What Is a Disc Emulator?

A disc emulator is a utility that adds a virtual CD/DVD drive to your computer. Using a disc emulator, you "mount" copies of CDs and DVDs and read them on your computer as if they were physical discs. Disc emulators help prevent waste, and they are especially helpful on computers that lack optical drives.

Types
Some of the available disc emulation programs include SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive, Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120%. Virtual CloneDrive is free. Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120% are both commercial products, but both have free versions with reduced functionality. Although the specific features of these programs vary, all have the ability to mount a disc image as if it were a physical CD or DVD.
 
Waste Reduction Some of the software downloaded online comes in the form of disc images in formats such as ISO. Disc image files are exact copies of physical discs, and disc-burning software has the ability to transfer one of these images to a physical disc. However, once you burn an image to a disc and install the software on your computer, you may no longer need the disc. If you mount the image using disc-emulation software, you can install it without burning and discarding a disc. This saves money and reduces waste.

Disc Protection Disc-copying utilities have the ability to back up all types of optical media including software, DVD movies and audio CDs, and a modern hard drive has the ability to store multiple terabytes of data. Using disc-copying software in conjunction with disc emulation software, you could back up all your software and media and read the disc images on your computer without searching for the physical discs when you want to use them. This saves time and helps you avoid damaging your media by handling it constantly.
 
Computers Without Optical Drives Many thin and light notebook computers lack optical drives. Much of today's software can be downloaded from the Internet rather than installed from a disc, and eliminating the optical drive from a computer saves weight and battery power. However, you may occasionally find software that you are unable to obtain in any format except physical media. To install this software on a computer without an optical drive, you can make a copy of the disc on your desktop computer and mount the copy on your notebook using disc-emulation software.