What is Mounting? Use for decrypting?

[terrypin]

While googling this morning I keep encountering the phrase 'mount image file' and similar. Could someone spell out in relatively simple terms just what that means please? And how would I do it? The background to my question is that I'm researching methods to 'decrypt' a few score of WMA files that I downloaded from Tesco UK, originally to burn a CD for my wife. I'd like to listen to the tracks on my PC, but they won't play in my prefered MediaMonkey player. They do play in WMP9, Creative Player etc, but I use MM for its library facilities and I'd prefer to play the music there. The WMAs are apparently 'encrypted' or 'licensed' - i.e. they have this DRM stuff preventing my using them as freely as I believe I should be able to. The method I'm using this morning so far is playing each WMA in WMP9 while recording in Goldwave, and then saving with a new name, which is proving very tedious. I found the following alternative guidance: 1. Copy the CDs to the disk file image .NRG with Nero. 2. Mount image file as virtual CD drive. 3. Setup from that. I have Nero Express (part of OEM package that came with my DVD writer a few months ago) and I've just done step 1, ending up with a .nrg file about 1GB in size. But how do I 'Mount' it? And what does 'Setup from that' actually mean? Any no-brainer help would be much appreciated please. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

[SirQUK]

Hi Terry A good question! Mounting is when you take an image file such as an ISO or a nero image file and turn it into a virtual CD drive by using a software such as Daemons tools or Clone CDs virtual drive ( there are lots of software to enable this ). So if you had an image file of a DVD you have stored on your HD, you could mount it as a virtual drive and watch the film without ever extracting the Video files form the ISO image. The same goes for PC games. You can make an image ( of a game u own!!), and mount it to play off the PC rather than getting the cd out everytime. It it a great time saver once set up as most PCS are faster than the optical drives they have included with them so running off your Harddruive isa good idea. But!! it can interfere with running software such as Burning software. Please disable your virtual drive while burning if you experience issues.

[terrypin]

Thanks very much for the fast response. Think I understand. I will try running Daemon Tools, which I've just downloaded, and see how I get on. Meanwhile I just tried opening the NRG file in Nero, but I don't understand what is supposed to happen? The Nero Express wizard came up with its Image File box showing: D:\Docs\Sounds\CONVERSION etc\NeroImage\SchumannSymph2Image.nrg And the Destination Drive box shows Image Recorder [DVD] If I click Next, I go to a Save As dialog, which seems pointless, as it already is an NRG, and I've not been given any editing opportinites. I assume from your description that Nero should play the various tracks I saved into the NRG? But it's probably significant that when I try to open "C:\Program Files\ahead\ImageDrive\ImageDrive.exe" I get a message saying my licence doesn't allow that. (Puzzling why this Nero OEM package that came with my DVD writer a few months ago should install a program but apparently not allow me to use it!) -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

[SirQUK]

nero image drive is the nero software to use for mounting images. And yes strange it installs but wont let u use. I think nero just installs a ful package and your serial is what decides which soft u can use from the package. Do you not get an option to burn this nrg image to your dvdwriter? Thats what should happen when opening it in Nero express. I would suggest dloading and installing daemon tools and mounting the nrg file in that. Once daemon is installed you should be able to right click the nrg file in windows and mount it. You will then notice a new cd device in My Computer which will contain the contents of this nrg file.

[terrypin]

Thanks SirQUK, appreciate the quick reply. I'm delighted to report that I succeeded with the Daemon approach. And I've been back into Nero Express and I can confirm you're right: I could burn that NRG onto DVD/CD. But of course the 'virtual drive' method with Daemon is much neater. Presumably, if I did have the right to use Nero ImageDrive, that would allow me to dispense with Daemon? Finally, after accomplishing my task, I exited Daemon to free up resources and scarce tray space. I sort of expected to see its virtual drive G: vanish, and my H, I and K (CF card, SD card, Digicam) shuffle back to become G, H and I again. But I see that G: remains in place. Is that normal? Can I assume it will be there after a reboot too? No side effects to watch out for? For example, won't affect my DVD and CD drives (T and V)? Thanks a lot for your help. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

[SirQUK]

Glad you got it working and i would stick with daemon if its working well for you . Nero image would do similar but might support less image formats. Daemon installs a virtual scsi driver into your system so only way to shut it down would be to tell daemon to unistall virtual drives. I have had no issues with doing as you do after using it. For everything Daemon related advice check out here The link i sent shows you how to setup daemon to autolaunch etc but the site contains many top tips and known issues

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