Running a cd file via thumb drive?

[8-Bit Archeology]

Is this possible and or frowned upon.

My problem is I like to play older games on my netbook my lil hp110. Alas it does not have a built in cd-rom.
I dont like taking my ext disk drive all over the place. is there a way to do this?

I can foresee a scolding about hacks, pirates etc... But be assured I am too ignorant to know where to even find these files.

I can on the other hand copy my hard copies of the games i have to my computer and put them on a thumb drive. but my computer still wants the file in a cd-rom. I would just love to play them without beeing stuck to an outlet. and I bet using a ram style solid state memory would make it run fast. Like old cart games. THAT would be awesome.

Any help is appreciated.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Get Alcohol 52% from http://www.alcohol-soft.com/ .

This is a CD drive emulator. You install it, then you make ISOs and copy them to the laptop's hard drive - or carry them in a USB. Then you run the program, mount the ISO, and bam, virtual CD drive.

A warning though, this doesn't work with some CD images due to copy protection.

[fluid_matrix]

A warning though, this doesn't work with some CD images due to copy protection.
I just found this out myself. I purchased Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 a couple weeks ago, and was going to play it on my laptop. Forgot the drive on my laptop didn't read disks any more, so I used Imgburn on my desktop to create an .iso file of the disk, transferred it to my laptop's HDD via a thumb drive, then mounted it with clone-dvd. It installed flawlessly until you go and play the game, then it gives me the message "Emulator detected! Please deactivate virtual drive and emulation software." There are apparently a couple work arounds, of which I haven't tried yet.

[Edmond Dantes]

Either that Alcohol program or else Daemon's Tools. Some emulator and virtualizer programs such as DOSbox have a built-in function to mount an ISO as a CD-ROM drive.

There is only one thing I never could find a workaround for, and that's CD-ROM games that have music stored as actual tracks on the CD. If I could find a way to mount those and still get the music, I'd never need a CD-ROM ever again.

[8-Bit Archeology]

Wow awesome. My internet has fallen victim to a horrible construction crew down my driveway so im stuck to my phone for work. But when it is up and op again im surely gonna check those out. Thanks for the replies. And to any one else with info i never turn down goid info.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Either that Alcohol program or else Daemon's Tools. Some emulator and virtualizer programs such as DOSbox have a built-in function to mount an ISO as a CD-ROM drive.

There is only one thing I never could find a workaround for, and that's CD-ROM games that have music stored as actual tracks on the CD. If I could find a way to mount those and still get the music, I'd never need a CD-ROM ever again.

... huh? I've made ISOs with music tracks before and never had any issues.

[Jorpho]

Either that Alcohol program or else Daemon's Tools.Indeed, one of the principal functions of Daemon Tools (no "s") is circumventing copy protection checks, though I've never had the need to poke at it myself. I think you might have to use Daemon Tools' own internal CD-ripping functionality to make a suitable image. Really, in cases where something like that is necessary, it might be easier just to download a noCD crack of some sort.


There is only one thing I never could find a workaround for, and that's CD-ROM games that have music stored as actual tracks on the CD. If I could find a way to mount those and still get the music, I'd never need a CD-ROM ever again.I have also made such images many times. The only catch is that the image generally has to be made in BIN/CUE format. ImgBurn is very reliable for making the appropriate images.