Hi everyone. I've got a Asus 4012A,which I understand is quite good for game CD backup's with Clone CD. What I'm curious about,(Not having used Clone CD before), is what speed should I "read"/copy the imagefile of whatever game eg: Jedi Knight II from my Asus 40x CDRW drive?

From what I've read here,it seems like you may need to read some games at 1x or 2x for an accurate read depending on it's protection.

The Asus 4012a has Correct EFM reading,so will it still need a slow reading speed for the imagefile? Also should amplify weak sectors remain off?

Lastly I intend to use either 4.0.1.6. or 4.0.19 trial version on a Windows 98 First edition o/s with Nero 5.5.8.2 & NTI CDMaker 2000 professional installed already. Have there been any problems with these programs all installed together?

And will I need to install a new ASPI layer,or will the original Windows 98 version suffice?

Depends what protection is used. Generally, just let it rock along at full speed though you probably should slow it down for psx cds and for securerom protected cds.
No, you can read safedisc protected games at maximum speed, and yes you should permanently diasable AWS from the settings page.
AFAIK there are no compatibility problems with these proggies.
Clonecd doesn't use aspi, nero has its own and I don't know about cd maker. However, if cd maker is working ok, you don't need a new aspi layer.

Thank you Philamber!

From what i gather, EFM is about writing not reading. Any drive can create a working image of an SD2.5x protected game if it is raw capable, but not every drive can write SD2.5x image files.

However i've always felt that the read spead is relevant to games whose subs have to be read also. Reading securom (*new*) games at lower speed has always worked for me - but this has to do with the abilities of the drive also i guess.

Okay,so basically any PSX/PSX2 games will have the securom protection's & generally will require the low-speed read/copying for the image files, whilst the old Safedisc/2/2.x can be done normally.

One more thing I just remembered. I've read a bit about the concern of Intel ATA100 driver's that might have some problems with Cloner CD.
At present I have the last of the old Intel ATA 100 device drivers,
Version 5.02.2008 06/26/2001.
I know there is now a "Intel Application accelerator" that has replaced this but this ATA 100 driver has run fine on my Windows 98 1st Edition setup.

Has there been any confilcts involving this driver & Clone CD? I know you can no longer select or deselect DMA on the control panel settings, but I use the driver's ATA 100 speed for video card capture,so I'd prefer to keep it.