Windows 7 Virtual CloneDrive, Virtual CD, UltraISO, ?????

[rlincolnh]

My CD/DVD/ISO needs are very few and far between - maybe one or two per year - so I haven't paid much attention to the associated software. Recently I've become aware that Virtual CloneDrive and Virtual CD are programs from different manufactures (in spite of the identically confusing names) that seem to do pretty much the same thing. And then someone else said '... UltraISO can do that, and it's better'. ????

Without wanting to provoke a war, can anyone who makes EXTENSIVE use of one or more of these please point out if there are any really noticeable benefits or deficiencies among them - or is it just a case of millimetre differences, as is so often the case.

Thanks, Roger

 

[Pauli]

Copying and changing is always a difficult issue, many CDs and DVDs can be dealt with directly, but many have copying locks and restrictions, and they should be respected - who wants to work without a pay?

I've used MagicISO to create images of games, in order to save my discs. Just about all I can say. The differences are millimetric, all that counts is the result. I'm not the EXTENSIVE user, just thought I give a point of view.

 

[strollin]

Virtual CloneDrive and Virtual CD are similar programs whose purpose is to mount ISO images so that they can be accessed as if they were a CD in a physical drive. The major difference I note between the 2 is that Virtual CD claims it can run 23 virtual CDs simulataneouly while Virtual CloneDrive supports only 8.

UltraISO is a different program altogether where it claims the ability to create and edit ISO images from disks. It doesn't seem to claim the ability to mount ISOs as virtual drives.

If you are running Windows 8 as your OS you can mount an ISO as a virtual CD by simply double-clicking on the ISO from Windows Explorer.

 

[rlincolnh]

Thanks guys, sorry I'm a bit late responding. I'm still undecided between the two sound-alikes. It turns out that UltraISO relies on other programs ('other tools' in their words) to set up virtual drives.

There are rich add-on tools, you can create ALL in 1 bootable compact discs, CD imagefile management, even the virtual CD/DVD drive , those functions are really powerful.

From the 'Configuration' tab help:

On "Virtual Drive" page, you can set number of devices if compatible virtual CD/DVD software (such as Daemon-Tools and Alcohol 120%) is present.

Regards, ...