Ok, I have had no problems backing up any sd version in the past. I have made copies of MOHAA, C&C Renegade, and GTA3 with clonecd and betablocker 1.01. Check this out. I just bought GTA3, and I immediately backed it up so i wouldn’t lose the discs to scratches and such, plus it gives me a rush . Anyway, I managed to make 4 copies of it on different media (I’ve been testing different media for quality and SD 2.51 compatibility, no illegal stuff going on here). When I went to try my 5th copy using the same images, something went awry. The install cd works fine, because it has no protection, contrary to what people think. Anyway, when i went to test the play cd, i get the hanging at the rockstar logo load screen error. I double checked my previous copies, and they still worked fine. Keep in mind i used betablocker to patch the play cd image, and that I used the EXACT SAME settings every time. Since the reading was obviously fine because i made 4 working copies, I checked to see if it was the media. I used reliable fujifilm 700mb and verbatim 700mb cd-r’s, ones that i had made previous successful backups on. Here’s where i got scared and began to weep: THE BACKUPS DIDN’T work. I was always using the same settings, so i tried writing with AWS on and off (yeah i know, don’t use betablocker and AWS on the same image, but i was fiddling around ok?) to no avail. Here’s my hunch: the repetitive burning of the same image caused some sort of degredation to the integrity or content of the image. Has anyone heard tell of anything like this happening before? I just read another image and successfully “betablocked” the sd2.51 play disc image, and the burn process is at 53% right now. I’ll let you know how it turns out. But man, there is some weird mojo going on here. I actually think i had the same problem with a max payne image i was storing on a backup drive. After i re-read the image, i was able to back the game up again. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
P.S. - I didn’t give any burner stats or settings because the backup process ran fine. I will let you know I used the settings reccomended by clony 2.0.0.6 and they worked the first 4 times, and i used betablocker, not AWS.
P.P.S. - On that note, I’ve been wondering. My NEC NR-7800A burner only partially does EFM encoding correctly (1 sheep), and betablocker 1.01 has always worked for sd 2.51. I’ve used AWS for safedisc 2, but never 2.51 or above. Will AWS work for my burner on SD2.51 and above? I know i should just test it, but My budget is tight, and every coaster i make takes away a little piece of my soul with it…
Thanks for your time and contributions!!!