How to make a "backup" of cd titles (ea, etc.)???

[Bronze]

I picked up one of the Iomega 12x10x32 drives. What is recommeded to make a "backup" of cd-titles?? Do I need to get some other software other than what came with the dirve such as Nero or CloneCD or what?? I tried copying the contents of the a CD to the harddrive and then burning from there, but no luck. Burned CD was 606 MB and the original CD was 626 MB. Seems that there must be some hidden files. Also, does not like doing disk to disk with my Pioneer 10x slot-load drive. Any suggestions?? Does the drive work with these other software packages?? Also, I saw a couple of posts about updating the firmware. Does this actually do anything for the drive??? Thanks.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

I think you can use CloneCD to produce an .ISO file (an exact duplicat of the CD in a file on your harddrive). You then burn this .ISO file to a fresh new disc.

 

[Seeko]

Most games use some sort of copy protection. You'll need a program like CloneCD to copy those.

 

[billandopus]

First off you need to consider a couple of things.

- is your burner support RAW writing and CloneCd?
- what kind of copy protection are you up against?
- what settings you need to have enabled/disabled in CloneCd in order to "backup" properly
- where do I find more info about the ins and outs of CloneCd?

1- check here and click some of the links on the left hand side to see if your hardware is supported. Also check out the forums for some great and up to date info about "backingup."

2- SafeDisc2 seems to be causing some troubles nowadays. However, CloneCd should be able to make short work of it.

3- you can check for the proper settings by either gleaning this info from forums like a the abovementioned one or you can run a frontend program that interfaces with CloneCd like MOD's CloneCd Database and others. These programs will scan the disc you want to copy, tell you what the protection is, and will configure your CloneCd with the appropriate settings. Not bad.

4-cdrinfo, alt.comp.periphs.cdr on UseNet, www.cdrom-guide.com are among others are great places for info.

 

[bcterps]

GameCopyWorld is a pretty good resource as well.

--Ben

 

[AMB]

I like to use Copyright Protection Detector 0.6 as well as Clone CD. The first program will find what protection is used, and then map the settings to Clone CD

 

[Bronze]

bill_n_opus.... you seem to be very knowledgable about burning CD's, so how about a little more detail.... I checked out elaboratebytes and they do list an Iomega (although I think it is an older one) on it & I nosed around the forums here and found several posts regarding success with the Iomega drive and Nero, CloneCD, etc. I had checked out Gamecopyworld before when Maximum PC (previously Boot) reviewed CDRW in the last issue. The elaboratebytes (not the real CloneCD site, but very useful anyways) has a searchable database of game protections and recommended settings for CloneCD, so I am not sure if I would need software to detect the method of protection. Nero seems to be a complete package (ISO, Audio, packet writing, etc.) and could easily replace the Adaptac software that comes with the drive, and supports raw reading, ignore illegal TOC, etc.

**Sorry to ramble** My question:

What does CloneCD do that Nero does not?? For that matter, is Nero that much better than Adaptec software??

By the way... the Madden copy did install from a burned disk and the game seems to work fine (created by copying disk to HD and burning from there), although the original disk still needs to be inserted to start it up (may try getting the modified *.exe from GCW).

 

[billandopus]

Bronze, thanks for the compliment. Here goes ...

- Nero is probably better than Adaptec ECDC and compared to CloneCd is to be used for music and data. It is flexible and powerful with simple drag and drop commands and a wizard for the newbie, not to mention also available for download "gratis" as is CloneCd too.
- However, CloneCd is the best program for copying protected cdroms because of it's ability to utilize a supported burner's RAW writing capability which simply put copies a cdrom bit by bit including the copy protection. Nero doesn't do this. I'm pretty sure that Nero can't, for example, "backup" Diablo2 with Safedisc2 protection. CloneCd has been shown to pretty much copy almost anything put on cdrom. OTOH, CloneCd does not do compilations, it is a straight one to one copy program and will image first and then burn from image for best results. You do not have an option about that. Nero will do straight cd to cd copy and you can do on the fly if you wish but you have to make sure that your cdrom will keep up with your burner. For example: my Toshiba 32x IDE cdrom is conservatively rated at 8x audio extraction which works well since I have a Plex 8/4/32a. You don't want to burn on the fly if your cdrom is 8x and you are running a 12x or even a 16x burner.


To be honest, i've only used Adaptec ECDC 4.02 a couple of times before I uninstalled it and cleaned out the registry. It seems relatively simple to use but there have been many reports of funky behavior with Adaptec and people's particular setup both hardware and software. I've talked to quite a few people who have had problems with ECDC and then after switching to Nero, have had none. Taking into consideration that Adaptec and other software don't like to be mixed together. So, if you uninstall Adaptec EDCD you should also erase all traces from the registry too just in case. If you go to alt.comp.periphs.cdr on UseNet you won't find many people who are Adaptec fans - probably mirroring people here too.

IMO, the bottom line is:

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Or, if it ain't broke don't break it!

If you like using Adaptec and haven't had any problems with it then by all means stick with it. Most computer junkies have a disturbing habit of wanting to try out new stuff and have found Nero and CloneCd to be the best examples of their technology.

I'm babbling.

Assorted comments:

- copy protection detection through a front end like MOD's CloneCd database is nice to have if you like to "backup" games because it's a simple operation of selecting the right game title and then hit "burn" and it does it all for you. Otherwise you will have to find out what protection it is and then determine the right setup ... which most programs will tell you anyways. In addition, it's nice to find out what protection, if any, a cdrom has that is not game-related.
- I like the cdrw erase on Nero better than CloneCd.

Hope this helps. Sorry for the rambling.

 

[Ben88]

I just hooked up a new cd-rw for a family member and I installed the adaptec software that came with the drive. So far it has worked flawlessly to make backups of audio cd's and a few games cd's including quake 3 and half life.

 

[AMB]

Has anyone the link for a game database where the type of copyright is listed

 

[shiznut123]

i use nero.

 

[Bronze]

AMB... the link is in bill_n_opus's answer above. Click on the the underlined here in Answer 1 and you should be taken to the elaboratebytes website. Click on CloneCD Database on the left side of the page, and then click on the letter of the title of the game you are looking for. It should bring up a table of games and the corresponding security and recommended settings for CloneCD.

 

[AMB]

Thanks Bronze and bill_n_opus

 

[billandopus]

No applause please ... just throw money!