10 Best Virtual CloneDrive Alternatives 2024
Summary: In this article, you will be given a full picture of 10 best alternative virtual drives except for Virtual CloneDrive. Each of them has its highlighted features worth your trial to mount or unmount ISO files.
- • Copy DVD to disc (DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL)
- • Copy DVD to ISO on Windows or Mac
- • Copy DVD to folder saved on HDD or Media Player
- • Work at top speed without quality loss
- • Capable of removing Cinavia together with Cinavia Removal
When it comes to virtual drive software, most users might have heard of Virtual CloneDrive. Actually, there are numerous alternative virtual drives that can be applied to deal with image files. If you are looking such virtual drives, then you have come to the right place.
- • What is Virtual CloneDrive/Virtual Drive?
- • How do I Mount a Virtual CloneDrive?
- • What is CyberLink Virtual Drive?
PART 1: FAQs on Virtual CloneDrive
When you search Quaro or Reddit, you might encounter below questions that arouse your curiosity concerning virtual drive software.
Virtual CloneDrive is a free Windows-based virtual drive software able to create virtual CD drive or virtual DVD drive on your computer and mount image files (ISO, BIN, CCD) created with Clone CD and Clone DVD on the virtual hard drive or virtual network drive virtually, behaving as if they were inserted from a physical CD/DVD drive.
The Virtual CloneDrive (formerly developed by SlySoft, now owned by Redfox.bz) creates up to 15 virtual CD and DVD drives in Windows (XP/VISTA/ Win7/8/10). You can copy CDs and DVDs to hard drive as ISO disc images and run them normally with this free virtual drive. Instead of swapping disks in and out, you can simply mount and unmount disk images with a few clicks. Note that this virtual disk drive also works with all kinds of optical disc files including HD video like Blu-rays, audio CDs and data discs.
As how to mount Virtual CloneDrive, go to Redfox.bz official website and download the virtual drive software. Double-click the downloaded file, authorize access on your computer and reboot your PC before use. It will automatically mount in the first available virtual drive. Once you aim to mount the ISO image in a different virtual disk drive, simply right-click your desired virtual drive, click the Virtual CloneDrive option and select ‘Mount’ from the pop-up menu. In addition, you can open ‘Settings’ dialog from the program’s System Tray icon and access Help Manual and Mount/Unmount controls for each drive. Remember that this widely accepted virtual CD/DVD drive allows you to auto-mount the last image, buffer the input and output, and enable ‘Eject’ command to unmount image files, just like ejecting a physical disc.
As we know, a virtual drive is a software component that emulates an actual disc like optical disc drive, floppy disk drive and hard disk drive. So, ‘What is CyberLink Virtual Drive?’ many users might ask on Quaro and Reddit. Let me make it clear here. CyberLink Virtual Drive refers to certain sort of virtual drive on your system or on the network that your system adopts. If you disable the connection, you cannot access the virtual drive.
PART 2: 10 Best Virtual CloneDrive Alternatives
Let’s get down to business. Aside from Virtual CloneDrive, there are numerous alternative free virtual drives that can help you mount different ISO files. Now take a quick glance over the following listed virtual drive software.
1. DVDFab Virtual Drive
Available: Windows 10/8/7, always free
DVDFab Virtual Drive is a virtual DVD/Blu-ray emulator that emulates up to 18 virtual drives and works seamlessly with various image files (BIN, CCD, IMG, ISO, MINISO, NRG, UDF) created from DVD Copy and Blu-ray Copy programs. This best free virtual drive allows users to mount and unmount disc images, customize settings to satisfy personal needs, including choosing from 22 languages and drive numbers, auto-mounting the last image and auto-unmounting all drives when the program exits from the system tray. Free virtual drive software as it is, this virtual drive Windows 10/8/7 program can be auto-updated with latest features free of charge to meet user demand. Besides, you can play the mounted ISO files right away with the best 4K media player, DVDFab Player 6.
2. PowerISO
Available: Windows (XP/VISTA/ Win7/8/10), $29.95
This ISO virtual drive enables to open, extract, burn, create, edit, compress, encrypt, split and convert CD/DVD/Blu-ray ISO image files (ISO, BIN, NRG, CDI, DAA) and mount ISO files with internal virtual drive. With this versatile virtual drive software, you can mount ISO files with the internal virtual drive, create ISO/BIN files from hard drive or CD/DVD/BD discs, burn ISO files to CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs, extract audio files (MP3, FLAC, APE, WMA, BIN) from CDs, convert image files from one format to another, even edit ISO files as needed. Besides, bootable virtual USB drive, SIO files or CD/DVD discs can be created as well. Therefore, many users tend to treat this virtual CD drive Windows 10 mounter as a one-stop ISO processing tool. Moreover, portable version virtual drive is also prevailing. However, this virtual drive software comes at a price due to its multiple features.
3. WinCDEmu
Available: Windows (XP ~ Win10)
WinCDEmu is an open-source/free CD/DVD/BD emulator that allows you to mount optical disc images via clicking on it in Windows Explorer. This virtual drive software is able to create ISO images through a context menu in Explorer, support unlimited number of virtual drives and 20+ languages, mount image files (ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG), and support data, DVD-video and BD-video image. Nevertheless, the virtual drive ISO mounting software does not directly support Windows 2000, since you can only build the sources using Windows 2000 DDK to obtain a Win2K-compatible version.
4. Daemon Tools Lite
Available: macOS, 14-day free trial, $29.99
Daemon Tools is a capable virtual disk drive program that can create image files (up to 20 image file types) from physical CD/DVD/BD discs, virtual hard disks and audio tracks, and emulate unlimited number of DT, SCSI, IDE and HDD virtual drives. Aside from being a virtual drive tool, it allows for editing, converting, compressing, splitting, protecting and burn images. For instance, the virtual drive enables to create writable virtual drive and burn files to images. Although it shall be considered popular virtual drive software, it does come at a price to give its full play in terms of advanced features.
5. ImgDrive
Available: Windows (2000 to Win10), freeware
As a light-weight and useful virtual drive mounting tool, Yubsoft’s ImgDrive can mount multiple image files (ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS, MDF, CCD, ISZ), mount files (APE, FLAC, M4A, WAV, WavPack, TTA) as audio CD and a folder as DVD/BD. It can emulate up to 7 virtual drives at one time and support multi-session disc images (CCD, MDS, NRG). What’s more, 10 languages and portable version are available. You can mount image files with this Windows 10 virtual drive software from the context menu, tray icon menu or from the GUI. Meanwhile, it supports command line options that enable batch image file mounting from desktop shortcuts, from a folder or a physical disc.
6. OSFMount
Available: Windows 10/8/7, freeware
PassMark OSFMount is free virtual drive software used to emulate virtual drives and mount image files up to 11 types, alongside PassMark OSForensics. Except for freeware, this virtual disk drive program has advanced features including mounting ISO as a virtual RAM drive, creating a new RAM drive, mounting as a removable drive, mounting local disk image files, and selecting drive emulation and type. Besides, you can mount images of CDs in ISO formats when it comes to frequent use of CDs and high demand for writing speed.
7. MagicISO
Available: Windows 98/ME/NT/2K/XP/2003, $29.95 for CD image files
As an ISO virtual drive, it enables to open, create, edit, extract image files from DVD/CD-ROM or hard disks, convert images between BIN and ISO formats, with bootable information included. Meanwhile, you can directly add, delete, and rename files or folders in CD image files. However, note that you have to pay for the virtual drive software when you process CD image files. Moreover, it merely can be used on previous Windows versions.
8. ISODisk
Available: Windows XP/2003/Vista, freeware
As a powerful ISO disk image file processing tool, this free virtual drive allows you to quickly create virtual drives (up to 20) for image files from CD/DVD-ROM, mount ISO disc image and access the files on it as if it was burned to CD or DVD physical discs. This Windows-based virtual drive is capable of mounting ISO image files to an internal virtual CD/DVD device, on Local Area Network. But note that this virtual drive software fades next to other options that can work as Windows 10 virtual drives.
9. Gizmo Drive
Available: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Server 2008/7
Gizmo Drive is another light-weight software that specializes in mounting virtual hard drive files like VHD, and mounting various image files (ISO, VHD, BIN, IMG, NRG, CCD, MDS, MDF). Specifically, it allows you to create encrypted hard drive image files, mount password protected hard disk images with its proprietary GDRIVE format, enable mounting multiple virtual drives (up to 26) simultaneously and unmounting images from Windows command line. As a virtual drive simulator, it is able to maximize its performance when a CD/DVD-ROM disc is extracted to ISO or mounted from the hard drive. Remember that this virtual drive software applies to old Windows version.
10. gBurner Virtual Drive
Available: Windows 10/8/7/XP, 30-day free trial, $29.95
gBurner Virtual Drive is a virtual drive emulator designed to open, create, edit, extract, convert and burn disc image files (ISO, BIN, CUE, MDF, MDS, IMG, GBI, DAA, UIF, CIF, NRG, GI, DMG). (Bootable) Data, audio (MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, APE, OGG, CD-TEXT) and video discs/ multisession discs in the form of CD/DVD, bootable USB virtual drive can be created and managed without effort. Meanwhile, ISO 9660, Joliet and UDF file systems, unicode file names, and virtual disk image files (WIM, WMDK, VHD, VDI) are also supported to meet diverse user demands. What’s more, this virtual drive software allows for copying CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs. In a nutshell, it works as a real CD/DVD-ROM that enables to run virtual disk drive, play games, watch movies or listen to music from your virtual CD/DVD-ROM, which is similar to DVDFab Virtual Drive. However, this virtual drive emulator comes at a price, while DVDFab Virtual Drive is always free of charge.
Conclusion
Now you might have gained a better understanding of the best Virtual CloneDrive alternatives that can be applied to address CD.DVD/BD image files. In a sense, you can pass Virtual CloneDrive and seek other options to achieve your goal. But you are suggested to make the right choice between free virtual drive software like DVDFab Virtual Drive and paid virtual drive emulators like PowerISO. Personally, most users will choose the former, as freeware can meet the basic needs. After all, every single penny shall be spent budget. By the way, if you use Windows 10/8.1, there is no need to download 3rd party ISO mounting software, since Windows 8/10 comes with the ability to mount ISO files and burn ISO to CD or DVD. For Blu-ray ISO, you have to blaze a new trial.
One more word, if you want to know how to get ISO files from DVD/Blu-ray discs, turn to the world’s widely recognized disc copy software: DVD Copy and Blu-ray Copy.