More Awesome Than You!

Has anyone achieved this?  My freaking DVD reader sounds like a jet engine taking off, every time I boot the computer and/or access the drive.  It's driving me batty.

From my small foray into the matter, it seems that a lot of people are saying the old hat trick of loading a mini-backup into Daemon tools no longer works.  You need to load the entire freaking 700 MB image and run some other program that hides the presence of the Daemon tool.  I'm not too keen on that.  And I'm not interested in a crack exe either.  I stay away from stuff like that.

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

I don't use a CD. You need to grab a little ap called sd4hide.exe or SafeDisk4 Hider. Other than that, I don't know if a little mini-backup would work once you use sd4hide, I have the full blown iso because I "aquired" it that way.

And I like chinese food! Yum.

Theoretically there might exist sites with names like gamecopyworld.com which may or may not have working "no CD" patches for all Sims expansion packs.

I use a mini-image and an anti-spyware (Safedisc hider) myself.

Hiding the daemon tools just requires the deletion of this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi. ;)

That's what most dubious exe's do; others may also do additional tasks ::)

Of course you still need to load the entire image as well.

PS: Don't forget to restore that registry key.

Thats why you use sd4hide. It hides/restores that key for you.

I found a simple script that does that for you (deletes and restores the SCSI key).  Didn't work for me, but then I wasn't using the full image either.

I might have to resort to that. 

Anyone made it work with the mini-backup image?

I use the sd4hide and the mini image. works well for me

I use game jackal. It's pay though. Well, sort of.

I use Game Jackal as well. I haven't paid for it yet, still using the "trial" version.

I also use GameJackal.  It's ten bucks for the full version, last time I checked, and it took me a couple of tries to figure out how to set up a profile properly, but it's worked without a hitch since.  And it'll work with most other games that require a CD, as long as you have the original to set it up with, so it's not a bad deal.

My OFB cd started acting wierd yesterday (like telling me to insert the disc, when it was already in). So I went to umm....crap something like gamecopyworld or gameburnworld, something like that.  I found a nocd patch there.  works fine.  There should really be an option in these games to copy the executable to your hard drive so you don't have to use the disc.  I know how much *I, personally* play, and I'm sure there are a lot of other people that do the same.  That's got to be a lot of abuse on a disc.

What rubbish. You must have been eating crap chinese foods like those greasy cheap takeaways.

You probably haven't tasteed REAL TASTY Chinese food!  ::) :P

The thing is, the game doesn't actually NEED the CD once you've installed it.  It only wants to see if you actually have a legitimate copy.

Liss, the probelm with NoCD patches is that you have to remember to replace the original exe file if Maxis releases a patch or you install a new EP, or it won't install.  You also then have to find a new NoCD patch to that works with the Maxis patch.  I used them in Sims 1, but it was a pain, and I've steered clear of them with Sims 2.

So I'm loving GameJackal, but here's the rub...

I run on a laptop that's an ultra-light (3lbs), and thus, has no drive attached.  I have to use an external.  Even with GJ, it requires that I have the drive attached, which... is a pain in the rear end, because if I have to move locations or something, I have to juggle a laptop, a drive, and usually a notebook.

Does anyone know if there's a way to run OFB WITHOUT attaching the drive?

Well, Daemon tools is only a virtual drive.

And, Daemon conflicts with GJ.  So.

I did some searching, and the answer, for those of you like me, is to d/l the Original CD Emulator and run it simultaneously with GJ. 

It even speeds up my game.  It's rather nice.

Would that help eliminate the conflict between Game Jackal and the Roxio DVD burner software?  Even with those programs in different partitions, GJ won't run OFB.  It doesn't have a problem with Nero. 
Does anyone know if having the Roxio stuff on a different hard drive would work, or is it the registry entries that mess everything up?

It's a lot of abuse on the CD drive too. Copy protection stinks.

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.

Ooh. That sounds like fun. I would want my eulogy to be "She died an unnecessary and painful death due to explody CD. Her bereaved family will be suing the pants off of EA and living like rap stars off of the proceeds, in dedication to her memory and according to her (presumed) final wishes."

MythBusters actually tested this myth and declared it, in fact, a myth.  Your CD would have to spin faster than an industrial electric drill to explode hard enough to shoot THROUGH the case of the computer and cause damage to a person.

But anyway.  The CDs do explode :) Stress fractures ROCK.

I have heard of people putting labels on their CDs too, that makes a good implode. (Tales from my techmate's work).

Depending on your computer, it may not be necessary to actually physically penetrate the computer case. Some CD drives have only a flimsy piece of plastic that stands between you and high-velocity plastic shrapnel puncturing your face. I have, in fact, seen CDs explode with sufficient fragment velocity to cause injury or death.

I have never seen a CD-indused human fatality, but I have had CD drives completely fail because of CD shattering.
In one instance I received nasty cuts on my hands after opening the drive even.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

You can use this one (https://www.onlinefilefolder.com/index.php?action=getshare&type=0&user_num=27747&share_id=54269&hash=ab533a9cebe0b38120faf75a0b387849), 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.

Thank you so much, I am gonna try that

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.  ;D

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?

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.

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…

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

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. (http://www.utilitygeek.com/CD+DVD_Burning_c11.html)

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?

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.

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!

I made a batch file using the instructions found here:

http://brucebeh.com/hidesd4hide.htm