Virtual CloneDrive 5.4.1.1 Tutorial and Review

Reviewed by: WitchDokta
Copyright 2002-2008 Elaborate Bytes AG, Cham, Switzerland

Okay, let’s face it, sometimes you download an image file, or want to make a backup disk of your favorite game or application. The most commonly used method of doing this is to make a .ISO or .IMG file, or an “image” or clone of the cdrom disk. So now you have this image file and you have to burn it to a disk before you can use it right?
WRONG! With Virtual CloneDrive, pesky annoyances such as not having a blank disk, or not wanting to waste one on a program that you might not even like are thrown out the window. Virtual CloneDrive does exactly what the name implies, it makes a virtual (simulated, or emulated) clone of your CD Drive. The program installs a special driver that makes the Windows operating system think that you have between 1 and 15 extra DVD drives available. Using Virtual CloneDrive, you are able to mount one of your .IMG or .ISO files to one of these virtual drives, and it makes the computer think that the actual disk is inserted into an actual drive! This program is extremely simple to use, even though it may sound a little intimidating by the description. And yup it works with BluRay!

Installing Virtual CloneDrive

First you need to download SetupVirtualCloneDrive5411.exe from ElaborateBytes homepage, and yes it’s free.

Doubleclick on the installer and accept the EULA.

The next screen asks you which type of install you would like to perform, just click next.

Then the install to screen pops up, click install.

The hardware installation box pops up telling you that you are about to install a driver that is not digitally signed by Microsoft, click on Continue Anyway

Click close and the install is complete.

Using Virtual CloneDrive

OK let’s say that you have used another program to copy one of your LEGALLY PURCHASED games to a .ISO file. Torrents are bad and illegal and you will go to hell if you use google to search for “bittorrent client” and search for gameyouwanttoplay torrent.ISO!

Virtual CloneDrive should have put an icon on your desktop, double click it.

Now you can click the Language tab to select your language if English isn’t your preferred one.

Under the Settings tab, you can select the number of virtual drives you want to have, leave it on 1 for now.

There are 3 checkboxes underneath, Virtual Sheep, Automount last image, and Buffered I/O.

I recommend that you check the Virtual Sheep box, which will show a sheep head on the virtual drives in My Computer, it really helps to separate which drives are physical and which ones are virtual. The next box, Automount last Image, will have Virtual CloneDrive load the last image you mounted when Windows starts up.

The last box, Buffered I/O, you can leave that alone unless you have an old crappy computer with a Pentium 3 and 64mb of RAM, chances are your PC is fast enough not to need the buffer, but if you notice performance issues with loading and stuff, you can go back and check it too.

Lets say that you have saved your torrented err legally copied in accordance with the End User License Agreement ;) game as mygame .ISO, and you put it in the My Documents folder. Well guess what, open up My Documents and find mygame.ISO.

Right click on mygame.ISO, it should have a picture of a sheep head on it, see the resemblance?
Anyway, right click on it and select Open With, then click “Mount Files With Virtual CloneDrive”.
OK, by now, the Autorun should have already popped up, if not, go to My Computer and you should see that the “disk” is in the “drive”.

It will function exactly like a regular CD/DVD/BluRay disk, so I shouldn’t have to explain any further.
It’s awesome, it’s free, it’s easy to use, and it saves you money on blank disks and other stuff. Nuff said, period. 5 out of 5 shrunken heads.

Power to the People, and CyberArmy – Witch.Dokta

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