Problems changing discs on XP

[robvasey1]

Everytime I finish up the first disc and need to change to the second, the game just waits forever for the disc to load.  It doesn't recognize the fact that I have ever swaped them.  The game doesn't freeze, it just waits forever.  Any help would be appreciated.

If it helps, i have XP Pro, an Nvidia graphics card, and two cd rom drives.  Thanks.

[robvasey1]

By the way, I am playing FF7 on the Platinum collection if that matters.

[mirex]

Try to look on the cd2 in the windows explorer. Check if system can read it right. If not, you need to get a new one. If yes, then its strange, try to copy all data from cd to hard-drive. Maybe you'll run to the file-reading error, and that can be the reason, a scratch on cd.

[Chesso]

If cd read errors are the problem there some software specifically for reading damaged discs though they are obviously very limited just do a bit more thorough job. Try do some google searching and give one a try see if it can get what you need.

If the disc is damaged but you manage to get the data i don't care what anyone says BACK IT UP!!!!!.

[Qhimm]

See, this is one thing that always bothered me with copy-protected CDs... Compact Discs have a specific and relatively short lifespan, ranging from between 5 and 20 years. With discs especially engineered to prevent copying, they have effectively changed your "purchase" into an "N-year rental". It's like those Mission Impossible tapes that self-destructs in ten seconds. I say if they're insisting on this kind of marketing, they should either relabel the discs as "extended rental" and change prices accordingly, or stop making such a fuss and making life difficult for people who actually want to keep their purchased music/data instead of seeing it degrade over a few years.

Which, of course, brings up the specific issue about FF7... in time, the actual CD prints of the original game will have degraded enough to make discs unreadable despite how careful you are with them. Ironically, in a few years, there will only be backup copies still playable. Just don't take this as some excuse to steal the damn thing, there are still plenty of ways to pay for what you enjoy. If you had made a game, you sure as hell wouldn't be "happy to see it get so popular on the warez market" as some people seem to justify what they do with.

[Hybir]

There's always the saying "It's better safe than sorry"
All my discs are kept mint, in dustless and airshut containers thanks to the help of No-CD patches(it's only annoying when you open the container and a wind of stale air gets into your face). Copy-protections are so extreme these days that they annoy the customer rather than the pirate (see Half-Life 2) and with the introduction of DVD games, data degration gets even faster.

[Chesso]

I agree with that people get through these minor but very annoying protections so easily it's a joke and the company's that use them are really only wasting money. Does it really reduce the life span of the disk? they should be shot for that.

EDIT: Unfortunately for me there is a little one running around the house(my 2 year old sister) and she can get at just about anything in no time at all  

I bought a game from EB(Electronic Boutique) once that was new but not a newish game and i had only used it once and after i had to format i tryed re-installing but the disc was stuffed(It had one of those protections). As to the cause i can't say for sure but it hadn't been moved from where it resided after it's first use.

[Hybir]

My copy of Soldiers: HoWW2 has StarForce 3 protection and for some reason it needs to take 15 minutes to read the disc and then load the game.
Sitting there waiting while the CD spins like a plane turbine in my CD-ROM drive does not cheer me up.

[robvasey1]

Oh, by the way, I have two sets of discs, (i made a copy of the original for that reason) .  Neither of them work.  It doesn't ever recognize it.  I have also downloaded someone else's saved game file on discs 2 and 3, and when i try to load them, I get the same problem.  It just stays on the screen waiting for me to put it in.

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I recently had to reset my hard drive, and when I put in the play disc, instead of getting the thing to autoload, I have to manually start up the game using the link from the start menu.  I get the screen where it says, what do you want to do with this cd? (options view using media player, open in a folder to view objects, and take no action)  I think my computer recognizes it as a video file and not a program or game.   Does everyone else have to manually start it up, or do you get a menu to pop up when you put in a play disc?  Thanks for the help.  Oh, and I have SP1 for XP.

I don't know if this would help, but my cd rom drive that I am using is making strange noises quite often and was wondering if anyone may be able to tell me how to make the other one my default one, or the one that ff7 looks at. Right now I am trying to get ff7 to autoload.

MOD EDIT: Don't double-post.

[Chesso]

Try copy the stuff from cd make an ISO out of it and download daemon tools and mount the iso image you made. I use ISO Magic from time to time if i need to create iso files. There are probably freeware utilities that do the same aswell.

[Aaron]

I...was wondering if anyone may be able to tell me how to make the other one my default one, or the one that ff7 looks at.

You can change it in the registry, but I think the best way to change the "default CD-ROM drive" for FF7 is to just reinstall it from the drive you want to use.

The FF7 play discs do not have an autoplay that runs the game -- you have to start the game from the Start Menu or something.  Only the install disc has an autoplay, the rest of the discs will get you the default Windows thing (which you can disable), and it doesn't matter what type of content Windows decides the CD has -- the game should still work.

[Sephirosu]

I unfortunately have this problem too with my FF8 disks, kept in perfect condition, only taken out on vague occaisions to play it. However, lately whenever I try and load a savegame, I get the wrong disk error screen over and over and over.

I even resorted to trying a no disc crack in an attempt to see if it was just my drive that was malfunctioning, nope, same error.

Oh the joy of write protected disks.

[robvasey1]

I know for a fact that the quality of the cd's is good.  I don't know how to make an ISO, or even what one is.  I think I will try to re-install it for now and see if that works, but if not, could you help me out with the ISO thing?  Thanks.

Also, I think a no CD crack may actually work for me because the only problem is when FF7 is running and it doesn't detect the disc, not because of a flaw on the CD.  I downloaded the CAT one, but it doesn't seem to work.  I get a message saying "crc-check....failed"  I may be doing something wrong, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

MOD EDIT: Don't double-post.

[Aaron]

An ISO is just an image file of a CD.  Daemon Tools lets you take an ISO file and put it into a virtual CD-ROM drive...  You can use the CD as if it were in your CD-ROM drive, but really the computer is getting that data from an ISO file instead of the CD itself.

I actually keep images of all my games and rarely use the CDs.

[Chesso]

Yeah it can take up a bit of space but it is more reliable. Eventually im going to get a second hd and use my existing one for leaving backup's there for as long as possible. I do usually put alot on cd-rw if necessary just to make sure for example if the hd starts going on me. If both went...........well then id be buggered lol.

Google for ISO Magic it's not free but you can use the trial to some extent, you basically put in the file's you want and tell it to make an ISO out of it and that's that. I think there may be a size restriction in the trial though so you may need to find a freeware solution if you don't feel like paying out for it.

[Aaron]

Nero can make images and it can give you a virtual CD-ROM drive.  If you have a CD burner that you got recently, chances are it came with Nero...  Otherwise, that's some software to look into getting, because it can do a lot of other nice things too.

I use Alcohol 120% for my images, that program's not free either.

[Hybir]

Alcohol 120% is the best for ISO mounting and burning but just as Aaron says, its not free. However, there is a 65kb program called "ISO Producer", it doesnt have as many features and can't burn discs but it'll make ISOs and it's free