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Last week we talked about using low-cost hard drives for backup
storage. How about using them to run CDs - without the CDs?
The
Windows program "CD Anywhere" from V Communications
(1-800-648-8266 or http://www.v-com.com) automatically can
create a compressed version of a CD on the computer's hard
drive. This is not a way to get around copy-protected CDs.
If you're having thoughts of copying a friend's game CDs onto
your hard drive, you can forget it. Simple games, yes; complex
games, no.
What
CD Anywhere does is eliminate the need to swap CDs to find
data from a large set of database disks or find images, MP3
music files, etc. This program also will compress business-application
CDs onto a hard disk, which can be useful if you are going
to carry a portable hard drive.
The
single-CD version of Microsoft Word, for example, compresses
to about 50 megabytes with no trouble. A singled version of
Microsoft Office can be copied to the hard drive in as little
as 130 MB. In essence, any CD that does not have a copy-protection
routine that requires the computer to access the CD itself
can be compressed and copied onto a hard disk drive.
Aside
from the convenience, there is an enormous advantage in speed.
A hard disk drive is the equivalent of a 200X CD drive - in
other words, 200 times faster than a CD running at standard
1X speed. This speed works in both directions: storing information
as well as retrieving it.
CD
Anywhere, version 2.0, costs $30 in the download version,
$40 as a boxed CD. It was so easy to use I never did have
to consult the manual. |
