Running OFB without the CD

[J. M. Pescado]

I have never seen a CD-indused human fatality, but I have had CD drives completely fail because of CD shattering.

I've caused a CD-induced human fatality, but that was deliberate and doesn't really count, when you shoot someone with a homemade spinfusor.

[idtaminger]

If you want to be Chinese, you have to eat nasty food.

It's only nasty if you eat takeout of any kind.

I used to use a CD crack on my comp. The thing was a trojan in disguise, unfortunately, and would periodly sap all my bandwidth. I now just stick to the CD, even if it is kinda annoying switching between computers.

[Orbit]

It's also worth noting that CDs constantly used in such a manner, especially cheaply manufactured ones like those used by certain companies (cough EA cough), will develop stress fractures and eventually explode. Depending on the way your CD drive is formed, you may be injured and/or killed by the resulting shrapnel.

That sounds like what happened to my MSDN Windows XP Pro CD.  Although I wasn't injured by the shrapnel.  But it totaled my nice CD Drive.

[RainbowTigress]

That sucks.  Did MS give you a replacement CD?  Too bad they won't replace your drive. 

[Chaudrum]

I have the same problem with my drive not realizing that the FFS CD is in the drive and therefor asking me to insert it.

This "sd4hide.exe " thing, does it work with FFS installed and where can I find it?

[BlueSoup]

You can use this one, but DO NOT click on the read-me webpage.  It takes you to a malware-infested page, and you don't need it anyway.

Right before you click on the game icon, run this program, press hide, then run the Sims game, then press Restore.

[Chaudrum]

Thank you so much, I am gonna try that

[BlueSoup]

No problem.  I use this program to run my OFB game to preserve the disk, and you know how when you first put in the disk it will do the autorun thing?  Well, I hate that, but I remove the disk all the time to play DVD's, so now I don't have to. 

[Chaudrum]

Do I need to have the game load completely before pushing the Restore button?
I can't seem to get it to work.

I tried preshing the hide button, then preshed the FFS Shortcut on my desk. It only showed the start image and then the restore button could be pushed, which I did but it isn't working.

Am I doing something wrong?

[BlueSoup]

No, you're probably not doing anything wrong.  You press the hide button, then start FFS, then press Restore.  You probably won't notice anything except there's a backup icon on your desktop that will be there while the program is hidden, and gone when it's restored.

I don't press Restore very often myself.

[jrd]

I use ASR in combination with Daemon Tools. That way a commandline option in the shortcut will hide the drives as the game is running, and automatically restore them after.

I don't much like having to remember to hide or unhide using a program manually…

[Athena]

For some reason, nothing will work for me.

I've tried both CureROM and SD4Hide (separately), both with Alcohol and Daemon tools.  I've also tried GameJackal.  Every time, The Sims 2 OFB says that I need to make sure that the CD is in the drive, then the program shuts down.  The only thing that *does* work is to 1) use my actual version of The Sims 2: OFB in the CD drive (which, for reasons mentioned in this thread, I don't want to do) or 2) find a cracked exe file, which I've heard is the reason my college grades are messed up (the bar doesn't change).

*has no idea why it works for everyone else, but not on this computer* :x

[witch]

No problem.  I use this program to run my OFB game to preserve the disk, and you know how when you first put in the disk it will do the autorun thing?  Well, I hate that, but I remove the disk all the time to play DVD's, so now I don't have to. 

Try holding down shift when putting in a disk, should disable the autorun.

I tried game Jackal, doesn't work for me either, I haven't tried the other suggestions yet.

I'm also going to try backing up my sims DVD with CloneDVD v2.8.9.9.

[Ancient Sim]

I really want to do this as I hate keeping cd's in the drive and half the time they go missing when I do.  I tried something called Circle Virtual CD (uses something called Hekkoscan), but when I clicked on it to make the image, it just loaded-up the game.  Maybe it's supposed to, I don't know, but I stopped it anyway.  It did create the new drive it's meant to though, Drive Z, but I was totally confused by it and there were no real help files with it.  Anyone else used it?

[Ambular]

Getting a GameJackal profile set up can be a bit tricky.  There's about three different ways to set one up, and only one of them works for any Sims 2 EP.  Unfortunately it's been some time since I tried it and I can't remember exactly how I went about it, but if you poke around the program trying different options you can probably get it to work.

[webwench]

For me, GameJackal was a snap.  Here's how I set up a profile:

1.  Install GJ completely.
2.  Make sure the disk is in your CD reader.
3.  Rightclick on the OFB icon or shortcut.
4.  Choose "Convert to Game Jackal Profile*

Game Jackal will make its own profile for use.

Now, if you're using a virtual CD rom, you'll get the chance to choose which drive you want the profile to be attached to.  Just follow the prompts, and you should be just fine.

Good luck!

[RainbowTigress]

I made a batch file using the instructions found here:

http://brucebeh.com/hidesd4hide.htm