Anyone tried DJ or Fireburner [writing a CCD image] of SafeDisk 3.15+ protected games yet?

My tried and tested method of backup has been beaten with SD 3.20, either the LTD-163D or LTR-40125S are not good enough readers or Fireburner [or possibly the LTR-40125S] isn't up to the writing anymore. It worked fine with Call of Duty but that seems to be the limit with my hardware.

I've ordered myself an ASUS 5232AS to use as a reader/writer to cover the hardware. But wondered if anyone's got FireBurner to work?

I'm trying to copy Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow [3.20.022]. Please don't tell me that Alcohol works, I know I've read a few posts in the forums that have said the same thing. I'll try Alcohol if FireBurner and DJ both fail. I can live with the DJ demo version writing at the slowest speed for the play disk, where as I play so few games that in the 30 day trial of Alcohol I'll only be able to test it on 1 title. That doesn't seem like a conclusive trial to me, but what can I do.....?

@orinoco

i've read your more recent posts about your success using both methods.

congratulations!

unfortunately i can't report this success with my equipment (see signature)

so i'd like to ask you for the exact settings you used for reading/writing with both clonecd/fireburner and discjuggler, as well as suggestions on which of my drives probably works best on the corresponding tasks.

btw, the game giving me so much trouble is splinter cell 2, so you are definetely the ideal member to ask

of course everybody's suggestions are appreciated!

thanx in advance!

I think your problem is hardware related. SafeDisk is very hardware dependant, and I'm pretty sure that the Plex Premium is a hit or miss drive, in that one Plex Premuim can do it and another can't. I also know that the LTR-24102B will not write SD 3.20 sucessfully I think that was unable to write versions later than SD2.8 or SD2.9. I'm sure someone else will remember exactly. The NEC DVD writer is beaten by a much earlier version of SD, something like 2.4.

To beat SD3.2 I had to buy myself an Asus CRW-5232AS, if you want to backup SC: PT then I think you'll need to invest some €s in another drive.

Personally I don't need bass, my neighbour's son has all the bass I need and more in his car stereo

It's beaten by sd 2.9+. It can cope with all versions up to and including sd 2.8.

ok, i see...

so that probably means i have to get my trusty liteon replaced with the asus

btw, is anything known about the new liteon sohr-5238s' safedisc and general copy protection capabilities?

@orinoco
as far as i am concerned, one can never have enough bass - but i'm a doublebass player and most likely a bit influenced in that respect

That would be my thought too. Then you have the best of both worlds, SecuROM with the Plex and BlindWrite and SafeDisk with the Asus.

hi!

i have some VERY interesting facts to report:

the liteon-ltr24102b has just today been replaced by an asus crw-5232as.
with the latest discjuggler version and settings according to futureproof's guide (except that i ticked "scan gaps/indexes" for reading, but i think that shouldn't hurt) i used the asus to read and write the sct play disc (sd 3.20).

now comes the interesting part:
the toshiba dvd-rom does absolutely not want to start from the backup-disc.
the asus itself does absolutely not want to start from the backup-disc with or without alcohol's hide media type.
the plextor premium starts from the backup with AND without hide media type.
the nec dvd-rw starts from the backup with hide media, haven't tried without yet.

i really wonder if my toshiba is such a picky reader or the asus not burning as reliably as we all hoped? and why the plex - being a cdrw - does not need the hide media type to start from the backup is very confusing to me...

maybe the asus' writing abilities are depending on the specific sample, as it seems to be the case with the plex premium and its safedisc backups

i'm probably going to try the clonecd/fireburner method as well - orinoco, could you please tell me your reading settings for clonecd?

The Tosh is a very good reader, which is why it probably doesn't authenticate the backup. There are many posts here that say that the only drives that authenticate the backup are the more forgiving readers.

The Asus burn quality is not as good as other drives out there, that has been seen many times, however it is also one of the most reliable SD writers out there. Many Lite-Ons are hit and miss - like the Plex Premium - but all Asus drives so far are OK.

I don't understand how the plex can start the backup without any ATIP hiding app present either - sorry

On the CloneCD/Fireburner method, I used a profile from the pinned topic in the CloneCD Forum - SafeDisk 2.51 [No AWS]. Check first that Fast Error Skip is set to Auto [yes it makes a difference], then check the 'Create Cue Sheet' option when you select the image target and name.

Burning with FireBurner is a pice of cake, 'load tracks from cue sheet' from the file menu, select the CloneCD created .cue file and don't forget to go into the config and make sure that the Asus is the selected recorder and that DAO+16 or DAO+96 write configuration is selected before burning.

The Asus is not directly supported by FireBurner, so you can choose only 1x or Max. I would advise 1x - which for the Asus means 4x as that is the lowest burning speed supported - but then the DJ demo only burned at 4x too.

Good Luck, both worked for me as you have already read, but I suffered a degree of failure too. Don't ask me why the CD-RW is more reliable than the CD-R but for me it was.

i never expected that there would be a time when i'd wish the toshiba wasn't such a good reader

but i have to say, that for sd 3.2 backups this drive is a no-go

no method produced backups that work in that drive,

not with discjuggler,
not with clonecd/fireburner,
not with conecd/alcohol

but, there's good news as well: i now know why the plex can start the backup without atip hiding, ..., well, it actually cant't!
it just seems that alcohol does some background atip-hiding even when it's not running - after uninstalling alcohol, the backups didn't start anymore...

personally, i prefer the discjuggler backup, as the plextor authenticates it as quickly as the original (with atip hiding, of course), whereas both other backups need a bit more time.

anyway, thanks for your help - though i haven't been equally successfull

It has got to the point now where any backup that works is a relief almost. The cycle of move and counter-move by the copy protection manufacturers and duplication software writers has slowly narrowed down the number of drives that create a sucessfull backup.

Over the years that I have been backing up my software I have paid a lot of attention to the CD Freaks forum and now more than ever believe that to be sucessful you really need to have a drive to authenticate with, something forgiving that doesn't read the ATIP, a drive to read images, and a drive to write them. If you choose carefully you can get a CD-RW to do the reading and the writing, at the moment I believe the Asus is that drive. That is not to say that there are not others, many people use an LTD-166S to read and authenticate, and something else to write. If I had the money I would probably invest in the Plex Premium and trial Blindwrite again to see if I can get V5 to work well with my setup for SecuROM backups. I never had much success with V4, however the TwinPeak method has worked well so far, so I keep using that.

If you use Alcohol 120%, remember to pay close attention to the version updates as the ATIP and emulation pieces of Alcohol are blacklisted in newer protections and force you to upgrade on a regular basis.

Knock Knock....People...Can I say somrthing on those safedisk 3.20.022 writhing and making beckups and other thing...?Do not buy Asus some AS thing....(ugly Asus) BUY LG HL-DT-ST CDRW GCE-8525B 52x32x52...and you know why?Whell I menaged to make an copy of TRUE CRIME CD1 without to mutch troubles...and yes safe disc 3.20.022...alcohol offcourse...And really good thing A-RAY SCANNER!!!Result is fully working True Crimes...You do not belive me?Whell Try it...

Quite ignorant, considering that you just might be lucky, you might have some sort of emulation running, it could be working for just your computer, you have good media and so on. By all means, i'm sure it is a good drive, but no guarantee ever that is is gonna work for everyone.

What are you talking about? Both my Asus 5224a & 5232as made a working backup of Painkiller (only burners needed Ignore Media Type enabled). I have 3 LG products (a burner, cd-rom, dvd-rom) and all of them are sitting on a shelf because I have no room for junk hardware.