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”

markaben says:

August 27, 2011 at 23:46

Great tips, thanks.
I learned and it works.
watermelon says:

August 30, 2011 at 05:47

thanks great info
Purdy says:

September 3, 2011 at 13:15

Thanks man, it works now!
Praveen says:

October 8, 2011 at 20:42

Thank you boss!
PCop says:

October 26, 2011 at 07:59

Purchased Pro version to open WSS_CONTENT.MDF and it failed. Showed Recovered Files ZIP, which didn’t unzip. Doesn’t do what it states.
Stefan says:

November 16, 2011 at 22:17

Thanks, great tips!
kip says:

November 29, 2011 at 14:24

alternatively, rename the .MDF file to an .ISO using the ‘rename’ feature in windows and then open the ISO file like a normal ISO file.
Raj says:

December 3, 2011 at 22:32

good job my friend, it really works.
Bob says:

February 6, 2012 at 01:16

Thank you so much. I might even consider buying IsoBuster
Bob says:

May 22, 2012 at 02:38

You can just rename the file from mdf to iso. no harm done 😛 as simle as that
Sergio Gabriel Bustos says:

July 31, 2018 at 01:53

I got a Pronunciation Dictionary MDF file. Your tutorial helped me install it, convert the file to iso and permanently mount it to play its audio archive. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Holly Hooper says:

November 20, 2021 at 10:00

I got a tutorial of mounting iso from wonderfox. On Windows 10/8.1/8, Windows has the built-in ability to mount both ISO and image files. You have three options for windows mount ISO. You can: – Double-click an ISO file to mount it, but if your ISO file is already associated with other software, try another two options. – Right-click an ISO file and select the “Mount” option. – Select the file in File Explorer and click the “Mount” button under the “Disk Image Tools” tab on the ribbon.