CD-ROM To USB?
CD-ROM To USB?
I own the old Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection and I've been thinking about playing it again. The issue is I can't locate a digital download since my copy is a CD-ROM, and my PC doesn't have a CD reader. I've heard many forums suggesting purchasing a USB CD/DVD reader, but I don't want to do that. I also read about creating an ISO image, though I'm not sure how. Essentially, I'd like to transfer the CD-ROM copy onto a USB drive and use it as if it were a disc. If you can provide a detailed, step-by-step guide—or even a video—would be really helpful! Thanks!
You can buy external DVD drives that use USB to connect to PC or laptop, they're fairly cheap. Here's a random example from Amazon (it's Lenovo branded, but will work with everything not just Lenovo laptops) : https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Slim-Burne...00GCAYM1U/ You can go to a friend or someone with an optical drive and create a disc image of your disc. If you're lucky, there's no disc protection built in and you can create a disc image. imgBurn is a freeware program that can create disc images and has a very friendly user interface : http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download You can try to create an ISO image of your disc using this tool. You can mount the ISO image as a virtual drive. I think in WIndows 10, you can mount ISO images directly ... in Windows 7 I personally use ImDisk Virtual Disk driver: http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/#ImDisk After it's installed, i simply right click on a disc image and select mount as virtual disk and the software creates a virtual CD or DVD drive and it shows up in Windows.
Yes, you could use a tool like MagicISO to generate an ISO file and then transfer it to a USB drive. After that, you could run the ISO in a virtual environment such as Virtual CloneDrive.
An external USB DVD drive should behave like a regular DVD drive, so if the game has some protection, it SHOULD work just fine. As for your other question, nobody can tell you for sure. It really depends on what the game uses as protection. Programs like imgBurn or MagicISO create disc images from discs but not all raw data that's on discs is stored inside those disc images (for example in an ISO file). You're not getting a 100% identical disc image with these programs as it's not required for things to work. Some anti-copying protection schemes hide stuff in the DVD in those areas which are not usually copied over by these programs, so if you use the disc image in a virtual drive, the anti-copying protection in the game will not find that data in the virtual drive so it will treat the virtual DVD as pirated and your game won't work. Other protection schemes simply check for the existence of some game files on the DVD, so they're less sensitive and then your game will work.
It doesn't matter. It's similar to claiming you can visit Gamefaqs.com and share all their guides without payment, even though they're protected by copyright (unless the author clearly says otherwise). Still, with abandoned products it doesn't guarantee anyone will pursue you if you share them outside the official channels. However, technically it remains illegal until the copyright ends.