Well, I've been asked to do a review and compare CloneCD and Alcohol 120%.
Now, these are two fine pieces of software, both doing nearly the exact thing, however, one of them is the older and more mature software and the other one is the younger one with newer technologies! Another classic example of New vs Old.

Many of you have used CloneCD, and know that until recently it's was capable of copying most of the protections on the market, with the obvious exceptions of Tages and Starforce. CloneCD has tried to be competitive with others by using its own virtual drive, but recently it just doesn't cut it when it comes to Safedisc 2.8+ and Securom v4.8+….

Alcohol however is the new kid on the block. It's only been out for a few months, but its popularity has skyrocketed.
Alcohol uses much newer technology than CloneCD. It can emulate many different file extensions from many different programs. Unlike CloneCD it has no problems with Safedisc 2.8+, and can also emulate Securom 4.8+ games but unfortunately cannot burn it yet. Here is a short list of features:

• Up to 31 Super fast Virtual Drives: Access those CD up to 200 times faster, no more tedious loading times, waiting for that CD to load up. With our greatly improved virtual drives, all the CD's are stored on the hard drive as CD images, and you can mount and un-mount them with a click of a button For testing,
• Test that Image! Would you like to know whether your image is good before you burn to disc to save making any unplayable discs? Well at alcohol we have tried to give you a way of finding out. Our virtual drives also double up as image testers. Mount that image and see if the game runs on it! No more wasted CD's after this.
• Emulation for those difficult protections: If the protection can't be put onto the disc don't worry, our virtual drive accommodates some of he most advanced emulation techniques. Emulate Safedisc, Securom NEW and Laserlock all with just a touch of a button. We also have emulation which forces software to recognize CD-R/CD-RW as CD-ROM discs, and therefore accept the CD.
• EFM Bypass Engine: Not all of us have drives capable of backing up the latest protections. Therefore we have introduced a feature directly into Alcohol 120% that allows even non-EFM writers to backup the latest protections successfully! This feature has already helped over 40% of non-EFM burners to backup those latest games.
• Data Position Measurement: This is a very new feature which has been implemented, that is still advancing. This feature helps any burner capable of sub-channel reading/writing to backup some of the latest protections protection. However since it is in its early stages, it only currently works on the virtual drive.
• Extensions for other Software: Alcohol also lets you burn and create images from other well known cloning software such as: CCD Files from CloneCD, CUE files from CDRWIN, BDI files from blindread and many more. There is also the option to add you own image extensions, so the software can recognize anything!
• Multiple Burner Support: Alcohol can support multiple burners simultaneously! This means that you can create many CD's in a shorter amount of time!

I will attempt to copy 2 of the most common protections with each program:

• Safedisc 2.51 (Command and Conquer Renegade Data CD2)
• Securom New v4.7 (NeverWinter Nights CD3)
  
  
  C&C Renegade CD 2: CloneCD 4.2.0.2: Image Making
  The Safedisc 2+ AWS profile was used, with the read settings set on max data speed and fastest audio speed. I would just like to say, all the CloneCD profiles used were created and tested by a friend of mine, another moderator from the CloneCD Forums, Bulk. We have him to thank for these profiles!
  

  

  
  The results show that CloneCD did quite good. For all of the people who are not familiar with burning software and/or CD Protection methods, the "Cannot Read Sector xxxx" is normal for the Safedisc protection. This type of protection uses these so-called "Bad Sectors" to make sure the copy is an original one, and these are the sectors we want to recreate!
  The speed reached 43x, and this is a 48x drive, so not so bad there. A total time of 1m 51s is also very good.
  I was especially surprised when it got through the weak sectors very quickly. With previous version it took almost 35 seconds, this time it was only 6 seconds! This is a MAJOR improvement, since only the fastest Asus and lite-on CD writers were able of such a thing with previous versions. In addition to that, this is also very fast bearing in mind that some older drives, which cannot do fast error skip, can take up to 4 hours on the bad sectors alone! If we do the math, we can see that the performance increase of [b]583%[/b]! In any term that is BIG!
  I also took the liberty of working out the performance ratio, 1:0.171. From this I worked out that if it takes 4 hours with previous versions, it could theoretically take around 41 minutes with this version! That's a big improvement.
  
  C&C Renegade CD2: Alcohol 120% Retail version 1.4.0 Build 114: Image Making
  

  

  
  The speed using Alcohol 120% reached 45.3x at max, and had a total time of 1m 51s, which coincidentally, is the same as CloneCD's time. CloneCD achieved.
  
  Alcohol was also exactly the same speed with the "Bad Sectors" as CloneCD was, 6 seconds.
  CloneCD seems to hold its place in this section, even against the newer technology!
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  C&C Renegade CD2: CloneCD 4.2.0.2: Image Burning
  CloneCD uses a technology called AWS to help non-EFM burners to copy Safedisc 2.5x games. Alcohol has a similar technology called EFM Bypass Engine. Since my burner is non-EFM, I will be using it. This will help me to see which of the two has the best technology.
  The writing was using the Safedisc 2+ AWS profile, with max writing speed.

  

  
  The average write speed is acceptable, and the time of 3m 9s is also quite good.
  However the resulting CD did not work in any of the drives I tested in. It seems that CloneCD's AWS can't copy Safedisc 2.51 using my drive, however AWS DID work successfully copy Safedisc 2 on my drive.
  
  NOTE: AWS has different results with different drives, my results do NOT reflect what will happen with any other drive. EFM able writers do not need this option.
  
  C&C Renegade CD2: Alcohol 120% Retail version 1.4.0 Build 114: Image Burning
  As I have said before, Alcohol uses their own EFM Bypass Engine to allow non-EFM drives to successfully copy Safedisc 2.x games. To keep the test fair, the write speed will be on maximum and I will be using the Safedisc 2 option for burning.
  

  

  
  The average write speed is just above that of CloneCD, and the time taken is 6 seconds faster, 3m 3s as opposed to 3m 9s of CloneCD. I also noticed less HDD and CPU activity during this burn, this is partially because Alcohol 120% loads around 128mb* of the image to RAM before it burns it, this results in faster and more reliable data transfer to CD. To my surprise the final CD actually worked perfectly. I tested it in 5 different CD drives on 5 different computers and they all worked. Now onto the Securom protection and NeverWinter Nights!
  
  *The user decides the amount of RAM Alcohol 120% uses, but it is recommended to be 1/4 of your total RAM amount.
  
  

  

  
  
  NeverWinter Nights CD3: CloneCD 4.2.0.2: Image Making
  NeverWinter Nights is a recent game protected by Securom NEW v4.8.
  This protection uses subchannel data stored onto the CD to check whether it is original or copied.
  Many people in the CloneCD forums (which I moderate) have been reporting problems copying this with CloneCD. Whether this may be a problem with the burner or the settings they used, we will see. I used the SecuromNEW profile, which is optimized for best results with SecuromNEW up to version 4.77.00.0029. The image was made at MAX speed, with the rest of the settings at profile default.
  
  

  

  
  
  An average speed of 33.18x on a 48x drive, and a total time of 1m 59 seconds aren't bad, but I think it could have been slightly faster! Not much else to say at this point, onto Alcohol 120%!
  
  NeverWinter Nights CD3: Alcohol 120% Retail version 1.4.0 Build 114: Image Making
  With Alcohol, I will be using the Securom NEW (V4.x) option, HOWEVER I will be un-checking the Data Position Measurement option. This option is only needed for version 4.78 and above, NeverWinter nights is V4.76
  
  

  

  
  
  Alcohol seems to have taken longer by 3 seconds and it has a slower average speed, in addition it has found a "bad sector" at the end of the CD. I re-ran the test to see if it was present again, and sure enough it was. The strange thing is that CloneCD didn't find it!
  
  

  

  However it's the final CD that counts, and without further delay, lets go to the burning!
  
  NeverWinter Nights CD3: CloneCD 4.2.0.2: Image Burning
  Well, now the burning. Since this is a Securom protected game, ill be using the same profile as last time, namely Bulk's SecuromNEW profile. Everything was at default and write speed was at MAX.
  
  

  

  
  
  As you can see, the average write speed is 23x and a total time of 3m 1s. The final CD DID work, and NeverWinter Nights started and played. It needed the Hide CD-R media option enabled however, so this maybe be why some people's backups didn't work.
  
  NeverWinter Nights CD3:Alcohol 120% Retail Version 1.4.0 Build 114: Image Burning
  I will again be using the SecuromNEW (v4.x) option for burning, and with the writing speed set to MAX.
  
  

  

  
  
  Again, Alcohol was slower at the burning stage, but as I explained previously, this is probably due to its image loading mechanism. A time of 3m 14s is only 13s slower than CCD, and the final CD worked perfectly, with the use of the Ignore Media Type option.

  

  Conclusion
  Alcohol is a fast and reliable product and as has shown that's it is much better with the Safedisc protection than CloneCD is, in addition its EFM bypass engine surpasses anything that CloneCD currently has. Its image making procedure is more reliable and accurate than that of CloneCD, but this means that it is slightly slower.
  CloneCD does keep up, and I must say, the latest update is astonishing. The results I got here are nothing like the ones I got with one of the previous versions! However, since these are protections that CloneCD is still able to copy, it's not much of a gain. CloneCD still cannot copy Safedisc 2.8+ properly, it CANNOT copy Securom 4.8+, Starforce and Tages.
  Alcohol has no problem with Safedisc 2.8, Securom 4.8+ and Starforce 1.x/2.x can currently be played from its virtual drive, but still Tages is elusive! In addition to this, CloneCD hasn't had any "major" updates for a while. However Alcohol keeps being continuously tested and updated to ensure that all the problems and bugs are taken care of and that stability and performance increase.
  
  I recommend to anyone that uses CloneCD and has problems with protections, or cannot copy something due to hardware, to go buy Alcohol 120%. Its far cheaper than buying a new CD-RW drive.
  Also unlike other companies which have expiry dates on the licences (Symantec, ZoneAlarm software etc..), Alcohol policy says that once you have bought a licence that's it, you are entitled to any future product updates for free.
  
  Pro's:
  • Very good EFM capabilities
  • Reliable and accurate image making
  • Easy interface
  • Not so much hardware orientated
  • Support for multiple CD-Writer drives simultaneously
  • Support for many different writers
  • Support for newer protections (Securom 4.8+, Safedisc 2.8+..)
  • Fast updates and support
  • Lifetime Upgrades
  
  Con's:
  • Slower than CloneCD
  
  By Immortal