Gizmo Drive (via Lee at Download Squad) is yet another tool to mount CD and DVD images in Windows. It can mount ISO, BIN, CUE, MDS, MDF, NRG and VHD images which are essentially the most popular image formats. Images can be mounted using the shell in Windows Explorer, the command line or the graphical user interface.

Gizmo Drive can mount as many CD, ISO or Virtual Hard Drive images as there are free drive letters available. Each image can be remounted during Windows Startup or write protected so that the data does not get changed.

It is also possible to create new ISO images with some interesting features besides being able to mount existing images. Gizmo Drive can create virtual hard drive images, ISO images from disc and virtual hard drives that reside in RAM and act as a RAM drive. The virtual hard drives can be compressed and encrypted for additional security.

The drive mounting software has a surprisingly low resource usage when minimized in the Windows System Tray with less than four Megabytes of computer memory total. Make sure you only check the GDrive option during setup unless you want to install other programs as well.

The benefits of creating ISO images and mounting them in Windows might outweigh the negative aspects. The main benefit is file management. Instead of having many folders and files scattered around the hard drive there is only one ISO file containing all the files. It’s not a difference speed wise either because the files are still located on the computer’s hard drive. The only negative aspect of this procedure is the fact that no new files can be added to the ISO image. The user would have to copy all files back to the computer, add the new ones and create a new ISO image.

The Free ISO Creator makes use of an easy to use interface that basically concentrates on adding files and folders using a file browser. It is possible to set a size limit for the ISO image. The three default sizes 700 MB, 4.5 GB and 8.0 GB are available as well as an option to create a custom sized ISO image which can be easily mounted as well.

A few additional options like creating a bootable image or selecting a different file system for the ISO are available. Conversion of the files usually does not take longer than a few seconds depending on the size they occupy on the hard drive and some additional parameters like the hard drive’s speed.

The ISO images can be mounted or burned to CD or DVD afterwards.