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Preface:

There’s more to hardware than a physical presence nowadays – software plays a huge role in what products become a success, from the clock-tweaking of otherwise comparable video cards to the overkill features of todays keyboards. Fact is, the feature set of software packages is just as important to those of your circuit boards, and the software behind CD-burners is absolutely no exception.

Back when I reviewed the Plextor 8/4/32, I remarked on the crappy software package, and hinted that one day, RAW-writing might very well be a feature that Plextor burners could boast. It was this magical power that enabled burners to use a small proggy called CloneCD, which lets users create exact-copies of practically any CD, including those with copious amounts of copy-protection. That’s right, no more trips needed to Game Copy World for your CD-copying needs.

Review:

I waited for a while until Plextor released a BIOS update that allowed RAW writing for my CD-R/W. Shortly thereafter, Elaborate Bytes released a new version of CloneCD, and I put my purchase off for a couple months until I decided I had fifty bucks to spend on a nice CD-copying program. I’d previously been using Nero, but for making backup CD’s, it just didn’t do.

While Elaborate Bytes has a near-fully-functional version of CloneCD out for free download, I decided to skip the shareware version and get the full version instead – the shareware version is limited to the minimum burn speed of your CDR, and frankly, I didn’t want to deal with a 1x burn to test the program out. After reading numerous accounts of user experiences with CloneCD, and talking to a friend about the program, I slammed down 50 bucks and ordered my CloneCD Activation Key.

You can order the software in two ways – have a copy sent to you via snail-mail, or via e-mail. I was impatient, and decided I wanted delivery via e-mail, and after a confirmation message, I had my Activation Key a day after ordering. Installing the program was a no-brainer, and inputting the code was a simple matter of cut’n pasting.

“Simple” is an understatement when it comes to using CloneCD. Running the program presents you with a small window with a menu bar and four icons – create an image file, create a CD from an image file, do a CD copy, or erase a CD, respectively. Without reading any of the help file documentation, I clicked the first button and popped in my Diablo II play CD. I had tried copying this earlier via Nero, and with or without error correction enabled, I ended up with a CD that wouldn’t play due to Blizzard’s copy protection.

My burner was already selected, and I was presented with a number of check-boxes. Dangit – I wasn’t sure what the check boxes really did, so I opened up the help file, found a quick listing, and went back to my copying. The only option that really concerned me was the SubChannel data on data tracks, which could relate to the copy protection used on commercial CD’s. I made sure that this was checked, entered the location of where I wanted my CD Image, then clicked the disc read button. I was off.

When I first spoke to TheDuke about CloneCD, he told me that the program was very slick, only it took forever to copy CD’s. Oddly enough, I didn’t run into this problem at all, and after playing with CloneCD more later on, I must say that I had no issues with speed at all. I hereby blame his CD-burner (a fairly cheapo one, given his lack of computer-part-buying-know-how), the fact that he was using a cracked version of the program for testing purposes, or the fact that he was using an older version of CloneCD. Either way, reading my CD’s was the quickest they is, and when done, I was ready to burn a copy.

Slamming in one of my hundred cheap CompUSA-brand blank CD’s, I got to it. I clicked the second button from the main CloneCD page, pointed to the image file I wanted to use, and hit the burn button. A short time later, out popped my new backup CD, and I tested the mofo out in a quick single-player game. Beautiful.

CloneCD isn’t a program with a bazillion features, and it’s certainly not an all-around CD-burning program; you can’t back up files from your HD, do any sort of packet-writing to your CD-RW, or burn .mp3’s into CD-audio tracks. In fact, aside from copying CD’s, all you can really do with CloneCD is erase your CD-RW disks. What CloneCD does do, however, it does extremely well. So well, in fact, that it blows the competition right out of the water.

Verdict: 10/10
Price of Tested Unit: $50.
Pluses: 1:1 copying of CD’s, blowing right through popular copy-protection schemes used by the industry.
Minuses: Few CD-writers are supported - check the CloneCD web site for a list of working burners.
Final Words: This is a software pirate’s wet-dream. (Not that we support that kind of activity!)

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