I can only recommend to use Virtual CD (www.virtualcd-online.com) instead of the noCD patch.Nobody really seems to know if the noCD patch prevents FS to use certain features. This question, at least for me, is even more important after the upgrade to 9.1: the fs9.exe is definitely replaced, maybe there's a 'hidden feature' in it with which MS prevents patches like the noCD use new features of FS.Leaving CD#4 in the drive for me is inacceptable, as I suppose is for the major part of other FS users as well.So, I decided to go for Virtual CD: this product is able to copy CD#4 to a virtual drive, including the protection mechanism, thus leveraging me from the burdon to either not know what the noCD patch does and use it, or putting CD#4 at risk and leaving it in the drive (supposed I wouldn't have made a copy with BlindWrite). So, I'm able to work with a properly patched FS 9.1 and the original fs9.exe.The image can be backed up for security reasons, so even if copying the protected CD#4 would fail someday and FS wouldn't recognize the protection mechanism anymore and refuse to run, the Virtual CD-image is there for rescue.This aside, Virtual CD has a tremendous wide field of other applications as well, I use it for all products which need some CD in a drive (Simcharts, X-Plane,...). Well worth the money!Just my 2 cents...Andreas

Hi AndreasI agree Virtual CD seems to be the best option. That satisfies everyone I guess. No illegal patch just a legitimate backup copy of your own CD.I have tried three times to create the virtual cd but the virtual copy refuses to mount into the virtual drive. Did you use any special setting (i.e. Exact Copy, Full Copy, CD geometry etc) when creating the virtual cd copy.

Also use VCD here - very successfully - I've had it since FS2000.Can't remember the settings I use to create the Image (over a year ago now) but I do know it took about an hour- and I seem to remember selecting "RAW" as the mode(I could be wrong here) . I do know that VCD listed some errors in the first few moments of copying - but I believe this was probably to do with the CD protection as , once the copy was made and loaded into the VCD drive it has always worked perfectlyDave

Hi, a combination of CloneCD and Virtual Clone Drive is my chioce, both are available at www.slysoft.com The trial version of CloneCD is sufficient and can be deinstalled after the image is created, Virtual Clone Drive is freeware.

I used the "CD Geometry" option. Worked perfectly for me. I didn't need to read from my CD-RW drive, I just let VCD read from the DVD drive built into my FS gaming PC.The program needs some time to "read" the defective sectors at the beginning.Don't know if another, faster method would deliver the same result...Andreas

I too was a firm believer in copying the CD to the drive, until last week somebody on these forums sugested gamejackal (www.gamejackal.com). This software makes a profile of your game by looking at the interaction between the game and the CD-ROM drive. The next time you start the game, gamejackal feeds it the data it requests. The game itself is completely unaltered. The big gain is, that you won't need 600 mb of harddisk space and you can make a profile in less than a minute. Unfortunately it cost $25, but I bought it right away since it saved me so much disk space. The free download allows for a one month trial. I'm happily running FS2004 now without CD's and without harddisk images. I think you'll like it.

Hello,Which option did you use to create the Virtual CD? The program already runs for 2 hours and 2% ONLY is done . I did select the "geometry"Thanks in advanceemile

Be patient - if it IS still doing things just leave it be.Back when I did FS2000 and CFS one of them ( can't remember which -its 4 yrs ago) took 4.5 hours- but it did it in the end.Dave

That's typical SafeDisc protection. The first part of the CDROM is badly damaged, and imaging programs take a lot of time to extract these kinds of images.

As a general rule I've found that any of the cloning programs take 95% of the time to do the first 5% of the work.Presumably all or any protection is located in the first part of the file.Dave

>I too was a firm believer in copying the CD to the drive,>until last week somebody on these forums sugested gamejackal>(www.gamejackal.com). This software makes a profile of your>game by looking at the interaction between the game and the>CD-ROM drive. The next time you start the game, gamejackal>feeds it the data it requests. The game itself is completely>unaltered. The big gain is, that you won't need 600 mb of>harddisk space and you can make a profile in less than a>minute. Unfortunately it cost $25, but I bought it right away>since it saved me so much disk space. The free download allows>for a one month trial. I'm happily running FS2004 now without>CD's and without harddisk images. I think you'll like it.I love it :-coolThanks for the Info......Juan_v

Hi Dave,You are right it works, I had to be patient !Now I try to find how to have 1 icon on the desktop to "mount" the Virtual CD onto the virtual driver and to start FS9 automatically...any idea ?Thanks in advance.

When you first run Virtual CD it should give you the option to create Virtual CD Drives- I guess you already will have created the Virtual Drive- all you need to do now is load the Virtual CD into the Virtual Drive and just leave it there.Anytime you want to run FS just click the FS9 Icon on the desktop and everything will go automaticallyDave

Hi UweI did not have the same success with Virtual Clone Drive. CloneCD created the image successfully and it was mounted into Virtual Clone Drive but FS would not recognise that as a CD drive. So it keeps asking for the original CD. Not sure why.

Thanks for the recommendation - I bought Virtual CD and it is great! For those of you (like me) who have probably already installed FS9 before creating the Virtual drive, you will need to edit the registry key that points to the CD-ROM.On my system, the physical CDROM is drive R:, and I created a virtual CD drive V:, so I had to edit the registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator9.0, and replace the key value "CDPath" with "V:"The other way to do it is to create the virtual cd drive and then install FS9 from the virtual drive.And - yes - it took several hours for Virtual CD to copy the drive, so be patient!