Freeware of the Moment: Virtual CloneDrive for .ISO mounting in Vista
Many folks begrudge UMPCs and small notebooks since they lack optical drives (and keyboards, let's not forget the keyboards...). I say: why carry hardware when you can do the work with software? Specifically, I'm talking about the free Virtual CD Power Toy that we've used to mount an .ISO file for installing applications and operating systems. By using virtual disk mounting software, I've actually never installed Vista on my UMPC with an optical drive; and I've installed it more times than most, I can assure you.
I was glancing through this month's TechNet magazine and see another virtual drive recommendation: Virtual CloneDrive. The recommendation for Virtual CloneDrive is due to Vista; while you can use the older Virtual CD Power Toy in Vista, there are some security consequences, i.e.: you have to run it as Admin, the virtual drives mount under the Admin profile, etc.... CloneDrive provides integration into Windows Explorer and can run under any profile and context. It also supports .ccd, .dvd, .img, .udf, and .bin file types. I haven't needed to mount a virtual drive for a while, but the next time I do, I'll give this a try for sure.
Pardon my ignorance KCT but how do you install vista without a CD?
Do you upgrade from XP everytime?
Posted by: vm-01 | August 16, 2007 at 11:38 AM
I've got this on my OQO 02 and so far it works great, although I don't have time to really stress test it.
Works well with s/w iso's, have installed Microsoft's Visual Studio .Net Express development suites with no problems.
Posted by: KillBill | August 16, 2007 at 12:01 PM
could also try MagicDisk which is a free subset of MagicISO
Posted by: o | August 16, 2007 at 12:48 PM
Great find, Kev! Not considering it for a UMPC (or my old tablet), but in my quest to set up my own "cloud", I thought about using Nero to rip some of my optical discs to the network drive for access anywhere (primarily, anywhere in the house), but I hadn't yet gotten around to looking for an app to mount the images. Now my search is over before it started. Thanks!
Posted by: Sumocat | August 16, 2007 at 01:36 PM
vm-01: I used an .iso of the Vista CD, which is an image of the CD. Granted, the .iso file is huge, but using a tool like this one, I can create a "virtual CD" as if the installation CD were physically attached to my device. Most of my installations were clean installs in a second partition (where I'd later wipe XP on the first and then reclaim the space), but this method works with an upgrade to XP as well.
Sumocat: we're working hard on the problems you have before you even know you have them. Glad we're one step ahead. ;)
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | August 16, 2007 at 01:45 PM
Have you tried Daemon-tools?
Posted by: vm-01 | August 16, 2007 at 02:32 PM
I've been using Daemon Tools and Alcohol 52%
Posted by: Rodfather | August 16, 2007 at 03:05 PM
I'm still confused about Kevin's comment on clean installs. In order to clean install you have to boot from the CD but in order to use this software you need to run the OS.
Posted by: vm-01 | August 16, 2007 at 04:29 PM
any suggested app that works with XP??
Posted by: Jelpy | August 16, 2007 at 05:31 PM
vm-01: my Q1P had XP on it. I then added a second partition and formatted it. Booting into XP normally, I used the Virtual CD PowerToy and mounted the Vista installation .iso file as a drive (in XP). Upon running the installation of Vista from the Virtual drive, I could either upgrade the XP partition or add Vista to a new partition. I chose the latter, giving me a dual boot machine with XP and a clean install of Vista. Using a partition manager tool, I wiped XP off of the first partition and merged the space with the Vista partition. No upgrade of XP to Vista and no CD drive needed.
Jelpy, the original PowerToy works fine with XP as does CloneDrive.
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | August 16, 2007 at 05:50 PM
got it. Thanks.
I was kinda hoping you had discovered a way to run an iso from boot so I could install ubuntu but it's nice to want things.
I think this
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/install.exe/
might do the trick instead.
Posted by: vm-01 | August 16, 2007 at 06:46 PM
ive always used daemon tools on my UX280P, nvr even thought of using anything else cuz its always performed great.
Posted by: enterman | August 16, 2007 at 11:53 PM
Thanks Kevin.
Posted by: Jelpy | August 17, 2007 at 02:16 AM
Although I have Vitual CloneDrive, I prefer H&H Virtual CD to mount cd and dvd .iso files; inclydes support for network and flash drive support.
http://www.virtualcd-online.com/index.cfm
To rip cd and dvd .iso files, I can recommend Rocketdivison's Grab & Burn - free and works with Vista and/or Blu Ray/HD-DVD
http://www.rocketdivision.com/grab_burn.html
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