PowerISO is a virtual CD/DVD drive emulator and image file creation software package that is offered as a shareware program. PowerISO supports ISO, BIN, NRG, and CDI, as well as it's own proprietary format, DAA.
With just a trial version of PowerISO, a user cannot create or edit any image that is over 300Mb, but can burn any image to any compatible disc unrestricted. The trial version of the software is also able to emulate a CD or DVD drive, allowing you to mount an image and use it as though it were a CD or DVD in your CD/DVD drive. Because the virtual disc does not need to spin and is also part of the system's file system, this can often reduce read times greatly, which is important when installing some applications and when copying files from an image back to the hard drive.
Other notable features of PowerISO include: Opening, extracting, creating, and editing ISO files; converting between image formats; making a bootable image; file system optimization on the fly to save space; and is the only software package that can create DAA file s.
Free download for Poweriso
PowerISO is actually most notable and most popular for its ability to create DAA files, which is a format that they pioneered and that only they fully support. The DAA file is an image file, similar to an ISO file or a BIN file, but with many features that make the format attractive; features available in DAA that cannot be found in other formats include the ability to password protect the final image, the ability to compress the image after it has been created allowing for smaller downloads, and also the ability to split the image in to smaller files for easier transfer.
Because of it's support for most image files and for a popular proprietary format, PowerISO is a popular and powerful tool for the creation, editing and emulation of backup archives. Although it is not free, the limitations should not be too restrictive for the average user, making it an attractive package from the first download.
