How to Mount an ISO File

With advances in computing technology, there has been an exponential increase in the number of file formats that are used. There are image file formats, document formats and archive file formats that you need to know about. Every one of these formats opens up exclusively in a specific type of software program. Many people seem unaware of the mounting procedure for an ISO file, which is one of the many file formats that are used for software setup files.

What is an ISO File

An ISO file, also known as and ISO image is actually an archive file for optical disc data. It stores the entire data written on a DVD, CD or even a Blu ray disc as it is.

That is, the data is uncompressed and of the exact size of data written on the optical disk. The ISO image enables you to easily create copies of the data on your optical disk. If you try to open an ISO file as it is, it won't open. This is a widely used archive format for CD DVD duplication.

How to Mount an ISO Files On Your Computer

There are two ways in which you can mount these files. One way is to burn ISO files onto an optical disk of appropriate storage size and then access the data thorough the optical drive. Other way is to use an emulator software that can open an ISO file, without the need of burning it on to a DVD, CD or Blu-ray disc. In the following lines, you will find information about how to open ISO files on a Mac, Windows or Linux based machine.

On a Mac
On Mac OS X, you can mount ISO images using the DiskImageMounter utility. It supports many other disk image formats besides ISO. You will find the program in '/Library/CoreServices/' on Mac OS X installations.

On Windows XP and Windows 7
Recognizing the need of Windows users to mount ISO files, without the need of burning them to DVD drives, many programs were created by developers. To mount an ISO file on Windows 7, Windows XP or Windows Vista, all you need to do is download and install 'Virtual CloneDrive' software. It lets you open ISO files directly, as though you are accessing them from an optical drive. With this program, you can access the ISO files directly from your hard drive. There is no need to burn them on to optical disks.

On Linux
The facility for opening an ISO file is built into a Linux installation. Here are the steps to open an ISO image file called 'grayp.iso'. The first step to mounting such a file in Linux is to enter the following command to create a mount point. (Make sure that you are logged in as a root user).

# mkdir -p /mnt/disk

This will create a mount point for the ISO file. Then enter the following command.

# mount -o loop grayp.iso /mnt/disk

This will open the files on the ISO image at the mount point. With the following command, you'll be able to access and see the list of files inside the ISO image.

# cd /mnt/disk
# ls -l

All you need to do is get hold of an emulator software, appropriate for the kind of platform that you are on (Windows/ Mac/ Linux). As I said before, this will save you from piling up DVDs for every ISO image that you use.