# Solved: Virtual hard disk program?



## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

Hey everyone,

This request is for software that is being developed but is not entirely software development related.

What I am looking for is a virtual hard drive program that can make it easy to create hard disk image files, copy files to/from it, etc, and working with it in general.

I cannot seem to be able to find anything online; if anyone can help out that would be great 

Thanks for any help!


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## draceplace (Jun 8, 2001)

mt2002, not sure what your looking for here. If you share folders you can then "Map Network Drives" and refer to them as 'drive letters' "J:"


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

Hm.. Not quite what I was looking for but thanks for the reply 

I was actually looking for a program similar to this program that can create a real hard disk image file and map a drive letter for it. The program I linked you to is great for floppy drives; but I need something similar for hard drive images.

If there is none, then do you have any recommendations for an easy way to create and transfer files and programs to a hard drive image file?


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

The only other programs I know of would be to mount an ISO as a Virtual CD drive.j
Never heard of taking a hard disk image and mounting it as a virtual drive.

I guess I am also not quite understanding what exactly you are trying to do. Could you write up a scenario.


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

> The only other programs I know of would be to mount an ISO as a Virtual CD drive.j
> *Never heard of taking a hard disk image and mounting it as a virtual drive.*
> 
> I guess I am also not quite understanding what exactly you are trying to do. Could you write up a scenario.


I think you understood correctly  I bolded what I wanted to do in the above quote. IIRC Windows 7 has native support for it; but I am in need of alternative methods so I can build my software on systems without Windows 7.

Not to mention Windows 7 is not out yet...


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## draceplace (Jun 8, 2001)

Are you managing a group of hard drives with one image? And wanting to keep that image fresh?


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

No; its system software. I was looking for an easier way to build a hard disk image with the programs, directories, and files, without needing an installation program to do it for me (Not yet, anyways.)

I apologize for the confusion


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Acronis can make an Image data file of a HD or Partition ... to an external ..
Then mount the Image file in the external as a virtual HD.
But not sure if this is what you're looking for ???
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
The trial DL is fully functional for 15 days


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

So you want a Virtual Machine?


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

> So you want a Virtual Machine?


Sorry, no. I am basically just wanting to mount a hard disk image file in Windows. I know that I can use VirtualPC, however their hard drive images follow a file format; they are not raw hard disk images which is what I need.

Noyb:

Ill take a look at that tonight. I would prefer if you can just mount a hard disk image file though if its possible.


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Acronis can mount an Image file ... That it makes first.
This will be a file.tib backup data file that is compressed to about 60% of the used space - and can be read by Acronis.

I doubt that you will be able to modify an "operating system" that's in it .. or install programs ..
But you can Add, Copy or Remove files while mounted as a virtual drive.

This is a backup program normally used to backup and recover HDDs .. and the tib file is an "Image" of the HDD


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

Thanks for all of the responses so far! 

That looks *almost* like what I need (Sorry  ), except the hard drive image needs to be a raw image (no formatting at all. This is why I cant use Virtual PC for this.) That is, it cannot be a file that follows a format; and needs to be capable of self booting its operating system, like a real hard disk.

More specifically, I need to be able to test the hard disk image in a pc emulator, thus booting to the operating system on the image file (the "hard disk"). Before this, however, I need to be able to format the image file and copy the needed files and folders over (which is why I need a way to mount the image file.)

I have an emulator already capable of booting from a hard disk image... I just don't have any way of formatting the hard disk image and copying files to it...which is the source of my problem. I was thinking that I might need to mount the image file in Windows to do it. Perhaps there are programs that I can use to do this?

I hope this clarifies what I need


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

I'm confused .. sounds like you want a Clone.

Acronis can Clone to a HD .. or install an OS to a specific partition from a backup Image.
It can also size a partition while recovering.

Surely .. There's a trick in here somewhere.
I can boot from my eSATA externals .. made with Acronis


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

Im confused why everyone else is confused. 

I mentioned my initial problem and exactly what I want in my last post.

I would like to better rephrase my question, however I believe that I have already used the correct terminology (mounting a file as a "hard disk" so that I can write to the file as if it was a hard disk.) Do not quite know how else to rephrase it.

Hm... Ill just see if I can look for another solution. Perhaps writing a setup program to copy the software to the hard disk (or hard disk image). Ill be needing to do that eventually, anyways.

Thanks for your suggestions though


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

I know the images we made with ZenWorks we could edit files inside the image, but we couldn't physically boot from the image unless it was wrote back to a hard drive. We couldn't just install a piece of software to the image.

Sound like you want the holy grail of software.


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

> Sound like you want the holy grail of software.


lol, no 

I just know and used software for other disk drives that do what I am asking here (allows me to mount the disk image files and work with them through Windows Explorer) so I was hoping for something similar for a hard disk image as well.

I am not worried about installing anything on the image; just the ability of copying files and folders to it; format it for a specific file system; and be able to copy raw bytes to it (Needed for the boot program.) Guess there is not anything like that for hdd images for Windows...


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

mt2002 said:


> I was actually looking for a program similar to this program


Same author has a virtual disk drive driver. Reads dd images, so may work for what you want.

Other than that, all I've found are Forensic tools, and they all seem to be read only, so you can't change the image.

HTH

Jerry


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

I don't know if this will help you.
http://www.vmxbuilder.com/


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

TheOutcaste said:


> Same author has a virtual disk drive driver. Reads dd images, so may work for what you want.


That seems to be what I was looking for. Thanks alot for everyone's help! 

Im currently experimenting with it to see how I can work with it. Windows is not able to format it and its not liking the mbr nor boot sector that I am writing to it...Although that may be a different problem. A little more testing...


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

I do not normally bump my threads, but I found what I was looking for. I will post it here if anyone else might find it useful.

http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/

FileDisk can be used to mount an image file as a disk. For example:

filedisk /mount 0 "C:\Path\disk.img" m:

Will mount disk.img using drive letter m. Im marking this thread solved and I thank everyone for their suggestions!


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