Virtual CD software

Miles Teg · Post by **Miles Teg** » 2006-05-06 09:45pm

Can anyone recomend a good (and free) virtual cd drive program for windows xp? I'm really tired of No-CD cracks and/or drive swapping hell.

Things I want:

* Support for at least a few virtual drives so I can mount a few iso's for the games I play the most.
* Something small and simple -- I just want to load an ISO and go.

Things I don't want:

* Spyware
* Shareware /w expirations

I see tons from a google search, but I'd rather use soemthing off a recomendation to avoid gotchas

Miles Teg

Post by **Gandalf** » 2006-05-06 09:55pm

I use PowerISO.

It's been good for me so far.

Miles Teg · Post by **Miles Teg** » 2006-05-06 10:34pm

Lovely. Fear won't run with a Virtual CD drive. Fucking bastards treating their customers like criminals.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-06 11:15pm

It will if you use a PROPER soft, like Daemon Tools 4. It's entire purpose is to defeat copy protection, and I can say from experience that FEAR works fine from an image. Frankly, it's easier to crack it, but anyway. 1-4 drives, loads anything but FUCKING POWERISO COMPRESSED BULLSHIT, defeats everything even middling Starforce. Only soft worth using anywhere ever.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2006-05-07 07:47pm

I have to second Stark's recommendation. Daemon Tools is exactly what you're looking for, since it supports up to 4 virtual drives, and it is a simple background task with a systems tray icon to access the image file loading/unloading, "ejecting" the disc tray, copy protection emulation, and other options.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-05-07 08:29pm

Warning when using Deamon Tools: NEVER select 'Unmount All Volumes'. It means that quite literally: all your drives will be unmounted, including C:\, causing your computer to crash and burn.

I learned this the hard way _twice_ (don't ask).

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-05-07 08:45pm

What?! How'd they fuck that up? I'm running 3.47 now, and "Unmount All Drives" certainly does not unmount any of the actual drives, just the virtual drives.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-07 09:52pm

Ein, that's rubbish. I just used 'unmount all volumes' ten seconds ago - it just disconnects the images. That's all.

U235 needs DT4. They finally, finally updated it.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-05-07 10:36pm

It did it to me. Maybe the new version fixed that little oopsie...

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-07 10:59pm

I've been using DT since ... well... always. All millenium. Since v3.28. It's never happened to me. You must have all the luck.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2006-05-08 12:19am

Been using Daemon Tools for a good five years here and I've NEVER seen what you described Ein.

http://www.daemon-tools.cc/

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-05-08 02:31am

I don't know if they defeat copy protection, as I've never tried to mount game disc images, but I use both the both the Nero ImageDrive app that comes with the Nero suite and the Alcohol Soft virtual drive with no problems whatsoever.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-05-08 05:52pm

Alcohol's virtual drives are licenced tech from the Daemon Tools people. They are basicly one and the same. It is also the reason that the free Daemon Tools will never have more then 4 possible images mounted at the same time.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-08 07:07pm

What version have they licensed? I've found the alchohol drives a pain in the ass and a failure when it comes to copy protection.

I blame Gandalf. This thread would be three posts long if he hadn't suggested some powerISO devil-software.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-05-08 09:14pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Warning when using Deamon Tools: NEVER select 'Unmount All Volumes'. It means that quite literally: all your drives will be unmounted, including C:\, causing your computer to crash and burn.

I learned this the hard way _twice_ (don't ask).

Let me guess. After the first time you thought, "hell that was just a fluke!"

BloodAngel · Post by **BloodAngel** » 2006-05-08 09:58pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Warning when using Deamon Tools: NEVER select 'Unmount All Volumes'. It means that quite literally: all your drives will be unmounted, including C:\, causing your computer to crash and burn.

I learned this the hard way _twice_ (don't ask).

You know, wouldn't Windows actually prevent the system partition from being unmounted? Unless Daemon Tools completely bypasses a check.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-08 10:01pm

Christ. It DOESN'T HAPPEN. It's never happened to ANYONE ELSE. Bah. People who use virtual drive softs that aren't DT4 are fooling themselves!

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-05-09 07:11am

Stark wrote:What version have they licensed? I've found the alchohol drives a pain in the ass and a failure when it comes to copy protection.

I honestly don't know, but presumably they aren't trailing by more then a release or two considering that last I checked, they were still licencing the stuff.

Alternativly, they only had a licence for the 3.x version, and not the 4.x (which is a complete rewrite).

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-05-09 07:20am

Yeah, a rewrite that took bloody years. 3.47 was the standard for ages.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2006-05-09 01:14pm

mmar wrote:Alcohol's virtual drives are licenced tech from the Daemon Tools people. They are basicly one and the same. It is also the reason that the free Daemon Tools will never have more then 4 possible images mounted at the same time.

You get as many drives as you want if you pay for the full version.