MagicDisc
Bear Bottoms
when you start it, and chose "Virtual CD/DVD-Rom"-moused over the slide
out menu and chose "mount"-went to the path of the ISO on my desktop,
selected it and it popped up a screen to choose which program to open it
with. I chose GOM Player and it ran the DVD movie just like it was in my
DVD drive.
Initially, I had used DVDFab to copy the 'protected' DVD movie and ImgBurn
to make the ISO, so I had the ISO already.
As a test, I used MagicDisc to create an ISO directly from the /protected/
DVD without having to go through DVDFab and ImgBurn. It created a perfect
ISO image of the 'protected' DVD movie. I mounted that and it worked just
as well as the ISO I made with DVDFab and ImgBurn. Very neat.
It will also compress ISO images and decompress UIF images.
When I installed it, it made an entry in the startup menu which I removed.
I will start it when I want it. I also unchecked "auto mount" in the
options.
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm?=magiciso
"MagicDisc is freeware. It is very helpful utility designed for creating
and managing virtual CD drives and CD/DVD discs. For anyone who deals with
CD-based programs – it is a MUST. MagicDisc allows you to use almost all
CD/DVD image without burning them onto CD or DVD in order to easily access
your favorite games, music, or software programs ---- It works like a real
CD/DVD-ROM: You can run programs, play games, or listen to music from your
virtual CD-ROM. Allowing you to run your game images at over 200x faster
than from a conventional CD/DVD-ROM. MagicDisc is a powerful utility that
uses a unique combination of options to ensure a perfect back-up every
time. Partner with MagicISO****PAYWARE****, Your original games/program
discs can be safely stored away, MagicISO ****PAYWARE**** mean that you
always have your expensive media stored safely as CD/DVD image file on
your hard drive, and use them with MagicDisc just like using the original
discs. At the office: Program discs and many other applications generally
require the original disc to be in the computer's CD-ROM drive. This
restricts the amount of people in your office who can have access to the
same software at the same time without the cost of additional discs.
MagicDisc virtual drives resolve that problem for you. No more hunting
around the offices for that elusive disc you need to run your application,
everything you require is just a click away."
--
Bear Bottoms
Freeware website: http://bearware.info
Bear Bottoms
wrote:
You can also compress an ISO image to UIF
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-whatuif.htm?=MagicDisc
Related Topics on that page:
Compress ISO image to UIF
Decompress UIF image
Create UIF image
Mount UIF image
Create UIF image from CD/DVD
Burn UIF Image
gavin
"Bear Bottoms" <bearbo...@gmai.com> wrote in message
news:op.udp32...@bwwlxc1.br.no.cox.net...
> After installing, I right clicked MagicDisc icon which runs in the tray
> when you start it, and chose "Virtual CD/DVD-Rom"-moused over the slide
> out menu and chose "mount"-went to the path of the ISO on my desktop,
> selected it and it popped up a screen to choose which program to open it
> with. I chose GOM Player and it ran the DVD movie just like it was in my
> DVD drive.
>
> Initially, I had used DVDFab to copy the 'protected' DVD movie and ImgBurn
> to make the ISO, so I had the ISO already.
>
> As a test, I used MagicDisc to create an ISO directly from the /protected/
> DVD without having to go through DVDFab and ImgBurn. It created a perfect
> ISO image of the 'protected' DVD movie. I mounted that and it worked just
> as well as the ISO I made with DVDFab and ImgBurn. Very neat.
>
> It will also compress ISO images and decompress UIF images.
>
> When I installed it, it made an entry in the startup menu which I removed.
> I will start it when I want it. I also unchecked "auto mount" in the
> options.
>
>
> http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm?=magiciso
>
> "MagicDisc is freeware. It is very helpful utility designed for creating
> and managing virtual CD drives and CD/DVD discs. For anyone who deals with
> your favorite games, music, or software programs ---- It works like a real
> CD/DVD-ROM: You can run programs, play games, or listen to music from your
> virtual CD-ROM. Allowing you to run your game images at over 200x faster
> than from a conventional CD/DVD-ROM. MagicDisc is a powerful utility that
> uses a unique combination of options to ensure a perfect back-up every
> time. Partner with MagicISO****PAYWARE****, Your original games/program
> discs can be safely stored away, MagicISO ****PAYWARE**** mean that you
> always have your expensive media stored safely as CD/DVD image file on
> your hard drive, and use them with MagicDisc just like using the original
> discs. At the office: Program discs and many other applications generally
> require the original disc to be in the computer's CD-ROM drive. This
> restricts the amount of people in your office who can have access to the
> same software at the same time without the cost of additional discs.
> MagicDisc virtual drives resolve that problem for you. No more hunting
> around the offices for that elusive disc you need to run your application,
> everything you require is just a click away."
Don't understand a word of that. In words of one syllable for a thicky like
me - what does it do???
LouB
Lou
Bear Bottoms
<thes...@cosmicdancer.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> Don't understand a word of that. In words of one syllable for a thicky
> like
> me - what does it do???
>
In short, it is a virtual CD/DVD drive from which you can play ISO images
saved to your hard drive.
gavin
"LouB" <Lo...@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:486D0AAC...@invalid.com...
I will stay away from it - I just want a simple explanation of what it does
so that I may learn. Is that OK?
gavin
> On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:13:53 -0500, gavin
> <thes...@cosmicdancer.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Don't understand a word of that. In words of one syllable for a thicky
>> like
>> me - what does it do???
>>
> In short, it is a virtual CD/DVD drive from which you can play ISO images
> saved to your hard drive.
Thanks, BB.
Bear Bottoms
Check this out...if you have a game you play often, saving an ISO image to
your hard drive and playing the game via the Magic Disk virtual CD is a
lot faster than reading from your DVD/CD drives.
Mounting ISO images and being about to run/play them is a nice function.
LouB
> On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:13:53 -0500, gavin
> <thes...@cosmicdancer.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Don't understand a word of that. In words of one syllable for a thicky
>> like
>> me - what does it do???
>>
> In short, it is a virtual CD/DVD drive from which you can play ISO
> images saved to your hard drive.
>
>
LouB
BB's explanation was perfect.
Lou
VanguardLH
> After installing, I right clicked MagicDisc icon which runs in the tray
> when you start it, and chose "Virtual CD/DVD-Rom"-moused over the slide
> out menu and chose "mount"-went to the path of the ISO on my desktop,
> selected it and it popped up a screen to choose which program to open it
> with. I chose GOM Player and it ran the DVD movie just like it was in my
> DVD drive.
>
> Initially, I had used DVDFab to copy the 'protected' DVD movie and ImgBurn
> to make the ISO, so I had the ISO already.
>
> As a test, I used MagicDisc to create an ISO directly from the /protected/
> DVD without having to go through DVDFab and ImgBurn. It created a perfect
> ISO image of the 'protected' DVD movie. I mounted that and it worked just
> as well as the ISO I made with DVDFab and ImgBurn. Very neat.
>
> It will also compress ISO images and decompress UIF images.
>
> When I installed it, it made an entry in the startup menu which I removed.
> I will start it when I want it. I also unchecked "auto mount" in the
> options.
>
> http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm?=magiciso
>
> "MagicDisc is freeware. ... It works like a real
> CD/DVD-ROM: You can run programs, play games, or listen to music from your
> virtual CD-ROM. Allowing you to run your game images at over 200x faster
> than from a conventional CD/DVD-ROM. ...
So does it handle (obviate or circumvent) the protection mechanisms used
by game makers, like SecureROM, to eliminate having to insert the game's
physical CD/DVD to play it? I'm not using it anymore but Daemon Tools
had some copy protection options. Or does it do nothing regarding copy
protection and expect that you have somehow wiped it in the .iso that
you created?
I did a quick install and test inside a virtual machine running Windows
XP Pro SP-3. I don't know if a virtual disc emulator will actually
function properly inside a VM. It runs immediately after installation
without a reboot so it must use a dynamically loaded driver. I couldn't
find an NT service for it (to let the user decide to stop/start it while
troubleshooting it or some other problem).
It lets you define up to 4 emulated discs but you can click on More and
go up to 15 emulated discs, which beats the 4-disc limit in Daemon
Tools. However, when I set it to the max of 15 emulated discs, the
virtual machine crashed with a BSOD (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, Stop
0x0000000A which means bad hardware or driver). I tried with 1, 2, 3,
and 4 emulated discs and no BSOD. Went to 5 emulated discs (using the
More submenu) and still no BSOD. So I jumped to 15 emulated disks again
and it bluescreened. I didn't bother going through 6 to 14 emulated
discs to see at what point their driver causes Windows to crash.
I thought the "Make CD/DVD Image ..." context menu for its tray icon
would pop up an ad for their commercial MagicISO product but instead it
came up with a dialog to define how to create an ISO image, so it might
work to create one (I didn't try it). The context menu is a bit
cluttered. The lower half of it is filled with links to Help, How To
articles (which show up as a submenu rather than opening a help app), 3
links to their web site, and the About entry, all of which could've been
stuck under a single Help entry with submenus under it.
It does have a defect in its tray icon's context menu of not
disappearing if focus is changed to elsewhere. This leaves it menu
displayed onscreen. Using the About entry is the only non-functional
method of getting rid of the context menu's window (without initiating
an execute of something).
Consumes 2.9MB (plus 3.1MB pagefile) for the tray icon, nothing when you
exit the tray icon (which did not unmount the emulated drives which is
good). Don't know what the driver consumes.
gavin
I apologise unreservedly , Lou.
Yrrah
> I did a quick install and test inside a virtual machine running Windows
Thanks for the effort and the info.
Yrrah
Bear Bottoms
The parent payware MagicISO is the meat behind the functions you wish to
do beyond using the program to mount an ISO as a virtual DVD/CD drive.
Though MagicDisc did make ISOs and UIF images I do not propose to use this
program for such as it's parent is designted to do this work. This free
program should only be used to mount existing ISO's.
Any other calls to arms?
Little Luke
> On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:00:57 -0500, gavin
>
>
>
> > "Bear Bottoms" <bearbotto...@gmai.com> wrote in message
> >news:op.udp8c...@bwwlxc1.br.no.cox.net...
> >> On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:13:53 -0500, gavin
> >> <thesli...@cosmicdancer.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >>> Don't understand a word of that. In words of one syllable for a thicky
> >>> like
> >>> me - what does it do???
>
> >> In short, it is a virtual CD/DVD drive from which you can play ISO
> >> images
> >> saved to your hard drive.
>
> > Thanks, BB.
>
> Check this out...if you have a game you play often, saving an ISO image to
> your hard drive and playing the game via the Magic Disk virtual CD is a
> lot faster than reading from your DVD/CD drives.
>
> Mounting ISO images and being about to run/play them is a nice function.
>
> --
> Bear Bottoms
> Freeware website:http://bearware.info
Anyone got DOOM or Quake (single shooter not that play everyone
crap). ?
VanguardLH
> After installing, I right clicked MagicDisc icon which runs in the tray
> when you start it, and chose "Virtual CD/DVD-Rom"-moused over the slide
> out menu and chose "mount"-went to the path of the ISO on my desktop,
> selected it and it popped up a screen to choose which program to open it
> with. I chose GOM Player and it ran the DVD movie just like it was in my
> DVD drive.
>
> Initially, I had used DVDFab to copy the 'protected' DVD movie and ImgBurn
> to make the ISO, so I had the ISO already.
>
> As a test, I used MagicDisc to create an ISO directly from the /protected/
> DVD without having to go through DVDFab and ImgBurn. It created a perfect
> ISO image of the 'protected' DVD movie. I mounted that and it worked just
> as well as the ISO I made with DVDFab and ImgBurn. Very neat.
>
> It will also compress ISO images and decompress UIF images.
Be careful using UIF. First, it is another image compression algorithm
so it won't help with your data file discs (that are not image files).
It won't compress an install disc and it won't further compress many
image files that are already highly compressed (and already at low
quality). "It compresses raw CD/DVD data with high quality
compression-method." They wanted to steer clear of saying lossy
compression. Reducing file size for images by reducing quality (i.e.,
lossy) has been available for a long time.
UIF has, so far, been primarily used in distributing warez distributions
(like yEnc's primary use is to compress porn). In both cases (of UIF
and yEnc), those downloading warez or porn want the file as small as
possible even if only a couple percentage points smaller and will far
more tolerate the lossy or unreliable compression. Also, it doesn't
seem like anyone other than MagicISO is promoting this compression
format so you'll be stuck using MagicISO for all UIF files that you use
and anyone to whom you send a UIF file will also get stuck using just
one program to open/load that file. It isn't a UIF file. It is a
*MagicISO* UIF file. Since MagicISO is a Windows-only application, no
one on a *NIX platform can use it.
With a format that can only be read by a MagicISO program and a program
that only runs on a Windows platform, it won't become a ubiquitous
standard as is .zip or .rar. Their web site is information poor. I saw
no documentation regarding *their* UIF format. If it isn't an open
standard, just who else is going to adopt it. Without documentation,
just who else can support it in their own apps? UIF is a proprietary
format by MagicISO.
Bear Bottoms
I really don't recommend the program for anything other than mounting
ISO's. That it will create an ISO or UIF from DVD protected discs is
rather minor as the quality wasn't as good as what I did with DVDFab and
ImgBurn...which was flawless.
I think that MagicDisc is really a subpart of MagicISO which is their
power program (payware) and MagicDisk is being offered free to promote the
parent. Whatever, it does a great job of mounting ISOs.
Fred
news:rfSdnSx_kZC87_DV...@comcast.com...
> Bear Bottoms wrote:
>
> UIF has, so far, been primarily used in distributing warez distributions
> (like yEnc's primary use is to compress porn). In both cases (of UIF
> and yEnc), those downloading warez or porn want the file as small as
> possible even if only a couple percentage points smaller and will far
> more tolerate the lossy or unreliable compression. Also, it doesn't
> seem like anyone other than MagicISO is promoting this compression
> format so you'll be stuck using MagicISO for all UIF files that you use
> and anyone to whom you send a UIF file will also get stuck using just
> one program to open/load that file. It isn't a UIF file. It is a
> *MagicISO* UIF file. Since MagicISO is a Windows-only application, no
> one on a *NIX platform can use it.
>
> With a format that can only be read by a MagicISO program and a program
> that only runs on a Windows platform, it won't become a ubiquitous
> standard as is .zip or .rar. Their web site is information poor. I saw
> no documentation regarding *their* UIF format. If it isn't an open
> standard, just who else is going to adopt it. Without documentation,
> just who else can support it in their own apps? UIF is a proprietary
> format by MagicISO.
Whilst fully concurring with Bear and VanguardLH, for completeness,
excellent freeware is available for converting UIF to ISO:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/uif2iso/
"UIF2ISO is a program for converting UIF files (Universal Image Format, used
by MagicISO) to ISO. On Windows, it works from both the commandline and a
GUI"
--
Fred
LouB
Lou
Bear Bottoms
> Whilst fully concurring with Bear and VanguardLH, for completeness,
> excellent freeware is available for converting UIF to ISO:
>
> http://freshmeat.net/projects/uif2iso/
>
> "UIF2ISO is a program for converting UIF files (Universal Image Format,
> used
> by MagicISO) to ISO. On Windows, it works from both the commandline and a
> GUI"
>
Nice Fred, to round out this discussion. I do not recommend using the free
MagicDisk for anything other than mounting ISOs as a virtual DVD/CD Rom
drive which it does an excellent job of. The ISO and UIF creation
functionallity is built into MagicDisk, but it needs the parent program to
do a clean job.
I suppose that if I found a UIF image online that was created by someone
using MagicISO this would do the trick without the need to purchase
MagicISO. While that may never happen for me, it is nice to know there is
a way.
VanguardLH
> Nice Fred, to round out this discussion. I do not recommend using the free
> MagicDisk for anything other than mounting ISOs as a virtual DVD/CD Rom
> drive which it does an excellent job of. The ISO and UIF creation
> functionallity is built into MagicDisk, but it needs the parent program to
> do a clean job.
>
> I suppose that if I found a UIF image online that was created by someone
> using MagicISO this would do the trick without the need to purchase
> MagicISO. While that may never happen for me, it is nice to know there is
> a way.
My primary concern, at this point, is the BSOD when the emulated volume
count is increased. Somewhere above 5 and below 15 is where MagicDisc
will crash Windows. Not just MagicDisc itself but Windows crashes
because of a flaky driver. While you might not ever use whatever volume
count at which the crash occurs, this flaw could manifest itself into
the lower volume counts by making those emulated devices unreliable or
exhibit other problems. Stressing a driver to the point that it
exhibits a system crash could mean that defect will still affect that
driver's operation at lower stress.
Losing the emulated volumes because MagicDisc crashed alone would be
tolerable as a reload or reboot (at a time of the user's choosing) would
fix that but is a recovery that irritates the user. However, I don't
want to use a device driver that takes out the whole operating system
along with any work in progress. Since they provide no release info web
page, I won't be able to tell if and when they fix this defect. So it
will probably be a very long time, if ever, that I re-review this
product. If they had a release page then I could see when they
addressed this problem and then try the product again at that time.
I don't overclock because a stable platform is far more important to me
than one that gets maybe 2% to 7% increase in performance that is only
measurable in benchmarks. I prefer to limit the software that has known
reliability problems, especially BSODs, especially if it is not critical
software or if there are other choices. MagicDisc looks interesting but
there are other free choices, too. I used Daemon Tools at one time but
didn't really like their rootkit scheme of hiding their driver, but I'd
probably use Daemon Tools before using MagicDisc. Hell, even
Microsoft's really old VCDcontrol driver for emulated CD/DVD drives
(http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/b/6/7b6abd84-7841-4978-96f5-bd58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe)
works okay and hasn't crashed in the many months that I've been using it
although its configuration dialog is definitely not elegant.
Bear Bottoms
> My primary concern, at this point, is the BSOD when the emulated volume
> count is increased. Somewhere above 5 and below 15 is where MagicDisc
> will crash Windows. Not just MagicDisc itself but Windows crashes
> because of a flaky driver. While you might not ever use whatever volume
> count at which the crash occurs, this flaw could manifest itself into
> the lower volume counts by making those emulated devices unreliable or
> exhibit other problems. Stressing a driver to the point that it
> exhibits a system crash could mean that defect will still affect that
> driver's operation at lower stress.
>
Did you catch the part that what you are trying to do has it's drivers
incorporated in MagicISO? MagicDisk is a subprogram of MagicISO (payware)
and parts of it's menu require the parent to function well. This appears
obvious from some parts of the menu.
My assumption is they have taken the sub-program and seperated it from the
parent to offer a freeware virtual DVD/CD ROM in hopes it will give them
wider recognition to their payware product.
Regardless, as a freeware virtual DVD/CD ROM...it works perfectly.
VanguardLH
> On Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:33:46 -0500, VanguardLH <V...@nguard.lh> wrote:
>
>> My primary concern, at this point, is the BSOD when the emulated volume
>> count is increased. Somewhere above 5 and below 15 is where MagicDisc
>> will crash Windows. Not just MagicDisc itself but Windows crashes
>> because of a flaky driver. While you might not ever use whatever volume
>> count at which the crash occurs, this flaw could manifest itself into
>> the lower volume counts by making those emulated devices unreliable or
>> exhibit other problems. Stressing a driver to the point that it
>> exhibits a system crash could mean that defect will still affect that
>> driver's operation at lower stress.
>>
> Did you catch the part that what you are trying to do has it's drivers
> incorporated in MagicISO?
Did you miss the part that MagicDisc is its own installation separate of
the payware version? The driver *is* included with MagicDisc;
otherwise, the product wouldn't work. You do NOT need MagicISO to have
the driver available to support the emulated volumes.
If there are limitations in the implementation of the driver under the
freeware version of their product, it should NOT be generating BSODs!
If the user is not allowed to create more than, say, 7 emulated volumes
than the UI for that freeware version should not show 8 to 15 for a
selection. Also, I really doubt they provide a different driver for the
free version other than perhaps with code to trigger on the limitations
imposed by the free version. Any limiting code in the driver should not
generate BSODs. The free version's UI did not prevent me from selecting
15 emulated volumes.
> Regardless, as a freeware virtual DVD/CD ROM...it works perfectly.
Yeah, if you're willing to have a BSOD bomb on your host.
VanguardLH
> Since they provide no release info web page, I won't be able to tell
> if and when they fix this defect.
I rechecked and missed that their downloads page does have a list of
changes per version. So maybe later in a new version they may remark
about fixing the BSOD when the count of emulated volumes exceeds some
count.
Peter Seiler
[huge quoting snipped]
> Thank You.
Please learn to quote:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanb/documents/quotingguide.html
THX in advance for your kind understanding and learning.
--
by(e) PS
spam will be killfiled
Lord Possum
says...
> LouB - 04.07.2008 14:15 :
>
> [huge quoting snipped]
>
> > Thank You.
>
> Please learn to quote:
>
> http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanb/documents/quotingguide.html
>
> THX in advance for your kind understanding and learning.
Just in case nobody noticed, MS itself offers a very simple
Virtual Drive Mounting program .. only about 65K. And, it
will permit reading an .ISO file of any description from
wherever you may derive it ... including movies.
I realize that some protected movies might not be easily
copied to .ISO .. but, Magic ISO (commercial) seems to be
one which will do so. There are other freebies, too.
But, the point is, one doesn't really need Magic Disk and/or
Magic ISO to accomplish the same end easily.
For reading all about the Microsoft (unsupported) program:
For downloading the (unsupported) file:
Dunno why MS offers the thing, but doesn't support it.
Lord Possum
dewey edwards
Apparently, only works with XP.
From http://pietschsoft.com/category/General.aspx (near bottom)
Mount ISO Images in Vista x64
In Windows XP I used the Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel Utility from
Microsoft to mount ISO images to virtual drive letters, but surely
Microsoft has built this functionality into Windows Vista, right? Wrong. It
would be nice, but they haven't built this into the OS yet. I hope they do
in the next release. Well, this utility doesn't work under Windows Vista. I
thought I was out of luck, but a quick search revealed a new option to try.
The new utility I found to mount ISO images under Windows Vista x64 is the
Freeware MagicDisc from MagicISO. This utility runs as an icon in the
taskbar and allows you to easily mount/unmount ISO images from virtual
drive letters. This utility in fact allows you to mount up to 15 ISO images
to virtual drive letters simultaneously
Dan Goodman
The page cannot be found
--
Dan Goodman
"I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
Journal http://dsgood.livejournal.com
Futures http://clerkfuturist.wordpress.com
mirror 1: http://dsgood.insanejournal.com
mirror 2: http://dsgood.wordpress.com
Links http://del.icio.us/dsgood
Johnw
>> http://tinyurl.com/5jy7p9
> The page cannot be found
As this is all about people helping people, here it is.
Dan Goodman
Thanks.