What is a MDS file?
The MDS (Media Descriptor Sidecar File) is a file associated with the software Alcohol 120% and Daemon Tools, both of which are used for creating and managing virtual CD and DVD drives. The MDS file contains information about the layout of the data on the disc, including the location of all the files and the structure of the disc. This allows the virtual drive to emulate the behavior of a physical disc, so that the software can read the data on the virtual disc as if it were a real disc.
When you want to mount an image file to a virtual drive, the MDS file is used along with the corresponding image file in a format such as ISO, BIN or CUE. The MDS file contains a description of the layout of the data on the disc, and the virtual drive software uses this information to create a virtual disc. This allows you to use the software as if you were using a physical disc, without having to physically insert the disc into the drive.
Relation with Alcohol 120%
Alcohol 120% is a popular software for creating and managing virtual CD and DVD drives, and it uses the MDS file format to save and access disc images. The MDS file format is proprietary to Alcohol 120% and can only be opened and used by the Alcohol 120% software or other software that supports it.
How to open MDS file?
To open an MDS file in Alcohol 120%, you would need to have the software installed on your computer. Once you have Alcohol 120% installed, you can open the MDS file by doing the following:
- Launch Alcohol 120%.
- Click on the “File” menu and select “Open.”
- Navigate to the location of the MDS file on your computer and select it.
- The MDS file will now be opened in Alcohol 120%, and you will be prompted to select the corresponding image file ( such as ISO, BIN or CUE ).
- After you select the image file, Alcohol 120% will mount the image to a virtual drive.
Alternatively, you can also open an MDS file by double-clicking on it, if Alcohol 120% is set as the default program for opening MDS files. You can also use other software that support MDS format like Daemon Tools, Virtual CloneDrive, Virtual Drive Manager and MagicISO.
