VMware Fusion + Virtual CloneDrive (Windows 7)

[orangebanana]

Hello!

Does anyone know if it is possible to use Virtual CloneDrive in VMware Fusion properly? I am running Virtual CloneDrive on a Windows 7 virtual machine and it will load iso-files from games I made backups of but when trying to start the games, it will not work because it says it does not find the CD even though the CD is in one of the virtual drives.

If necessary, I am running VMware Fusion on Mac OS 10.7.5 (Lion).

Thank you for any help in advance!

Greetings,

orangebanana

[ColoradoMarmot]

Just mount the iso with Fusion itself.

[orangebanana]

Hello dlhotka!

Thank you for your answer! If you mean mounting the iso in the CD/DVD-settings instead of the superdrive, I can tell you this doesn't work either as I have tried this, too. Sometimes there will even be a further error message popping up which seems to be sent by Fusion but I have never finished reading it because it disappears quickly. I will try making a screenshot of the message. Maybe it would help if you know what Fusion is trying to say?

[WoodyZ]

orangebanana wrote: If you mean mounting the iso in the CD/DVD-settings instead of the superdrive, I can tell you this doesn't work either as I have tried this, too.

In your OP you mentioned "iso-files from games" so how did you create the ISO Images and are you aware that most commercial optical media containing games also employs technology intended to thwart its illicit duplication!?

Sometimes there will even be a further error message popping up which seems to be sent by Fusion but I have never finished reading it because it disappears quickly. I will try making a screenshot of the message. Maybe it would help if you know what Fusion is trying to say?

Directly after such an event... To help figure out what is what, the best way to provide comprehensive diagnostic information is to use the "Collect Support Information" command from the VMware Fusion (menu bar) > Help > Collect Support Information and then attach the .tgz file it created on your Desktop to a reply post.

[orangebanana]

Thanks for the help, WoodyZ!

Well, both games are from 1999 so I guess there is no real "protection" on the original CDs making it hard to duplicate the files.

I made a copy of the files on the CDs on my computer and used Toast Titanium 11 to create the iso-images from the files. To be honest, I am not positive if the iso images are working 100% but I managed to install the games using them and there has not been a further problem besides the games complaining about no CD being there.

Also, I let VMware create a .tgz and attached it to this post besides a screenshot of the error message. It says that the virtual machine has sent a CD-command which is not supported by "legacy-emulation" (whatever this is) and it says that 'the following package of commands has been used: 42 00 40 02 00 00 00 00 18 00' and that 'this is no serious defect but can have caused damage to the application which has tried to use the CD' The error message says that I should try using the virtual machine without 'legacy-emulation'.

[ColoradoMarmot]

How did you create the ISO?  They need to be a 'cd-rom master' uncompressed.  Otherwise, it should just work (unless, as Woody mentioned, there's copy protection involved).  

[orangebanana]

As already mentioned, I just copied the files which are on the CD to my hard disk and used Toast to create the iso-files out of those files I copied. If this information is needed, I used the "ISO 9660" setting. I tried to create the iso-files using Mac OS's disk utility, too, but then I ended up having .dmg or .cdr files. I somehow managed to create iso-files using Mac OS's disk utility at some point, but those iso files have caused just the same problem stated in my original post when I used them in VMware.

[WoodyZ]

orangebanana wrote: Well, both games are from 1999 so I guess there is no real "protection" on the original CDs making it hard to duplicate the files.

Probably not.

I made a copy of the files on the CDs on my computer and used Toast Titanium 11 to create the iso-images from the files. To be honest, I am not positive if the iso images are working 100% but I managed to install the games using them and there has not been a further problem besides the games complaining about no CD being there.

Since you have the original optical media have you tried using it instead and if yes does it work?

Have you tried making an ISO directly from the optical media, not copying files and making an image after the fact?

BTW Haven't look at the support bundle yet, however I will a bit later.

[ColoradoMarmot]

That's not an ISO.  You'll need to create an image directly from the optical disk.

You can rename a .cdr file to .iso - they are the same format.

Many windows games used Joilet (not ISO9660) format CD's by the way.  Making a direct image avoids the need to get all that right (and also preserves both the layout and any hidden files on the disc).

[orangebanana]

Thanks again for your help, WoodyZ and dlhotka!

orangebanana wrote: Well, both games are from 1999 so I guess there is no real "protection" on the original CDs making it hard to duplicate the files.

Probably not.

I made a copy of the files on the CDs on my computer and used Toast Titanium 11 to create the iso-images from the files. To be honest, I am not positive if the iso images are working 100% but I managed to install the games using them and there has not been a further problem besides the games complaining about no CD being there.

Since you have the original optical media have you tried using it instead and if yes does it work?

Have you tried making an ISO directly from the optical media, not copying files and making an image after the fact?

BTW Haven't look at the support bundle yet, however I will a bit later.

That's not an ISO.  You'll need to create an image directly from the optical disk.

You can rename a .cdr file to .iso - they are the same format.

Many windows games used Joilet (not ISO9660) format CD's by the way.  Making a direct image avoids the need to get all that right (and also preserves both the layout and any hidden files on the disc).

It took some time for me to find a program to do this, but now, I actually tried using the original CD and get the iso file directly from it. There is the same problem as before, though. The game still complains about not finding the CD.

I am going to try using the original CD directly to see if that works but in any case using the original CD is not what I actually try to do, but well, this may help with solving the problem.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Disk Utility can create a CD-ROM Master directly from the disk (make sure you don't use any compression).

[orangebanana]

Alright, I tried using the original CD now but the problem stays the same. The game still tells me there is no CD of the game being found.

I set the CD\DVD-settings to superdrive which lets Windows 7 read the drive in my MacBook but still, the CD works nicely and is displayed correctly yet if I try starting the game, the same error keeps appearing. So I guess the iso files weren't the problem because they worked just like the CD itself.

The problem does not appear when I try playing the games on my Windows Vista Laptop, though. So the CDs actually work.

[ColoradoMarmot]

It definitely sounds like some form of copy protection is causing problems.

I'm not sure if the game is out there, but check www.gog.com - they have a bunch of old games, without DRM, for only a few bucks that work great under Fusion.

[orangebanana]

Do you think so? With both games being from 1999, I'm a little confused. But anyway, how should copy protection cause the CD to be not readable by VMware? I don't understand that. Thank you very much for naming this website. This sounds really nice. Unfortunately Turok 2 is not on this website and I don't want to spend 10$ on a game I already own the original CD of. 😕

Thanks for your support, dlhotka and Woody!

If someone has an idea how to solve this problem, please don't hesitate telling me about it!