Zalman ZM-VE200 portable virtual Rom drive
It's an external HDD! It's an optical drive! It's ISO heaven!
Geek Treat of the Week Zalman's external hard drive case is a bit different from most. Yes, it works like a standard drive case - slip in a 2.5in hard drive or SSD, and hook up the extra storage to your computer over USB 2.0 or eSata - the ZM-VE200 supports both.
It's a nice-looking unit too, though - again - that's not uncommon. Ditto the small LCD that gives you a drive status readout.
An attractive external drive case
No, the trick up the ZM-VE200's aluminium sleve is an optical storage mode that allows the host to mount it as a CD or DVD.
Quite a bit of software - operating systems in particular, but also utilities that need to boot their own OS to run - is delivered in the form of ISOs. These are images intended to be burned to an optical disc.
Now, if you're a netbook user, you may not have an optical drive, certainly not a built-in unit. Even if you do, or your notebook has one, you'll want to re-create a new disc with every update.
USB 2.0 and eSata connections are supported
Burning takes time too, either because you select a low speed to avoid the risk of creating a coaster - a dead disc - or you go a at max speed and churn through blanks DVDs until you get one that passes the verification test.
The ZM-VE200 lets you store all your ISOs in one place, and adding a new one is just a matter of copying it over into its _iso folder when it's in HDD mode.
The case has a jogdial on the left side. Press it up while you connect the drive and the unit will start up in ODD mode. You then use the dial to flip through the list of ISOs on the drive, pushing the wheel in to select the one you want. It then mounts on your desktop, or is ready for you to boot your machine from.
Flip the jogdial to select your chosen ISO
You can't really do it on the fly - selecting the right ISO from a long list will take you longer than the average Bios bootloader allows you. So select the right one, then restart your machine and you'll get it on the boot list.
I was soon starting my Asus netbook in Jolicloud, Ubuntu - and a range of other ISO-stored operating systems I downloaded to try. And not a singled DVD was required. Or multiple USB sticks.
Incidentally, out of the box, the firmware requires an NTFS-formatted drive to be inserted, but Zalman has separate firmwire that supports FAT32 and ExFat. Until you can make the change, using a PC, the ZM-VE200's not too useful for Mac users.
Drive data
There are flaws: it doesn't remember your ISO choice after the power's cut. And there's no way to reverse your choice other than powering down and re-selecting.
Still, it provides a way of shuffling multiple ISOs in an easy way, and is only £33 before you add your storage - so you can pick as much or as little as you require. ®
Many thanks to LinITX.com for the review sample
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COMMENTS
Flaws aren't correct (for 1.00.00.61N firmware at least!)
I've just bought another VE200 (The first was stolen), and I've just double checked, but it seems you may be incorrect in its flaws.
"There are flaws: it doesn't remember your ISO choice after the power's cut. And there's no way to reverse your choice other than powering down and re-selecting."
I'm using the 1.00.00.61N Firmware (It's been around since the unit launched earlier in the year) and
1. I've just tested in Dual Mode, and it does remember the last mounted ISO which is remounted when the unit is powered up again.
2. You can select another ISO on the fly by just using the Jog Wheel, then pressing it..
3. You can change modes (Between ODD/HDD and DUAL) from the menu too..
It's a great little unit, there are some reported ISO's that don't work properly, but I've found it works amazingly well for the wide range of OS's and dev tool ISO's I've used mine for..
Incorrect Statement
"There are flaws: it doesn't remember your ISO choice after the power's cut. And there's no way to reverse your choice other than powering down and re-selecting."
I have owned one of these for 6-8 months. This statement is incorrect. With an image selected and loaded press the jog dial inwards, this unmounts the image and allows you to reselect by tweaking the dial up and down.
Secondly you can organise the images in folders within the _ISO directory, makes it easier to find things.
Re: How good is your Korean ??
My Korean is non existent, but then as I am not selling a product in the Korean market place, nor writing in their language, this is not an issue.
The example I posted was not the only one, just the one that amused me the most. The rest of the FAQ is scattered in grammatical errors which make some sentences almost meaningless.
It looks like the output from Google translate... How confident are you that a support request you send would survive the return journey through that process and still convey the problem you are experiencing?
As for the Lazy English, I speak French, Polish and a bit of Hungarian, which has me pretty much sorted in all of London bar the East End!
Now cut the political correctness and go laugh at the foreigner's funny English!
Almost
But all that will do is boot linux type ISOs. Windows users are out of luck.
This thing has changed my (working) life...
I would mark this closer to 95%.
There are few things that have made my professional life much easier in one swoop. There's this and Dropbox.
For years I have trundled around with huge wads of cd/dvd's, swearing each time somebody released a new revision of some software that requires a new DVD/CD to be burnt.
With a 300 gig drive this has made all of that go away. I now can carry everything I need in the space of a 3.5" caddy.
I can't think of one device that hasn't booted from this or one ISO that hasn't booted.
Contrary to the review, mine seems to remember the choice of ISO over a power down or reboot.
Also you can mount the HD and virtual DVD simultaneously making data migrations and rebuilds so easy.
Downsides?
• Wish it was USB3 – although I suspect that’s coming.
• Wish they had included a USB Y cable as sometimes the device struggles for power (50p off of eBay)
• The jog dial is a tad fragile – I wonder if it’s going to put up with the massive amount of use its getting.
Mind you for £30, I would happily buy a spare.
If you do IT for a living – buy one.
