A Problem Solved....

The Problem...

You have umteen bazillion CD's and DVD's of software that you regularly need to get at in staging new OS builds, or Virtual machine builds. Like most laptops that I have seen the CD/DVD reader is getting a little squirrelly and does not want to do its thing properly anymore ( reliably at least like the one in my laptop ). Add to this quandary the fact that often you don't have the program install disk you need when and where you need it. ( Carrying 50 lbs of install disks on a puddle jumper plane is not practical )

The solution...

ALCOHOL 120%

www.alcohol-soft.com

This program allows one to capture CD's and DVD's as ISO image files, or as is often the case you can download ISO images files and burn them to CD with Alcohol. ( Microsoft's support site for example allows you to download pretty much all of their offerings as ISO's, any Linux distro is typically available as an ISO as well ). Of course being able to burn an ISO to a CD is nothing new really. Most CD writer software allows that function. What's really cool about alcohol 120% is that it allows you to mount the ISO image as if it were actually inserted into the CD/DVD reader. It installs a driver that creates a second (Phantom) cd/dvd device in your computer

In the screenshot below I have 2 CD devices D is the real one ( that is having some issues reading things ) and E is the phantom one created by Alcohol120%

Right clicking on the E drive I get a menu where I can Mount and Image

I can select from other images I recently mounted or mount a new image by browsing to where the image is stored and selecting it. On doing so I get the Icon just as if I had inserted a real CD/DVD into a real drive.

In this case I selected to mount the Visio 2002 image because I need to install that application.

Now I can place all those CD's and DVD Iso's on my portable HD and always have them available without having to carry 50lbs of disks with me everywhere. You can always burn one to a real media device in a pinch ( say to install something on a machine without Alcohol installed if your real burner is working properly). But the software allows you to skip all that if you are working in the same machine. Truly a time saver and well worth the 80$ or so I spent for a version with upgrades for life. You can also get a 40$ 1 Year subscribe if you choose.

Check it out ....