If you're constantly running applications from CD or DVD (like games), you may end up with scratched or damaged disks that will ruin your apps forever.
Phantom CD is the perfect solution for this problem. This tool enables you to access the contents of any CD or DVD by means of a virtual drive that doesn't require the physical disk to be inserted into the unit. The program works with ISO image files that can be produced with almost any disk imaging tool: just create the image from your favorite CD or DVD and use it in Phantom CD to mount a virtual drive. Not only it's safer for your disks, but also much faster as the reading speed in hard drives is always higher to that of disk units.
Despite its ease of use, we also found a few limitations in Phantom CD. First, it only works with ISO and BIN/CUE files, while other virtual drive managers also support formats such as CDD, NRG, MDF or MDS, to name a few. Also, we had no problems when mounting the drive – it worked perfectly well – but couldn't unmount it properly. The correspondent button simply didn't work, no reason why. In any case, if you use it to always mount the same image, this shouldn't worry you. Just remember that you'll need a lot of hard drive space in order to store all those image files.
Avoid using physical CD or DVD to run your favorite apps. With Phantom CD you can use virtual drives (only with ISO images, though) and run them faster and more comfortably.
