mdf and mds extension. What is the .MDS File Extension? Troubleshooting Opening MDS Files

Files that contain the .mds extension are information data arrays that store information describing the formatting of a DVD or CD disc (In other words, this is a disc image). The information contained in mds files includes data showing how a disc is organized and which tracks are located on a DVD or CD disc. mds files do not contain any actual audio or video data and function on their own.

This format is responsible for the security of the recorded disc, preventing illegal copying. Of course, for an experienced media pirate, this will not become an obstacle to his activities, but for an ordinary user, this format can become a real obstacle.
The mds extension is primarily associated with the Alcohol 120% program. This is how the interface of this program looks like, which makes disk images with the mds extension.
MDS is an optional media descriptor for files that can be obtained by burning a disc image from a CD or DVD. This extension is a binary-encrypted file with the ASCII identification characters "Media Descriptor" appearing at the very beginning of the file.
mds contains an array of source metadata, namely the position of the break layer or the Breach bit layer - a tool to prevent illegal copying of many DVDs. The mds extension is used in combination with the appropriate disc file (.mdf) to recreate the DVD. mds is mainly used when burning with Alcohol 120%, but other disc burning tools and virtual disk emulation on a PC use it.

How can I open MDS?

Perhaps someone sent you an MDS file by email, but you are unable to open its contents. You have probably seen an MDS file on your PC and wondered what the format is? Windows may notify that the file is not recognized and the system is unable to open it, or under other circumstances, an error message will pop up.
The fastest and easiest way to open MDS is to double click on it. This allows the Windows system to select the correct application to open MDS. If the MDS file does not open, you may not have installed the right application on your PC to edit or open this format.
In general, the Windows operating system does not provide for opening files with the MDS extension, but this can be done independently, using programs from various developers.
Here is a list of the most popular and available programs for download on the web:
Daemon Tools;
Virtual CloneDrive;

MagicISO;
Cyberlink PowerDVD;
isobuster.
These are the best applications for the Windows environment, by installing any of which you can easily open files with the mds extension on your computer. Among this list there are leaders, which is Daemon Tools. By installing such a program, you will be able to open files with the mds extension in the future, with the usual double click. Daemon Tools can automatically recognize all extensions associated with multimedia files recorded on discs and open them freely.

Daemon Tools

The program is paid, but there is a solution - torrents. Follow the link and download. Install the application and run it.

Often the user faces the problem of how to open an mdf file. Files with the mdf extension can be of various types, but most often they are CD-DVD disc images in the Media Disc Image File format.

A disk image is a file generated by a special program for copying to . Such a disk image stores the data that was written to the optical media, as well as additional information.

In order to access the data stored in the mdf file, you must install a program for working with disk images and then as a virtual drive. To solve this problem, there are many different programs. Both paid and free. In this short review, we'll take a look at some of the most popular ones. So, how to open an mdf file?

One of the most popular disk imaging programs is the free utility DAEMON Tools Lite. By installing this software, the user will no longer have problems opening mdf files. Moreover, DAEMON Tools Lite allows you to open not only mdf files, but also other popular disk image formats. Using DAEMON Tools Lite create up to 4 virtual drives, which allows the user to open multiple mdf files at once.

Key features of DAEMON Tools Lite:

Mounting disk images. Supported formats: mdx, iso, b5t, b6t, bwt, mds/mdf, ccd, cdi, ape/cue, bin/cue, flac/cue, nrg, isz;
Creation and support of up to 4 virtual drives simultaneously;
Virtual drives can work in SCSI mode. This improves disk emulation;
Create disk images. Only iso, mds/mdf and mdx are available for creating images;
Compressing disk images;
Protect disk images with a password;
Cataloging and managing a collection of disk images;
Work in the background;
File association support for mounting disk images from any folder;
Management of the main functions of the program using the gadget on the desktop;
Russian language support;

Alcohol 52%

Like DAEMON Tools Lite, this application has a complete set of all the necessary functions for creating and connecting CD-DVD images. Alcohol 52% has support for a large number of languages, including Russian. This allows even a less experienced user to work comfortably with the program. Alcohol 52% allows you to open mdf files, as well as disk images in CCD, ISO, BIN, CUE, CDI, NRG, BWT, BWS, BWI, BWA formats. In this case, the user can simultaneously connect up to 6 virtual drives.

Other features of the program Alcohol 52%:

Support for all popular disc formats. Among which: CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-XA, CD+G, Photo CD, Video CD, Mixed Mode, Multi-session, DVD-ROM, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video;
Support for all ATAPI SCSI drives. Among which: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, DVD-RW;
Support for IEEE-1394 (Firewire) and USB interfaces;

MagicDisc Virtual CD/DVD-ROM

Fast and easy program for creating and connecting discs. In addition to mdf files, it also supports a huge number of other formats. It also allows you to use up to 15 virtual disks at the same time.

Other features of Virtual CD/DVD-ROM:

Mounting disk images. Supported formats: BIN (CDRWin), CIF (Easy CD Creator), IMA/IMG (Generic disk images), NRG (Nero - Burning ROM), MDF/MDS (Fantom CD), IMG/CCD (CloneCD), VCD (Farstone Virtual Drive) , P01/MD1/XA (Gear), VaporCD (Noum Vapor CDROM), VC4/000 (Virtual CD), C2D (WinOnCD), VDI (Virtuo CD Manager), CDI (DiscJuggler), BWI/BWT (BlinkWrite), TAO /DAO (Duplicator) and PDI (Instant Copy);
Compressing disk images. Works for formats: NRG, ISO, MDS, CUE and CCD in UIF;
Create disk images. For creation formats are supported: BIN/CUE, ISO, NRG and UIF.

Learn more about the MDF format

So, we have already considered programs for opening MDF files and, in conclusion, we will consider the MDF format itself. As we already know, the MDF (Media Disc Image File) format is designed to store disc images. At the same time, it is designed with the expectation of creating disk images that could bypass copy protection systems. Such systems can often be found on discs with computer games.

An MDF file is always accompanied by another MDS file. Both of these files are needed for the disk image to work correctly.

The MDF file stores all the data written to the CD. In this MDF, it resembles a regular ISO file in many ways. Because of this, the size of the MDF file is close to the size of the data written to disk.

The MDS file stores metadata about the original storage medium. This metadata allows you to bypass protection and run games using only a disk image, without real media. The amount of metadata is small, so the size of the MDS file is small.

Mdf can be programs that work with laser discs and electronic images of laser discs (Alcohol, DAEMON and others). Or open the mdf extension using a little trick and the WinRAR archiver (more on that later). This is a special format, it cannot be opened by anything else. Now more.
Laserdiscs are still used in the modern world

What is Mdf file

Distribution of computer information without physical storage media would be difficult. From the point of view of safety, commercial suitability (first of all, making a profit), and reliability, optical laser discs are in the lead. They are losing ground to new information repositories, but are still in use.

Companies are developing their own tools for working with optical media. Install "keys" to protect against copying and piracy. The only possibility of physical protection for optical media is (apart from electronic encryption systems) the special use of bad sectors. Corporations have their own software for creating such “bad” identification keys and specialized utilities for reading such disks (standard computer readers will give an error if a “damaged” cluster is detected).

In addition, optical storages were created multilayered. Those. laser reading technologies made it possible to place several information layers on one source.

A disk image is an exact electronic bit-by-bit copy of a physical medium. And in the case of the format in question, it includes precise positioning of bad bits and layering. The format was developed by Alcohol Soft for a product of the same name.

To store the complete information set, two files with mdf and mds extensions are used. The first one stores information from the physical media, the second one stores data about the media itself: headers, boot sectors, layer layout, track information, the location of deliberately incorrect bits, etc.

It was originally used for replicating discs, making electronic copies and storing them in electronic form. Later it began to be used for the exchange and distribution of software in electronic form without physical media.

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How can I open an Mdf (MDS) file

Programs that open mdf files

As it became clear from the description, the standard way to open an mdf file is through alcohol 120 or another version of alcohol. In the same way, similar programs allow you to do this:

Nero;
UltraISO;
MagicISO;
etc.

Mount the image in alcohol 120:

The application must first be configured. Those. it is required to create virtual drives in order to work with them in the future. The program can create up to 31 virtual drives. It is desirable to associate extensions with the application.

To mount the image, find the necessary file. Menu "File" - "Open". The image will be added to the window. We right-click on it and “Mount to device” - select the device with which the image will be associated.

In the alcohol 120 program, you can mount the image

Second installation method. We find the image in the explorer. We right-click on it and "Mount image" - select the device with which the image will be associated.

We find the image in the explorer, right-click on it and "Mount image"

To burn an image to a disc, click in the main program "Burn DVD / CD from images". We select the required one. And click "Next".

To burn an image to a disc, click in the main program "Burn DVD / CD from images"

We install a pig. Select the writing recorder, press "Start". After a few minutes, the image will be transferred to disk.

Burning a disc with Alcohol 120 is very easy

Virtual drive emulators

Open mdf and mds format with virtual drive emulator programs such as DAEMON. It is important to have the main file in the same directory as the data description file. If it is not there, then the image is not mounted in daemon tools.

WinRAR

WinRAR is not a program for mdf files. But this archiver can open the mdf format (does not always open). Upon successful opening, you can view, extract data, unzip. You can do this in two ways:

Rename mdf extension to iso. Their internal structure is almost the same;
Right-click "Open with ..." and select the WinRAR application.

How to open MDF on Mac OS X

You won't be able to open mds and mdf files on the Apple operating system "on the forehead". There are also no standard converters in the environment of this OS. You can go two ways:

Or convert it with any application (MDF2ISO, UltraISO, etc.) to the iso format and then the operating system works with this format;
Or try to cheat. According to the method described above, rename the mdf extension to iso. But this method may not work. Correct data transformation.

How to open MDF on Android

The ISO Extractor application will help you open the mds file on Android. The application is freely available on Google Play. It takes up little memory space. But, this format is not designed to work with the Android OS and is not needed for anything other than reading packed data. Therefore, we do not recommend installing the software only because of the need to work with it. It is more correct to convert the structure to a different form and use it on Android.

Now you know how to open an MDF file or MDS. Ask questions to experts.

MDF and MDS files are files that come in pairs. MDF and MDS files are a disk image that was captured using the Alcohol program. Below we will consider how and with what programs these files are launched on a computer.

MDF and MDS are two paired files. If any of these files are missing on the computer, the image will not work. To run the existing image on the computer, we need to run the MDF file.

There are many programs on the Internet to run an MDF file, but they still do not, but create a virtual drive on the computer and mount a disk image from MDF.

Launchers for MDF and MDS

1. UltraISO

A popular program for working with images. In this program, you can not only mount images, but also write information to disk, convert an image to another format, etc. The program is not free, but it has a free trial period.

Download UltraISO for free

2. Alcohol 120%

An excellent program for creating virtual drives and mounting MDF images. It has a simple interface, as well as huge popularity, so there is an answer to any of your questions about this program on the Internet.

The program is not free, but it has a free version called Alcohol 52%, which is enough for most everyday tasks.

Download Alcohol 120% for free

Download the program from the official site

3. Diemon Tools

An equally popular program that is actively used to view different types of discs. The program will create a virtual drive for reading disks, after which it will create an image from the MDF file that will be launched.

The program also has a free version, which is enough for most users.

Download Diemon Tools for free

Download the program from the official site

If you just need to view the contents of MDF and MDS files, which, in fact, they can be opened by any third-party archiver.

Each presented program is a convenient and popular tool among users for working with various images.

The mdf and mds formats are very common. Files of this type are virtual disk images on which games and programs are most often distributed. In this article, we will tell you how and with what programs you can open mdf and mds files in Windows 7 and others.

mdf and mds files

Files of this format can often be found when downloading any game or program from or simply from some site.

mdf and mds format files

Faced with mdf and mds files, many users do not know what to do with them and how to open them. But here everything is quite simple. Using a special program, you will mount the mdf file into a virtual drive and the contents of the file will be displayed as a disk in the Computer.

In other words, the situation will be simulated in which you seem to have inserted a real disk into the drive.

Program for opening mdf and mds files

In fact, there are many such programs, but we will tell you and advise you to use the Deamon Tools Lite program for the following reasons:

It is entirely in Russian;
Easy to use and specialized for working with image files;
It is free and can be downloaded and installed without problems from the official website.

To start using the Deamon Tools Lite program, go to the official website, download it from there and install it.

Downloading Deamon Tools Lite from the official website

This will start downloading the Deamon Tools Lite installation file.

Free version of the program

Downloading additional files

After the download is complete, click the " Install«.

Starting the installation of Deamon Tools Lite

The installation wizard will start. Click here all the time Further without changing parameters. Just pay attention that in one of the windows there is a “Free license” switch.

Deamon Tools Lite installation process

During the installation process, you will be prompted twice to install the optical drive driver. We agree.

Installing Virtual Drive Drivers

At the end of the installation, a window will appear in which you need, except for the first one, and click " Ready«.

Remove these ticks

The Deamon Tools Lite program window will start, in which you double-click the “ Skip«.

Skip Hints

In the main window, in order to open the mdf or mds file, press the button " Quick mount«.

Quick mount in Deamon Tools Lite

Opening mdf and mds files in Deamon Tools Lite

Immediately after that, the file will be mounted and the virtual drive will be connected. Now you can go to "Computer" and see the contents of your mdf or mds file as a separate disk that you can open and run installation files on it.

Virtual disk on my computer

After you no longer need the mdf or mds file, it is better to extract them from the virtual drive of the Deamon Tools Lite program.

To do this, open it, move the mouse to the active drive in the lower part, and when a yellow triangle appears, click on it.

Removing a virtual disk

This way you will, as it were, extract the virtual disk from the virtual drive.

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