Could someone tell me what datatype you select in Alcohol 120% to backup PC games. I'm trying to backup Need For Speed Underground 2 and having no luck. I tried using Nero and it just gave me a bunch of errors. So I'm trying with Alcohol 120% now but unsure about the datatype to select. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Before you start with any PC game backup, you need to know the protection used. Aray disc scanner will tell you: http://www.aray-software.com/index.php?showtopic=23&st=0&#entry51 Then you select the corresponding datatype to image and burn. With safedisc protections it is normal to get read errors while the image is dumping. With later versions of safedisc version 3 and higher, it is extremely hardware dependant. You'll always be able to make an image that works via a virtual drive, but getting it back to disc successfully is a different story.
I ran A-Ray Scanner and it indicated that it was a SafeDisc 2/3. So then in Alcohol I started the Image Making Wizard and selected SafeDisc 2/3 as the datatype. I let it sit there for 40 minutes and it had only completed 1%. It just kept coming up with disc read error at 1228, 1243, etc. Does anyone know why this is happening?
I hate to quote myself: Let it continue, depending on your drive it can take some time. They begin anywhere from the 400-900 mark and end around the 10,500 mark. Unfortunately the fastdump feature of Alcohol doesnt work with the safedisc version NFSU 2 uses.
I created the Image with the original disc in my DVD burner. It got threw it a lot quicker than my normal DVD rom, though when it finished the image was bigger than the used space on the originial disc. The used space on the original disk is 667 MB though the image I created is 766.76 MB which is obviously to big to fit on a 700 MB CD-R. Do you know why this has happened? Also would it be doing damage to the laser in my DVD burner using it to read the original to create the image?
No it wont damage your laser. The reason the image is now bigger than the actual size is because Alcohol needs to create extra data to be able to burn it back to disc correctly. The game is still 667Mb the extra 100Mb is Alcohols instructions on how to correctly encode the copy protection data. If you select image burning wizard now it will burn the 766Mb back to CD-R as 667Mb just fine.
So i used aray scanner for a pc game as well, and it detected no protection...so what data type is that...?
I always use clonyxxl (even works on mounted images) Then i would just burn using whatever protection it detected. The games run like the originals no need for cracks ect... Good luck
Clony is dead. Clony xxl hasnt been updated since mid 2003 and is useless as far as new protections like safedisc v3/4+ and securom 5/7+ as well as sysiphus. If you have installed the game and scanned the directory and still found nothing, then just use 'normal CD' datatype.
Semigodd if theres no protection on the game your backing up just burn direct to disc using burning software like Nero.
so i managed to burn the images on to 3 cds...and i installed the game perfectly fine... when i run the game it tells me to insert cd 3 but when i do it still keeps asking me to insert cd 3....what am i supposed to do?
man this thing is really begining to irritate me...everytime i get close somthing else happens...grrrr.....
i havent been successful at backing up pc games, i wasnt sure you really could with games these days from all of the protection and copyright software. i will try this out guys, thanks for the help.
i'm thinking the problem arrises from the fact that the origional cd is 1 disk, where as my back up has to be spread throughout three disks... anyone have any ideas?
so i mounted the files on a virtual drive, and it still asks me to insert the cd... any ideas, suggestions, links?
SemiGodd, I'm assuming the game you are trying to back up is originally on DVD cause you have put it on three CD-R's. Do you not have a DVD burner or something? Cause wouldn't you just make a copy of the original?
i dont know what it was origionaly on.... i belive if was on three cd-r's origionaly...i didn't know that before.... any who...i burned it on three cd-rs i couldn't burn it on one dvd.... it keeps askinbg me to insert disk three...when i do...it continues to ask me to insert disk three... i write this post after many...many drinks of liquer....so pardon me for any oddities or inconsistajies or whatever general wierdness y9u encounter
I'm trying to backup The Incredibles, I have used Aray and ClonyXXL with Alcohol 120%; disk protection shows up as Securom 4.8. I have selected Securom "New" (4.x/5.x) froim the Alcohol list, unfortunately the back up copies do not work. Suggestion or ideas on what I'm missing? Thanks
@nemis, the most important things: do a DPM reading at 1x, make sure 'burn RMPS to recordable media' is checked before burning, always read and write as slowly as possible. Before you play the game go to emulations, and extra emulations, check: 'RMPS' 'Sub-Channel Data and Fixed Emulation' and 'Ignore Media Type'. Then run the game.
