Looking to copy Game discs to HD

[Arnobius]

Does anyone out there know of a good program that allows you to copy a game CD to the hard drive and play it from the hard drive instead of the CD drive?

I have a few games I'd like to transfer that way to save the wear and tear on the CD drive.

Thanks.

[LorentzForce]

Daemon Tools: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/portal/index.php

You'll have to figure out how to make CD image files yourself though, I do mine through Nero. Just burn the CD as an image and tada.

Note some game CDs won't work this way; copy protected.

[Fsiphskilm]

I wouldn't do t

[Mr. SmartyPants]

volt how do you know about steam and half-life 2 stuff like that?

[Arnobius]

I'm just talking about ancient games that run off the disc with no internet or registering so I don't burn out my DVD-ROM drive. SOme of them run the drive constantly and if you play for a several hours at a stretch, you start to wonder about any potential damage...

[Sync]

Most of those 20,000 accounts were closed because Valve was tracking IPs from Suprnova and other BitTorrent trackers that had torrents for HL2; some were intentionally put up by valve in fact. Once the IPs showed up on Steam they set into action with bannings.

why did steam & HL2 come up anyway? it AnimeHeretic didnt even mention it.

I'm just talking about ancient games that run off the disc with no internet or registering so I don't burn out my DVD-ROM drive.

I say go for it, even though a quick trip out to BestBuy with $40-$80 can net you a drive with the now fastest burning speeds possible; after maybe two years you wont be able to find some games at all. Once the disc begins to deteriorate from scratches or even Disc-Rot, you could be out $50 for a mere disc of plastic that will be much harder to find a replacement for than a a two pound metal case with a motor and laser inside.

[LorentzForce]

HL2 does not work with Daemon tools. I should know, I tried it myself so I can play the **** game without changing CDs... Imagine trying to copy money. You can do the most accurate form of copying it, but unless you get the right paper form you ain't going to fool anyone.

Fortunately Steam lets you download the game if you bought it online, so CD/DVDs are useless. That's the entire goal of Steam; new distribution method. Too bad many people don't want to download gigs of files just to play a game. Hopefully in the future everyone in the world who can afford to play HL2 also can afford cable or better.

But Steam wasn't even mentioned by topic starter, so I won't bother yapping on.

Also, don't worry about disk damage unless you play over 500 hours on the same disk. I played Diablo 2 original disk for that long and all I got was a scratched ring on top of the disk, which is blamable on the drive being cheap... If you're sane and only play said game for no more than 200 hours at once, you're safe. Just keep the CD either in the CD tray or a case... preferably jewel cases, which are those thicker, clear plastic cases. Cheap distributors, games with more than a disk these days come in those paper-form cases... Bad for the CD, get a jewel case ASAP.

[Fsiphskilm]

I mensioned the

[Arnobius]

I wouldn't bother with the new stuff. The stuff I'm looking at are kind of vintage games like Graduation II, Grandia, Oregon Trail (yes, I still like to play that one) and Freedom Force (presuming the SP2 patch ever comes out). Some of these have the DVD-ROM drive running non stop and I'd like to reduce the load on my computer.

But I think I found what I'll get when I can afford it. It can be found Here.

...unless anyone has heard something bad about the company/product.

[Sync]

haven't heard anything at all really, but I'd say its more a waste of money. Daemon Tools is freeware, and Alcohol 120% is only $24 more than GameDrive but it comes with a whole burning suite as well, and will probably work better.

[glitch1501]

i would go with daemon tools, alcohol is great if you have the money

[Arnobius]

I've heard of Alcohol 120% but didn't know it could make a virtual CD. I did hear that you had to know specifically the format to copy a disc (I guess to get around lawsuits). ANyone know if there are any special things you have to know?

[Sync]

there's the Datatype selector, which will attempt to account for any copy protection on the disc. I cant remember what it's called, but there's a freeware program out there that will scan a CD and (should) display what type of protection scheme is used.