Map ISO files to a drive

ISO files are images of physical CD and DVD ROMS. You can use to burn them to disk. Microsoft now distributes many of their DVD, and CD ROMs from their website in this format.

Many times you just want to pull a few files off the ISO without burning it to physical media. Microsoft has a little known tool for doing this.

You can download it from here

It is not the most user friendly application, but it is free, and it works well. Let me walk you through mapping an ISO file.

The name of the program is the Windows XP Virtual CD Control panel. Download the file, and extract to the folder you want to run it from.

If you want to map an image file, simply launch the program called VcdControlTool.exe

Map ISO to Drive Letter

The first thing we need to do is install a driver. When the program is launched, click on the "Driver Control" button.

Mount ISO DVD Drive Windows XP

We need to install the driver, so click on the only button that is enabled - "Install Driver"

Install ISO Driver

It will open a file browse dialog. It should default to the same folder you installed all the other files for this program....if not you will need to browse back to it and select VCdRom.sys

Map ISO Drive Driver Install

Once you have selected the driver, the "Start" button will be enabled. Click on it. Now click OK.

We need to add a drive before mounting the ISO. Click "Add Drive" and a drive letter will show up in the window.

ISO Drive Mapping

Finally we can map the iso by clicking on the mount button. It will allow you to select an ISO to mount. Select your ISO, and click OK.

You will be presented with special mount options. You may need to check these if you are having trouble mounting an ISO. Usually when I first try to mount an ISO I leave them all unchecked. If I run into trouble, then I experiment and try each option.

Special Mount options

Once you have mounted the ISO, it will look just like a standard CDROM. If we browse to My Computer and look...

Mapped Drive is Real

Now I have access to my ISO file, without ever burning it to a disk.

A few last things to note:

1. You don't need to keep this application open after mounting the ISO. It will stay mounted until you unmount it.

2. If you reboot your system, you will need to remount the drive again
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Written by Steve Wiseman on October 11th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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