Optically challenged computers rejoice!

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Optically challenged computers rejoice!

by Joey Celis Jul 1st 2008

Virtual drive software isn't new, but with the recent surge of ultra portable notebooks that do not have built in optical drives this is a good time to go over one of the free emulation software out there, Slysoft's Virtual CloneDrive.

For those that may not know, a virtual drive emulates a physical drive, in this case an optical drive. This way you can mount a disc image and use it as if a physical disc was inserted into an actual drive.

CloneDrive gives you the ability to mount up to 8 virtual drives at once. Simply right click the virtual drive under My Computer and select the image you would like to mount or just double click the image file itself.

One nice feature of CloneDrive is that it also shows a history of what's been mounted before making it easy to swap out images without the need to browse your computer.

Keep in mind that you will need to convert your CD/DVD to an image format before using CloneDrive. But once you have, loading programs are only a mouse click away.

Tags: emulation, virtual

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Ben Carlson said 10:42AM on 7-01-2008

Virtual drives are so useful. I've used MagicDisc and it hasn't let me down. It lets you create the image disc as well, which is nice. And also free. I'll have to check out Virtual CloneDrive though, looks good too.

Jared C. said 11:24AM on 7-01-2008

What? No Vista support?
I was gonna ask about Vista x64 support, but SlySoft doesnt even mention Vista at all in the system reqs. And it's not just an omission because they list Vista specifically on their other products. What's the deal there?

ozzzy said 3:17PM on 7-01-2008

I've had no problems using this with Vista Business 32-bit.

Zack said 11:40AM on 7-01-2008

I use Daemon Tools : http://www.filehippo.com/download_daemon_tools/

lightweight and easy to use, have to remember to unclick some of the ad and toolbar things during installation, but otherwise clean. using on my 448 MHz pentium III computer as well as my dual core vista machine

James said 10:09AM on 7-02-2008

One of the nice things about Daemon Tools is that it supports (at least in theory) disc images that have common copy-protection schemes, so you can (for instance) install and play games you buy on CD on an optically-challenged laptop lugging around an external burner or resorting to a cracked EXE.

harmx said 1:45PM on 7-01-2008

I sometimes use Microsoft's (unsupported) Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/tyxx

nb: To mount the .iso file by using Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel you need follow these steps:

a. Run the VCdControlTool.exe program.
b. In Virtual CDRom Control Panel, click Driver Control.
c. In Virtual CR-Rom Driver Control, click Install Driver.
d. Locate the %systemroot%\System32\Driver folder, click VCdRom.sys, and then click Open.
e. In Virtual CR-Rom Driver Control, click Start, and then click OK.
f. In Virtual CDRom Control Panel, click Add Drive, and then click Mount.
g. Select the .ISO image that you want to mount, and then click Open.
h. In Select Mount Options, click Ok.

A little long winded but the control panel is nice and light on sys' resources, and I only need to use it now and then.

alcohol said 3:02PM on 7-02-2008

I'd suggest alcohol 52%.

1) it's free, just like what's mentioned here.
2) it's the cleanest and easiest to use. right click on an image, select mount -> mount image.
3) it's small and not a resource hog.

For some reason virtual clonedrive just bugs me.

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