Customer Reviews

FarStone Virtual Drive Utility and Burning Suite

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The GameDrive component is fantastic. It can create virtual CDs of all my games (Halo, Medal of Honor, Need 4 Speed UG2, and older games), so that I don't have to keep inserting the original to play games and run the risk of scratching them. It also makes my truly games portable on my notebook.

However the rest of Virtual Drive, especially the CD and DVD burner components simply don't work. The DVD burner doesn't close any sessions (I can close them aftwards using Nero on the same h/w) and instant burning just doesn't work at all.

Worst of all Farstone's support is lousy. After promising a response within 2 days, I've had no response in nearly a week. I've submitted 4 bugs so far, all relating to basic functionality that doesn't work at all.

The instructions are vague on downloading a game and then establishing a phantom drive. It is a blessing not having to run my games off a cd. The instructions could be better, thus only four stars.

I bought Virtual Drive 9 (which is the same software, but it lacks the 'Burning Suite'). As a desktop and tablet PC user, I was hoping to use my CD drive far less. This was mostly due to the fact that my tablet PC doesnt have an internal CD drive, but I also wanted to clear my trays in my desktop so I didn't have to have my games in there all the time. Well, that plan backfired. This program can make a virtual image of a CD, but the newer games that require a CD to play can sense if you're trying to fool the application. I was able to make a successful virtual image of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, but when I tried playing the game, it told me that I couldn't use a virtual image, and that I had to put the CD back into my drive to play. I was unable to make a virtual image of Need for Speed Underground II due to the exncryption on it.

Conclusion: It's a great program for backing up Windows and other software, but the encryptions used on gaming CDs won't allow you to play without a physical CD.