A Funky Question... Making a partition "look" as a CDROM.

[Whitedog]

This might sound weird, and I haven't tried it, but... say for example I have a FAVORITE game I like to play a LOT that requires the CD to play it.
...if I created a hard drive partition say 700 megs, labled it the same as the CDROM, copied the entire CD to that partition and then Installed the game from that partition, would I be able to play the game this way, or is it still going to TELL me to insert the CD?

Man wouldn't the game run a ton faster or What!

The reason I say this, is I have SO much darn hard drive space now, I'd love to partition it and run some games in this manner (if this will work). I hate digging out CDROMs, PLUS, they are so slow.

Has anyone ever tried to do this??

I don't know if there is some kind of signature on a CDROM it looks for in the executable... I do know it looks for the volume lable though..

Lemme know, thanks!

 

[sohcrates]

you can't quite do it the way you described (although it MIGHT work)..but there IS a program called "virtual cd-rom" that will let you do exactly that (and it works REALLY well). look around for it, or let me know if you can't find it.

 

[zippy]

Why not just find a no-CD patch for the games so you don't have to copy the whole CD? If you want more info PM me- you can't really find these no-CD patches at reputable sites- it's unfortunate because it isn't illegal or anything.

 

[DeathroweR]

There was a program called Virtual CD; there also is a .BIN playing virtual SCSI device; none of them need a separate partition.

 

[Whitedog]

Well, I've never ventured at this before, so I don't know anything about any of these utilities you speak of. I'll look into it though. Virtual CD-ROM huh? hmmmmm...

 

[Stealth1024]

Some games require the CD because the so called data CD has audio tracks on it as well as data. Copying just the data doesn't always do the trick. Some games also check for bad sectors burnt on purpose as a way of verifying an original CD.

 

[ElFenix]

used to do this sort of thing all the time with fakecd. you can probably find it on the \/\/4r3Z sites.

 

[mrbios]

The program you want is made by Symantec, called Norton Virtual Drive. Just run the program, tell it which CD you copied to your hard drive to run, and a drive letter appears in Windows Explorer.

Russell "Mr.Bios" Sampson

 

[Stealth1024]

I have Norton System Works (includes Norton Utilities, Anti-Virus, etc.) and I didn't find that program anywhere... someone come up with a link... I hate to use a CD for DeusEx and Unreal anyway.

 

[Technonut]

Virtual CD I have used it before, and works well.

 

[Budman]

Just d a full install of the game,then go to Gamecopyworld.com & get a NO CD crack for your game.

Then it will run fine & you will not need to put the cd in everytime you want to play.

 

[Whitedog]

hehehe, I downloaded a freeware 16k file vSubt.exe and it worked Great! No more CD to play H/L CS! Took a whole 4 seconds to create it.

Virtual CD V3 looks even better...
Windows 98 compability Yes
Windows 2000 compability Yes
Caching of CD Audio Yes
CDDB support Yes
Improved data CD compression Yes
Fully customizable audio/data CD images Yes
Hotkey to insert virtual CD images Yes
Advanced autostart Yes
Support of copy-protected CD titles Yes
Advanced user wizards Yes

But it's $40 maybe, just maybe though..

THANKS GUYS!!

 

[Whitedog]

I guess the thing to do from now on, is to do a minumum install, and tell it to run as much from the "CD" as it can. LOL.

 

[Auric]

I have not used a virtual CD thingy in quite a while cause I usually do full installs with no-cd cracks and forgoe any original CD music. But I'm wondering if I could create a virtual CD and delete everything from it but the CD music and use that.