Mount a CDROM as a drive in XP? - Electronic Circuits Projects Diagrams Free

ThermalRunaway · 27th June 2006, 06:16 PM

Hi everyone. I've got an application which I use regularly on my WindowsXP machine but it always requires the CD for key-validation purposes. The CD itself is not protected against copying so I can easily make a copy of my original and use that if I want to. It would be much more convenient for me if I could copy an image of the CD to my hardrive and have XP treat it as a mounted volume so that whenever I launch the application it'll access the image and run, without the need for me to hunt around for the CDROM all the time.

I've done some googling but I haven't turned up much on this. Anyone know if it's possible?

Brian

Styx · 27th June 2006, 06:39 PM

VirtualCD or DaemonTools is what you are after. It creates a virtual CDROM/DVD that allows you to mount an ISO image and XP treats it as if it was a real disk in a real drive

ThermalRunaway · 27th June 2006, 07:34 PM

Now why couldn't I get google to turn that up?? Thanks a lot Styx!

Brian

ThermalRunaway · 27th June 2006, 08:10 PM

Ok, well I downloaded VirtualCD, I created an iso image of the CD I wanted to mount, and then I succesfully mounted it so that Windows thinks it's a CDROM inserted into a CD drive. Unfortunately the applicaiton doesn't like it and complains that no disc is inserted, which is strange. Oh well!

Brian

justDIY · 28th June 2006, 04:00 AM

daemon tools is pretty good, but the best I've seen is Alcohol 120% ... it has pretty complex emulation, to fool many types of cd-detection software.

PDubya · 28th June 2006, 07:52 PM

Some applications are really dumb, in that they only look for the validation on the drive it was installed from. You may need to re-assign the drive letters so that your emmulated drive the same as your original drive letter for your CD-ROM. Also, some applications can detect emmulated drives - so that may pose an issue depending on what exactly it's using for validation.

If you give us what application it is, we may be able to help you more in detail.

ThermalRunaway · 3rd July 2006, 07:25 PM

Ah I didn't realise that. Well, perhaps I could install the application again from the image (which has been setup as Z: ). Hopefully then I won't have to bother changing any drive letters around. Thanks for the tip.

The application I'm trying to use without the CD is "C for PIC Microcontrollers V2.0" by Matrix Multimedia. I quite often use this CD as a reference when I'm programming, and it's a pain if I want it and I can't find my CD.

Brian

ParkingLotLust · 9th July 2006, 04:39 PM

Id say go with Daemon Tools. Easy to use and it remounts the image on restart.

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27th June 2006, 06:16 PM	#1
ThermalRunaway	Mount a CDROM as a drive in XP? Hi everyone. I've got an application which I use regularly on my WindowsXP machine but it always requires the CD for key-validation purposes. The CD itself is not protected against copying so I can easily make a copy of my original and use that if I want to. It would be much more convenient for me if I could copy an image of the CD to my hardrive and have XP treat it as a mounted volume so that whenever I launch the application it'll access the image and run, without the need for me to hunt around for the CDROM all the time. I've done some googling but I haven't turned up much on this. Anyone know if it's possible? Brian

27th June 2006, 06:39 PM	#2
Styx	VirtualCD or DaemonTools is what you are after. It creates a virtual CDROM/DVD that allows you to mount an ISO image and XP treats it as if it was a real disk in a real drive __________________ Nothing is impossible. Once a problem is realised, the rest is just details

27th June 2006, 07:34 PM	#3
ThermalRunaway	Now why couldn't I get google to turn that up?? Thanks a lot Styx! Brian

27th June 2006, 08:10 PM	#4
ThermalRunaway	Ok, well I downloaded VirtualCD, I created an iso image of the CD I wanted to mount, and then I succesfully mounted it so that Windows thinks it's a CDROM inserted into a CD drive. Unfortunately the applicaiton doesn't like it and complains that no disc is inserted, which is strange. Oh well! Brian

28th June 2006, 04:00 AM	#5
justDIY	daemon tools is pretty good, but the best I've seen is Alcohol 120% ... it has pretty complex emulation, to fool many types of cd-detection software. __________________ If you don't have a planet, what good are gold bars? want to contact me directly? gmail gordonthree check out my project website: http://projects.dimension-x.net Favorite numbers: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

28th June 2006, 07:52 PM	#6
PDubya	Some applications are really dumb, in that they only look for the validation on the drive it was installed from. You may need to re-assign the drive letters so that your emmulated drive the same as your original drive letter for your CD-ROM. Also, some applications can detect emmulated drives - so that may pose an issue depending on what exactly it's using for validation. If you give us what application it is, we may be able to help you more in detail.

3rd July 2006, 07:25 PM	#7
ThermalRunaway	Ah I didn't realise that. Well, perhaps I could install the application again from the image (which has been setup as Z: ). Hopefully then I won't have to bother changing any drive letters around. Thanks for the tip. The application I'm trying to use without the CD is "C for PIC Microcontrollers V2.0" by Matrix Multimedia. I quite often use this CD as a reference when I'm programming, and it's a pain if I want it and I can't find my CD. Brian

9th July 2006, 04:39 PM	#8
ParkingLotLust	Id say go with Daemon Tools. Easy to use and it remounts the image on restart.