[mbentley]

i know that pretty much all of you around here thrive on having a fast computer and it can drive you crazy when using a slow computer well i found a very nice solution when using cds for games, applications, or whatever.

i just got a new toy yesterday, virtual cd v4. this program is one that will take your cds and put them on your hard drive so you no longer need to go digging for a cd whenever you need it. so far, i have been extremely impressed with the speeds that this offers. i did a quick benchmark of the speeds that it put out from my raid0 array and here's the results:



if you didn't notice from the image, it says that it reads at a speed of 134x in cd-rom speeds... the great thing about this program is that i can even make images of cds that are copy protected. with this program, you can still create and use those images on your hard drive. it takes a couple hours to do for those cds that don't allow copying, but it does work fantastically. games load much quicker, it's quieter... all around good stuff i figured that since i have a good 130 GB free, i might as well fill it up with something. i would highly recommend this to anybody who is looking to use a virtual cd program. with this program you can create multiple virtual cd drives so if you have a game that takes multiple cds, you don't have to switch in the middle of your game. while it is making the cd images, i found that you can still do other things on your computer. it only takes up about 5% of my p4 2.4b's usage. i am making an image as we speak and it says it will take about 3 minutes on my 48x cd-rom to make an image (non-copy protected cd). apparently, this program will even copy dvds to your hard drive as well. i have no way of testing this since i don't have a dvd rom (that is what my ps2 is for)

i just figured i would share in my joy of finding a very decent virtual cd program.

[DaBigJ]

I use Daemon Tools and Clonecd:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~mcclella...es/cdbench.png

[unwrittenLaw]

I tried that program once..seemed like it would work well..but i had problems with certain games..The executable file couldn't find the image or something...Do you have to install games/apps from the virtual drive?

[diggingforgold]

I use cloneCD and I was REALLY impressed. I had all my favorite games on virtual. Only problem is when I restarted, I lost everything. Anyone know how to make them stick?

[DaBigJ]

I don't use the virtual cd that comes with clonecd, I mount my images with Daemon tools. Apparently, it gives me pretty good performance.

[Linux Haxxor]

Alcohol 120% is also very good for this

[mbentley]

Originally posted by Linux Haxxor
Alcohol 120% is also very good for this

what?

anyway, yes, for some games you will need to install from the virtual cd drive. that is because there are references to a certain cd drive in the installation... not that big of a deal; just reinstall from the virtual drive...

[Kendan]

http://www.alcohol-software.com/software_120.php

[mbentley]

Originally posted by Kendan
http://www.alcohol-software.com/software_120.php

thanks i was quite confused by that one...

[DaBigJ]

raid 0 array and it only gives you 134x speeds? All I have is a WD800JB and I'm getting 464x

[mbentley]

are you using virtual cd v4? i will run a few more benchmarks tongiht and post what i get...

[DaBigJ]

Originally posted by DaBigJ
I use Daemon Tools and Clonecd:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~mcclella...es/cdbench.png

[mbentley]

it's not my raid array that is limiting my speed... it could be software related... not a big deal because i have no need for faster transfer...

[DaBigJ]

Originally posted by mbentley
it's not my raid array that is limiting my speed... it could be software related... not a big deal because i have no need for faster transfer...

no need for faster transfer?!!?!!! isn't this an overclockers forum? lol

[mbentley]

Originally posted by DaBigJ


no need for faster transfer?!!?!!! isn't this an overclockers forum? lol

that's just my way of saying that i wish i could transfer at the speeds you can

but it does whoop on my cd-rom

[DaBigJ]

You should try Daemon Tools and see if it gives you better speeds: http://www.daemon-tools.com/

[Ugmore Baggage]

Virtual CD came with my MSI video card. Nice little proggie.

[nycundaground]

I use Alcohol 120%. too bad i had to pay for it. But its almost as good or better then Virtual CD. Also you should download the proggy ClonyXXL. It reads what encryption service the cds has. Very nice.