Hi folks, I just purchased KotOR for PC today and plan to make a backup of it using either BW5 or 4.5. Is anyone familiar with successful settings or recommend a different program for this title? Thanks in advance. (I did search around for the answers but I didn't find any applicable info on this board and the other boards I frequent seem to be down right now, so if this is a repeat question please accept my apologies) B.Banzai
What is the prtection scheme present? The two most common types of protection are SecureROM and SafeDisc. For information on how to Burn SecuROM and in particular, SecuROM 4.83: (using Alcohol120) http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/43802 (using CloneCD) http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/26771 If you need to burn a SafeDisc2 protected game the major consideration is the drive doing the copy; certain drives have certain characteristics that give them an easier time to perform SafeDisc2 copies than others. Such drives are described as being 2-sheep burners. Drives not quite up to the task (however capable of), are described as 1-sheep burners and heaven forbid, 0-sheep burners. So the first thing you need to do is to find out what make/model your burner is and if it is a 2-sheep burner or not. To determine your make and model of your optical drives; if you happen to have Nero Infotools installed, start it up and under the Drive tab, it will list all the relevant specifications and capabilities of your burner. The actual name of your burner is listed in the drop-down box at the top (those numbers before the name of your burner are important too!). You can get InfoTools from http://www.cd-rw.org/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/nero_info_tool.cfm Once you have determined tha name of the burner, head on over to http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/45121 to see if that burner is listed there or not. If it is listed there, it is a 2-sheep burner; if it is not listed there it is not neccesarily a 2-sheep burner but highly unlikely. Now if you have a 2-sheep burner head on over to http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/23699 to find out how to copy a SafeDisc2 protected game. If you are running a 1-sheeper than visit http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/36444 for the appropriate guide._X_X_X_X_X_[small]ASUS A7V8X-X, AMD2500+ Samsung 1024MB, PC2700 360GB [3x120GB, 7200, 8MB] MSI Starforce, GeForce4 Ti4400 128MB Rules and Policies: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487 AFTERDAWN IRC: irc.emule-project.net, #ad_buddies COME SAY HI![/small]
Here's the story: drive specs: (info from clonecd) Device Capabilities:Manufacturer: LITE-ON Product: LTR-52327S Revision: QS0C Can read CD-R Discs: Yes Can read CD-RW Discs: Yes Can read DVD Discs: No Can read MultiSession Discs: Yes Can read Digital Audio Discs: Yes Digital Audio Data is accurate: Yes Can write CD-R Discs: Yes Can write CD-RW Discs: Yes Compatible with CloneCD RAW-DAO: Yes Compatible with CloneCD RAW-DAO Write Simulation: Yes Supports writing of CD+G RAW-DAO: Yes Compatible with CloneCD RAW-SAO: Yes Compatible with CloneCD RAW-SAO Write Simulation: Yes Supports Buffer Underrun Protection: Yes I copied all 4 cds using Blindwrite 5. The topology extraction for disc 1 went fine. However on the dump of disc 1 there was a log of a single sector "fix" each time I did it. THe install went fine, but the application hangs and fades when I try to start the game from the play disc's autorun menu. I tried it a few times with Blindwrite 5 with no luck. So I decided to try Blindwrite suite instead. The read went fine with no mention of a sector fix, and the topology extraction went ok too as far as I know (which admittedly isn't very far yet). Again the cd wouldn't play. So I grabbed a reliable bwa file from another forum and that didn't work either. I think the protection is Securom New* or something. I'm not positive. I used clonyxxl to check it out,b ut I can't understand enough of the language to tell for sure, it got 5 skulls... Besides another thread mentioned that clony couldn't determine the version and only got an error. I'm playing with clonecd right now and I'll read up on the links you gave me and try some of that stuff then post back here when I have more info. I'm in no rush and would like to learn a bit more anyway. Thanks for the reply Praetor.
Sweet, I got it to work. I used Alcohol 120% to dump the image as specified in your link (securom *new clonecd format). Then I used alcoholer to patch the image using the dl'd bwa (I might try to create my own bwa and see if it works). Then I used alcohol 120% to burn the patched image and it finally made a usable play disc after nearly a dozen coasters. Many thanks for the help!
If you made a successful backp using Alcohol 120%, then you should have easily made a backup with BlindWrite 5 as this is by far the best program for backing up SecuROM cd protection. Locate the "play disc" and create 2 backups. Label 1 backup "play disc"= topology measurement\bwa file and label the other backup "install disc=no topology measurement\bwa file. Burn the other cd's as data. Could you kindly post the BlindWrite 5 log? Default: C:\Program Files\vso\BlindWrite 5.It's a text log so just do a simple copy& paste. Shoey
I can post the logs later this evening. The version of Blindwrite 5 that I have doesn't give the option to enable or disable the topology. It doesn't even create a second bwa file like Blindwrite 4.5. It's all embedded in the .Bw5 image. It's the most up to date version of BW5 available, unless there's some 3rd party tweak program or a patch or something to open up -any- options. Blindwrite 5 wasn't able to make a working backup of my Diablo2 LOD cd either, I had to use 4.5 to get that to work. It would choke right at the beginning of writing to cd saying that it "preferred DAO PW mode" which is odd because I've never seen Blindwrite 5 use anything else for my other backups. Using Blindwrite 4.5 worked fine because I could specify DAO PW mode I guess, I don't know. Kotor and Diablo2 LOD are th eonly ones that Blindwrite 5 hasn't done successfully. As I said the copies Blindwrite 5 made worked for the install but didn't work for Autoplay. Also the log had said it needed to "sector fix LBA 383989" or something to that effect, I'll get the actual message later. Only Blindwrite 5 had this message, and it didn't come up as an error or anything like that, just a notification. Straight Clonecd wouldn't create the working play disc either. Neither did straight Alc 120. Only by doing the Alcoholer patch deal with a Blindwrite 4.5 bwa file as specified got the image working. B.Banzai
You need 2 discs to actually play the game? Most pc games only require 1. You create a bwa file (BlindWrite Suite 4.x) or topology measurement\bwa file (BlindWrite 5) only for the backup labeled "play disc" even if the others are SecuROM 4.8.x cd protected. You burn these DAO pw+subcodes(RAW-DAO+96). Search our forum for BlindWrite 5 Tweaker to disable topology measurement making backups that are not the "play disc". Maybe the latest BlindWrite 5 and your Litey are'nt getting along which is no big surprise to me as in the beta testing phase, the BlindWrite team members they wouldn't support the LiteOn dvd-roms and Toshiba dvd-roms. I told them they could take their software and stick it where the sun don't shine! Yes I endorse BlindWrite 5 but idiots who make a great program to backup many cd protections yet offer little support for the mere popular drives is pure nonsense. Shoey
Banzai, where in the world did you find the .bwa for KOTOR? I've been scouring the net for over an hour and can't find one. Please send me the url or something so that I can get myself a fully-functional backup. Thanks in advance!
I've been out of town so I haven't been able to post the logs. I got the bwa file from this site (I originally got the link from a post at club.cdfreaks.com) http://www.portmac.com/BWA_downloads.htm And for the previous poster, by "second bwa file", I meant that Blindwrite 5 doesn't output an image file -and- a bwa file. It outputs a bw5 image file with the bwa topology info inside it. If there is some way to get it to make a stand-alone bwa file I don't know how to do it, my version has no configurable options whatsoever aside from the "skin" =0 I didn't mean to indicate 2 bwa files, just two files, of which one is the bwa. Disc 1 is the only play disc, and is the only one of the 4 that has protection. (Securom *New) If you know of any way to open up options within Blind write 5 I'd be much obliged, I am not exaggerating when I say the only configurations available are for the applications appearance. Regardless, the bottom line is that for my cd drive I wasn't able to get a working copy with Clonecd, Blindwrite 5, Blindwrite 4.5 (using either the bwa I DL'd or the bwa I created with my drive) or Alcohol 120% alone. I had to go through the steps I listed earlier to get it to work. But it does work, so thanks! =) By the way, I used the downloaded bwa from that site for my working copy, not the one I created.
Well thanks a ton buddy! I was looking all over for that damn file.... ironically, I was at that site and just neglected to see that listing! Pronto moans Unfortunately I left the CD at my bro's house so I'll have to have him bring it over this weekend. In any case, I really do appreciate it. Thanks to you too Praetor and Shoey... you've both given me some great help too (with your previous posts). I think I'm gonna like this place :^)
Hehe, Baldur's Gate 2, damn they make you switch between the four discs almost at random ProntoR2: Welcome
Praetor: I completed the steps to burn Kotor with CloneCD, the game burned successfully, but when i try to run the disk nothing happens. why is this? is it that my drive wont run with twinpeak or something else? if so, is there a list of drives that wont run with twimpeak? thanks
nevermind my first relpy. i used Alcohol 120% instead of clone cd and it works just fine. i guess my drive just doesnt work with TwinPeak. for anyone having problems with the clone cd method, try the alcohol 120% method. it may not be as perfect but has a better chance of working on your system.
i am using a cd crack for KOTOR, and it crashes the game when trying to load a level. Does anyone know where i can get a working no cd crack for kotor???
