• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Clone CD and HP 9350i ReWriter problems

apoppin

Lifer
I just bought an HP 9350i 10x4x32 rewriter which Clone CD's web site says should be able to read the sub channel data.

However, when I back up my latest games (Alice, MDK2), the install fails from the CD or else it cannot read from the copied CD to play the game.

When I tried to copy my old Half-Life CD, Clone CD gave me an error message stating my HP cannot read the sub-channel data.

What gives? I am only checking "read sub channel data from audio and data tracks".

Am I missing something? Suggestions?

Anyway, if I can't get it to work, I am still happy with my rewriter (a "hot deal" new for $65 with rebate) which is a big improvement over my old Acer 2X.

 
I am glad to be able to answer my own question (in case anyone else had similar problems).

When setting up Clone CD, make sure to check "do not repair SubChannel errors" (duh). Also, I found it unnecessary to copy "audio" sub channel info for games.

Results: My $65 bargain new HP 9360i has made perfect back-up CD copies of Half-Life & MDK2 (Which is critical since my Half-Life CD is pretty scratched). Another vote for CloneCD (I guess I will have to pay for it now . . . )
 
Apoppin,

You might also want to know that Alice is SafeDisk2 protected and that there a very few burners that can dupe this protection with CloneCD. You can checkout This! and look in the upper right corner for Safedisk2 info.

Spdfcker
 
Thanks, spdfcker.

My re-writer does seem confused when trying to access the Alice copy. If I start the game with the original disc and then replace it with the copy during play there is no problem - only on starting with the copied disk.

Are there other copy programs besides Clone CD that can get around the SafeDisk2 Protection with my rewriter?
 
Apoppin,

The safedisk 2 protection is a good one (but not perfect), it takes advantage of the fact that some writers will get confused when burning a weak sector, when this information hits the writers output buffers the burner gets a hiccup so to say. The encoded information in the output buffer overloads the circuit and causes a failure. Thus, the block is not the same as the original and therefore the startup routine knows that this is not an original and your drive goes crazy. There are some writers on the market whos output circuits don't care about the information and write it as is. These burners will make a copy that plays in any cd. There are some models listed on that link that I told you about that have this specific type of hardware, but not many people will not go and buy another burner so you can look here for information on "passing" this.

I am keeping an eye on this and there are some programs that look promising as far as beating this.. I will PM you when I find one that I think is good.

Spdfcker
 
Thanks, spdfker!

Looking at the Hot Deals Forum today, I see a further price adjustment at Staples so my new HP rewriter only cost finally $15 - No, I won't get another (Philips or Plextor) for quite awhile just to copy SafeDisk2 CDs.

Yes, I'd appreciate a work-around so my rewriter doesn't get confused with the new copy protection. It looks like GameCopyWorld moved their protection infor to CDMediaWorld. It looks like a eventual work-around is possible. However, I'm still glad to be able to back up 99% of my disks (quickly).
 
Thanks, SonOfZeus. PlayBlack21 is being downloaded as I type. I didn't expect a work-around so quickly.

I'll report back tonight as to it's success.
 
Back
Top