BD-ROM drive appears (I don't have a BD Rom drive)

[Studenttech1]

My Computer Operations class instructor told his students we have a Microsoft online store with free software, programs, etc to download as students. We were give the special password and the website.

I was pretty excited and when I went home and got online in the Microsoft store I saw this "Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Ultimate 32-bit (English) - DreamSpark - Download" and then the "Microsoft Expression Design 2 32-bit (English) - DreamSpark - Download".

I just remember it had Visual something on it, and being the complete new student I thought oh, that might be a cool program. I did the download, and noticed in my computer suddenly a BD-ROM drive appeared with the picture of the program. I hadn't clicked the set up yet in the downloads folder that I could remember. I didn't do anything further after that, in fact I think I stopped any set up that started to take place because I realized this wasn't a normal type application. (I think at the time I thought it was like an adobe photo shop because of the word visual in it..LOL)

I am in my 4th week of classes, and we are now on a chapter talking about the various disks and disk management. I learned about Virtual Hard Drives and suddenly realized that maybe the computer/program had created a VHD for the program? I clicked on my computer again to look at it, and right clicked it and saw there was "eject" so I clicked "eject" to see ok what will it do. The picture icon of the Windows Visual went away and now all you see is the actual BD-ROM drive icon by itself. Now scouring through the internet I see where some folks say if you have run a program like Daemon tools that this can appear (I don't have a BD-ROM drive) I have a regular DVD / CD player (Asus).

I do have Daemon tools lite on my computer but that was something that appeared about 6 months ago after I had my computer serviced by some technicians. I never knew what it was and didn't bother clicking it at the time.

I guess my question is, A) is this a virtual hard drive my computer created? B) is it going to be an issue for my system? C) how do you undo this and get rid of it if I don't need it, or should I keep it if later on I try to use VM ware or Microsoft Virtual PC (my class instructor suggested for learning Linux OS)?

I know, I apologize I am very much a noob and in the very beginning stages of learning all of this. Trial and error for me pretty much at this point.

 

[strollin]

An ISO was probably downloaded then mounted as a virtual CD-ROM drive using a utility such as Daemon Tools. Check in the system tray to see if such a utility shows up there.

 

[Studenttech1]

Figured I would add pictures so you can see what I am seeing..

This one is a screen capture of my downloads folder that show the two programs I downloaded from the "free student" Microsoft site

You can see the two folders: Expression Design 2 upper area, and the Epression Studio 4 ultimate

This one shows what I am looking at now in my computer. You can see the BD-ROM drive showing.

And this picture shows the Daemon Tools Lite icon that appeared months ago when I had my computer serviced. I assumed at the time, that they were imaging my system because I asked them to make sure to back up everything in case of error or my computer crashing. I never did explore what it was honestly, life got busy then. So it has just remained on my computer.

 

[strollin]

You should be able to manage that virtual ROM drive using the Daemon Tools utility.

 

[Studenttech1]

You should be able to manage that virtual ROM drive using the Daemon Tools utility.

I don't see anything in my system tray for a virtual CD rom or otherwise. Just enlarge the pics, I provided above, you can see my task bar and whats on it.

Well I guess I need to go read up on this progam DAEMON Tools Lite. Get a better understanding of what it does, how it works.

So do you mean I can remove the BD-ROM with the DAEMON Tools lite? My class instructors have said we should take advantage of the free software online, and one of the things suggested was utilizing either Microsoft Virtual PC or the VMware to load up an OS like Linux and learn to navigate the different types of OS out there.

Does the BD-ROM (virtual hard drive) come into use when you run something like the Microsoft Virtual PC or the VMware? Should I remove the BD-ROM, or keep it?

I am just trying to figure this all out. I am only in my 4th week of college classes. So I am very much a "newb" folks.

 

[Studenttech1]

Wow, ok I just opened the DAEMON Tools lite, and my malware went off, popping up messages that it was blocking outgoing malicious crap..lmao

I saw the Microsoft progam loaded into the DAEMON program and just removed it, but it that doesn't affect getting rid of the BD-ROM drive that is appearing.

Ok I am still exploring this..

 

[Studenttech1]

OK what the hell..lol

I am reading this What does the ISO file type mean? - Yahoo! Answers trying to understand what ISO is. I was reading some other info on Daemon lite tools, please tell me this isn't a piracy software program.. jeesh

*Some day I am going to look back at all this and laugh at my "newbishish"..lol

 

[strollin]

Open the Daemon Tools Lite program by double-clicking on the icon on the desktop. Find the ROM drive listed, right-click and select "Remove Drive" to get rid of it.

Just because your AV detected that a program was trying to access the internet or other suspicious activity does not mean it's doing any malicious. There are legitimate reasons for software to access the internet. The purpose of the message is so that you are aware that it's happening.

Daemon Tools is a well known, proven piece of software that is NOT malware.

An ISO is an image file of a CD or DVD. Using a utility like Daemon Tools, you can mount the file as if it was an actual CD/DVD in a physical drive to be able to access the files in the image just as you would on a real DVD/CD.

In lieu of using Daemon Tools Lite, you could "burn" the ISO to a blank DVD using a DVD burner and burning software. Then you could put the DVD in your DVD drive and run the install from it. Mounting the ISO virtually, means you don't have to physically burn the DVD.

 

[carnageX]

Wow, ok I just opened the DAEMON Tools lite, and my malware went off, popping up messages that it was blocking outgoing malicious crap..lmao

I saw the Microsoft progam loaded into the DAEMON program and just removed it, but it that doesn't affect getting rid of the BD-ROM drive that is appearing.

Ok I am still exploring this..

When you installed Daemon Tools Lite, did you make sure to avoid all of the tricky adware installers? There are times during the install that you need to hit "Cancel" to choose to not install the stupid toolbars and such.

OK what the hell..lol

I am reading this What does the ISO file type mean? - Yahoo! Answers trying to understand what ISO is. I was reading some other info on Daemon lite tools, please tell me this isn't a piracy software program.. jeesh

*Some day I am going to look back at all this and laugh at my "newbishish"..lol

Like Strollin said, Daemon Tools is legit. It's just used to mount ISO's (ISO's are basically a virtual form of a CD/DVD). I've used it for years without issues.

In lieu of using Daemon Tools Lite, you could "burn" the ISO to a blank DVD using a DVD burner and burning software. Then you could put the DVD in your DVD drive and run the install from it. Mounting the ISO virtually, means you don't have to physically burn the DVD.

There's also other options other than Daemon Tools. There's also Virtual CloneDrive which is free and little less adware-intensive during the install.

 

[Studenttech1]

Hey strollin thank you that did the trick! Thank you for the walk through images. CarnageX I didn't install the Daemon Tools lite, the technicians months ago did, when I had my computer taken to their shop.

I am wondering if I shouldn't just install it at this point.

=)