In many forums, many times questions about this have been asked, so I am sure it will come in handy if i write a tutorial about this.
So you have downloaded something and now you are not sure how to proceed. You have three ways of doing this:
- Burn the image(s) on a CD(s)
- Extract the contents of the image with a tool like ISOBuster or WinISO
- Make a fake CD drive and put the CD image in it. I will refer to this way.
The process is called mounting. In effect, a new CD/DVD drive is created on your PC. You can access and use it just like a physical CD drive, i.e. you can open it from My Computer. The only difference here is that the CD you insert in this drive is already on your hard drive in the form of an ISO, BIN/CUE, CCD, VCD, MDS/MDF etc file.
Mounting a CD to a virtual CD drive does not extract it, nor does it take any extra space on the hard disk.
The program used to mount a CD image to a virtual drive in this tutorial is DaemonTools v3.47.0.
So now you have downloaded DaemonTools and want to install it... Follow the instructions below to accomplish this impossible seeming task:
How to install:
Double-click the file to begin the installation process. First you will be prompted to read the license agreement. Click Install to get to the next screen and then next again.
In this screen no changes required here. If however you prefer to install DaemonTools to some other location than the default, click Browse... and select another path. In the following screen, click Next to begin start the install.
When finish, click Close to finish off the installation and in the popup screen choose to restart your PC.
Install a Game Using DaemonTools and Apply the No-cd Patch
You have now successfully installed DaemonTools and restarted your computer. I shall use Max Payne 2 in this tutorial to demonstrate a typical game installation procedure. You will find the DaemonTools' icon has appeared to your taskbar, next to the clock. If it has not, start DT from the icon on your desktop.
Click the right mouse button (RMB) on the DT icon. Move the cursor over to Virtual CD/DVD-ROM and then to Set number of virtual devices and select 1 Drive if it is not selected.
Click the RMB on the DT icon again and move the cursor over to Virtual CD/DVD-ROM> Device 0 [*:] No media> and select Mount image.
Find the folder where the CD images are, select CD 1 and click Open
Now the CD image has been mounted and is accessible there as any other CD is. The game's installer will automatically open, unless you have disabled autorun. If the game does not load immediately, go to My Computer and open the game CD by double-clicking the CD drive.
To proceed to install the game, in this tutorial Max Payne 2, click Install Max Payne 2. If you require a CD-key or a serial to install the game, see in the crack folder.It is either a keygen (.exe), or a .txt, .nfo file if it just a serial.
Accept the license agreement and keep on clicking Next until you get to this screen. Feel free to change the folder where you want to install the game if you so please. Note down the location because you will need to know this later on. Click Next until the installation start.
When it is time to change the CD, click the RMB on the DT icon again and go to Virtual CD/DVD-ROM> Device 0 [*:] MP2_install.cue> and select Mount image just as before. DT automatically unmounts the CD that was in the drive before mounting the next one.
Select the next game CD and click Open
Click OK to resume the installation. You may have to repeat this mounting procedure more than once if there are more CDs such as in Doom 3, which has three CDs. The procedure is no different. When the installation has finished, do not launch the game yet. There is a no-cd crack that needs to be applied.
Browse the CD contents. If this option is not on the installer, open My Computer, click the RMB on the relevant CD drive and click Open.
Now you will find there is usually and obviously-named folder where the no-cd crack is located. In the case of Max Payne 2 it is called 'crack'. If you do not find the crack on the CD, don't panic. Check the other CDs for the crack. If you can not locate a crack on any of the CDs, get to GameCopyWorld and download the no-cd crack for your game.
When finish, put the crack into the folder you just opened. If you are requested to overwrite a file, click Yes. Max Payne 2 no-cd crack is a copy of the original game file so there is no need to run any patches. Copying is enough to make the crack work.
If the game's .exe file was no replaced, run the patch by double-clicking the .exe you copied to the game folder. If there are any .reg files, add their contents to the registry by double-clicking them.
