Copying game disk to hard drive

[fusionstudios]

I love playing Civ IV, but I'm tired of hauling the disk around with me in order to play it on the road. Is there a program for mac that will let me copy the disk onto my hard drive?

[Chris14]

Gotta Love Apple!
Disk Utility can do it all.

Insert you game CD/DVD.
Open Disk Utility.
Select the disk in the Disk Utility source menu.

File>New>Image from device

Select CD/DVD Master and no encryption, then your disk image will be made.


This has worked for me for a number of games, mostly older games, so I cannot confirm it with Civ IV.

I found that if it doesn't work, try Compressed instead of CD/DVD Master, and all the other options until one works.


Good luck and happy gaming!

[BurtonCCC]

Thanks for the information. I'm busting out Diablo II: LoD again (to hold off as long as possible on starting to play WoW) and not having to keep track of the disc will help a ton. I'll give it a try as soon as it's done installing.

Daniel.

[princealfie]

How do you run the game once the disc is imaged?

[plinkoman]

How do you run the game once the disc is imaged?

just mount the image, and run as if the image were the cd.

[Willis]

you learn something every day. good thing to know =D

[jdechko]

As an aside, if you do this for several games, the images can add up and eat a ton of disk space. Depending on your current drive's free space, you might want to consider moving them to an external drive when you're at home to save on your internal space and just move them over to the laptop when you're on the go. If you have a MBP with a 100GB internal and not too many songs/movies/programs, then you should be all right and you can disregard what I just said. :p

[physicsdude1]

Gotta Love Apple!
Disk Utility can do it all.

Insert you game CD/DVD.
Open Disk Utility.
Select the disk in the Disk Utility source menu.

File>New>Image from device

Select CD/DVD Master and no encryption, then your disk image will be made.


This has worked for me for a number of games, mostly older games, so I cannot confirm it with Civ IV.

I found that if it doesn't work, try Compressed instead of CD/DVD Master, and all the other options until one works.


Good luck and happy gaming!

I just bought this game, but it really kills my battery life if I play it off the CD.

But I am having trouble getting this to work with out the CD. I've tried all the options that Disk Utility gives me, but every time I try to create a disk image and then install the game from the disk image, I get the error "Please insert the original disk". If anyone got this working, can you please post a step-by-step of how you did it?

My set up is a 2.16 GHz Intel MacBook Pro with OS 10.4.8.

Thanks!

[apfhex]

I've tried all the options that Disk Utility gives me, but every time I try to create a disk image and then install the game from the disk image, I get the error "Please insert the original disk".
I've found that some games aren't "fooled" by disk images mounted by DiskImageMounter. An alternative (if you have it) is to mount using Toast (latest version has a VERY convenient contextual menu plugin that lets you do it from a right-click in the Finder without launching Toast).

[harveypooka]

I just bought this game, but it really kills my battery life if I play it off the CD.

Your hard disk will run a lot more though.

[princealfie]

What do you mean by the game isn't fooled?

[harveypooka]

What do you mean by the game isn't fooled?

I think he means that the games recognise it's a 'copied disc' or disc image and don't let you play. It's to stop piracy.

[physicsdude1]

Your hard disk will run a lot more though.

I am not an expert on this, but isn't hard drive access much more energy-efficient than optical drive access?

I think he means that the games recognise it's a 'copied disc' or disc image and don't let you play. It's to stop piracy.

To me this seems rather strange... how does the game know that it's looking at an image rather than the original CD/DVD? If it does know, than it must not be an exact image (something must be different) ***. It seems strange to me that I am making a disk image that is not really a disk image. Does this make sense to you all?

Thanks for the info.



*** Or, the software somehow forces it to run from a drive that is called an "optical drive" and not a disk image.

[princealfie]

That means that you could theoretically reprogram so that it directs to an image rather than the optical drive?

I don't like playing games off a disc... too slow!

[MacBoobsPro]

I am not an expert on this, but isn't hard drive access much more energy-efficient than optical drive access?



To me this seems rather strange... how does the game know that it's looking at an image rather than the original CD/DVD? If it does know, than it must not be an exact image (something must be different) ***. It seems strange to me that I am making a disk image that is not really a disk image. Does this make sense to you all?

Thanks for the info.



*** Or, the software somehow forces it to run from a drive that is called an "optical drive" and not a disk image.

The computer knows when a CD is in the drive so all the game has to do is ask the mac if there is a cd in the drive. If its 'no' then it may refuse to play. All the info is there in the image but the Mac is saying there is no disc in the drive.

[Bobdude161]

The main solution to all of this is to use Toast to mount your CD. AppleImageMounter mounts your image like a virtual drive, while Toast mounts the image in CD format. It mimics a CD pretty much. It mimics it so well that when you press the eject key on your keyboard it'll eject the virtual CD Toast made and pop out the CD tray to reveal your imaginary CD.

I found this out when I was trying to play Max Payne through my CD image. It wouldn't recognize the default virtual drive but the Toast-mounted image it did take. Haven't had a problem doing it this way since.

[harveypooka]

I am not an expert on this, but isn't hard drive access much more energy-efficient than optical drive access?



To me this seems rather strange... how does the game know that it's looking at an image rather than the original CD/DVD? If it does know, than it must not be an exact image (something must be different) ***. It seems strange to me that I am making a disk image that is not really a disk image. Does this make sense to you all?

Thanks for the info.



*** Or, the software somehow forces it to run from a drive that is called an "optical drive" and not a disk image.

I've no idea, most probably the CD/DVD drive. But it would still make your hard disk run more, which might make the fans come on - wasn't saying whether it was more energy efficient or not.

[princealfie]

It's much easier for the hd to spin up than to optical drive destroy the thang.

[Nermal]

To me this seems rather strange... how does the game know that it's looking at an image rather than the original CD/DVD? If it does know, than it must not be an exact image (something must be different) ***. It seems strange to me that I am making a disk image that is not really a disk image. Does this make sense to you all?

It can definitely tell. When I backed up my Quake 4 DVD (onto another DVD), the backup would mount in Finder with a "DVD-R" icon! It was enough to "fool" the game - until the SMP patch came out at which point it refused to see it :(