Does anyone here use FARSTONE GameDrive?

[Silversinksam]

I'm thinking about buying this, anyone here have any experience using this Program? Newegg has it for $19 shipped, if it does what it claims to how can I go wrong?




Are you tired of scratching or losing your favorite PC games? Is it annoying to swap game discs in and out of your drive and wait for them to load? GameDrive uses its innovative technology to emulate your computer's CD/DVD-ROM drive, which enables you to run CD/DVD-ROM games directly from your hard drive without the use of the physical CD/DVD-ROM drive or the actual disc. GameDrive is a MUST HAVE for gamers. GameDrive does 2 basic things:
(1) It can copy an entire CD/DVD into a single, compressed disk-image file that resides on your hard drive
(2) It contains a driver that fools Windows into treating the disk-image file as if it were a physical CD/DVD running in a physical CD/DVD drive
Works with copy-protected games

 

[Bobby]

I've been using Farstone's VirtualDrive 7 for a while now and it's been working great for a while. I think I need to reinstall my os because it doesn't mound cd's correctly sometimes but when everything was working great, VD7 was a great time saver. I'm sure the GameDrive is just as good. You just need a lot of drive space for the CD images.

-Bobby

 

[sandman001]

I think you can do this with Daemon tools or whatever it's called.

Crashoverride was doing this a while back I remember.

Like mounting optical drives or something.

 

[ColtIce]

i use clone cd's virtual drive and it works great.this looks to be along those same lines so i'm sure it would be pretty good

 

[bigemike]

what about alcohol 120%

 

[Silversinksam]

what about alcohol 120%

I did a search and found a free trial

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

 

[TheFrag]

Have you used daemon tools before? All i know about alcohol 120% is that it can create ISOs and apparently XISOs also. Daemon tools and any proggy that can make ISOs/ .bin/cues make a perfect combo. I HIGHLY recommmend daemon tools if you havent tried it already. Best of all it is is freeware

 

[Silversinksam]

Have you used daemon tools before? All i know about alcohol 120% is that it can create ISOs and apparently XISOs also. Daemon tools and any proggy that can make ISOs/ .bin/cues make a perfect combo. I HIGHLY recommmend daemon tools if you havent tried it already. Best of all it is is freeware

I downloaded daemon343.exe after I posted my last message Thx fellas

 

[Bobby]

Not that it matters now but my little problem with mounting cd's is because of an option in VD 7 to not allow autorun. I changed that setting, reboot and everything works fine again.

I downloaded Daemon Tools and it looks slick. What app are you guys using to rip ISO images?

-Bobby

 

[Zim2411]

You can use Alcohol 120% to create perfect images of the cd.

Or you can create isos with um... Winiso.

 

[grunjee]

SSS --

Sounds like a good deal at $19, I've never used that program but I can tell you this:

The game companies and copy protection authors (Macrovision [Safedisc] and Sony [SecuRom]) are on a crusade to basically render useless all programs which use virtual drive technology and/or copy protection emulation. The reason being that these things can be used for illegal purposes (piracy).

Nevermind the fact that they are intended to be used for legal purposes... I myself have purchased/registered both CloneCD and Alcohol 120, and have used D-Tools, and these programs have saved me an enormous amount of time and headache.

Back to the copy protection authors. They are specifically "blacklisting" these emulation/v-drive programs, so that using them legally to play your imaged games will not work. GameDrive is among the ones being blacklisted. So I guess my point is, don't get too comfortable, because the newer games coming out will probably not work with that program.

In reality, what usually happens is a see-saw battle... using Daemon Tools as an example... Sony will come out with a new version of SecuRom, which will blacklist D-Tools and not allow you to play your games... then in a month or two, D-Tools will come out with a new one to fix the blacklist... and so on.

Just a long-winded FYI

Edit/Editorial:
What is truly the greatest irony, as well as the most frustrating thing, is that these measures used to "fight piracy" do not stop the true pirates... but they do make life miserable for the paying consumer (such as myself). Deus Ex: Invisible War is a prime example... just go check out the Eidos and Ion Storm forums... there are dozens (probably thousands) of people who have paid for the game who can't even play it because of the SecuRom technology... it won't even validate a real disc. I myself have had this game crash more times than I can count, on the copy protection validation.

 

[wanna_b_rich_13]

SSS --

Sounds like a good deal at $19, I've never used that program but I can tell you this:

The game companies and copy protection authors (Macrovision [Safedisc] and Sony [SecuRom]) are on a crusade to basically render useless all programs which use virtual drive technology and/or copy protection emulation. The reason being that these things can be used for illegal purposes (piracy).

Nevermind the fact that they are intended to be used for legal purposes... I myself have purchased/registered both CloneCD and Alcohol 120, and have used D-Tools, and these programs have saved me an enormous amount of time and headache.

Back to the copy protection authors. They are specifically "blacklisting" these emulation/v-drive programs, so that using them legally to play your imaged games will not work. GameDrive is among the ones being blacklisted. So I guess my point is, don't get too comfortable, because the newer games coming out will probably not work with that program.

In reality, what usually happens is a see-saw battle... using Daemon Tools as an example... Sony will come out with a new version of SecuRom, which will blacklist D-Tools and not allow you to play your games... then in a month or two, D-Tools will come out with a new one to fix the blacklist... and so on.

Just a long-winded FYI

Edit/Editorial:
What is truly the greatest irony, as well as the most frustrating thing, is that these measures used to "fight piracy" do not stop the true pirates... but they do make life miserable for the paying consumer (such as myself). Deus Ex: Invisible War is a prime example... just go check out the Eidos and Ion Storm forums... there are dozens (probably thousands) of people who have paid for the game who can't even play it because of the SecuRom technology... it won't even validate a real disc. I myself have had this game crash more times than I can count, on the copy protection validation.

Very true. MS seemed to be one of the first to implement such difficult protections.

Makes you think. Notice how many people who d/l MP3s for free caused the industry to start selling CDs cheaper. Maybe the game companies should start doing the same.

 

[DayUSeX]

yes if you use alcohol 120% they are a respected companyu and are always realeasing updates so you know that the latest safedisc securrom or whtever will be patched quickly an dshortly so that you can emulate the disk and carry on. Personally i love alochol120% plus it has an awesome interface.

 

[Silversinksam]

SSS --

Sounds like a good deal at $19, I've never used that program but I can tell you this:

The game companies and copy protection authors (Macrovision [Safedisc] and Sony [SecuRom]) are on a crusade to basically render useless all programs which use virtual drive technology and/or copy protection emulation. The reason being that these things can be used for illegal purposes (piracy).

Nevermind the fact that they are intended to be used for legal purposes... I myself have purchased/registered both CloneCD and Alcohol 120, and have used D-Tools, and these programs have saved me an enormous amount of time and headache.

Back to the copy protection authors. They are specifically "blacklisting" these emulation/v-drive programs, so that using them legally to play your imaged games will not work. GameDrive is among the ones being blacklisted. So I guess my point is, don't get too comfortable, because the newer games coming out will probably not work with that program.

In reality, what usually happens is a see-saw battle... using Daemon Tools as an example... Sony will come out with a new version of SecuRom, which will blacklist D-Tools and not allow you to play your games... then in a month or two, D-Tools will come out with a new one to fix the blacklist... and so on.

Just a long-winded FYI

Edit/Editorial:
What is truly the greatest irony, as well as the most frustrating thing, is that these measures used to "fight piracy" do not stop the true pirates... but they do make life miserable for the paying consumer (such as myself). Deus Ex: Invisible War is a prime example... just go check out the Eidos and Ion Storm forums... there are dozens (probably thousands) of people who have paid for the game who can't even play it because of the SecuRom technology... it won't even validate a real disc. I myself have had this game crash more times than I can count, on the copy protection validation.

I appreciate the info, Its a shame as all I want is my game that I bought legally to load in the shortest amount of time. I only Play battlefield 1942 and its a resource hog of a game and I simply want to maximize my experience. Warez pirates suck and are ruining my experience

 

[TheFrag]

yeah thats why daemon tools is sweet. I hate how BF1942 needs a damn CD...

 

[DaBigJ]

daemon tools and clonecd work well, but Alcohol 120% replaces both programs, and can create perfect images of more games. (War3, for one.)

I'm currently using Alcohol 120%, with all 48 gb of my software on my hard drive. It's safer on my hd than on cd's which can get broken and lost...

 

[DeathONator]

I bought it from newegg.com for like $30?. It takes a long arse time to get a CD on the harddrive. Everygame I've tried it with has worked (haven't tried too many).

 

[Andy71600]

im using daemon tools, and so far i havent had any problems

 

[eab]

I use the latest eddtion of clone cd with conly xl to make my isos then use daemon tools for my virtual drive. Works great! I love that program!

 

[grunjee]

I think this deserves a look.