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drpetersonfernandes edited this page Sep 29, 2026 · 4 revisions

SimpleXisoDrive Wiki

SimpleXisoDrive is a lightweight, read-only virtual file system driver for Windows, Linux and macOS. It mounts original Xbox ISO images (.iso, .xiso, .cso), Xbox ISO CHD images (.chd) and ZArchive (.zar) files as virtual drive letters or folder mount points and exposes their contents directly in the file manager.

On Windows the application is built on the Dokan user-mode file system driver through DokanNet; on Linux and macOS it uses the FUSE 3 high-level API (libfuse3 / macFUSE). All platforms share the XISOSharp library that parses the Xbox Disc Video File System (XDVDFS). CHD files are decompressed hunk-by-hunk with the CHDSharp library, and ZArchive files are read directly with on-demand zstd decompression. The source image is never modified: every write operation is rejected at the file system layer.

Developed by PureLogic Code and released under the GPL-3.0 license.

Side menu: on the GitHub wiki, use the menu on the right (driven by docs/_Sidebar.md); on the published documentation site, use the menu on the left (driven by docs/_data/navigation.yml). Both list every page below.

Documentation map

User guide

Page What it covers
Installation Dependency setup (.NET runtime, Dokan, FUSE, macFUSE), installing, first run and upgrading
Linux and macOS FUSE prerequisites, usage, unmounting and platform notes
Getting Started Your first mount, drag-and-drop, unmounting, example workflows
Command-Line Reference Complete argument/option reference, path resolution, exit codes
Troubleshooting Every known error message with causes and fixes
FAQ Short answers to common questions

Technical reference

Page What it covers
Architecture Component overview, startup and mount lifecycle, threading, error handling
XDVDFS Format On-disk format: volume descriptor, directory entries, partition offsets
Virtual File System Path resolution, caching, mount operation behaviour, read-only enforcement
Services Logging, bug reporting, statistics, update checker, access checks
Privacy and Networking Every network request, its payload, and how to run fully offline
Glossary Definitions of terms used throughout the documentation

Development

Page What it covers
Building Building and publishing for every supported platform
Testing Test project layout, running tests, coverage
Contributing Code style, analyzers, workflow, pull request checklist
Release History Tagged releases and notable changes

Feature overview

  • Read-only by design - the ISO, CHD or ZAR is never modified, and write, delete, rename, attribute, and timestamp operations are denied.
  • Cross-platform - native builds for Windows x64/ARM64 (Dokan), Linux x64/ARM64 and macOS x64/ARM64 (FUSE 3 / macFUSE), sharing one core library.
  • Broad Xbox format support - standard Xbox ISO dumps (volume descriptor at sector 32), rebuilt XISO images (sector 0), dual-layer/hybrid dumps using the XGD1, XGD3, and GLOBAL partition offsets, and CISO-compressed images (.cso, including split .1.cso part sets).
  • Xbox ISO CHD support - .chd images mount directly with on-demand hunk decompression through the pure-C# CHDSharp decoder (CHD V1–V5, all codecs). Only CHDs whose decompressed image is a valid Xbox ISO are accepted; CD/GD-ROM CHDs are rejected.
  • ZArchive support - .zar archives mount directly: either the stored game tree or a single embedded XISO image, streamed through the pure-C# zstd block decoder.
  • Zero-config drag-and-drop - drop an image onto the executable and it automatically picks a free drive letter from M: through R:.
  • Flexible mount targets - mount to a drive letter such as Z: or into an empty NTFS folder on Windows, and to any existing directory on Linux and macOS.
  • Virtual image.iso - the --image-iso option also exposes the raw Xbox image as image.iso at the mount root, for emulators that only accept a disc image (such as xemu).
  • Memory efficient - file data is streamed from the image (and decompressed block-by-block for ZARs, hunk-by-hunk for CHDs) on demand; the entire image is never loaded into memory.
  • Corruption resistant - the directory tree walker uses cycle detection and iteration limits to survive malformed images.
  • Built-in diagnostics - rolling logs, a local error log, crash handling, and an optional bug report/telemetry pipeline.
  • Update awareness - checks GitHub releases at startup and offers to open the release page (a message box on Windows, a console prompt on Linux/macOS).
  • Multi-architecture - native builds for x64 and ARM64 on every platform.

At a glance

Property Value
Application name SimpleXisoDrive
Current version 1.4.0
Platform Windows (x64, ARM64), Linux (x64, ARM64), macOS (x64, ARM64)
Target framework .NET 10 (net10.0-windows / net10.0)
File systems XDVDFS (original Xbox disc format), ZArchive (ZARCHIVE)
Access mode Read-only
Volume label XBOX_ISO (ISO/CHD) / XBOX_ZAR (ZArchive)
File system name XDVDFS (ISO/CHD) / ZARCHIVE (ZArchive)
Prerequisites Windows: Dokan 2.x; Linux: FUSE 3; macOS: macFUSE; .NET 10 Runtime
License GPL-3.0
Repository https://github.com/purelogiccode/SimpleXisoDrive

Quick start

# Mount an ISO to the first free drive letter (M: through R:) and open Explorer
SimpleXisoDrive.exe "D:\Games\Halo.iso"

# Mount an ISO to drive Z:
SimpleXisoDrive.exe "D:\Games\Halo.iso" Z:

# Mount a ZArchive the same way
SimpleXisoDrive.exe "D:\Games\Halo.zar" Z:

# Mount a CISO image (single or split .1.cso part set)
SimpleXisoDrive.exe "D:\Games\Halo.cso" Z:

# Mount an Xbox ISO stored as CHD
SimpleXisoDrive.exe "D:\Games\Halo.chd" Z:

# Mount an ISO into an empty NTFS folder
SimpleXisoDrive.exe "D:\Games\Halo.iso" "C:\Mounts\Halo"

# Enable verbose Dokan debug output
SimpleXisoDrive.exe "D:\Games\Halo.iso" Z: --debug

# Expose the raw image as image.iso for an emulator that only opens disc images
SimpleXisoDrive.exe "D:\Games\Halo.chd" Z: --image-iso

On Linux and macOS the executable takes the same options with a directory mount point:

mkdir -p ~/mnt/halo
SimpleXisoDrive ~/Games/Halo.iso ~/mnt/halo --launch

The simplest path of all is to drag and drop an .iso, .xiso, .cso, .chd or .zar file onto SimpleXisoDrive.exe (Windows only).

Support the project

License

SimpleXisoDrive is licensed under GPL-3.0. Third-party components:

Component License
DokanNet MIT
Dokan Library LGPL/MIT
CHDSharp MIT

SimpleXisoDrive

User guide

Technical reference

Development

Project

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