Virtual CD/DVD Drive
9 February 2004 12:04 pm
There is a lot of software “available” on the internet in the form of ISO images. Although these copies of the discs can easily be burned onto a CDR disc, I wanted a way to use the ISO images without first having to burn them.
DAEMON Tools is a virtual cd/dvd-rom emulator. It is able to emulate nearly all known copy protections on the market today. After installation and a restart, Daemon tools allowed me to mount an image and have it show up as a drive.
If you have the extra hard drive space, this seems like a really good way to play computer games without having to switch discs. Check their Games Database to see if you favorite game’s copy protection is supported.
WARNING: I tried this at home and my computer almost died. The forums have many comments about problems with this software, especially when installed next to Easy CD Creator. If you have XP, set a system restore point first.
6 Responses to “Virtual CD/DVD Drive”
Awesome tool,
But beware, installation of this program can be difficult. My initial install atempt crashed, and thereafter the program refused to reinstall indicating that the old version had not been uninstalled. No program was available for uninstall, so I scrubbed the registry of daemon344 files and restarted. Unfortunately, this didn’t solve the problem either.
Eventually, I changed the install driver names from ****344 to ****345 and everything worked just fine. Painful, but successful. I was able to install files directly from .iso libraries rather than needing to burn a disk first.
Warning! I just had a really bad installation on my Windows XP Pro box. Upon restart, the computer hung trying to load the drivers.
I’d previously installed it without issue on a Windows 2000 computer…not recommending installing this right now.
I have had no problems at all with Daemon Tools.
I run XP Pro with Nero as the CD burning program. I installed Daemon tools and the program ran just fine. I made an image of the playdisc for Diablo II, enabled the emulation and the game plays fine. This is great, because my old disc is getting some scratches…
I used CloneCD to create a 1:1 copy of the playdisc for Age of Mythology, because of the Safedisc protection that Nero can’t handle. Using CloneCD worked just fine.
I highly recommend this program to anyone, as I have had no problems at all. I will return with a full report should any errors occur.
Just giving a quick update on this tool as promised: I have been running this since February this year and had absolutely no problems with neither the inital installation or the daily use of it since. Awesome tool and very handy if you only have one CD/DVD drive and don’t like changing CDs or worrying that your only game CD will get a scratch.
I can retract my warnings and hesitation if your computer doesn’t have Easy CD Creator. After reinstalling my OS due to a complete hard drive crash (unrelated), and not putting on Easy, I installed Daemon Tools and had nary a hiccup.
megustaria tener es programa
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