ISO files of games not working

I have a bunch of old games on CDs, the ones that require the CD to be in to play them. I would like them to be converted to ISO files, so I don't need the loud, big, physical discs to play them, and also probably won't have a disc drive on my next PC build. I have tried with multiple games, both creating and mounting the image through Gizmo Drive and WinCDEmu, and with them I could install the software through them (AutoRun didn't work, but that's probably my fault). Afterwords, however, the games wouldn't launch. I also tried in a virtual machine (Windows XP from Modern.ie in VirtualBox) and virtual CDs did not work consistently there. I was able to install and play one game from an ISO there, while another didn't run with even a REAL disc, which did run it in my host PC. (I know they work in XP, that's where I always played them) The physical discs do work in my main machine, so they aren't the problem. Also, in WinCDEmu, I tried mounting as "Data Disc" (default), CD-R, and CR-ROM, and they all looked the same in my computer: "CD Drive". I think on my old XP I had to insert discs into the bottom "CD-ROM" drive for most games. Help?

EDIT: Tried "Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel" from Microsoft's website, couldn't get driver to work
EDIT2: Virtual CloneDrive worked slightly better, it gave AutoPlay as the default action for the drive (although it had default icon/name still) but alas didn't work
EDIT3: Ditto for MagicISO
EDIT4: I just had 5 or so error messages pop up, hours after attempting any programs
EDIT5: Just found the game installer running in task manager, must have been going for like 12 huors, and it was eating up 25% of my processor, or one whole core. Suspicious...

What games are these (e.g. PS1)? Are you trying to play with an emulator?

Well first off what program are you using to make the ISO's? I use burn aware free. It has an option to copy to image.
Next as for ISO mounting software i use damon tools lite. Those are just the programs i use. As for successes copying games to iso's to make somewhat of a no cd i have never had a whole lot of luck.

If virtual machines cant use the ISO than i would say it is a prob with the ISO. Try burn aware free and see if it gives you any better results. Also when installing it make sure it ONLY installs burn aware free. It sometimes tries to sneek other toolbars and such.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Some of these games sound so old that thay may not be happy campers with windows 7. Like kathy said if you told us the games we could maybe help you out on how to get them to run.

Edit2: im looking at your edits and it making feel like you might be conflicting with to many bad programs. With programs that emulate virtual cd's it is probably a good idea to only have one as to keep them from conflicting and screwing things up.

Try using IMGBurn to put your files in an ISO Image then Use Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools Lite to emulate the Images you have created.

I wouldn't doubt if some of your old games won't work with Windows 7

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't work either, but some don't even work in virtual machines. There's a lot of games I have to convert. As I said in my first post:

...both creating and mounting the image through Gizmo Drive and WinCDEmu

I tried most of them through Gizmo, only a few tests with WinCDEmu. A few of the discs wouldn't work with Gizmo so I had to copy them to a folder and make an ISO from said folder instead. One of the games I need to use in my host OS, or at least not VirtualBox (one I can't find online) because it uses controls with the mouse that don't work too well. Here's some links to some of the other games:
Amazon.com: Ollo in the Sunny Valley Fair - PC/Mac: Video Games
Mercer Mayer's Critter and The Great Race Mac and Windows 0742725226760 | eBay
SimCity 2000 Special Edition PC Game 1996 New Bix Box SEALED 014633119794 | eBay
http://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Sho.../dp/B00009VRGB
Candy Land PC CD Sugar Match Sweet Tooth Computer Board Game Candyland Big Box | eBay
http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Play-Che.../dp/B0000950SM
There's over 30 in total. I'll try Daemon tools I guess (despite this article - alternatives section) on a few discs and see how that goes.

EDIT: Haven't tried Daemon yet, but would like to mention this: I used Gizmo on my old Windows XP to make images and use them without any issues as far as I remember, but that device has since been re-partitioned and re-installed.
EDIT2: Yep, it put spyware in my browser x.x
EDIT3: Didn't work any better, tried it on 2 or 3 games. Gotta go clean out my browser now.

I use PowerISO v5.6 (later versions come with OpenCandy as far as I know) for making images out of anything - games, driver discs, etc. It works well with PS1 games, that I can attest. PowerISO also comes with it's own virtual optical drives to mount the images you created with it.

Whatever you do, do not use DaemonTools or Alcohol 120% as they are known causes of BSODs as they use SCSI Pass Through Direct (SPTD).

Boozad said:

Whatever you do, do not use DaemonTools or Alcohol 120% as they are known causes of BSODs as they use SCSI Pass Through Direct (SPTD).

This is a very good point Boozad. They surely have caused many BSOD.