 Software for virtual drives | |
| Developer | Disc Soft Ltd.1 |
|---|---|
| Stable release | Ultra 6: 6.2.0 / 16 March 2023 (2023-03-16)2 Lite 12: 12.0.0 / 27 September 2023 (2023-09-27)34 for Mac 8: 8.5.0 / 17 October 2022 (2022-10-17)5 Pro 8: 8.3.1 / 17 August 2021 (2021-08-17)5 Net 6: 6.0.0 / 17 February 2017 (2017-02-17)5 USB 2: 2.0 / 29 November 2012 (2012-11-29)5 |
| Operating system | Windows 98, Windows 2000 and later; OS X 10.6 or later (DT for Mac 2)6 |
| Available in | |
| Type | Virtual drive |
|---|
| License | Shareware |
|---|
| Website | www.daemon-tools.cc |
|---|
DAEMON Tools is a virtual drive and optical disc authoring program for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.9
This article is about the disk image emulator. For the collection of tools for managing Unix services, see daemontools.
Where Daemon Tools leads. Every connection below has a source: a link in this article, a shared Wikipedia category, or CirrusSearch text similarity. Articles already on your trail are left out.
603 words · 28 references · revision 1371318258 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The articles this one links to most, weighted towards the introduction.
DAEMON tools was originally a successor of Generic SafeDisc emulator and incorporated all of its features.10 The program claims to be able to defeat most copy protection schemes such as SafeDisc and SecuROM.11 It is currently compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. DAEMON Tools has a special mode for proper operation of copies of discs with advanced protection (SafeDisc, SecuRom and LaserLock, CD-Cops, StarForce and Protect CD), which are used on some discs with games.12
Six editions of the product exist: Ultra, Lite, Pro Standard, Pro Advanced, Net and DT for Mac. A feature comparison is given below.13 Also, the company provides two additional solutions for the data storage organization: DAEMON Tools USB 214 that allows sharing different types of USB devices between remote workstations and DAEMON Tools iSCSI Target 215 – a cross-platform solution that enables creating an iSCSI storage server and provides access to virtual or physical devices, along with VHD images, within home or corporate network.
| Feature | Lite 5 | Pro Standard 5 | Pro Advanced 5 | Net 5 | Ultra 2 | for Mac 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| License type | AdwareA / SharewareB | Shareware | Shareware | Shareware | Shareware | Shareware |
| Maximum number of DT and SCSI virtual devices | 4 | 16 | 32 | 32 | 32 | Unlimited |
| Maximum number of IDE virtual devices | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Command-line interface | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Image compression | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Image password protectionC | Yes | Yes | Yes |
.mds and .mdx images..iso, .mds/.mdf and .mdxThe default file format of DAEMON Tools is Media Data eXtended (MDX). MDX is a disc image file format similar to MDS/MDF images. It supports all of MDS/MDF format features except that all data is in one monolithic file only. The files of these types bear the filename extension of .mdx.21
MDX file contains metadata of original media – specifically the main physical parameters of disc, such as layer breaks, sessions, tracks and other. It could be described as being an archive file containing all data from a CD/DVD. It also supports data compression. MDX file includes the magic number "MEDIA DESCRIPTOR" at the beginning of the file.
On 13 February 2012, one of DAEMON Tools' components known as MountSpace became a subject of privacy concerns. MountSpace, a service-oriented component gathers and sends information about disc images used in DAEMON Tools to mountspace.com along with users' IP addresses. Although MountSpace can be disabled during installation, it is criticized for transmitting information despite being disabled and lacking a privacy policy.22232425 The initial discovery of the concerning issue is attributed to Rafael Rivera of Within Windows blog.222425
In May 2026, DAEMON Tools were compromised to a targeted "supply chain" attack by suspected Chinese hackers. They used a malicious backdoor to plant malware across the retail, scientific and manufacturing sectors across multiple countries including Russia, Belarus, and Thailand.26
Y.A.S.U. (Yet Another SecuROM Utility) is a tiny tool that works as an SCSI-drive protector. It was created by sYk0 (pronounced psycho) and can be used to hide emulated drives from SecuROM 7 and SafeDisc 4. Y.A.S.U. is a companion program for Daemon Tools, being currently hosted, supported and maintained by the Daemon Tools team. On March 4, 2009, sYk0 announced development of Omen, which was meant to be a successor to Y.A.S.U.,27 but had its development abandoned in January of 2010.28
| Yes |
| No |
| Image creationD | Extraction only; no preset profiles | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Burning images | Needs Astroburn | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Image collection's management | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Image editing | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Image splittingE | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Shell extensions | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Virtual device property monitoring | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Volume Mount PointsF | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Burning RMPS data on discs | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Image conversionD | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mounting virtual hard disks (VHD) | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Installation over the network | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Image Catalog sharing | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| iSCSI Server | No | No | No | Up to 16 targets | No | No |
| iSCSI Initiator | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mounting images on remote computers | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sharing disc drives on the network | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Bootable USB creation | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| RAM Disk creation | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| TrueCrypt image creation | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Mounting ZIP files | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
810 revisions in total · 489 contributors
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