OT: To play without the cd

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realitydream

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OT: To play without the cd

Hey im wondering how you play without having the cd in? I'm convinced that all my performance and crash problems are due to the fact that i use the cd to play the game with. I need no more reassurence in the matter, im totally convinced now.

I have *sigh* tried to make an .iso file of my cd using isomagic, and mount it with Daemon Tools, but it wont work. The game always recognizes that i don't have the cd in. And i have run a full install.

I've also tried using a no-cd patch but that didn't work either.

Thoughts?

(I'm playing the game in 1.10 now because in 1.11 the game is even more unstable.)
 
When I first started playing, I used a no-CD-crack to play (so I could listen to music CD's while playing D2). I found the game to be much more reliable when I digitized the music to my hard-drive and used the CD for the actual game-CD. I think you'll be lucky to find a crack that behaves as reliably as the game CD, and I suspect your problem is elsewhere (i.e. unless your CD-player isn't using the proper "drivers.")

1. Are your problems related only to D2, or are they to anything that you must use a CD for? If it's only D2, I doubt that the CD drive is your problem - if it seems to be related to the CD-drive...
2. Can you confirm the CD-drivers are correct for your OS/hardware?
 
On a Mac, you can make a disk image with Disk Utility and mount that instead of using the physical CD, which is great since that way you don't have to worry about finding it or it wearing out or using your CD drive on battery power if you are on a laptop.
 
I backed my CD up with Alcohol 120%. Works like a charm, and is extremely convinient, since I play on a laptop and dont want to carry my game CD with me. Also, the game only looks for one file on the CD during play. I think it is d2xmusic.mpq. If you copy that file to your D2 directory, the game does only read from your CD once, during upstart. After that, you can remove it from the drive without problems.

-Kanonfutter
 
sirpoopsalot said:
When I first started playing, I used a no-CD-crack to play (so I could listen to music CD's while playing D2). I found the game to be much more reliable when I digitized the music to my hard-drive and used the CD for the actual game-CD. I think you'll be lucky to find a crack that behaves as reliably as the game CD, and I suspect your problem is elsewhere (i.e. unless your CD-player isn't using the proper "drivers.")

1. Are your problems related only to D2, or are they to anything that you must use a CD for? If it's only D2, I doubt that the CD drive is your problem - if it seems to be related to the CD-drive...
2. Can you confirm the CD-drivers are correct for your OS/hardware?
Click to expand...

I use the original drivers, so yes they should correct. And yes, i don't have any problems using the cd's for other games. It's only Diablo 2.

The reason why im so sure that it's the use of the cd that cause the problems is because i've had these exact performance and hang-up problems in 1.09 and then when i used Daemon Tools all the problems i had were fixed. This should be a known problem, i.e that running d2 on high end computers causes bad performance if you use the cd, because the game isn't actually using the cd very often if you got a good pc, so when it's actually going to load something from the cd the drive has to start it up each and every time. Well something like that anyways.



 
Didn't see this post before i posted.
kanonfutter said:
I backed my CD up with Alcohol 120%. Works like a charm, and is extremely convinient, since I play on a laptop and dont want to carry my game CD with me.
-Kanonfutter
Click to expand...
So you use alcohol to make the cd image? But you still mount that image with Daemon Tools am i right?

Also, the game only looks for one file on the CD during play. I think it is d2xmusic.mpq. If you copy that file to your D2 directory, the game does only read from your CD once, during upstart. After that, you can remove it from the drive without problems.
Click to expand...

Ah, yeah, thats right. You can remove it after the upstart and you basically play with a no-cd crack, that is if you copy the nessecary files. You do have to pop in and out the cd each time you're gonna start the game though, so thats a bit annoying.

Thanx a lot anyhow.



 
I use the combination of cloneCD + Deamon Tools
Works perfectly for me.

One note though, I've tried reading the CD on my GF's computer as well, for some reason that image did not work. When copying my own read image to that machine, deamon tools had no problem running it.
 
Does this place allow this topic (technical how to bypass the protection)?

I'm pretty sure kanonfutter's advice is 100% accurate. If you do a full install, and then copy the single mpq file to D2 folder, the game will never look for anything from CD unless:

1. when you start the game, it checks if valid CD is presented.
2. when you finish a act/difficulty (eg. defeat baal and enter the red portal), the game will play the in-game vidoe, which also checks game CD (however, it will load from hard drive if you did full installation).

In either case, performance is not an issue since you won't be playing during the CD check. I'm almost fully conviced your issue is elsewhere.

*anyone who's job is BOFH or user support role would know*
 
DeathMaster said:
Does this place allow this topic (technical how to bypass the protection)?
Click to expand...
The EULA does allow you to make a backup copy, so it's okay to talk about how to make/use a disk image that you made from a valid CD. However, it's not okay to discuss how to go around copy protection. (Like no-CD cracks, or obtaining the disk image from somewhere other than from your valid CD.)



 
I hope I am not stepping out of bonds, since I know for sure this does not work with a copy of the game cd, only an original.

For mounting the image, I use a drive made by Alcohol. I have never tried working with Daemon Tools (runs off to Google).

-Kanonfutter
 
I use an image created by CloneCD and mount it with Daemon tools.
When creating the image with CloneCD you should make sure that you tick the box with "Copy Sublevel data" or something like it. I forgot what the exact name is, but you'll know it when you see it.
It copies some hidden files to the image that would otherwise be left out. D2 checks if these are available, so without them the image won't work

Cheers,
CheeZe
 
WestXylophone said:
On a Mac, you can make a disk image with Disk Utility and mount that instead of using the physical CD, which is great since that way you don't have to worry about finding it or it wearing out or using your CD drive on battery power if you are on a laptop.
Click to expand...
Apple's Disk Utility didn't work for me. Maybe they improved it in 10.4 (I'm still using 10.3.9). I've read that it works for some games but not all.
Another option for Mac users is Toast, which worked fine for me.



 
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