TotalMounter from KernSafe is a CD/DVD drive emulator. This means it creates a virtual CD/DVD drive on your computer. This virtual drive can be used to read, and burn virtual discs(image files). So it behaves exactly as if you were using a real disc drive to read, and burn a CD/DVD, except of course it runs much faster.

There are many free software products that can act as a virtual drive, and read image files. However to my knowledge, TotalMounter is the only free program that can act as a virtual burner to burn a virtual disc.

A virtual burner is a software program that burns data directly to an image file, instead of a physical optical disc. Such a program can be very useful in cases where:

• You want to just create an image file and burn it later to an optical disc.
• You want to create your own custom CD/DVD, and want to test it out before actually burning it to an optical disc. That custom disc can be a music CD, or a video DVD, or any other disc. This prevents wastage of physical optical discs.
• Your notebook, or laptop does not have an optical drive. You can then burn an image with the virtual burner, and later burn that image to an optical disc, on another computer having an optical drive.

These are just a few of the possibilities.

TotalMounter has been around for a long time actually, but unfortunately, earlier versions had bugs and didn’t work as intended. But KernSafe team didn’t give up on this software, and continued their development, and in early September 2011, released TotalMounter version 1.50, which now works as advertised, making it the only free virtual burner program. This is amazing news for freeware lovers. I am quite excited with this development, and I am sure you will be as excited too.

TotalMounter is also quite easy to use. It comes with a user manual, which explains how to use the software. With step-by-step explanations and screenshots, it becomes quite an easy task to use this program. A downloadable user manual in PDF format is also available from the KernSafe site. The link for it is provided towards the end of this article.

When you install TotalMounter it creates a virtual drive on the system, using which you can read image files, or write to image files.

To use TotalMounter to read image files, mount a virtual CD/DVD ROM from the Mount menu. Select the image file on your computer that you want to use, and that’s it. You can now access the contents of the image file from the TotalMounter virtual drive. A wide range of image files are supported including .iso, .cdi, .bin, .mds, .mdf, .img, .raw, .ccd, .nrg, and virtual hard disk image files, such as .vhd and .img.

To use TotalMounter as a virtual burner, mount a virtual CD/DVD RW from the Mount menu. Select whether you want to burn a CD image or a DVD image, where the file will be stored and give it a name. Now, the virtual drive is ready as a CD/DVD RW drive. You can then select this drive as the destination drive from your usual burning software and write to it. The data will be saved in an ISO image file.

In addition to above, this virtual CD/DVD RW drive, can be selected from other programs with burning ability, like Windows Media Player, or similar programs.

In case you encounter any problems, please post them on TotalMounter forum:

http://www.kernsafe.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=983f6737e4305099fb7cead1e846ae1c

Or, you can also post on the ongoing discussion about TotalMounter on our forum, here:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/freeware-installation-and-usage/1028-total-mounter.html

A KernSafe team member has joined our forum, and will respond to user’s posts. The KernSafe team is open to all kinds of suggestions, and feedback, which will help in further development of the program.

 

Update on 12th Jan, 2015:

Current version of TotalMounter is 2.01 and the download size is 3.92 MB. It will work on 32-bit/64-bit versions of Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/Windows 7/Server 2008.

I have checked the TotalMounter setup with VirusTotal, and its absolutely clean.

Note: Seems like Total Mounter free might not be compatible with Windows 8/8.1. I have come across two users who tried Total Mounter on Windows 8, but they were unable to run it. So, if you want to try it on your Windows 8/8.1 computer, please use it at your own risk.

Product page: http://www.kernsafe.com/product/totalmounter.aspx

Download Page: http://www.kernsafe.com/download/totalmounter.aspx

Note: Although the download button shows "Download Trial", but it is the free version that will be downloaded. The page and download for Total Mounter Pro is different from above.

When you click on the download button for Total Mounter free from above mentioned link, it will open a Login page, and it may seem like it requires login or an account, but it is not the case. Please wait for a few seconds, and the setup will present itself for download.

User Manual in PDF format: http://www.kernsafe.com/white-papers/totalmounter-data-sheet.aspx

Video tutorial on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn0WLszGg4