| Virtual
CD V3 FAQ
What is Virtual CD good for?
Virtual CD makes CD-ROM applications faster, more portable, and easier to use. It accomplishes this by turning your CD-ROM data into hard disk data in a CD container file, also referred to simply as a "virtual CD". A CD Emulator creates new virtual CD drives on your Windows systems. You can see them in the "My computer" window or in the Explorer:
They look and feel exactly like physical drives. In the example above, drive letters G: through J: are virtual CD drives and E: is the physical drive.
Working with Virtual CD is a two-stage process. First, you create virtual CDs from your CD-ROM(s). After they are created, you "insert" them to and "eject" them from drive letters designated by the software. You can add more virtual CDs at any time, and work with them just as you would with actual CD-ROMs.
Why just not copy the files on CD with the MS Explorer?
Some applications will not run if they 'suspect', that you don't have the CD. They look for tell tail signs to confirm that you are running the application from the CD ROM drive. - Thereby verifying that you have the CD. Virtual CD simulates these signals, so 'fooling' the application.
Virtual CD will run audio tracks: Explorer will not recognize audio tracks on a CD. Therefore when you use Explorer to save a CD to your hard drive you will loose the audio elements. - This is particularly significant for audio intensive applications, such as games. Virtual CD will copy audio tracks as well as files and folders.
Virtual CD organizes the files and folders in the drive in such a way that they will be recognized as an application. Many software will not run from within a random folder on a hard drive.
Is Virtual CD Windows 2000 compliant?
Virtual CD V.3 is fully Windows 2000 compatible for use on a single workstation.
Can I use Virtual CD in a network environment?
Virtual CD does currently not support network environments. You may not install it on a Windows 2000/NT Server. Virtual CD is necessary on each workstation and the image files must be located on the workstation as well.
There will be a dedicated network version of Virtual CD within July 2000. User of the current versions will receive special upgrade offer.
Does Virtual CD work with a copy protected CD-ROMs?
Virtual CD V.3 includes new caching algorithms to allow emulation of almost any CD title.
Can I cache DVDs?
Virtual CD is not able to cache DVDs, but data-, audio-, mixedmode-, Video CD, CD Extra- and CDI CDs. There will be a DVD caching version eventually in the end of 2000.
Can I access virtual CDs in the DOS environment?
You can access virtual CDs in a DOS box when Windows is running in the background, but not in the "pure" MS-DOS mode
If the data on the virtual CD ROM image is compressed, doesn't the extraction slow down access to the data?
The compression is optimised for speed. Only slightly, when maximum performance is really an issue, the user may choose not to compress the data.
Can Virtual CD V.3 read container files created by the earlier version called Virtual CD-ROM?
Yes, virtual CD images can be used from version V.1 and V.2. But images made with the new V.3 with its new maximum compression cannot be used with former versions.
Does having more RAM and / or a faster system speed up the creation of the container files?
In some cases this may substantially reduce the time necessary to create the container files as the compression algorithm needs CPU power.
How much RAM memory does each virtual CD drive require?
Virtual CD will be included into the MS Windows OS as a new device. MS Windows reserves 64KB memory for each virtual CD drive. We recommend to install 3-5 virtual CD drives. The number of virtual CD drives just represents the number of CDs which can be accessed simultaneously, not the number of virtual CD images at all (can be "indefinite", depending on the hard disk's capacity).
Does Virtual CD provide command-line control?
Yes, please refer to the online manual.
Does Virtual CD support CD-titles with audio tracks (mixed-mode CDs)?
Yes, since V.2 Virtual CD reads data tracks as well as audio tracks. Some game titles may not playback background music during the game when it uses MS DirectSound to play the sound. Nevertheless the game will work fine.
How to uninstall?
The Virtual CD uninstallation program will completely remove the software from your computer. However, on certain Windows NT systems it may be necessary to remove the driver manually: Deactivate the driver "fastmp" in the device list within the control panel and reboot.
MixedMode or data virtual CDs appear as an audio-CD?!
Either you try to access virtual CD over a network which currently does not work or the virtual CD built failed when using the new copy methods correction 2 when the CD drive does not support this mdoe correctly. The source CD may be scratched or dirty when it has been "virtualized"?!
Why does a CD-ROM application still asks me to insert the CD-ROM into the real CD-ROM drive?
You have had installed the CD-ROM application from the physical drive before. Some CD-ROM application will run from the CD-ROM drive in which it has been installed first. Please uninstall the CD-ROM application, and then re-install the CD-ROM application from the virtual CD again.
Why is the data CD compression weak?
Some CD applications are already compressed on the CD.Virtual CD provides an efficient compression algorithm for any un-compressed CD titles (about 50-60% compression rate). The compression rate could decrease to est. 10%-30% for those CD titles with compressed data. It works similar to the ZIP compression.
The application or the operating system freezes or crashes.
CD-ROM read-ahead is set in Windows and must be disabled: Under Win 9x open the System control panel. Click on the Performance tab. Under Performance, click on the File System button. Under File System Properties, click on the CD-ROM tab. Under CD-ROM, choose No read-ahead from the "Optimize access pattern for" drop-down list box. Choose OK twice to close the control panel.
Background music does not play with my game.
Some games check the CD Music setting in the Multimedia control panel for the music source. Solution: Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panels. Open the Multimedia control panel and click the CD Music tab. Change the drive to your virtual drive where the game is inserted. Note: Be sure to change this setting back to your real CD-ROM drive after you are done so that other audio functions, including additional container file builds, work correctly. Applications use Direct X to play audio, and many use it as a shared resource. However, some take exclusive control of Direct X, which does not allow Virtual CD to play the background music. The game will function correctly, but background music is not available in this case.
After I installed the product, I could not access my local CD-ROM drive.
The local CD-ROM drive is controlled by an older (legacy) DOS driver, which Virtual CD is not recognizing, and Virtual CD is taking the drive letter used by the local CD-ROM. Solution: Set the drive letter assignment manually. This procedure is described in the Windows OS help and differs between 9x/NT/2000.
My computer displays CD-ROM drive characteristics for my floppy diskette drive(s).
The Number of Drives value is set too high. You must specify a number of virtual CDs equal to or less than the number of drive letters you have available, excluding those taken up by hard disks, diskette drives, and network drives. Choose Number of Drives from the Edit menu, and decrease the value.
Virtual CDs are missing from the display.
You have removed, or removed and deleted, the virtual CDs in question. Use the Find button to locate and re-add the virtual CDs you are missing. If the CD container files were deleted, rebuild them using the Build New Image button.
Windows reports DSOUND.DLL missing every time I reboot my PC.
This is a component of Direct X. Direct X version 3 or higher is required for this product to function. Solution: Acquire Direct X from Microsoft. It is available for free for Windows 95, in Windows NT Service Pack 3, or directly in Windows 98.
The virtual CD I built does not work.
Certain CD-ROM discs, which may be mastered in a non-standard way, cannot be read by the default CD read-out method in the Virtual CD Builder. Solution: Rebuild and try another copy method.
The Virtual CD Builder applet freezes or crashes when attempting to build a virtual CD.
A small number of systems experience problems with the binary search disc scanning process used when estimating the CD-ROM size and copying the data to a virtual CD. This is a secondary scanning method provided for problem discs. Solution: In the Virtual CD Builder: Selecting the Source screen, uncheck the Use binary search method box to use the default disc scanning method.
The Builder returns errors and fails when trying to build a virtual CD from an audio disc, while playing an audio virtual CD.
You cannot build an audio virtual CD and play an audio virtual CD simultaneously. Solution: Stop playing the existing audio virtual CD to build the new one.
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Demoversion:
Here you can download the 30 days trial version of Virtual CD v2.06.Please note, that this demoversion is currently not Windows
2000 compliant. The new W2k compliant demoversion of VirtualCD v3 is coming soon.
Demoversion (1.6MB)
Nikkei Win PC: Best Software in Year 1999
PCMobil: Best Buy 99
Innovation
of the Year 1999
Very Good!
Windows Magazine Readers Choice
Very Good! Buy it!
Win PC Editors Choice
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