By Bob LaFave, Tampa PC Users Group
boblala@ij.net

GameDrive is a Virtual Drive by FarStone Technology Inc. that I found at Best Buy while browsing the racks. I went home and after going to their web site and researching at Google for reviews of this and similar programs, I bought it. Two reasons at the web site convinced me to try this program: it would eliminate the need for CD's before playing, and it would be faster when the program was on the hard drive rather than playing on the slower CDROM. You can visit http://www.farstone.com and review the list of advantages there for more features and benefits. I purchased the program for $19.95 on my next visit to Best Buy. This program creates images of CD's onto your hard drive and places them into a library to use instead of your finding your CD and inserting it into your CD drive for each program. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH SPACE FOR YOUR USE BEFORE PURCHASING THIS PROGRAM.

System requirements are Windows 98SE and above, a CD drive to install from, 25MB of hard drive space for the installation files, a Pentium 233mhz and enough RAM (19KB of RAM is used for each virtual drive in use).

GameDrive's installation was typical of other programs today, and all you have to do is follow an InstallShield Wizard and agree to the license, enter a serial number and make choices such as what directory to install plus other options. I make sure I read the manuals before I install new programs, and this one went smoothly.

After installation, GameDrive can be launched by selecting Start on taskbar, then Programs\GameDrive\GameDrive Manager and by looking for the GameDrive icon that appears in the Windows system tray.

The main GameDrive Manager is much like Windows Explorer to view and get around. Mine created the Virtual Drive (E:) and left my CD drives listed as Other Devices (F: - H: ). The right panel shows the CD's by name that I had loaded at that time.

The process of entering a CD into your Library is to insert a CD into your CD drive and pushing the BUILD button; a Wizard will start that will guide you step by step. First, you select the physical CD drive that contains the CD. Second, GameDrive verifies that the selected hard drive has enough space for storage and the folder and VCD file name. Third, you select the CD read method. You can choose Normal for most CD's and an Intelligent Method for VCD's that do not run as expected and may be protected by having inaccurate volume information to prevent coping. You can also choose Compression to save space. There are other steps to build different types of files, such as mixed mode CD's that also contain audio tracks.

Now that you have a CD converted to a VCD file in your library you just select the file with your mouse and then push the Insert button and an animation graphic appears and the CD is now in your Virtual Drive ready to use. In the picture above, you can see that the Virtual Drive contains the VCD game Risk as CDROM drive E:. The game will now play as if the CD is inserted in a physical CDROM. You can also eject just by going to the Eject button.

Now for some other general information that you might be interested in. You can create Multiple Virtual Drives. You are limited by the number of letters in the alphabet to 26 total drives. You are then able to load multiple CD's or VCD's that are needed for some games. I have Baldur's Gate that contains five CD's to play. After I took the picture showing the Risk game, I did build all five CD's into the Library and actually load all five. To create a new Virtual Drive, you just go to the Drives button and add it. You will have to restart your computer any time you add or delete a Virtual Drive.

RapidCache is a unique CD caching utility program that uses an incremental caching algorithm found only in GameDrive that is included. It can be started from the Program folder on the Start Menu or from the File Menu in the program. It allows you to set your Physical CD Drives with a larger cache amount than Windows allows, which is 214 kilobytes when set at Quad-Speed or higher. It should increase the performance and the manual says to "experiment" to get maximum performance. You have settings over each Virtual Drive and Physical CD Drive in your computer. I set mine to "Cache all files" and "Max Caching Mode" with a size of 8192 kb to start and will experiment as they suggest.

This program like many more today includes a LIVEUpdate feature that is accessed from the HELP Menu. Unlike other program that I have, this LIVEUpdate was only usable after I went to the web page and registered and a code was emailed to me. I had to enter the code to use the feature the first time. This was done to inform me that the LIVEUpdate feature was by subscription and that it would have to be renewed after a year for a FEE. Now, that was not expected, and I will fight that feature next year; I believe they said it was $4.95. I would suggest that you read the web page and also download the online Manual in PDF format before buying. You can also purchase this product online as a download for $19.95 and save on the taxes.

I used the program with Data, Music, and Mixed Mode CD's and was able to use each as I normally would if I inserted a physical CD. Now I just go and insert a VIRTUAL CD and have no wear on any of the CD's; now I don't have to burn a copy for my protection against scratches or other misuse. On games that had lag before as the program read from a Physical CDROM, I now had none. This is because it does read at a much faster speed from the hard drive. Another feature that I didn't expect and like is that when I Insert a VCD into the Virtual Drive, I could double click the ICON of the name in the left panel and the CD would open in much the view you would get by going to MY Computer and opening an inserted Physical CD. This allows you to view those files if needed or any other operation you could perform with the Physical CD u