Used safedisc settings and made backups out of my original Command and Conquer : Generals and Simcity 4 but for some reason they refuse to run after I install them. I've tried them installing via my DVDROM as well as my CDRW drive with no luck. The install is smooth but the game crashes when running. I'm on Win2K w/SP3 installed. All my other games have no problem whatsover. I'm running the latest alcohol build. I dont understand why the game(s) refuse to run.

Now here's the strange part....I used these same backups and made images from them using the safedisc setting in alcohol. When I mount them on the virtual cd drive, they work perfectly...like how my originals used to work. The game(s) run perfectly....

Can anyone help me figure out what was done wrong in the burning process?

My Reader is Liteon LTD-163D running the latest region free firmware...
My Writer is Liteon LT-4012S running the latest firmware...

oh, and yes ignore media option has been checked in alcohol's settings...

Thanks

Raj

I presume that you installed from the virtual drive. These games, like most EA releases, are hotwired to run only from the installation drive (unless you edit your registry).

Alternatively, it's possible that you forgot to uncheck Bypass efm error when burning as this option often results in coasters with 2 sheep writers like yours.

rajkanneganti have you tried CloneCD version 3.3.4.1 to backup Generals?
i used my LTR-40125S and CloneCD to backup Generals and the backup works perfect.
i use my Lite-On and old CloneCD version to backup all my Safedisc protected games and haven't made a coaster yet.
all backups work perfect.
made backups of MOH:AA, MOH:Spearhead, Generals, 007 Nightfire, NFS:HP2, etc, and all work perfect.
maybe try that, might work for ya.
the new version of CloneCD and your Lite-On might work too, i just prefer old version of CloneCD -- works well for me.
Alcohol a good program, but this might help ya too.

use lastest alcohol, safedisc profile, hied atip enabled and intall from the backup cd...it will work fine

Not the SafeDisc profile, but SafeDisc 2 profile

It doesnt matter. The only difference is the Bypass EFM Error function for the burning step. If you have a 2 sheep burner you do not need that function anyway. Safedisc Datatype works the same as Safedisc 2 Datatype.

umm making back ups from back ups dont work.




@philamber
that's unusual I run C&C generals from any drive no probs

Your scenario is unusual. Every EA release of late has been hotwired to only run in the drive it was installed from on a given machine.



Dear Administrator - Please enable the [img] code for this section....

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yes, this is what I mean.
You can say the same thing in two ways:
1)Use the safedisc profile but disable the "bypass EFM error"
2)Use safedisc profile
I use the 2nd, because is faster to say

I agree with you.
People probably will get confused though.

Hi,

because you have said that you can play Generals only from the CD from which you installed it.
There is not Registry-entry where Generals saved the drive.
And I have installed Generals from my DVD-ROM drive and play it from virtual Alcohol drive.
And that works fine.

Maybe when you register the game on the net that restriction gets lifted or something, Because the only games that are ever locked to playing from the drive i installed them from are securom protected games and still out of the 70 or so games i have only 3 of them have the play from installed drive restriction

Maybe it is not hotwired then. Most EA games are though.

Could be that it's not hot-wired. I only installed it to test the copy I made as a back-up for my kids and then uninstalled it. They haven't told me of any problems but I doubt that they would have played the game from any drive other than their dvd rom.

I'm the newbie here, have little experience but do have a crap load of programs, Alcohol, CD Copy, Virtual Drive 10, blah blah, anyways, I am trying to copy Command and Conquer Generals disc1 so i can play it without using the disc, thus we are all here! It keeps on getting disc read error codes at blocks 825, 828, and so on, what am I doing wrong? Ive been reading this site and all the forums for the past two days,and still haven't figured it out, what gives?

Read errors are normal and expected with safedisc protected games. Just be patient and let the reading process complete.

should i continue even though its taking 2hrs to only get 3%? If its what i gotta do then alrighty

ok disreguard my last message, i just wasn't patient enough, 5 min after i sent that message, i guess it got passed all the errors and finished in about 10 min, so i really appreciate the help, sometimes patience is all you need!

^ The unreadable sectors on a safedisc protected disc are all in the first ~10,500 sectors (usually about 3% of the disc) as you've now discovered for yourself.