This could just be superstition, and I do not know what level drivers Daemon installs, but I and many others have reported drives going dead after using Daemon tools (or at least, the SPTD driver that comes along with it). How long after installing Daemon did your drive stop working?

It might be this issue you're running into (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060), that Daemons really does FUBAR drives, or pure dumb luck.

Most people never seem to have problems with it though.

Nasty, I've been using Alcohol 120% instead of Daemon tools (well I should say I did use Alcohol 120%, I had to uninstall it to allow Fallout3 to run).

I've had D-tools installed for the past 7-8 years. Never had a single issue with it. I also had no issues installing or running Fallout3. I just closed D-tools but I didnt uninstall it.

Good to hear. With Alcohol, the F3 launcher detected it, and wouldn't load. You can bypass that issue using just the program EXE I hear.

Isn't there a method to decompress all of the map files onto the HD so you do not need the CDs at all?

Yes, but you need to flip between compresses based on the map sets. It wasn't practical, manual if anything. The ISO method seems to work best, given todays drive speeds and capacities (can't wait for SSHDs to become cheap).

Concur! For many years I used Hatchet's Longbow Toolshop to swap in pre-decompressed maps and it worked very well. Caveat was, you had to know which map you were flying before starting the game or you could screw up your folder structure with an on the fly decompression.

In order to use some of Hatchet's experimental terrains (Kossovo, Bosnia) it was required to use this method as the terrains had to be combined with some of the pre-decompressed LB2 terrains to work and could NOT be directly used if decompressing terrains on the fly.

There was also a NOCD .exe which also required copying of the decompressed files to the HD where they would be decompressed as usual, but from the HD. THis worked and was fast

With mounted .iso files, the decompression is similarly incredibly fast, satisfies the CD check and I now prefer that method. The advantage over the NOCD method,other than not relying on a hacked .exe, is that you can locate the .iso files ANYWHERE (e.g. on an external or network drive) but I pretty much keep them on my main drive so there is no real disk space savings over the NOCD method.

Recluse

Agreeing with Recluse about ISO use, and adding that using the ISO method co-op multiplay has not appeared to be hindered when changing and decompressing new maps.

I have to admit the timing was "about the same time," but I did not get the same messages. My problem was not that I lost access to the drive. I could still see the drive, but is kept asking for a disk. When put a disk in it would not recognize the disk. I have a new PC now (employer replacement), so we will see what happens.

You do still get asked for a CD sometimes when using ISO/Daemons method, but all you have to do (in my case anyhow) is click Cancel or OK or whatever and it will continue to load the game. You may get the message a few times, but clicking the said buttons will make it carry on.