iodd Iodd2531 - USB3.0 - HDD - SSD - Virtual CD-ROM - Enclosures - Made in Korea … (10 Unit/lot)

A nice usb attached file based cd/dvd-rom emulator. It let's you "emulate" a real physical cd/dvd (read-only) optical disk drive. The case has a small electronics section with a multi-line backlit LCD panel that produces pixelated symbols, graphics and text. The "jog switch" on the Left side of the unit allows thumb control up, down, and momentary press into the body of the device. The "jog switch" allows scrolling through a two line text menu which displays wrapped text if items have labels that are too long. Then pressing in on the "jog switch" selects the item. - The device arrives without a hard drive, it will take a spinning drive, or an ssd. The software requires the drive be formatted as a "simple" MBR volume, and not a GPT volume. Once the volume type is chosen, the drive can be divided into partitions and formatted with a file system. The enclosure electronics only support NTFS and FAT file systems. The device can function (both) as a USB hard disk, and as a USB CD/DVD-rom drive "simultaneously" or as one or the other (HDD or CD/DVD) "exclusively". Once the drive is formatted creating a folder called _iso and putting iso files into the folder activates the ability to "mount" the iso files in emulation mode. The first time after the _iso directory is created the device must be unplugged and replugged in, so that the device sees the _iso folder and starts in "dual HDD and CD/DVD-rom emulation mode". Once in dual mode the LCD screen lists the iso files it can see in the _iso folder. Scrolling up and down the list with the "jog switch" then selecting one by pressing into the body of the device with the jog switch.. automatically mounts the selected iso file and exposes the file as virtual CD/DVD physical media to the computer. In dual mode, the computer "lists" a USB hard drive and a virtual USB CD/DVD drive (empty), pressing the jog switch to "mount" an iso file is reflected on the computer as "actively inserting a CD/DVD" physical media piece into the virtual drive, and will activate Autoplay. Pressing again on the jog switch emulates "actively ejecting a CD/DVD" physical media piece from the virtual drive. The Last virtual CD/DVD "mounted" is remembered when the device is unplugged and plugged back into the computer.. this is called "saving".. which means "save the current state of the device to memory".. so that when it starts again.. it immediately mounts and exports the iso file as a "filled CD/DVD virtual device" with bootable media already in its slot. The silver switch on top of the device is called the "Backup" button.. which means.. "backup the current state of the device to the device memory, before unplugging it" in my experience it remembers state without doing this.. but if you do press the Silver top button and hold it down long enough the LCD displays "Data Saving..." as a confirmation. Microsoft VHD and RMD read/write formats are also supported, but I have not tried those. WindowsToGo is supposed to be supported but I have not tried that yet. A virtual CD/DVD-R burn function to allow a computer to burn virtual media would be helpful, but the current software does not emulate read/write media that looks like a piece of CD-R or DVD-R media. It comes with a black neoprene carry case wrapped in black fabric. It also comes a white USB cable that is 3 feet long, has a USB 3.0 micro-B style end (not a type C) [this is the split, dual sided connector that looks sort of like a mini-SATA connector] that plugs into the top of the device and a normal size type A connector on the opposing end to plug into a computer. The internal drive connector is a normal SATA drive style connector with power and signal sides. The case does not have a facility for mounting the drive, the drive is plugged in and shoved into the case and held in place by friction and a landing zone at the bottom made of plastic that works to center the drive in the case. The case display and electronics are bolted into position by "peeling" the flexible top of the rubber strips on eithr side away from the grooves to get access to screw holes in the side of the case. The electronics package with the drive attached is shoved into the case until the copper accented holes of the electronics packages line up with the holes in the case. A minature screw driver 1 inch long and four tiny screws are provided.. however you only need two to secure the drive electronics to the sides of the case.. and by association, with the entering plastic base inside the case for the user supplied SSD or spinning drive.. the drive is also secured. The rubber strips are then "pressed" back into the sides to cover up the screw access holes used to secure the electronics package. Because the ends of the rubber strips are narrower than the main body of the rubber strips they flex underneath the groove edges and smooth out of their own accord. Advanced menus contain a LCD panel brightness, USB volt meter, Drive model and serial number and manual mode control. Some antivirus suites will (hide) the HDD by default, and it must be manually forced (online) from the Windows Computer Management > Disk Management - control panel component, by right clicking the Left drive grey control box and clicking on (Online) to bring it online and automatically assign it a drive letter. Hot swap and possible data corruption depending on the Operating System handling of USB devices is still a problem enforced by the Operating System behavior. The enclosure Advanced menus do provide features to manually Safely disconnect.. but mostly it just seems to work. The GPT volume limitation, and requirement for MBR volumes only.. means 2 TB is the (limit) to the supported drive size in this device, anything larger will be be unreachable outside of the first 2 TB of drive space. This drive model is not encrypted, data is breachable if lost. A different model supports on the fly drive encryption.

This was easy to setup and works as intended. No longer have to carry external cd and bunch of discs. Just need to load iso that I have on drive.

I would recommend this product. It is a really useful product. Thanks to the seller, he sent the product in very good condition.

Write Protect! Boot from any ISO on the disk by a menu like I put in a physical CD! Mount the CD-ROM or/and the hard drive at the same time!I used to (and sometimes still do) make computer house calls for building/repair/etc in the past 18 years. and stumbled on something like this several years ago, then after about a year or two later, the mini USB broke and no one made these drives like that anymore for years. I lost count of how many times my USB thumb drives got infected and overwritten (even formatted and one with the USB killer code) and eventually give up and format the machine and lose most (or all) of the client's data. This is NOT repairing, this is called destroying and rebuilding, and I hate to delete years of data on someone's computer.Boot CDs? I had to carry 20-30, you never knew what version or what format would work with some computers. Oh, and they get damaged easily, nothing like driving 20+ minutes to help someone without internet due to a virus and find out that the one utility you need out of all the CDs you have is scratched up. Time for a 40+ minute round trip (if you can find a fresh CD, find a copy of the utility, burn it without problems, and then test it) and then you wind up forgetting it in the CD drive.Write-protect forensic USB bridges? Got about a grand to burn? The good physical write blockers are not cheap, and even then I don't think you have any ability to boot from or mount an ISO image.I found this item and noticed it was an updated version of what I used all the time (but without the slow and outdated mini USB connection). So I ordered it quickly and a laptop SSD drive. I threw some utilities on it, packed it with ISOs, and tossed it into my backpack. I've done computer repair with it, I took it into the mountains with rain, cold, dust, and used it as a backup drive for video footage while hiking and hunting. Cheap, versatile, strong, I love it! And truly have no idea why these are so rare, or why no techie I've talked to even knows about USB drive enclosures with write-block and amazing cd emulation.

Slap a SSD in this puppy and add a folder called _iso to the drive. Put all the ISO images you regularly use on it and it will emulate a USB CD-ROM drive for your. You can select the ISO image with the dial and the display and boot from it to install your operating system, or whatever you need.

This is a really cool product and it works great.I got this one because I liked the minimalist look, as opposed to the big keypads on the 2541 and Mini (and I didn’t care about the hardware encryption in those models) But with the very minimal UI on the 2531 (one-line screen and a single up/down/in button), it can be hard to remember how to do some of the actions (“eject the virtual fixed hard disk and return to normal mode”). I’ve needed to keep the quick start guide handy to use as a cheat sheet.

The iodd 2531 is like an SSD or mechanical keyboard. Once you have one, you don't ever want to not have one.I've had my iodd 2531 for just over a year now and in that time, I've only created one bootable USB stick and that was only created because it was for a relative. But I've used my iodd in place of a USB stick countless times. It has become an indispensable tool that makes installing operating systems on a regular basis a whole lot easier and quicker. You don’t have to find the right USB stick, check if there’s any data on it you want to keep and then faff about with creating a a bootable USB stick… only to find out that you should have used a different application to create the boot USB. With the iodd, you just put the bootable ISO into the “_iso” folder on the root of the iodd and then select the iso using the jog switch. I do wish it was a little bit more robust, specifically the jog switch. I’m worried that it’s going to break at some point… to the point that I’m seriously considering buying a second unit whilst they’re still available. I just hope that the iodd Mini is actually released at some point. I’d buy it in a heartbeat.There is one issue with the 2531 that makes it that little bit short of perfect and that is that when you add new ISOs, you'll sometimes be required to defrag the disk. Which is less than ideal if you've got an SSD but for me, that alone is not enough to knock a star off the rating.

Now that the new? (announced in 2017 on Kickstarter) Iodd mini is available I am going to upgrade to that - the fifth version that I have purchased - first two died after much use - one stopped and the half the screen died on secondSeveral years on and still good - use a larger SSD now as store so many ISO's (several versions of Win10 - new ver every 6 months - 1803, 1809, 1903)Want to buy another as spare but price has gone up by 40%Originally has 1st gen Iodd - then Zalman now 3rd gen Iodd - first Iodd died after several years - 2nd was Zalman - the screen broke so could not see what to selectUpgrade from old ioddSo much easier nowJust fit a drive (I used a 250GB SSD) format drive for NTFS and create folder _iso put ISO images in here - I have CD DVD and BluRay images on minePlug into Windows PC and useI have loaded Windows onto a blank drive with this and used drivers update software along with off-line updater program - all working with no Internet connectionI have had one of these for years - very useful piece of kitThe only problem I had with my old one was that it stopped working after several years of hard work and abuse - it was being held together with tape - copied data from old mechanical HDD to new SSDEdit - 4th May - I still use this on a regular basis - not every day but several times a week - use it as external HDD or a DVD driveI have fixed various Windows laptops and PCs - boot from Windows DVD to reload a clean copy of Windows - off-line updater for Windows updates and fix missing drivers - If I need to I can make the HDD read-only so that it is protected against virus etcIt is a very usefull tool to have - some years ago I had to use a wallet with lots of DVDs in it to carry around - this is smaller and lighter

This is a very handy piece of kit. I purchased a 240GB SSD to go with it and so far it has worked perfectly.In normal operation you can use the storage like a regular external hard disk enclosure.If you save .ISO CD/DVD/BD images in a particular directory then you can use the menu on the screen to switch between them and they automatically get mounted as a CD/DVD drive etc... on the computer.,Using a tool from the iodd website you can also create .vdd virtual disk images. Based on the filename these can be read-only or read/write and you can enable or disable access to the main storage while one is loaded. This is handy if you have a virtual disk that is ued to hold virus cleanup tools as it can be made read-only. When you want to update the tools just rename the .vdd file adding '&w' to the end and remount and you can then write to it again.You can have up to 4 virtual disk images loaded simultaneously and it remembers the state it was left in after disconnecting.

I have the Zalman ZM-VE300 and the ZM-VE200 before that. The jog wheel failed on the 200 and now the USB 3 connector is intermittent on the 300. Both were incredibly useful devices if you need the ability mount or boot any device from DVD (install operating system, disk tools etc) and to be able to add an ISO image to the device, limited only by the size of the standard 2.5" laptop Sata disk you install.The device is a disk caddy (you need to add a laptop sized HDD/SSD), that can present itself as a Hard Disk drive (HDD), an Optical Disk Drive (ODD - CD/DVD etc) or both concurrently. The Optical Images are stored as .ISO files in a special directory called _ISO on the HDD. You can add/delete the images in this directory from your PC when the device is connected in HDD mode. With the device in ODD mode, use the jog wheel to scroll down the list of ISO files and push to mount.When the 300 failed I looked for a replacement and found Zalman devices were no longer produced. The IODD looked the same, so worth a punt! Turns out it IS the same - and a closer inspection of the Zalman ZM-VE300 shows that the circuit board was made by IODD (take a look)!! It looks as if the only difference was the firmware which displayed the Zalman brand name.Based on my experience and comments from other posters, the device needs to be treated gently as the mechanical components are prone to fail otherwise. This is the only device that I have found with the functionality, so I will have to make it past. Shame you cannot buy spare 'heads'!! It is overpriced for what it is, especially given the perceived quality, but that is a price I will pay for its functionality - and it fits in the more robust Zalman sleeve (the IODD comes with a fabric sleeve)Hope this helps anyone else who has a faulty Zalman, needs reassurance that this is a viable replacement and has not heard of IODD (their web presented is at IODD.KR)

Download a Linux distro/winXp/win 10 etc copy to your iso folder and boot. No messing around converting to usb pen drive.An additional use case create several vxds (easy in win10 btw) virtual hard drive images to boot from on one actual disk. Just use the jog wheel to select.This is a great little tool I’ve now got all my restore Mac usb versions in one device. Oh and it’s a great usb hard drive caddy. I’ve paired it with a 500gb sandisk ssd that I got cheaply and couldn’t be happier.