Many novice PC users have come across an ISO file in one way or another in their lives. They tried to open it with available software on the computer, but it was all in vain: the file with the ISO extension is not served to the opening. So what is ISO anyway?
In fact, everything is extremely simple. ISO is an optical disc image that contains the ISO 9660 file system. ISO 9660, in turn, is the file system standard for CD-ROMs, also known as CDFS (Compact Disc File System). Simply put, an ISO file is an image of a disc.
How to open an ISO file? You can use a variety of software to open a file of this format. For example, using archiving programs, you can easily get to the contents of a disk image. One of these archivers is WinRAR or 7-Zip. Among other things, you can use CD / DVD drive emulators. Such programs are Daemon Tools, Alcohol 120%, UltraISO and many others. You’ve probably heard about some of these programs.
In the case of archivers, everything is elementary: we open the ISO file through the software available on the computer. However, how can I open an ISO file with programs that emulate a CD / DVD drive? Well, everything here is also extremely simple – let’s look at a small example of image emulation by the UltraISO program. Here’s what you need to do:
- start the UltraISO program;
- click on the “Tools” button in the menu bar;
- select “Mount to virtual drive”;
- click on the button with three dots and specify the directory where the image you need is located;
- then click on the “Mount” button;
As soon as you click on the above button, a new virtual drive will appear in the list of available drives under one letter or another, and the image you need will be mounted in it. Now you can access this image just like any other disk in the real drive. Other programs capable of emulating a CD / DVD drive work in much the same way, so you shouldn’t have any problems.