CNET Editors' review
Once upon a time, CD-ROMs and other optical discs provided the much-needed storage space that hard drives lacked, but with terabyte drives, shuffling disks in and out of your tray is just a nuisance. SlySoft's Virtual CloneDrive is a free tool that creates up to 15 virtual CD and DVD drives in Windows. You can copy your CDs and DVDs to your hard drive as ISO disc images and run them normally with Virtual CloneDrive. Instead of swapping disks in and out, you can simply mount and unmount disk images with a few clicks. Virtual CloneDrive works with any kind of optical disc file, including HD video formats like Blu-Ray as well as audio CDs and data discs.
Installing and setting up Virtual CloneDrive includes choosing which file types to associate with the program, if any, on a compact Settings dialog tab that includes language choices. According to the program's manual, some users may see warning messages about unsigned drivers and logos, but these can be ignored. Setting up our first drive was so easy, we weren't sure the job was done, but when we looked in Explorer, our new virtual BD-ROM drive was present and available. We could reopen the Settings dialog from the program's System Tray icon, which also accessed the Help manual and Mount/Unmount controls for each drive. Virtual CloneDrive's options are limited, but each is useful; for instance, you can set it to automount the last image mounted, buffer the input and output, and enable the Eject command to unmount image files, just like ejecting a disc.
We created an ISO image of several discs. Next we clicked Virtual CloneDrive's system tray icon and selected our virtual drive's letter. From the drive's submenu, we clicked Mount, browsed to an ISO image, and selected it. When we returned to Explorer, our new virtual drive displayed its contents. Copied CDs and DVDs played normally in our usual player. Unmounting images is just as easy. We could also clear each drive's History or just purge images that were no longer available in the History. Virtual CloneDrive is well worth trying.
Virtual CloneDrive - Emulate a physical CD/DVD drive virtually - Download Video Previews:Publisher's Description
From SlySoft:
Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted onto a virtual drive from your hard-disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive.
What's new in this version:
- New: Support for image playback with WinDVD
- New: Uses storport driver for Windows 7 and later
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All versions:
3.8 starsout of 51 votes
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Current version:
2.3 starsout of 3 votes
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My rating:
Write review
Results 1-3 of 3
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"Adware/Hijacker/toolbar installer is integrated"
Version: Virtual CloneDrive 5.4.7
Pros
None.............
Cons
I didn't install so I can't speak to what crapware the actual program is loaded with. but Download.com's installer app has a browser hijacker and toolbar installer. It doesn't give you a way to not install them, it eludes to an option to not agree with the terms but there is no way to check a box to indicate that you agree with the crapware. It just installs. It's one thing for the publisher to have there crapware, but for Download.com to force their own in there is despicable.
Summary
Avoid it like the plague, in fact, get off of this website right now. Cnet's level of sellout has reached a new low. Not only are their hardware "reviews" bought and paid for, but now they are in the business of forcing adware onto your computer.
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"Works exactly as advertised."
Version: Virtual CloneDrive 5.4.7
Pros
Instead of having to burn a CD, I just attached the image as a drive. Saved me from using a disk. There was no adware attached to this software.
Cons
There are none.
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"Home page hijacker inside. Do Not download it!!!"
Version: Virtual CloneDrive 5.4.7
Pros
Nothing. Too scared to try
Cons
Conduit webpage hijacker. Avoid
Results 1-3 of 3
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