[Ti] copying disc to HAD (was BigAl battery life)

[b]

Michael Bigley paused, thought it over, and spoke thusly:

>>How do you do that?  I've often tried copying discs whole to the HD (DVDs,
>>games & other program discs) but they always still seem to demand the disc
>>be in the drive or they don't run.
>
>If you use diskcopy to make a disk image (making sure that the disk 
>image has the EXACT name as the CD/DVD), then mount that image, it 
>*MAY* solve your problem. If the code in the software is written 
>well, and is not trying to create a "dongle effect", then you should 
>be fine.
>--

The most common, and easily circumvented software 'dongle' is the old 
trusty Checksum... That's where the later versions of Disk Copy and 
Toast fall down. Toast likes to add a Desktop folder to data that's 
being written to a new disk, and that will foul the checksum 
[verification]. Most folks that are doing serious copying are using 
Older versions of Disk Copy [6.5b11 being the most notorious] back to 
earlier versions. Older DC offered 'Cloning' in the utility menu. The 
only other app that will make a guaranteed exact copy, right down to 
the checksum, is Astarte CD-Copy 2.0.3, and there is not a so-called 
'copy protected CD-ROM in the world that cannot be duped and rendered 
'bootable', if need be.

There are a few software work-arounds for the USB-dongles, also, 
mostly on the Wintel side...20 times as many 'interested' parties, 
means more circumvention. Some of the game CDs like to 'see'an 
original disk, just once. I've made 64kb empty disk images and 
re-titled them, only to have major apps, and games 'look at them' on 
the desktop, and give the A-OK.

Once an .img, or .dmg, or .toast image has been copied, or cloned 
from a CD, then all that's really necessary is to lock the resultant 
'image', drop it on Toast's unlaunched icon, and burn... 1, 2, 3.. 
Lock, Drop, and Burn... the trick is getting the exact copy [which is 
no 'trick' at all], and the lock prevents any screwing around with 
the checksumming/verification. An exact image will always generate 
the correct CD title. doesn't matter if one copies a $5 shareware or 
a $90,000 Avid juggernaut, the rules don't change. I get 'thank you' 
notes all the time from software writers, because i pay for what I 
use...but money's tight in the creative community, and i don't blame 
folks for taking time to fully evaluate software before either buying 
or trashing it.

~flipper