In order for the computer to be able to read and make virtual CDs / DVDs, an emulator must be installed on it. Given the prevalence of virtual disks on the Internet, it is necessary to understand what these emulators are and how they work.
The essence of CD and DVD emulators
CD / DVD emulators are used to create and read virtual disks. To do this, they create virtual CD / DVD drives in the system, with the help of which the virtual data carriers are read. There are many programs of this level, but the most common of them are Alcohol 120% and Daemon Tools, the first of them is paid, the other has a free version, which made it extremely popular among users.
Create a disk image
Creation of virtual disks also occurs using similar programs. But there are pitfalls here, associated either with the protection of the disk from copying, or with the protection of copyright holders. If the disk is not protected either programmatically or by law, then you can safely create a virtual disk image. The same Daemon Tools in its paid version offers ways to bypass disk copy protection, but this should be done at your own risk.
Recording images
Writing a virtual image to a real disk will be efficient if several conditions are met. First, the burnable image must be taken from an unprotected disk. Secondly, the recording should be done at the lowest possible speed for it to be error-free. For example, the same alcohol records discs much worse than Daemon Tools. Not all emulators have the ability to burn discs, sometimes you need the help of software created purely for recording, for example, Ashampoo.
Due to their peculiarities, some disk emulators are mistaken by antiviruses during installation as malicious software, so before installing such software, you need to turn off antivirus programs.
Virtual CD / DVD drive
In order for the program to create a virtual drive, a special system driver must be installed. This driver is usually installed with the installation of the disk emulation program. Before installing it, the developers recommend making a system backup, because the driver is not always suitable for all versions of Windows. The largest number of driver compatibility issues occurs when installing a driver on Windows vista.
As a rule, free emulation programs are very limited in their functionality. The free version of Daemon Tools can only read virtual disks, while the paid one can write and replicate them.
Areas of application of CD / DVD emulators
CD / DVD emulators are used by software developers to create software packages, game publishers to distribute their products over the Internet, as well as pirated publishers of games, films and programs, since recently it does not take a lot of intelligence to make a virtual image. protected disk and successfully overwrite it to a regular unprotected disk. Often, pirated images are distributed over the Internet using file-sharing networks, which forced the government of the Russian Federation to introduce the so-called "anti-piracy" law.
