A few questions on making ISO files

[avonmex]

Hey guys,

So I've noticed that a lot of people are using ISO files as compared to the game disk itself. This could be helpful for me when I get my copies of KH FM and KH2 FM as there are english patches for these games now (although, playing them in japanese would be intense and awesome, even if I don't know what I'm doing because I haven't played the games in such a loooong time).

I was wondering if creating the ISO for a game damages the actual disk or not. I wouldn't want to make the ISO and then have a disk that I can't ever use again. I only ask because someone asked that on a tutorial video I watched and another person said that the disk becomes useless after (perhaps it was the program).

Also, is using the ISO to play the game faster than using the disk in cd/dvd drive to play the game? (I would assume so but I'm just covering my bases) If so I am greatly interested in making ISO's of my games (means I can use less speedhacks and back up my disks).

Thanks in advance to all who answer this (also, if I phrased something weird and you're not sure what I mean, just ask and I'll do my best to clarify, it happens from time to time.)

-Avonmex

[refraction]

Making an ISO only reads the disk, it does not do anything different to you running the game normally. If you watched a video where the guy said it ruins your disk, he's a retard and you should stop watching his videos now.

ISO's let the games run faster and smoother than from the disc thanks to hard disks being quicker than cd drives, this is the main advantage of using ISO's

[avonmex]

Okay, thank you. It wasn't the author of the video that said it did. Just someone in the comments section. He/she obviously did not know what they were talking about. When I make the ISO do I have to put it any specific folder in order to use it?

[miseru99]

Not at all, through it would be better if you want to store lots of your game backups at once to have them underhand, making a new folder for them which you'll not transfer between partitions too much is a smart idea. Constantly transfering big chunks of data is abusing your hdd and that's the mechanical part of your system, which degrades with time, and abusing it just speeds up that process, also if you would store them all in one place, you could use ntsc compression for your iso folder decreasing the hdd space needed for your collection while they would still be fully usable in pcsx2 without any negative side effects, just like memcard folder is used by default.