She’ll burn our horizons make no mistake (CloneCD)

Member Name: Modena

Product:	CloneCD
Date:	28/08/01 (829 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Backup copyrighted/protected material, easy to use, not a big download, getting better all the time, qualify for free updates

Disadvantages: Compatibility questions, price, old version crashes my PC

Want to back up copyrighted material? Then this product may interest you. Clone CD is simply a programme that can Clone CDs. This is a downloadable programme that is published by Elaborate Bytes, a German company. I’ve tried 2 versions of this product and after explaining what this can do, I shall review the product.

>Well why not use Nero?
This is the question you are probably asking, after all Nero et al have a “copy CD” function. Apparently these programmes cannot duplicate CDs 1:1, Clone CD does; I’m not an expert by it makes sense, here’s some Jargon from a review:

“Software companies aren't idiots. They realize that more and more people are getting CD burners and trying to copy them. Now companies are starting to build in some forms of protection. Most of the CD copying programs are great for copying a simple data CD, but a new game or application CD will give them fits. For situations like that, it's time to call in the big guns, CloneCD.“

Clone CD can basically create an exact 1:1 copy of the original CD including every little sector, error and other anomaly it might have. These may be the characteristics that enable software companies to “protect” their CDs.

>What can this programme do?
If you're looking for a complete CD mastering program, CloneCD isn't it, all this programme is capable of is duplicating CDs. You cannot create your own compilations or make “CD Extras” like Nero 5.5 et al, you can only make 1:1 copies.

Because this programme can only be used for one thing, it is very easy to use. There are basically two options, burn on fly or save and burn. There are 4 main functions:

>>Main Functions
>Read Image To File
Use this to save your original CD to your hard drive. If you click this, all you need to do is select the drive of your original CD and it will save 3 files to a designated directory (whic
h you choose). There are some tiny options to choose from, (most of which I don’t understand) but one useful one is the number of times the CD is read, something important for making a perfect copy.

>Write Image From File
Once you have a saved file, select this and insert a blank CD into your CD Writer and theoretically away you go. But this is where the problems begin, as I shall explain later.

>Copy CD
This should be the burn on fly option, but it’s also the same as reading and writing at the same time. Burn on fly basically means have the original in one drive and the CDR in the writer and writing to the CDR as we read from the original, but this is not recommended because usually your CD writer and CD ROM share the same connection and this may cause it not to work if your PC can’t handle it. I don’t know if mine can or not, but I prefer to wait a few more minutes.

>Erase CD (Rewritable)
This is quite self explanatory and takes as long as Nero et al.

>>The problems
>Compatibility
The major problem with CloneCD is why it is so popular, it copies CDs using Raw mode and very few CD writers currently will work with it. It's unfortunate but the number that support the specific commands required by CloneCD are few. Please consult the Clone CD website (address below) for more information.

Now my CD Re-writer was not on the list, but I downloaded and installed the programme anyway. Shortly after installation, I wanted dot test this programme out and one of the status windows showed this:

Device Capabilities:
Note: This information is provided by the unit, it might be inaccurate. CloneCD does not use this information!
Manufacturer: LG
Product: CD-RW CED-8080B
Revision: 1.04
Can read CD-R Discs: Yes
Can read CD-RW Discs: Yes
Can read DVD Discs: No
Can read MultiSession Discs: Yes
Can read Digital Audio Discs: Yes
Digital Audio Data
is accurate: Yes
Can read CD-Text: Yes
Can write CD-R Discs: Yes
Can write CD-RW Discs: Yes
Compatible with CloneCD RAW-DAO: No
Compatible with CloneCD RAW-SAO: Yes
Compatible with CloneCD RAW-SAO Write Simulation: Yes
Supports Burn Proof / Just Link: No

Now I don’t know what “Compatible with CloneCD RAW-DAO” means but I tried to copy a CD anyway, and it worked perfectly, it was an audio CD and it was an exact clone, all the “crossfades” etc were perfect, they are definitely not in my experience with Nero et al.

The rest of this review is about how good the programme is to use…

>Stability
I’ve had 2 versions of this, with the old version (2.8), after using this once successfully, when I selected “write image from file” the programme acts as if it begins to record then crashes, the screen goes black and I cannot rescue it, this suggests that there is some incompatibility, but I have cloned a few CDs already, why has it suddenly stopped?
The trial version is supposed to only write at 2x, but somehow mine managed 8x. With the new version (3.0, registered) everything works fine, I’d used it for a few weeks with only one crash, fortunately, no CDs were hurt during the whole process.

The question is money right, this programme should cost USD 31.65 / EUR 33.62 (no Sterling price) but my download of version 2.8 never demanded me to enter the code (this was downloaded as a trial).

The 3.0 version that I am using now I did need to enter a code for.

>Additional info
Download from:

http://www.elby.de/english/corp/index.htm
or
http://www.brennmeister.de/files/clonecd/Setup CloneCD.exe
if you really trust me! I suggest you look at the website.
File Size 2.16MB
License: Demo or pay for serial number, and get free upgrades
Also you need at least a P133 with 64 megs of RAM, and you should really ha
ve more than this if you can access this and have a CD Writer.

>Overall
If you feel the need to back up your CDs precisely; for example Playstation CDs (I think you need it chipped) and audio CDs then definitely give this a go, I would recommend this to you, but to see if it works, if it doesn’t then leave it. It’s a really good programme, shame it has let me down, it costs quite a lot and it does feel a little bad if your friend “found” a serial number elsewhere for free and you paid for it…

Summary: