[Gothic 2: Night of the Raven] Can't get by Copy Protection...

I succesfully made a backup image of the CD (can't recall what program i used), but I cannot install from the backup. I have tried both burning the backup onto a CD and installing from there, and I have also tried mounting the image using Daemon and installing from that, both give me the same error at the same time during installation.

Basically what happens is right after I set the directory to install to, it starts reading the CD, which takes about 10 seconds, and then gives me an error message in german (after translating it the message simply says to insert the Original CD- "Gothic 2: Night of the Raven").

Any help would be appreciated.

What is the file extention of your images? (e.g. .bin, .cue etc)

What are your Optical drives?

Have you scanned with A-Ray Scanner - http://www.aray-software.com ?

Do you have your original to play/install from?

1.) .iso

2.) LITEON DVD-ROM LTD163
and HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8481B

3.) Yes, it just says "SecuRom" not including the version or anything (using the latest A-ray version)

4.) Not at my present location

I also tried mounting the .iso on virtual drives using CloneCD and Alcohol 52%, as well as Daemon.

Ok, here's the problem. SecuROM protected titles utilise an area of a CD called the Subchannels. SecuROM puts some of it's information in there and when the game goes to verify it checks these subchannels for this particular information. Now, there are many formats that can support Subchannels built into it, but unfortunately the ISO format is not one of them. You will have to get your original CD back and re-read from it again with a program with Subchannel storing capabilies in their image formats such as CloneCD (http://www.slysoft.com) or Alcohol 120% (http://www.alcohol-soft.com)

According to the MakeABackup Games Database (http://www.makeabackup.com) Gothic 2 is protected with SecuROM 4.83.52.0004. From version 4.8 upwards SecuROM have used a method which the track lengths are not the same sizes, meaning there are some sections thicker than others. Since CD-R's have a pre-determined track density, it would be very hard if not impossible to write these thicker sectors back onto CD. However, there are some methods used to trick the SecuROM guard module into thinking it is an original.

Here are 2 noted ways.
1)Use the CloneCD+TwinPeaks+BWA Method.
2)Use the Alcohol+DPM and use that as Emulation with the RMPS option enabled.

You should be able to find these guides in the Guides and Tutorials section above.

Good Luck!

Thanks a lot

So basically the .iso I made is useless, and can only proceed with my original cd?

Iso format is useless for securom 4.8x/5.x. You'll need your original cd and then follow one of the tutorials.

hmm, I seem to have a similar problem. I made a copy by simply copying all the files from the original cd to harddisk and then burning them to a cd-r using winoncd. so of course it doesn't install now. So I got myself a fine BWA file and patched the imperfect image, using the Twin Creator tool. Then I loaded the image into the Alcohol virtual drive and tried to install, but it still doesn't work. So what's the problem? Is it:

-the missing subchannel data?

- or do I have to actually BURN a securom image to cd-r for it to work? is it possible to circumvent securom new 4.x by simply using an image on harddisk without burning it? I mean, of course, if the image is ok (with subchannel data and with the appopriate sectors inserted by Twin Creator)?

Someone please help me! I've tried and tried to instal gothic 2 add-on : Night of the Raven and I still couldn't install it ... I red your article about wat image file to download , and I found a *.cue file that i've introduced in with Alcohol 120% , and still it wouldn't install ... then i reinstalled Gothic 2 version 1.31 english so that it wouldn't be a problem when the add-on asked for the gothic 2 directory .... i thought that the crack that i copied over the original gothic2.exe didn't let me install the add-on! I don't know what the problem might be , could it be the gothic2 version i have , or the error belongs only to the add-on! If someone can help me , if someone can tell me from where can I download a good version(copy) of the Night of the Raven please write at my e-mail : removed !
Thank You !!!
I'm desperate ! Please Help ME !!!

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Last edited by Portmac; 17-01-2006 at 19:15.

Then go to your local game store and buy the game.

And you should read This and This

Edit.......what a waste of post number 1000