Actually, i found through trial and error that the MDS file that Alcohol 120% generates is a VERY close match to the UT 2003 original. Also the Alcohol MDS file is alot "smoother", it has virtually no extreme peaks (don't know if that's exactly a "good" thing).

So what i did was generate the Alcohol MDS file (you don't need to burn the whole disc. you can stop the process once Alcohol tells you that the DPM extraction was successful). Then i used the "Convert MDS to BWA" feature in the Blindwrite Physical Characteristic Dumper to convert the MDS to BWA. You then have to rename the BWA to match the image that Blindwrite makes. Put the new BWA in the same folder as your BWI and BWT file and burn with Blindwrite.

Worked perfectly for me (see my previous post on "my" success with this method).

This is actually very useful info because you can test the alcohol generated mds file before converting by mounting the image on a virtual drive to see if it will run from there.

If so, then it's obviously a good candidate for conversion to the bwa format and to use when burning the image file generated by blindread.

this would be faster than generating a BWA file...

How long does it take drive to created a BWA with your reader/writer? (please name the brand or model with the game you used)

Liteon 40125W latest Firmware - takes about 15 minutes

My specs are listed as my signature. I used a Sony CDU5221 to read the disc and create the MDS file. At the time, I was using Alcohol 133.130 and any read speed below 24X would cause an error and abort the DPM reading, so I read at 24x. I think it took like 2 1/2 minutes, but like I said the "curve" it generated was very smooth and I suspect that is what led to my copies verifying very quickly (about 3 seconds average on 7 different machines).

I used a Lite on 32123 (firmware xsox) and wrote at max speed, which was 4x because of the cheap re-writables I was using.

You don't have to read subchannels while creating the image with Blindwrite.

One note that might be of interest: i had previously been burning a cd with SafeDisc 2.8 and I had the "Enhance Weak Sectors" option ENABLED by accident when i made my copy of UT 2003. I thought it might ruin the write, but it did not. Another interesting fact is that i dumped the image into Insektors and it detected SafeDisc 1 ?!?!?!

Hope that helps...

at what speed?? i'm guessing max?

BWA builder works only at 4x with Liteons!

ISOman you funny guy.

I tried the same and BWA Builder tells me a error message: "This is not a valid MDS file".

It doesn't work.

What's even funnier is the version of BWA you must be using, as mine not only converts the MDS but I just found out that it will also convert the XMD file generated by GameJack...

I've got the very first version of the BWA dumper by the way...I've read that the new version is giving some people problems....

Hmm not bad times we have there.

As long as the times are tolerable then there is nothing to worry about.

Liteon does as good as it is expected (i hope everyone can agree with me on that one)

here it is, a step-by-step tutorial for backing up ut2003. blindread/blindwrite latest version is needed. a demo can be downloaded at www.blindread.com. being a newbie, i spent several nights after work trying to backup the 3 disk set i bought for $48. not to mention the 15 cdr's i wasted with various software and configurations (boy was my girl pissed since they were hers, i ran out). my son, 3 yrs old, who believe it or not began playing unreal at 2, cannot get of my pc !!! after i noticed several scratches on the original disk 1 which is needed everytime to begin the game, so here we go:

Read Portion: Extract the contents of the cd into an image. (orange arrow from cdrom to disk). When blindread begins follow and apply the following check marks.

1. make make sure you click on general settings, test cd layer access, and that the vso driver is used. if prompted to restart do so, if not go back to main menu.

1.5 next select dump image from cdrom.

2. select your writer from the drop down list

3. check the box with extract subcodes only!!!

4. leave the default location for the image file which would be in the vso/blindread directory. IMPORTANT!!! also leave the default name of the disc as the image name ex: UT2003_CD1.

5. make sure #1 NIBBLE is selected ***

6. check the box with adapt speed.

7. i wrote and read at 4x, thats the speed i recommend.

8. check the box with eject disk if you wish

at this point, it will begin to make the image. errors will occur at the end of the process, around 15 seconds remaining, dont be alarmed, its ok.

NEXT STEP IS TO MAKE A .BWA FILE

1. start bwabuilder application. (cannot be lauched thru the desktop icon, but rather by clicking start/all programs/blindwrite suite/physical cd characteristic dumper).

2. make sure the drive with the disk is selected, set for 4x, and the default 324800.

3. click start mesure, when complete if not given the option to save, click on file and save bwa.

4. !!!URGENT!!! when the process is complete, you will be given the opportunity to save the file, BE SURE TO NAME It THE SAME AS THE IMAGE ex: UT2003_CD1 and no extension because the application will give it the .bwa. ALSO IMPORTANT, the file has to be saved in the same directory where you save the image.

WRITE PROCESS, YOUR ALMOST DONE!!!

1. lauch blindwrite, turquios colored arrow pointing from HD to cdrom

2. click start cd writing wizard

3. be sure you writer is selected, on the information tab, blindwrite will give you information about you drive (max read speed, max write speed, etc) the application will not allow you alter any information under that tab.

4. click on advance. !!!URGENT!!! uncheck all the boxes except DAO pw-it should be the only one with a check mark next to it.

5. i am not sure if your drives characteristics matched mine. the max read, write, and suggested speed were at 48, the buffer size was set at 2048, with rewrite at 10. i would suggest going along with the default settings that blindwrite suggests!!!

6. locate the image. and click start, it will verify the image, simply click next when finish.

7. last step, make sure DAO pw mode is selected, at 4x, and that the box next to USE BWA FILE IF AVAILABLE IS CHECKED!!!!!!!!!! along with the other two boxes. CLICK GO. YOUR DONE.

Also, it is recommended that you run your copy from a cdrom or cdreader-not on writers. Dont ask me why, i read that on the net and for some reason, it's true. I tried running it on my writer and it would not start up, just spin. You might try to use insektor v3 from gameworld.

I hope this tutorial helped, I wish I could have came across something similar when I was trying to backup my disks. It could have same me alot of hours!!! If you need any additional tips or advice, feel free to email me at ppedrog321@cs.com