Is emulating disk drives a thing?

[Timmy-P]

Title.  I've figured that it's easy to use software to trick Windows into thinking you're doing x when you're doing z, what with Logitech's software thinking I'm using a keyboard on my mouse, and with X360CE being able to trick games into thinking your joystick or steering wheel is an Xbox 360 controller.  I figured the notion of copying files from a physical copy of an old game to your drive and loading the game from there instead of having to load off of the disk drive itself would be possible, and maybe beneficial.  I just don't know where to start when it comes to this stuff.  Where would I obtain the software if this is possible, and/or can this be done in Windows?

[Guest Gabbs]

ISO and IMG creating and mounting apps are your friend.

Winimage can take a floppy disk, make an img file and then you can just mount it.

[Godlygamer23]

Moved to OSes and Software.

[suchamoneypit]

Title.  I've figured that it's easy to use software to trick Windows into thinking you're doing x when you're doing z, what with Logitech's software thinking I'm using a keyboard on my mouse, and with X360CE being able to trick games into thinking your joystick or steering wheel is an Xbox 360 controller.  I figured the notion of copying files from a physical copy of an old game to your drive and loading the game from there instead of having to load off of the disk drive itself would be possible, and maybe beneficial.  I just don't know where to start when it comes to this stuff.  Where would I obtain the software if this is possible, and/or can this be done in Windows?

I use daemon tools lite to emulate a disk drive and play Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II (one of my favorite RTSs) all the time. useful tool since I no longer have an optical drive.

[Timmy-P]

ISO and IMG creating and mounting apps are your friend.

So I could rip an .iso out of a disk, mount it to Windows, then launch the game like that?

 

Moved to OSes and Software.

Ahh, thank you.  I didn't know where to put it.

 

I use daemon tools lite to emulate a disk drive and play Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II (one of my favorite RTSs) all the time. useful tool since I no longer have an optical drive.

Interesting... I hate to say it, but I'll look for free alternatives first, but if not I'll consider this.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[Guest Gabbs]

So I could rip an .iso out of a disk, mount it to Windows, then launch the game like that?

 

 

Yes. It will make 1 file and it will act like a virtual drive, provided the CD or DVD you are making the ISO from doesn't have some sort of copy protection.

[ApolloX75]

Interesting... I hate to say it, but I'll look for free alternatives first, but if not I'll consider this.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Daemon Tools (Lite) is free to use on a personal "licence". Just watch your install and don't get caught by the little "Install search buddy!" prompts, there's usually two.

[suchamoneypit]

So I could rip an .iso out of a disk, mount it to Windows, then launch the game like that?

 

Ahh, thank you.  I didn't know where to put it.

 

Interesting... I hate to say it, but I'll look for free alternatives first, but if not I'll consider this.  Thanks for the suggestion.

the lite version is free. just watch out during installation to uncheck the sponsor crap as that other guy pointed out.

[Timmy-P]

Yes. It will make 1 file and it will act like a virtual drive, provided the CD or DVD you are making the ISO from doesn't have some sort of copy protection.

Alright, cool.  I'll look into it.  I hope the copyright won't kick in and stop me, lol.

 

Daemon Tools (Lite) is free to use on a personal "licence". Just watch your install and don't get caught by the little "Install search buddy!" prompts, there's usually two.

the lite version is free. just watch out during installation to uncheck the sponsor crap as that other guy pointed out.

Whoops, I missed that when looking on the page.  I'll take a look.

 

EDIT:  Yeah, found it, and installed it while dodging the adware crap, thanks for reminding me about that.

[Timmy-P]

Yes. It will make 1 file and it will act like a virtual drive, provided the CD or DVD you are making the ISO from doesn't have some sort of copy protection.

Hate to double-quote, but I tried it on Battlefront 2 this morning and it worked like a charm!  Thanks!

[Guest Gabbs]

Hate to double-quote, but I tried it on Battlefront 2 this morning and it worked like a charm!  Thanks!

 

Awesome bro! Glad it worked out and thanks for reporting back

[Timmy-P]

Awesome bro! Glad it worked out and thanks for reporting back

No problem.  I used Imgburn to get an image out of the main disc, then I right click > "Open with Windows Explorer" and it was loaded like a virtual drive like you said.