-down menu click on Mount to virtual drive or just click hot key F6. After that, you should see the Virtual Drive window. In it, you must specify the path to the image file and click Mount.

After that, the image should appear in the virtual drive. You can also find it by going to my computer.

Support for more than 30 file formats;
Creating optical images, hard drives, as well as flash drives and floppy disks;
Ability to edit the emulation file;
Optimization of the image structure.

Compatible with Windows OS only;
Limitation of the free version when working with images over 300MB;
Only supports CD, DVD.

Download ultraiso http://ultraiso.ru.softonic.com/

In conclusion, I can say that all the listed utilities are very worthy and offer the user the necessary basic set of functions for working with mdf files. You should choose one or another program based on your preferences and tasks.

Hello, my dear readers, computer lovers and novice system administrators.

What is this file?

About 7-10 years ago there was not much broadband Internet. And where he was, the cost of it was exorbitant. Protecting games was not that difficult, it just required you to insert a disc into optical drive and downloaded from it certain files. To bypass it, it was necessary to create a virtual image of a blank. Now we are used to working with images with the ISO extension, and the previously made copy was compressed into files with the mdf and mds extensions. These two files exist in pairs. For example, with a pig called Games, you will receive two files after virtualization: Games.mdf and Games.mds.

MDF is the main image file, and all the data that is on the disk is compressed in it. Usually it weighs much more than the second part of the image. But MDS is a file with a folder structure on the main image. It usually weighs a couple of tens of kilobytes and is needed purely as a guide map of directories and disk structures.

Open with alcohol 120%

You can open these files with alcohol 120%. Software can be downloaded from here. In the archive, open this file.

The installation interface will open, where we press the button next.

Now carefully! Choose not fast installation, and the fad is below, and uncheck the boxes that suggest installing an additional software.

Click next.

The installation should start. We are waiting for its end.

Now a sign should pop up asking you to restart your computer.

After turning on the laptop, such a sign will appear, which means that we did everything right.

Open the program and click on the image search item.

We select the folder where exactly our files with the MDS and MDF extensions are located.

We choose which extensions we will scan on the laptop.

After the search has passed, a list of all found images will be displayed.

Select the desired one and mount it in a virtual optical drive.

If everything is done correctly, at the bottom of the software you will see that the virtual drive is busy with the image.

Now go to my computer and there you will see a disk drive with a disk. Then you work with it as with a regular drive.

Working with Daimon Tools

We all know that daumon tools can work with almost any image. . You can download the software right here.

Open the setup file. Choose the Russian language and click Further.

We familiarize ourselves with the license agreement and accept it.

Select the free type of our software and click on the button Further.

We set the checkboxes as in the picture below. You don’t really need a desktop gadget, especially since it takes up working power random access memory and GPU.

Now carefully! We pick out all the checkboxes except the first one.

And then a bunch of unnecessary software will be installed on your computer, and the start page will change.

Open our software, click on the button images, and then on the right side click on the plus sign.

We go to the folder where the mdf and mds files are located, select any of them and press the button open.

You can even just drag and drop these files from the folder onto the Daimon Tools interface itself.

Select the integrated files and click the button mount.

Opening with UltraISO

Also, mdf and mds files can be opened via ultraiso. Download it from here. We launch executable file and click Further.

Now we set everything as shown in the picture below. Especially the checkmarks at the bottom. We proceed further by the button of the same name.

We prescribe the local section where the software will be installed and go ahead.

The installation process will start. It can last from one to five minutes, it all depends on the hardware inside your computer, as well as on the speed of your hard drive.

Now put a tick in the line with the launch of the software and press the button below.

The program interface will open. In the left upper corner click on the word file, and then on the line to open the file.

Or just click on the green folder icon.

Additional Information

I would like to note that the above programs are far from the only ones that can work with files of this extension. By the way, you may well not just open images, but simply convert them, for example, into archives, which, by and large, they are.

In addition, now there are a lot of assemblies with additional modules of such file manager like Total Commander. It is very convenient to work in it, and it supports everything, and with additional software it can generally be used as a second operating system, after disabling the design styles in Windows itself.

This will reduce the amount of resources consumed operating system, it will speed up the computer. And you can also convert the MDF file through online converters into an ISO image that opens standard means tenth wind. In other cases, you will not be able to cope without programs, since this is a rather old file format and new versions of the OS do not work with it. I also want to warn you not to delete either of these two files. One without the other, they simply do not work, this, in principle, is their main drawback.

Often, when working with files, you may encounter unknown formats, such as .mdf and .mds. Not everyone knows how to open them in Windows 10, since the standard set of OS programs does not work with such an extension. This will require third-party software.

What it is?

The .mdf file contains a CD image or DVD disc. It opens with the same program that creates it. If the file came to you already in a “finished” form, then you can open it with the programs listed below.

If you have data in .mds format and wondered how to open it, then you do not need to do this.

Important! Separately, this file does not work. It only contains the header of the image, while .mdf contains the image itself.

Programs to open

If you have an .mdf file, you will need to download before opening special utility. The three programs described below are the most popular.

Free powerful utility. In addition to solving the problem of how to open the .mdf and .mds file, it also works with other disk images. The main functions are:

1. Generates up to 4 virtual drives, i.e. if you have several .mdf and .mds, then there will be no problems opening all at once.
2. Creates disk images.
3. Compresses them.
4. Protects against access with a password (configurable feature). Those. no one will know how to run .mdf and .mds file without password.
5. Builds collection directories.
6. Works in the background.

Supports Russian. It is the most popular tool that is chosen when deciding which program to open the .mdf and .mds file.

Faced with the .mdf format and deciding what to open, users choose . This is a popular utility that is distributed for a fee. But during the trial period of 15 days, all functions are available to the user. It has functionality similar to the previous software. With it, you can:

1. Mount image.
2. Write to disk.
3. Open.

Intuitive interface - you will easily understand how to open a .mdf, .mds file. Works on OS 32 and 64 bits.

Advice! If you need information from .mdf and .mds files and you don't know what to open on Windows 8, Windows 7, this utility will be a great solution, as it also works on earlier OS versions.

Another one free program. Functional, but less popular than the previous two. Distributed for free. Mounts and opens disk images of most formats. Creates 4 virtual drives.

Important! MagicDisc Virtual CD/DVD-ROM does not support Windows 10. Works with Windows versions 2000, ME, XP, 7, 8.

Software for conversion

Sometimes, when encountering the .mdf extension, the user is more accustomed to working with a different virtual image format. In this case, it is converted to standard iso image. But this will require additional software.

Important! The conversion will be successful only if you have both files - .mdf and .mds.

Powerful and multifunctional utility to work with images. Performs the following functions:

1. Mounting the image (with a choice of format).
2. Opening the image.
3. Generation of virtual drives.
4. Virtual drives management.
5. Format conversion.
6. Burning the image to disk, etc.

Also, using the program, you can write a Windows 10 image to a USB flash drive. The program is paid. No demo or trial period.

Power ISO - helps to convert the discussed format, extract content from it, resave. Mounts images, writes mdf and mds format to disk, good decision in the question of what to open, etc.

Have a question about working with the program? Ask it in a special form, describe in detail what the difficulty arose so that we can help.

MDS (Media Descriptor File) is an extension of files that contain auxiliary information about a disk image. This includes track layout, data organization, and everything else that is not the main content of the image. With imaging programs at hand, opening MDS is easy.

One thing to keep in mind is that MDS are only an addition to MDF files, which directly include disk image data. This means that without the main MDS file, most likely, it will not work.

Method 1: Alcohol 120%

Usually, it is through the program that files with the MDS extension are created, so it recognizes this format for anyone. Alcohol 120% is one of the most functional tools for burning files to optical discs and mounting virtual drives. True, for long-term use you have to buy full version program, but to open MDS, a trial is enough.

Now you can view all the files that the image contains.

Method 2: DAEMON Tools Lite

By analogy, you can open MDS through . This program is practically not inferior in functionality to the previous version. To use all the features of DAEMON Tools Lite, you will need to purchase a license, but the free version will suffice for our purposes.

The same can be done through "Quick mount" at the bottom of the program window.

Method 3: UltraISO

Method 4: PowerISO

A good alternative for opening an image through MDS is . Most of all, it resembles UltraISO, only with a simplified interface. PowerISO is a paid program, but a trial version is enough to open MDS.

As a result, we can say that there is nothing complicated in opening MDS files. Alcohol 120% and DAEMON Tools Lite open the contents of images in Explorer, while UltraISO and PowerISO allow you to view files immediately in the workspace and extract if necessary. The main thing to remember is that MDS is related to MDF and cannot be opened separately.

MDF and MDS files usually go together. Most often, gamers encounter them when trying to download the next game from a torrent. It's about files. disk image. Wherein MDF- myself image, a MDS usually contains some service information, header (usually its size does not exceed a few KB).

Image (Image) is a more convenient representation of a CD / DVD disc as a single file (MDF, ISO, etc.) instead of a collection of many individual files and directories that are usually stored on the media. Thanks to such convenient formats, transferring them over the Internet or between media is greatly simplified.

How to open files

It will not work to open them using regular system tools. Windows does not work with these extensions.

To work with these files, there are many third party programs – CD/DVD-ROM drive emulators. Let's take a quick look at the most popular and verified many users.

Daemon Tools Application

Primarily Daemon Tools. More detailed description will be presented below. Here we also note that this program is one of the most popular for working with virtual images.

Use of Acohol 120%

Another handy application to open images like MDF, ISO and the like is Achol 120%.

Unfortunately, the free version provides limited features ( trial version only 15 days). The software will allow you mount virtual disk, write down him and open.

UltraISO for image management

It has similar functionality UltraISO. In addition, here you can manage virtual drives, convert formats and burn to disk. For example, with its help it is very convenient to create bootable flash drive . The program is paid, but rich functionality distinguishes it from the rest

Using PowerISO

PowerISO will help convert, reformat and burn MDF and MDS files to disk.

Magic ISO Maker

Magic ISO Maker also paid, functions similar to previous software.

You can also try to open it using some archivers (for example, WinRAR). However, this method is not convenient and often does not achieve the desired result.

Opening images with daemon tools

To open and mount various files (including MDF) recommend use Daemon Tools Lite. Easy to use, supports the Russian language, besides, you can download it for free from the official website.

Installation is standard, click Install.

Choose free license. For our purposes, it will be enough for us.

Language selection

Installation mode

Selecting Settings

Choose the installation path

Do not forget uncheck to download and install annoying Yandex elements.

After completing the installation run program. Ignore the ad block on the right side of the application window. For free license will have to come to terms with it.

Adding image by clicking disk icon with a green plus (or simply dragging the required file to the Catalog area) and we mount- right key mount(or the Quick Mount button).

Then the mounting process will begin, after which a window will open autorun. This is how you can open its contents.

If you open in explorer A computer a new device will be detected among devices with removable media - virtual drive BD-ROM, opening which you can view and play files virtual disk(MDF image) - a copy of a real disk inserted into the drive.

If desired, you can add a few virtual drives if you need to open many ISO, MDF and other files at the same time. To do this, right-click on the Daemon Tools tray icon (in the form of a blue lightning bolt) and do as shown in the picture.

Then you should select the option mount.