How To Open .MDF Files

What is a .MDF file anyway?

The .MDF file extension usually designates a proprietary disk image format used by Alcohol 120%. Like ISO files, MDF files contain an exact copy a CD or DVD. This format is typically used for backing up discs and also for sharing the “backups” over BitTorrent or other P2P networks.

There are several applications that can open .MDF files :

Alcohol 120% can mount .mdf files in a virtual CD/DVD drive. Commercial, free trial available.
MagicISO can open or mount the files. Commercial, free trial available. Note : the trial version is limited to opening 300Mb files, so I don’t recommend using this one.
Daemon Tools can also mount .mdf files using a virtual drive. Commercial, but the Lite edition trial version has no functionality or time limitations.
IsoBuster can also open .mdf files. Commercial, has a free trial version with no time limit.

Gah, so all the tools are commercial. Which one should you use? Personally, I would recommend IsoBuster – it’s pretty convenient and won’t nag you incessantly about upgrading to the Pro version. It can also convert a .mdf/.mds file to the ISO format which is handy if you want to use the disk image with other CD/DVD software.

How To Open a .MDF File With IsoBuster

Download IsoBuster & install it.
Note : You’ll probably want to uncheck the “Include the IsoBuster toolbar” option when installing IsoBuster. It’s probably not spyware, but there’s no point in polluting your computer with random applications. Just saying.
Start up IsoBuster.
(The installer usually adds a QuickLaunch icon that you can use to run the program.)
Open the .MDF or .MDS file by clicking on File -> Open Image File.
It doesn’t matter whether you select the .mdf or the .mds file in the Open.. dialog. IsoBuster will automatically load the appropriate disk image anyway. Alternatively, you can open a MDF file by dragging it into the left panel of the application window (it’s the box that contains the text “No media present” when you’ve just launched the program).
Extract the files you need.
To extract a file or a folder, right-click it and select Extract [file name] from the pop-up menu. You can also drag files from the IsoBuster window and drop them into any folder on your computer to copy them there.

Additional Tip : How To Convert .MDF to .ISO

This is not a widely advertised feature, but I’ve noticed that you can actually use IsoBuster to convert .MDF/.MDS files to ISO. First, open the .mdf file as described above. Then right-click on the “CD” or “DVD” entry on the left-side navigation panel and select Extract CD/DVD <Image> -> RAW (*.bin, *.iso). Choose where to save the converted file, make sure “Save as type” is set to “*.iso”, and hit Save. After a short conversion process you’ll get an .ISO file (+ a .CUE file) that you can use with any CD/DVD burning or emulation software.

Thanks for reading 🙂

* CD stock image by bobmorley

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 14:57 and is filed under Miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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52 Responses to “How To Open .MDF Files”

The Relationship Blog » Blog Archive » How To Backup A DVD To The HDD says:

April 8, 2009 at 18:43

[…] disc. The most widespread image file format is ISO, though some backup tools may also store it as a MDF file type or other proprietary file types. To create a disc image you could use e.g. ISOBuster or MagicISO. […]
Alex says:

May 5, 2009 at 22:11

Worked perfectly, thk you for the clear instructions!
Mathieu says:

May 30, 2009 at 21:40

I haved load load a torrentz but the file is in mdf. I can’t open this files.
Laura says:

July 13, 2009 at 02:03

Oh thank you. <3
Just when you think you know everything about torrenting and mounting…
This helped me SO much!
meisam says:

August 28, 2009 at 20:41

Thanks a lot .
ds_yogesh says:

September 30, 2009 at 09:43

Thank you
Its working
asya says:

November 24, 2009 at 15:04

Thanks a lot! Really useful piece of advice
firthous says:

November 25, 2009 at 15:31

thanx a lot its only working
khaye says:

December 23, 2009 at 07:58

it doesn’t work on my psp..how’s that?
rocky says:

February 3, 2010 at 18:32

after burning the CD. when i run the setup file it is displaying “setup cannot find the required setup controller file.either there was a network error ,an error reading from the cd,dvd or other installation media or a problem with the package you downloaded”..plz help
colorzone says:

March 10, 2010 at 10:06

WinMount is also an image tool, supports mounting ISO ISZ BIN MDS/MDF NRG IMG CCD CUE to virtual DVD-ROM, supports mounting FLAC, APE, WV, WAVE to virtual CD-ROM, supports mounting VHD, VDI, VMDK, WMT, Microsoft WIM, and folder as a HDD virtual disk.
chandra says:

March 12, 2010 at 06:38

mdf files worked with daemontools……….thanks
suyash says:

March 26, 2010 at 18:43

Really worked.Cool stuff dude….!!!
cd dvd data recovery says:

April 19, 2010 at 15:20

Thanks for sharing useful software like this one but has any one tried any other software? I liked all the features of Iso Buster
dj lilo says:

May 10, 2010 at 14:52

thanx pipz
appi says:

July 1, 2010 at 21:03

thanks for this and resolved the problem in opening the .mdf information i have done accordingly and got my game run really thanks
Daren says:

July 2, 2010 at 09:20

I am very thankfull for your instruction……really great….I think u know everything and can solve everything on the net…

best regards,

Daren
vijay says:

July 6, 2010 at 10:30

Thank man ur great……..
danny says:

July 9, 2010 at 02:25

Isobuster now requires me to register to extract my files….any other ideas? Do the other programs listed above permit FREE extraction?
Eric says:

July 29, 2010 at 15:18

Thank you SOOO much! I was starting to think I spent all that money to buy battlefront on it’s website for nothing. (: