Mount ISO, BIN, CCD Image Files With Virtual CloneDrive

Terrific free application that emulates a physical CD/DVD drive.

Virtual CloneDrive is a small freeware application that allows you to mount image files, from a hard drive, as a virtual CD or DVD drive, just as if you had inserted the application into a physical CD/DVD drive.

To explain briefly: a disk image is a computer file containing the complete contents and structure of a data storage medium or device, such as a hard drive, CD or DVD. As such, a disk image contains all the information necessary to replicate the structure and contents layout, as well as the actual contents, of a storage device.

Generally, operating systems, particularly Linux and its many derivatives are available for download on the Internet packaged as an image file, e.g. an .ISO file, or as a .BIN/.CUE file. As well, larger applications can often be packaged for download in this way.

Since I download and test operating systems and large applications frequently, over the course of the last year I could have easily burned up to 50+ CD’s or DVD’s just to use or install the software for testing. But by having Virtual CloneDrive installed on my test system, I saved time and resources.

Once Virtual CloneDrive is installed on your system it will be assigned a drive letter, and will appear as a drive in Windows explorer.

To mount an image file navigate to the file and right-click. When the menu pops up simply navigate to Open with > Mount Files with Virtual CloneDrive. This will create a new drive letter so that you can access the file.

An added benefit for those with a larger hard drive is you now have the option of converting your CDs and DVDs into files that run directly from your hard drive. Simply click on a desktop icon to launch a virtual optical drive.

You can share virtual CDs, photo CDs, and disc-based applications over a network, with access rates up to 200 times faster than physical CDs; boosting the performance of photo CDs, and disc-based applications.

Quick facts:

Supports all common image formats including ISO, BIN, CCD

Supports up to 8 virtual drives at one time

Easy to use – just double-click an image file to mount as a drive

Virtual CloneDrive is freeware

System Requirements: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP

Download at: Download.com

CD Recovery Toolbox – Recover Damaged CD/DVD Data

CD Recovery Toolbox, a free CD/DVD file recovery solution that can help you recover damaged data that you may have considered unrecoverable.

So how many coasters do you have that started life as critical backup CD/DVD’s, or the CD/DVD’s that you entrusted to store a lifetime of photo memories? Well if you’re like most of us, you may have more than one.

As a long term file storage medium, CD/DVD’s are, in effect, all-purpose, durable and, generally inexpensive. The difficulty in relying on this storage medium however is; they aren’t always as reliable as we sometimes seem to think.

Recently, I experienced CD failure when testing a system using a special boot CD called, “The Ultimate Boot CD”, which ironically failed to boot despite the decisiveness of its name.

There I was stuck with an unreadable CD; but being the “geeky” kind of guy that I am, and having been through similar situations in the past, I’ve learned to double up on all my diagnostic tools. Later, I confirmed that the unreadable CD had not been burned correctly – the deadly “bad burn”.

So you’re not alone in turning what you may consider to be, unusable/unreadable CD/DVD’s into expensive coasters. But there is a solution that can help you to recover damaged data that you may have considered unrecoverable. Stepping into the picture is CD Recovery Toolbox, a free CD/DVD file recovery tool.

This small, free application was designed to recover damaged files on CD, DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-Ray disks. It can recover files that have been lost as a result of physical damage to the disk, (scratches, chips, and so on), or as a result of a bad or inaccurate recording.

The program scans damaged CD and DVD disks and produces a listing of files and folders on the media, which it can recover. Be aware however, that depending on the degree of damage, there may be files that the application cannot recover.

In testing this product’s file recovery ability on a severely scratched and chipped disk, I’m happy to say that it recovered 934 files out of a total of 936, that Windows could not read, and it did this in less than 2 minutes

Data recovery is generally a complex process, but even beginners will have an easy time with this application based on it’s step-by step wizard, which makes the use of the tool very simple and convenient.

Quick facts:

Recovers files/folders from CD and DVD’s

Recovers files larger than 4 GB

Detects lack of free space on the designated storage hard drive

System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/2K/XP/2K3/Vista

Download at: Download.com

Free CDBurnerXP – Burn Baby, Burn!

If you’re looking for value (and what can be better than free), CDBurnerXP is definitely a significant freeware application.

The fairly simple interface makes it a breeze for even the most inexperienced user, although it should be said that some users have mentioned that the interface has some confusing aspects.

A disadvantage for some potential users may be the necessity to download and install .Net Framework 2.0, which is a 22.4 MB Microsoft application (280 MB on install), that will take at least an hour to download over a dial-up Internet connection. Contrasting with that is the approximately ten minutes, or so, download time on even a slower cable Internet connection.

I have burned, at least, several hundred CDs in the last year using this free application, and in every case CDBurnerXP did the job flawlessly.

If you’re looking for a free burner application to do what it says it will do, with an easy to work with interface, then CDBurnerXP could be the program you’ve been looking for.

Quick facts:

Burn audio-CDs with, and without gaps between tracks

Burn on the fly (you don’t have to image the disc in advance)

Rip Audio-CDs to a Hard Drive

Obtains track-information (ID3-tags) from the Internet

Burn and create ISO-files

Create bootable discs

Drag-and-drop

Multilanguage interface

Customizable with many settings

Data verification after burn,

Simple cover printing

Supports most IDE, USB, FireWire and SCSI drives

Free – (for both personal and corporate use)

No adware, malicious components, or restrictions

System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Additional Requirements: .NET Framework 2.0

Download at: Download.com

Recover Damaged CD/DVD Data – Free CD Recovery Toolbox

So how many coasters do you have that started life as critical backup CD/DVD’s, or the CD/DVD’s that you entrusted to store a lifetime of photo memories? Well if you’re like most of us, you may have more than one.

As a long term file storage medium, CD/DVD’s are, in effect, all-purpose, durable and, generally inexpensive. The difficulty in relying on this storage medium however is; they aren’t always as reliable as we sometimes seem to think.

Recently, I experienced CD failure when testing a system using a special boot CD called, “The Ultimate Boot CD”, which ironically failed to boot despite the decisiveness of its name.

There I was stuck with an unreadable CD; but being the “geeky” kind of guy that I am, and having been through similar situations in the past, I’ve learned to double up on all my diagnostic tools. Later, I confirmed that the unreadable CD had not been burned correctly – the deadly “bad burn”.

So you’re not alone in turning what you may consider to be, unusable/unreadable CD/DVD’s into expensive coasters. But there is a solution that can help you to recover damaged data that you may have considered unrecoverable. Stepping into the picture is CD Recovery Toolbox, a free CD/DVD file recovery tool.

(Click pic for larger)

This small, free application was designed to recover damaged files on CD, DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-Ray disks. It can recover files that have been lost as a result of physical damage to the disk, (scratches, chips, and so on), or as a result of a bad or inaccurate recording.

The program scans damaged CD and DVD disks and produces a listing of files and folders on the media, which it can recover. Be aware however, that depending on the degree of damage, there may be files that the application cannot recover.

In testing this product’s file recovery ability on a severely scratched and chipped disk, I’m happy to say that it recovered 934 files out of a total of 936, that Windows could not read, and it did this in less than 2 minutes

Data recovery is generally a complex process, but even beginners will have an easy time with this application based on it’s step-by step wizard, which makes the use of the tool very simple and convenient.

I have read a number of unrealistic complaints from some users, who have noted this application is “slow” at recovery. Instead of being thankful that a free application such as this can in fact recover what would normally be unrecoverable, and perhaps irreplaceable data, they whine and complain. Here’s some advice for those users – give your head a shake, and learn to be thankful!

Quick facts:

Recovers files/folders from CD and DVD’s

Recovers files larger than 4 GB

Detects lack of free space on the designated storage hard drive

System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/2K/XP/2K3/Vista

Download at: Download.com

Beat Malware Codecs with Essential Codec Pack Free – Play 99% of Music and Video

What can be more frustrating than gearing up to play a movie or an audio file, only to find out you don’t have the right codec? Or, you’ve landed on a site that insists you have to install a new codec in order to view content.

So now what are you going to do? Well, in the first instance if you’re playing a movie/video that’s on your Hard Drive, you need to download Windows Essentials Codec Pack, a must have collection of Video Codecs, Audio Codecs and tools, that are needed to Encode / Decode (i.e., play), audio and video files.

With Windows Essentials Codec Pack you should be able to play 99% of all the movies and music files that you download from the internet, and better yet, stay up to date with the latest Codecs through W.E.C.P’s Audio / Video Codec Update Service.

W.E.C.P is extremely easy to use: a couple of mouse clicks and you’re finished. According to the developer, W.E.C.P. is designed as a nearly complete solution for all video and audio needs. With W.E.C.P installed you can play Audio CDs, DVDs, (S) DVDs, and more. I must admit, that in my case, the mystery of the missing Codecs that I was faced with recently has been solved, since I installed this neat Codec pack.

Later in this article you will find a comprehensive list of the Codecs included in this download.

In the second instance, where viewing a site’s content is dependant on downloading a new codec – DON”T. A favorite method used by cyber-criminals to drop malware on unsuspecting users’ computers, is the requirement that you must download a “missing” codec.

Consider this: Currently there is an epidemic of so called “rogue software” on the Internet, with much of it being delivered by the Zlob Trojan which in many cases is hidden in these fake and malicious codec downloads.

Common sense should tell you that if a website does not recognize a standard codec, there is something wrong. Ask yourself this question; how long would a website stay in business when a visitor is required to download a specific codec to view content? The answer is clearly – not very long.

Don’t be the type of person who clicks indiscriminately at every opportunity to do so. If you do, I guarantee you - your computer will be infected within minutes.

Included in the Windows Essentials Codec Pack are the following Codecs / DirectShow / VfW Filters /

• APE Source Filter: DirectShow audio decoder filter used to decode Monkey’s Audio files (APE files)

• AC3 Filter: DirectShow audio decoder and processor filter used to decode audio tracks in movies (DVD, MPEG4 and others)

• AVI Splitter: Replacement for DirectShow’s default Audio Video Interleave (AVI) Splitter (It can open many broken files and can re-index when needed)

• CDDA Reader Filter: DirectShow audio decoder capable of reading Audio CDs

• CDXA Reader Filter: DirectShow video decoder capable of reading (S)VCDs and XCDs

• CoreAAC Filter: Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) DirectShow audio decoder capable of reading AAC files

• CoreFlac Decoder: DirectShow audio decoder for the Flac audio codec

• FFDShow: DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, H.264, FLV1, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and various other audio and video formats. It uses libavcodec from ffmpeg project for video decompression, post processing code from MPlayer to enhance visual quality of low bit rate movies, and is based on original DirectShow filter from XviD, which is GPL’s educational implementation of MPEG4 encoder

• FLV Splitter: Capable of splitting Flash Video files (FLV) and decoding On2 VP62 Video streams (notable users of the FLV format include YouTube, Google Video, Reuters.com, Yahoo! Video and MySpace.)

• OGG Splitter: DirectShow OGG Splitter capable of splitting OGG and OGM file(s) and enables to play / create .ogm wrapped video

• GPL MPEG-1/2 Decoder: DirectShow MPEG decoder filter can be used to play MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 streams

• MOD Source Filter: DirectShow filter decoder capable of decoding Tracker files (MO3, IT, XM, S3M, MTM, MOD and UMX)

• MPEG Splitter: DirectShow splitter capable of splitting MPEG1/MPEG2 files (MP(E)G, VOB, DAT, TS, TP, etc.)

• MPV Decoder: DirectShow decoder capable of decoding MPEG1/MPEG2 Video streams, and DVDs

• MPA Splitter: DirectShow Splitter capable of splitting MPEG Audio files (MP3) and MPEG4 Audio files (AAC)

• MPC Source Filter: DirectShow decoder filter capable of decoding MusePack Audio files (MPC)

• MP4 Splitter: DirectShow Splitter capable of splitting MP4, M4A, 3GP and HD-MOV files

• Matroska Splitter: DirectShow splitter capable of splitting Matroska files (MKV and MKA)

• Media Player Classic: an open source media player that looks just like Windows Media Player, but has many additional features. It has a built in DVD player with real-time zoom, support for AVI subtitles, QuickTime and RealVideo support

• OFR Source Filter: DirectShow filter decoder capable of decoding OptimFROG Audio files (OFR)

• RealMedia Splitter: DirectShow splitter that allows you to play RealNetworks audio/video files

• SHOUTcast Source Filter: DirectShow decoder filter capable of handling internet radio stations streams

• WV Splitter / Decoder: DirectShow WV Splitter and decoder capable of splitting and decoding WavPack Audio files (WV)

• VobSub Filter: DirectShow Vob Subtitles filter capable of displaying (embedded) Subtitle files (SRT, SUB, IDX, etc)

Operating System: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista

Download at: Download.com

The Best Free CD/DVD Tool – CDBurnerXP

A few weeks ago I helped a friend decide on, and purchase, a new computer – an AM2/X2 Dual Core 2.5 GHz box with 4 Gig of Memory, a 160 GIG 7200RPM SATA and of course a DVD Drive – all this for $299.00.

At this price, the operating system was not included; but still, not a bad deal! The O/S from his old machine would be installed on this new machine; so no problem.

Where he did have a problem though, was he lacked a CD/DVD burning suite. Into this gap stepped CDBurnerXP, a free burner application which will write CDs and DVDs and, for those on the leading edge, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs.

If your looking for value (and what can be better than free), CDBurnerXP is definitely a significant freeware application. The fairly simple interface makes it a breeze for even the most inexperienced user, although it should be said that some users have mentioned that the interface has some confusing aspects.

A disadvantage for some potential users may be the necessity to download and install .Net Framework 2.0, which is a 22.4 MB Microsoft application (280 MB on install), that will take at least an hour to download over a dial-up Internet connection.

Since my friend is in the music business (he’s a well known local musician), and sells his CDs at his gigs, this application got a real workout during the first few weeks after I installed it on his system. The several hundred CDs he copied and burned (of his own music), were all flawlessly reproduced by CDBurnerXP.

If you’re looking for a free burner application to do what it says it will do with an easy to work with interface then CDBurnerXP could be the program you’ve been looking for.

Quick facts:

Burn audio-CDs with, and without gaps between tracks

Burn on the fly (you don’t have to image the disc in advance)

Rip Audio-CDs to a Hard Drive

Obtains track-information (ID3-tags) from the Internet

Burn and create ISO-files

Create bootable discs

Drag-and-drop

Multilanguage interface

Customizable with many settings

Data verification after burn,

Simple cover printing

Supports most IDE, USB, FireWire and SCSI drives

Free – (for both personal and corporate use)

No adware, malicious components, or restrictions

System Requirements: 2000/XP/Vista

Additional Requirements: .NET Framework 2.0

Download at: Download.com