I just wanted to mention some results I got from a Hi-Val H401248A-15R that I picked up yesterday to replace my won't-do-SD2.51-for-any-reason Yamaha 2200E. Since Hi-Val drives can be found at a lot of big retailers in the US (CompUSA, Best Buy, MicroCenter), I thought the US people here might be interested in a possible alternative to Plextor, LiteOn, etc., that might be a little easier to find and slightly cheaper.

This drive WILL copy SD2 and SD2.51.xx without AWS activated perfectly. I tried it on three different games that a lot of people have had trouble with here: SimGolf (SD2.51), Heroes of Might and Magic IV (Disk 2; SD2), and The Sims: Vacation (SD2.51) (all from my commercial originals), all using CloneCD 4b21 with default Game CD settings. All copies installed and played flawlessly.

The drive itself is pretty generic (Hi-Val jobs for a lot of bigger names (I picked up a Hi-Val DVD-ROM that was a rebranded Pioneer once; I have no idea whose internals are involved here). However, it's a great option since it's got a faster read speed than the Plextor 40x/12x (48x as opposed to 40x), and it was US$30 cheaper than the Plex at the CompUSA I picked it up at.

Just wanted to give a heads-up to everyone in the US about this possible alternative.

The Spie

Thanks for that. The killer SD2 version is 2.51.021 (MOHAA, Sid Meier's Golf, Renegade, SS:SE et al). SD 2 .51.020 (Tiger Woods Golf) is not a SD2 killer.

Without AWS or Game CD default - which is it? AWS was default in the Game CD profile; now, latest version of CloneCD will use AWS depending on the writer

My apologies. All options were left on Game CD default, except for AWS, which was turned off purposely to give the drive a real test.

The Spie

Yes but did you also turn off AWS in the settings of your writer? FP already said this, but if AWS is turned on in the device (writer) settings, CloneCD 4 will always enable AWS even if you disable it in the Profile since AWS is now device dependant. Please check this for us Righ click on your device and select settings. Disable AWS there.

No no no, AWS is only enabled if it is enabled in the writer settings AND the write profile. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense at all:

Imagine a profile for SD2, which should have AWS on, because we all know there are weak sectors. Good.

Now you are lucky and have a writer which is able to write weak sectors. The only thing you have to do is to DISABLE AWS in the writer settings. This setting is WRITER dependant, not CONTENT dependant. After doing so, AWS in the profile is ignored, you won't need to care about this any longer, regardless what profile you load.

Imagine you have a second (non-weak-capable) writer. The SAME profile would use AWS on this writer.

THERE IS NO NEED TO CONSTANTLY CHANGE PROFILES / SETTINGS AGAIN AND AGAIN once you've got them right for your equipment.

Similar to this are the "Allow subchannel..." reader settings. If you know your reader won't do it right, you should deselect them.

I hope you got the idea about the concept (and beauty) about these settings.

Oops I got it all wrong... Thanks for explaining this in detail. Won't happen again