Ok what I want to do may be simple to do but I am not sure how to do it. I want to copy files off a CD to a HD so that when I want to play a game that needs the CD in the drive the system will use the "CD" that is on the HD. Can this be done?

Yes.

Some softwares provide this function. They provide a SIM CD DRIVER which is installed in your hard disk.

Clone your CD into a image file then use this SIM CD Driver to open the file.

You might want to have a look at Alcohol 120% (since some/most of the games have CD copy protection).

I dont plan on playing games with copy protection. I just want to be able to play multiple games off 1 hd instead of mutiple CDs. I think this may involve partioning off a space for each cd right?

No, you don't have to go that complex. You can rip an image of the CD and store it on the HD. When you want to play the game, you can mount the image onto a virtual cd drive.

Yup.

 

Use alcohol 120% to make an image (if you're the only one using the image and it's your CD then its all legal) onto your HDD.

 

Get Daemon tools or some other virtual CD emulation or simulation program and run that image.

 

If you use Alcohol you have to know what protection that disk has, this can be found on the internet or a program such as clony xxl will tell you.

 

NB: you need the latest version of those programs to copy/run the latest games.

 

All games that have come out within (approx) the last 2 years will have protection on.

I dont plan on playing games with copy protection. I just want to be able to play multiple games off 1 hd instead of mutiple CDs. I think this may involve partioning off a space for each cd right?

Almost al CD's have copy protection, which means that even if You make copies of all the files on the CD to the HD, the game will still ask You to put in the CD before it starts.

The only benefit in this case is that files is loaded faster from the HD but most games that requires this already offer that during the installation.

There is a bunch of different copy protections but I think most of them hides information someplace on the CD that normally is not in use and OS like WIN can't find without special software, like in the start of a game.

It can still be done if You are able to find a "cracked" file for the game You want on the web, but with most of them also comes viruses.

If you have a Mac just make a disk image of the CD, then mount it. It looks just like there's a CD in a drive. I don't know if there is an analagous Windoze procedure.

Mac still has CD protection... that's why we were suggesting alcohol 120% to bypass this protection.

 

An emulator program (to mount the CD) such as daemon tools is then needed, I say daemon tools because it also has some CD protection bypassing abilities.

 

And several games don't work on Mac, they are windows only!

Get Daemon tools or some other virtual CD emulation or simulation program and run that image.

 

PS: Alcohol 120% already has excellent virtual drive support.

I just download a nocd key from gamecopyworld.com and replace the .exe with it. Seems to work fine.

You can do that as well, but it's less hassle when you want to update the game. Personally that's what I do because I can't be bothered storing the entire image on my harddrive.

Having a pathetically small 20g hd I never keep games on long enough to need an update more than once

Ok sounds like i have a few options.

I want to creat a CD image: Can this be done withoutspecial software?

I want to set it as a virtual drive: how do i do this do i do it without software.

 

I want to make what I want clear. I want to make it so I can start a game just by clicking ono a icon oin the desktop without putting in a cd or activating other software just run the game. Id rather not download extra software to do this I dont really care it the process to set this up is lengthly or complex.