OT: What's a good .iso 'fake cd drive' program?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Short story, Baen books has a cd download with some of their electronic books. The cd download is naturally an .iso. What's a good program for loading an .iso into a fake drive?

[AgentZero]

I use Daemon Tools for all my mounting needs. Just be aware that there are a couple over-the-top copy protection systems out there that won't let you run their software if they detect a virtual drive, because only pirates need virtual drives.

[Fyron]

Daemon tools installs a rather low-level pass through driver, and can sometimes cause system instability.. Another option is Alcohol 52%, which has a free version.

[MasterChiToes]

I haven't had any instability problems with Daemon Tools, nor problems with game 'blacklisting' using the newer versions of the virtual drive. I never heard Alcohol solved its own blacklisting problems.

and I use DT because of vibration problems with constantly running and spinning-up optical drives... all the cds are legal and safely in a drawer.

[AgentZero]

I don't have any vibration problems, I just hate dicking around trying to find the CD for a game I want to play. Especially older games with all that disc-swapping malarky. Just load them all up on virtual drives, and play to your heart's content.

[AstralWanderer]

AgentZero said:
...I just hate dicking around trying to find the CD for a game I want to play. Especially older games with all that disc-swapping malarky. Just load them all up on virtual drives, and play to your heart's content.

Me too, to the extent that I now check for the existence of a no-CD patch before purchasing a game. I have found that many "multi-disc" games can actually be run directly from the hard disk if you copy the right folders - I've so far only encountered two where a virtual image is needed.

[Ragnarok-X]

Daemon tools, no doubt there. Been using for it 2-3 years and it works like a charm.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Well, game blacklisting sounds less dangerous than system instability, so...I'm trying Alcohol52%.

(I would have done a joke, but it's too obvious)

[dogscoff]

Narf, A while back I downloaded all the Honorverse CDs and a few more besides merged them into one uber-baenCD, all HTMLed up and everything. I also did some work deleting duplicate files, adding images to the gallery and so on.
I own most of the Harrington books in paper format, but I find my boss is far more lenient about me reading novels at work if they're on screen than on paper. Or maybe he just didn't know what I was reading- I don't know, I didn't think to ask him=-) I have yet to read any of the non-honorverse books.

Anyway, I can send you a zip if you like, no .iso files required. Here's the index (each title represents a complete book):

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
The Service of the Sword
Crown of Slaves
Shadow of Saganami
At All Costs

Lt. Leary, Commanding
An Oblique Approach
In the Heart of Darkness
Destiny's Shield
Fortune's Stroke
The Tide of Victory
The Excalibur Alternative
The Apocalypse Troll
1632
1633
An Oblique Approach
In the Heart of Darkness
Destiny's Shield
Fortune's Stroke
Fallen Angels
A Hymn Before Battle
Gust Front
Bolo!
Agent of Vega
Oath of Swords
The War God's Own
Wind Rider's Oath
Mutineer's Moon
The Armegeddon Inheritance
Heirs of Empire
Empire from the Ashes
March Upcountry
March to the Sea
March to the Stars
We Few
Insurrection
Crusade
In Death Ground
The Shiva Option
The Stars at War
The Stars at War II
Exodus

If you're interested, email me at [my shrapnel nick]@[my shrapnel nick].co.uk

[Randallw]

I've been thinking of reading Exodus lately. I read the Arachnid war books every 2-3 months. I didn't like the Honour Harrington book I tried once but I'm looking for a good read and thought I'd give it another chance (if it has good battles)