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Backing up your favorite CDs and DVDs has become a pretty common practice these days, since these media are not scratch-proof (no matter what it says on their label). One of the oldest and already famous tools is MagicISO – this program has been on the CD/DVD tools scene since 2000 and it has reached the 5.4 version and it has full support for Windows Vista as well.

The look of the program hasn’t changed much, but the main idea here is that it is integrated with the Windows Vista shell GUI – and so it will be just as good as any software that makes use of the simple and usual Windows default interface. From the beginning, MagicISO has offered superior quality in creating virtual CD images. First it offered the possibility to create CD images and later on, DVD images as well.

The utility can extract, edit, create and burn ISO files. For newbies, an ISO file is a virtual copy of the CD/DVD you just created a copy of. Although the program offers the standard ISO as a format under which the images can be recorded, you can also try the BIN, NRG (Nero Image File), and the UIF (universal image format).

One of the advantages of the UIF type is that you can also add a password in MagicISO to the image file you create so that it will be accessible only to you. Another pretty neat feature is that the application can create a DVD ISO file of up to 10GB in size – and so you can come up with images ready to be written on DVD-Dual layer discs. You can also export boot images from bootable CD/DVD images like back-ups of original operating systems discs – MagicISO lets you know if you handling a bootable or non-bootable image file.

Applicability: You can create a virtual drive and load onto it an image of a CD/DVD of an original game and play it without the need to insert the disc into the optical drive every single time you want to start playing. You can create back-ups of the CD/DVDs you already have by creating images and then burning them onto CD/DVD blank discs.

Pro(S): It has a very intuitive interface, it offers even compression of the image files created and it does offer compatibility to a wide range of image formats. The 5.4 build has reached quite a mature level and does stand out of its class of CD/DVD tools with a wide range of options and the possibilities it offers.

Con(s): The price could be adjusted a little bit more, but other than that, I cannot see any problem that would hinder the user while making virtual CD/DVD images.

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Price: $29

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