I know several users on this forum upload all their games as ISO's and run them straight off the hard drive. What is the advantage to doing this; doesn't it just take up a whole lot of disk space?

The whole point of an .iso is that you can burn it to a CD and then you have the full, original game just like if you had the real CD with you. Mounting an .iso image from an HD is only for those who don't have a CD burner or those who are simply too lazy to do it. ;)

also saves you money spent on empty CD.

My knowledge is that an is .ISO on the harddisk is quicker than a real CD or DVD.
The ISO doesn't have such a long access-time in a virtual disc-drive since it's on your harddisk and your mainboard doen't have to handle the communication between the harddisk and the disc-drive via the different busses.
Having an ISO they are on the same medium. :ok:

I hope this is understandable... :unsure:

EDIT: ... and completely correct. :tomato:

ISO's are better than cd's IMO for running games and emulated games (i mean, if you want to play FF7 on PSX emulator but not damage the disc, you image all 3 discs and put the discs away) yes, they take up room but i tend to burn my cd images to DVD to copy back to the HD when i wanna play that game.

ISO is for keeping your CD/DVD safe and not scratch it in the drive. I usually back up all my CDs to ISO and play them from Daemon Tools or whatever, while the real thing rests on the shelf in complete security ;)

Not when you have 450 GB of it.

About HDD space: My HDD is 160 Gb, and while that may not be much for some, it's plenty for me. Beside, if I decide to keep an ISO after testing it, and I happen to need the space, I'll burn it for storage purposes (see JJXB's post just above).

I also think that it's faster to read from the HDD, and the HDD doesn't make as much noise as my CD-ROM drive. It's hard to concentrate on the game when you constantly hear the grinding of cogs and gears.

Last: With ISOs on my HDD, I don't have to keep a stack of cds within reach. No need to haul myself over to the rack to get that cd. I just point and click, and there it is :D

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mighty Midget @ Nov 29 2006, 01:55 PM) [snapback]269238[/snapback]</div>This program could help you with the noise - CD Bremse
I have no noise with CD's anymore ^_^

Bremse, as in "slowing down"? Well, I'm not sure if I can use a drive slower than mine already is.