OK, so I've read the posts here on how to copy Sims 2, and I'm having no luck.

For reference, my hardware is:

Toshiba SD-M1712 (Reader)
Asus CRW-4816A (Writer #1)
Lite-On LTR-48125W (Writer #2)

Using Alcohol 120% 1.9.2 build 1705.

I've tried both the "Safedisc" and "Safedisc 2/3" profiles, reading and writing at 4X with no luck.

I get no errors, other than read errors while ripping the original (these are normal, from what I've been able to tell).

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Your writers. They are quite old and *probably* won't burn SafeDisc 3/4 protected games at all. Of course this is a general overview, for instance some of the backups created with these drives may work in certain devices, but this is probably not the case here.

Wow, I didn't think they were that old...

What's the reccomendation on the best Lite-On and Asus writers, these days?

For that matter, should I upgrade the reader as well?

Hrmm, another reply to my own post...

Are Asus or Lite-On even considered "the best" these days? If not, what is?

I've always heard that Lite-On drives are good at reading/writing discs with copy protection, and my Lite-On LDW-811S successfully ripped The Sims 2 DVD with SafeDisc.

OK, how about these:

Asus CRW-5232AS
Lite-On LTR-52327S

Are these new enough?

The Asus certainly is capable of making a back-up copy that will work from many devices.

However, I suspect that your real problem is that you're trying to run your back-up copies from your Toshiba Dvd-rom. Toshiba dvds are nototiously picky about running back-up copies at the best of times and its tolerance for copies of recent version safedisc protected cds (i.e. sd 3.2+) is likely to be very low indeed.

Before buying a new writer, I'd suggest that you invest a few dollars in a Lite-on dvd (both the Ltd-166S and Ltd-167T are incredibly cheap so it won't set you back much) and try running your back-up copies from that. Lite-on dvds are extremely tolerant of copies and I suspect that you'll find that copies burnt with your 48x Asus at least will run from such a drive (and copies burnt with your 48x Litey may well do so too).

Hrmm - I will definitely try that.

Question - is there any kind of read issue for the copies from a Acer 16x DVD-ROM (don't have an exact model - doesn't show in the device manager), or a Lite-On LTN526S CD-ROM?

I've tried my backups in both of those drives, to no avail.

Are the Toshiba SD-M1912 drives also as picky? Are they still good/preferred as a reader for creating images?

Is the Lite-On SOHD-167T the same as the LTD-167T?

Just checked newegg.com, and they only have the SOHD models.

Mine is pretty picky. I can't comment on its imaging ability though, as I use the drives in my first PC (lite-on and Plextor Premium) for backups these days.

Yes, sorry for the confusion. I meant the SOHD-167T.

Just ran a few tests. It extracted the topology @ 100% on the first try, While my Lite-on maxed at 98% and my Plex Premium hit 99% at most. So, needless to say this drive is pretty good for making bwa files for backing up Securom.