I've heard that CloneCD is not that effective in backing-up SafeDisc v.2 protected cd's. How true is that?

For those familiar with this subject, your comments will be greatly appreciated. Also does checking the "Amplify Weak Sectors" box during the write process improve the chance of succeeding?

Actually, when it comes to SD2, most people swear by CloneCD, that is, the lucky ones with burners that are fully Clone compatible, if it's not, then I don't think Clone is gonna help one bit. Can't help you with the "Amplify" thing, though, sorry.

I think it all comes down if your CDRW is SD2 compatible....

Plus how slow you are reading the cd to an image file or something. I once ran into a problem where i was making corrupted image files because i was reading the CD at 8x, but when i notched it down to 4x or below, it worked fine. ;)

The AWS is a built in beta blocker for those whose burner is not SD2 compatible.....

Not sure on its success rate though.... But beta blocker was not faultless.