How to Convert MDF to ISO – 5 Ways

MDF (Media Descriptor File) and ISO image are archive formats that contain an image or copy of data. ISO, MDF files can be burned to CD/DVDs or saved to a computer as a disk image file in one of the appropriate formats.

An MDF file is similar to an ISO file, but there are some differences. The header information and other metadata are stored in a separate MDS file. Actually, only the data of this disk is stored in the MDF file. Therefore, often a disk image has two files: MDS and MDF, with extensions “*.mdf” and “*.mds”.

In most cases, you will need a “.mdf” file to convert an MDF disk image to ISO.

Among other things, an ISO image can be easily opened in a virtual drive using Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8 operating systems. The ISO file will be mounted and opened as if it were running in a physical drive on a computer.

To turn an MDF file into an ISO file, you can use specialized imaging programs or converters. With some of these applications, you can also burn data to CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs, create ISO files from scratch, convert ISO files to other file formats, and more.

How to convert MDF to ISO in MDF to ISO

MDF to ISO Converter is a free MDF to ISO program whose main purpose is to convert files between these formats. There are no other features in this dedicated app.

Download the application from the official website of the developer, and then install the MDF to ISO program on your computer.

Do the following:

1. Launch the MDF to ISO program on your PC.
2. In the “MDF Image File (*.mdf)” field, click the “Select” button to select the source file in MDF format.
3. In the “ISO Image File (*.iso)” field, use the “Select” button to specify a location to save the ISO file on your computer. By default, the image is saved in the current directory.
4. Click on the “Convert” button to start the process of converting between file formats.

How to make ISO from MDF in Alcohol 120%

The MDF format was originally developed for the Alcohol 120% program. With this application, you can add virtual drives to your system, create disc images, burn CD/DVD/Blu-ray images, copy data from disc to disc, convert disc image formats.

In addition to the paid version of the program, there are free versions of the application: Alcohol 52% and a special version of Alcohol 120% for non-commercial use.

Now we will look at how to make ISO from MDF and MDS. In order to convert MDF, MDS to ISO in the Alcohol 120% program, you must have files with both extensions available.

Go through a few steps:

1. Right-click on the file, in the context menu, click on the “Mount Image” item.
2. In the Alcohol 120% program window, in the “Basic Operations” column, click on “Image Creation”.
3. In the Imaging Wizard window, in the DVD/CD drive field, select the virtual drive in which the disk image is mounted.
4. Enter the “Reading Options” tab to set the desired options:

• In the Image Location field, specify a location to save the file.
• In the “File format” field, select “ISO image (*.iso)”.

5. Click on the “Start” button.
6. The program is in the process of creating an image file in ISO format.

How to convert MDF to ISO using UltraISO

The UltraISO program is designed to work with disk images. In the application, you can create, edit, convert image files of a large number of formats. In UltraISO, you can burn a bootable CD / DVD-ROM or a bootable USB flash drive, the creation of virtual drives is supported.

In UltraISO, you can use two methods to convert between disc image formats from MDF to ISO.

1 way:

1. Open the file in UltraISO.
2. Enter the “File” menu, click on the “Save As …” item.
3. In the prompt window, click the “Yes” button.
4. In the “Save ISO file as” window, select the save location, in the “File name:” field, specify its name, and in the “File type:” field, select the format – “ISO file (*.iso)”.
5. Click the “Save” button to start converting.

2 way:

1. After adding the MDF image to the UltraISO program, go to the “Tools” menu.
2. In the context menu, click on “Convert …”.
3. In the “Convert to Standard ISO” window, you need to select the appropriate options:

• The Converted File field displays the source file in MDF format.
• The Output Directory field shows the current location.
• Under “Output Format”, “Standard ISO (*.ISO)” is selected.

4. Click on the “Convert” button.

Convert MDF to ISO in IZArc

IZArc is a free archiving software that can also be used as an MDF to ISO converter. With it, you can create and extract archives in various formats such as 7-Zip, RAR, TAR, BGA, BZIP and so on.

To convert MDF to ISO, a disk image conversion function is provided, with which you can also convert BIN, NRG and PDI disk images to ISO format.

Read about how to convert MDF to ISO with IZArc:

1. Run the program on your computer.
2. Go to the “Tools” menu, click on the context menu item “Change disk image type …”.
3. In the Change Disk Image Type window that opens, enter the path to the MDF file in the Source File field.
4. In the “Save to Folder” field, enter the path to the destination.
5. Then select the “MDF -> ISO” option in the “Convert” field.
6. Click the “OK” button to start the process of converting between formats.

How to change MDF to ISO manually

In some situations, the user’s computer may not have the necessary programs to perform such an operation. Now you will learn what to do if there is no suitable software at hand.

By default, MDF is not registered with the system among the known file types, so the file extension, “.mdf”, is displayed after the file name.

You can change the file format extension manually in the following way:

1. Right-click on the MDF file, select “Rename” from the menu that opens.
2. Change the extension to “.iso”.
3. In the warning window, agree to this change.

When you try to open this file with the built-in Windows tool, a window may open with a message that the image is corrupted. In this case, you can mount this image using third party software.

In any case, it is recommended to use specialized applications to convert between file formats.

Article Conclusions

Some users come across MDF files. Since this format is rarely used, it is better to convert the MDF format to ISO. In this case, you can easily open a disk image in a virtual drive using a Windows system tool or using third-party software. Conversion between these formats is supported by several programs, some applications are mentioned in this article.