How To Open .MDF Files

What is a .MDF file anyway?

MDF FilesThe .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

  1. 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.
  2. Start up IsoBuster.
    (The installer usually adds a QuickLaunch icon that you can use to run the program.)
  3. 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).
  4. 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 πŸ™‚

* CD stock image by bobmorley
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52 Responses to “How To Open .MDF Files”

  1. smm says:

    thx .

  2. walood says:

    thanks alot buddy it really works !!

  3. george says:

    thank you very much it works!!!!

  4. kitty says:

    deamon toot is giving me error while mounting .mdf file.
    error is -windows can’t read from disk, disk might be curropted or not using supported format.

  5. kitty says:

    pls suggest something for adove error

  6. dr.hany says:

    you are the perfect man for the job

  7. jck says:

    Thanks !!! Worked perfectly !!! You are the best πŸ™‚

  8. FuRrY321 says:

    Thank you! Works fine, burning ISO with ImgBurn (nice free program).

    @Kitty this isn’t a support forum, IsoBuster or Daemon Tools probably have one, go try there please.

  9. Aditya1991 says:

    Thanks a lot…works perfectly…:)

  10. graciously happy says:

    thank you sir you assisted me very well and for that you have my gratitude.

  11. R.C.P says:

    Just thought I’d mention that Slysoft’s Virtual Clone Drive will also run MDF files. While it does not associate these files with itself, if you manually tell the program to run the .mdf it will and works fine. This is a free program with no limits and has worked great for me for many years.

  12. 1click says:

    Thank you. It helped me to open the .mdf file πŸ™‚

  13. Hatsukoe says:

    WOW first result on google and I must say I am very impressed with this post, thank you for the assistance

  14. Kiran says:

    thank you soooo much sir!!

  15. Elise says:

    THANK YOU..!! This was perfect and nicely described.. πŸ™‚

  16. Levi says:

    That did the trick….thank you

  17. CarlitosWay76 says:

    Mucho Grassy Ass (Muchas Gracias)…
    This was perfect. Thanks brutha.

    -CarlitosWay76

  18. awais says:

    thank you very informative

  19. Rangan says:

    Great !!!

  20. Bedredin says:

    Ok this info is pretty good, but isn,t it easier and better to simply use winrar?, I did it and well it worked fine like with the .iso format

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