instead of going through all the trouble of all these programs you could just keep your CD in good condition.
Actually, my problem(s) [and considerations] is(are) completely different, although "wear" was a consideration when I made the jump to diskless....
- I was having a hard time keeping track of all my disks! (Mostly due to my CHILDREN and their visiting friends!
) Ripping them into mountable images and putting them all on a networked hard drive makes finding them, um, the ONLY WAY to "find" them! (And making "safe" copies of them so that I don't lose them is as easy as imaging the HDD....)
- I know of no game that is actually different ON THE DC/DVD as it's method of "verification" (keying,) so I could use MULTIPLE COPIES of the LONE image(s) on every networked computer! (I.e. All my machines simply network-mount the remote drive with all the images on them, and presto! Everyone has those CDs/DVDs at the ready! P.S. I also do this with all our ripped music, BTW! ... And the net' drives are all ready-only, so their safe!)
- Virtual drive mounting - even/esp. over Gbit Ethernet - is a LOT faster than most CD/DVD drives! (In fact, most of my computers not only do not have floppy drives, I stopped putting CD/DVD drives in them a while ago, too!)
- Some games are sold AT A DISCOUNT online in downloadable ISO image form (e.g. Supreme Commander - Forged Alliance), so they're mountable right off the cable! (I.e. They never see the plastic of a disk!)
- There's NO WAY for me to misplace an original disk now! I buy something, rip it onto my networked drive, update it's shadow copy, ... and put the disk and all it's (useful) packaging into a locked file cabinet in my shop! (Ya, I'd lose them all in a fire, but, um, wouldn't you, too?
. . . But then *I* have a backup COPY of their images in my safety deposit box - on the backup hard drive!
[Which is a lot more dense - and less $$ - than shoving all my disks in a (larger) safety deposit box!] )