Clone some CDs (CloneCD)

Member Name: rob_writer

Product:	CloneCD
Date:	15/08/01 (581 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, Copies all CD's

Disadvantages: Illegal uses, Not free

Clone CD does exactly what it says on the tin - it makes clones, or copies of CDs. Of course, this is only useful if you happen to have a CD writer but with these devices coming down in price recently, more and more people now have the ability to create their own CDs.

Most people will be familiar with programs such as Nero or EasyCD, which allow you to compile your own CDs or copy existing ones. Programs such as Nero are great for most things, allowing you to create your own audio and/or data CDs, and add a whole host of extras to your discs. They are so comprehensive that you have to wonder what point there is in having a program like CloneCD.

CloneCD is for copying CDs, and only for copying CDs. You can't create your own CD's at all, that's not what this program is for. It's very simple and easy to use, and while lacking the polish and shine of the bigger products, as it only has 4 buttons you could train a monkey to use it!

But let me be honest with you all for a moment. Copying CDs is something that Nero does very happily. Well, shall I say copying MOST CDs is something Nero does very happily. You see, big companies aren't stupid, and once they realised how easy it was for people to copy CDs they decided to try to stop the practice, by adding copy protection to their discs.

There are various methods that are employed, mostly by PC game manufacturers, to stop people copying their CDs. I won't go in to the details, but Nero will either refuse to copy some discs or will produce a CD that fails to work properly.

But of course, why would anyone want to copy protected CDs? Surely that's illegal? Well, the answer is yes and no. Yes, Clone CD can be made to make illegal copies of games and PC software, but no, not everything you can do with CloneCD is illegal.

I can hear you all asking know - Is the great rob_writer a pirate in disguise? Sorry to disappoint you all, but I'm not in
the CD copying business. That's not to say I don't know people who do use CloneCD to copy games to dish out to everyone, but I've actually only used CloneCD a few times myself. Once I used it to copy a game from a friend because my CD had been scratched, then I used it again to make a copy of a music CD so we could keep one in the house and one in the car, all the other times I have just made copies of my homemade CD-Rs anyway. I'm not really sure about the legalities of those two actions, but I'm guessing they're not too serious!!

I, of course, cannot condone the illegal copying of CDs, but whatever use you put CloneCD to you will find it a very neat and compact piece of software. You load it up and you are presented with a small window, containing 4 buttons and some menus. Bloatware this certainly isn't!

One button lets you read an image file from a CD, i.e. the CD you want to copy. The next button lets you write an image file, i.e. create the copy of the CD. The third button lets you copy a CD, either by first creating an image then writing it, or by copying on the fly from one CD to another. The last option lets you erase a CD-RW. Inside all these menus are more and more options, so you can tinker with settings to get the perfect copy!

The only problem you may encounter with CloneCD is that your CD-Rom drives may not be compatible. CloneCD uses RAW mode to create exact copies of CDs, a feature which is supported by about 95% or CD writers, but there are always that other 5% that don't! In addition certain CD drives may not be able to read certain elements of CDs, such as the text on audio CDs. CloneCD works fine with most hardware, but if you're the unlucky type......

CloneCd is not free, although you can download a trial version that doesn't expire, and only writes at 2 speed. My Cd writer is only 4x, so I don't mind saving some money and creating CDs slowly, but if you want to buy
it it costs 39 euros (how do I get that Euro symbol again?). Registration is electronic, you pay them the the money and they send you a code to unlock the program.

The minimum requirements as stated by the program are

Pentium Class Processor
Windows 95 with 32Mb RAM
Windows 98/ME with 64MB RAM
Windows NT/2000/XP with 128Mb RAM

But I would advise you take these with a pinch of salt. An original Pentium 60 will not be up to scratch to burn CDs, but on the other hand I doubt a Windows 98 machine with 48Mb RAM would struggle too much. If you're unsure remember that there is a trial version, so it's free to give it a go!

Overall, even though CloneCD can have some less than legal uses, its simple and effective nature makes it just as good, if not better than Nero at copying CDs.


The URL of the Clone CD site is

http://elby.org/english/corp/index.htm

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