Zalman ZM-VE300 Portable HDD Enclosures with Virtual Drive

Zalman’s new ZM-VE300 is over 10 times faster than the ZM-VE200 thanks to USB3.0. This means your data will transfer much faster than before.

Just like the ZM-VE200, the ZM-VE300 is an external 2.5” HDD enclosure with a Virtual Drive function. Not only will it act like any other external HDD enclosure but you can also store ISO images from your CD/DVD/BD collection. What makes it different to the ZM-VE200 is that the ZM-VE300 this is USB3.0 compatible which will transfer the data much faster than before.

The ZM-VE300 has an aluminium casing with an LCD display that shows the list of available ISO files that have been stored on its enclosed (not included!) HDD. It is compatible with any 2.5” SATA hard drive or solid state drive, and doesn’t require any additional drivers or software to mount the ISO files. You can even boot your PC from any bootable ISO images - never has installing Windows or Linux been so easy! The VE300 is USB powered and has a USB3.0 interface, plus a write protect key to prevent accidental deletion. It is an incredibly useful tool for IT support staff, PC system builders, movie enthusiasts, or any general purpose use.

The VE300 2.5 inch SATA HDD Enclosure is a replacement for your portable CD/DVD player and discs. Install your choice of 2.5 inch SATA Hard Drive (not included), load all of your ISO files onto the hard drive, choose the ISO file you wish to use via the built-in file select switch and LCD display and you can install your choice of OS directly from the hard drive to your system. The enclosure connects via USB 3.0 (USB 2.0/1.1 Compatible) and is automatically detected as both a Mass Storage Device and an External Optical Drive.

The ZM-VE300 also has a convenient One Touch Backup button. Pressing the button once will automatically copy files to the selected folder. Pressing the button for more than 3 seconds will automatically turn power off, allowing the external hard drive to be removed safely without damaging the data.

The ZM-VE300 has an aluminium casing with an LCD display that shows the list of available ISO files that have been stored on the HDD. It is compatible with any 2.5” SATA hard drive or solid state drive, and doesn’t require any additional drivers or software to mount the ISO files. It is USB powered.

Loading your .iso files onto the VE300 device

Attach the drive to a computer via USB
Make a primary partition, using either part of or the whole disk and format as NTFS.
Make an “_iso” folder in the root of the drive e.g. as “E:_iso”
Copy all your ISO images to the “_iso” folder.
Tell the OS to release the disk.
Ready to go!

Booting from an .iso file on the VE300

Set the VE300 to be in either ODD-MODE or DUAL-MODE (HDD and ODD).
Use the jog wheel to find the .iso file you wish to use from the list displayed on the LCD screen.
Press the jog wheel in to select the .iso file and the CD/DVD icon will be displayed in the LCD display.
Boot your target system and set the BIOS to boot from USB CDROM.
Your system will now boot from the .iso file on the VE300 just as though you had a traditional optical drive.