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March 13, 2008

Tip: Kids constantly swapping out CD's? ISOs can be your friend

If you have kids that have a bunch of games, you know that there is probably a 99.9% chance that they will also have a bunch of scratched cds. More times than not, a scratched game CD will end up in some sort of screaming/crying/melt-down fit (or at least a very frustrated kid).

Here's something that you can try if you have enough hard disk space: Archive your game CDs to ISO files and access them using a program like Alcohol 52% or Daemon Tools. Then, when you or your child want to play a game, you can simply mount the ISO image to your virtual CD drive.

Of course, this methodology isn't limited to game CDs. You can do this with just about any CD or DVD, with the obvious benefits of helping to protect your fragile media.

A couple notes:
  • You may actually want to install your games/software from the mounted ISO file instead of the actual CD drive as it may have an issue with changing drive letters when you the software later. This way you will be able to ensure that you install and work from the same drive, albeit a virtual one.
  • If the disc has some sort of copy-protection algorithm included on it, you may not be able to easily archive the disc. Certainly this method can handle about 90% of the stuff that's out there already. Thankfully, Alcohol 52% does have a method to compensate for some of these algorithms, but you might find that it is hit or miss.

4 comments:

Jeff said...

This method has worked very well for me. I use http://www.gamecopyworld.com/ to find out the method of copy protection. This works nearly all the time.

NewKreation said...

I have used free for personal use AND free for commercial use CloneDrive available at http://www.elby.ch/fun/software/index.html

Anonymous said...

and I have used magic disc if clonedrive doesn't work.

The alcohol52 one had spyware or adware the last time I used it.

http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm

maximillian_x said...

I remember that Daemon tools had some sort of spyware, but I never had issue with Alcohol 52%.

I thought MagicISO was a paid program?