Faq

[webmaster]

need everyone to help with some input for the faq dummie section. what we need is dummies guides to using NERO, DISKJUGGLER, WINonCD etc to help folks burning and patching. I have done the one for cdrwin and need other too for the rest of the progs, you will be credited for the work too. Please don't stick the same nes in the folder that are already there, need them to be clear and step by step too, look at my cdrwin for dummies folder to see the format needed, many thanx
The Psyches

[thank you The Psyches]

[webmaster]

[list=1]
Set 'NUMBER OF RETRIES BEFORE READ ERROR' to the max value of 10 This will try and read the data on a scratched or dirty disc 10 times before failing.
Uncheck the 'READ MEDIA CATALOG NUMBER' box.
Check the 'IGNORE ILLEGAL TOC' box.
In the 'DATA TRACKS' box check the radio button to 'CONTINUE COPYING'.
In 'DATA MODE 1' check the 'FORCE RAW READING'
On error's 'WRITE UNCORRECTED'.
In the 'AUDIO TRACKS' box only check the 'IGNORE READ ERROR'S' box.
Click on the 'BURN' tab.
[/list=1]


[list=1]
For the first couple of times when making backups in the 'ACTION' box check on the 'DETERMINE MAX SPEED, SIMULATION AND WRITE' box's.
When you know that your copies are good only check the 'WRITE' box. Set the 'WRITE SPEED' to 1x.
Click on the 'COPY CD' button.
[/list=1]


After an image of your PSX game has been made to the 'PSX_IMAGE/PSX_Name.img' file on your harddrive you will be asked to put in a blank CD-R disc. Click on OK and after the image has been burnt to disc you will have a perfect backup copy.

Psyches
This is a walk through for nero I don't deserve any credit I got it from http://www.aqik1.co.uk/ . But this worked for me, and believe me I had my problems with this program. you might also mention that it does not get along well with other software.

[thank you wild willie]

[webmaster]

How 2 copy with Psxcopy by sHiVeR

short and simple version


nb: make sure that you have the "auto insert tab ticked off in the control/systems folder

[list=1]
Click the "Cd Copy Button
Put the Psx disc in the cdrom drive and a CDR disc in the cdr drive "each cdrom will have a description on what in the drive"
Press little red button
Record on x2 speed (recommended) then choose if u want to make a test copy or burn it right away
Kick back and open a can and just wait!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to the world of Psx copying
[/list=1]

How to patch coming soon!!!

[Thank you sHiVeR]

[webmaster]

VOB Instant CD Wizard

First off make sure you have the newest version available and all the updates for drivers
(cdrsoft.net has the download and vob.de is the official site for this program)

Run Mutlicopy (a part of the VOB Instant CD Wizard suite) if you see a button labled "Details" click it, if not look for the following tabs and set the following options on each tab:

Write (tab):

Write: Disc at Once
Closing Method: Close CD
Write Speed: 2x (burn higher if you have a better PSX but 2x is safest)


Read (tab):

Data Read Speed: Maximum
Audio Read Speed: Maximum
(Leave software and hardware retries at defaults)


Now depending on the what you are backing up do the following:

To back up a really clean original (NO scratches) on the fly:

On the Write tab make sure the "Write to Hard Disk First" is not checked.

On the General tab set the "Error Handling" to "Stop Copying on Errors". Warning: If your disc has any scratches or problems being read halfway through the burn may fail wasting a CDR!

Recommended: To burn a scratched disc (try to recover a scratched disc or improve its
performance) or just be safe:

On the General tab set "Error Handling" to Ignore Errors" (this will force Write to Hard Disc First to be checked). When the CD reader hits a sector it cannot read it will try a few times to read that sector, watch when it is reading the CD and if it will say something like: "Trying to Recover sector XXX 1/3" if this hits 3/3 and the sector is not recovered the copy may not function, try setting hardware and software retries higher in the Read tab. Do not bother setting this over 20.

Select the proper CD source and destination drives in the uppr windows and choose whether you want a simulation or not (usually don't bother as simulations take longer than writing to the HD first and if you burn to the HD first you usually will not waste a CDR), set the number of copies you want and click Start.

Hints for smooth burning:

On the General tab click the Options button and click the disable screen saver while burning box.

Make sure your Power Management does not go into sleep while the comptuer is burning (Windows may not regsiter a CD being burned as CPU activity), best to turn off your PM all together.

Do not attempt to run other applications while burning. While a good CD writier burning at 2x will probably not hit a buffer underrun if you have a good speed CPU and launch another app, is it really a risk you want to take? If you have a really stunning system you can try but it is at your own peril. DO NOT try to surf the net while burnin, this is just asking for trouble as the hardware utilized often causes burn failures.

Make sure other CD burning apps are not interfering with VOB. VOB has a packet writing feature that is launched at windows start up and will conflict with other packet writing software (ie Easy CD Creators Direct CD). CDRWIN and VOB can run on the same machine however and I have not had any problems running both.

[thank you Devedander]

[webmaster]

Check this site out. It has full graphical walktroughs for the most popular programs and advanced topics.

Go to the CDR section. www.PKer.com

[thank you The Proxy Hunter]

[webmaster]

Freelock Removal.

Freelock just adds another 2 data mode1 tracks on the end of your music tracks. This should appear out of line, right away. Because PSX games that have more than 1 track, always have the music after the data track. They never have another data track. All you do is extract every track besides the last 2 (the dummy Data).

[thank you The Proxy Hunter]

[webmaster]

winoncd 3.6 tutorial by Diskdude

guide for unprotected games


[list=1]
-In the start menu or wherever your winoncd.exe is, click on it.
-The first window will appear, cilck on cd copy.(make sure the psx disk is in your reader and a blank is in your writer)
-If you know that the game has no errors on it click the tick box for on the fly (it most probably will be ticked anyway) and if your doubtful, click the "simulate and write if successful box".
-If your cdrom is a damn site faster than your writer, set the writer to its fastest speed in the speed box. If it isn't then set it lower than the fastest speed otherwise a bufferunderun will occur which basically means that the cdrom didn't pass the data to the writer in time and you will have wasted a disc.
-Then press record
-If the disc does have errors on it then make sure the on the fly box is unticked, and set your writer ro max speed.
-click on write immediately and click record.
-when the window appears tick the box that says keep track images after recording incase there is a problem, then press ok.
-The psx game will now transfer to the hard drive and when the findow appears saying error click ignore all.
-The disc will finish reading eventually then it will write.
-the window "operation completed successfully" will appear click ok.
-Out comes your backup. TA DA.
[/list=1]

[thank you diskdude]

[webmaster]

[bouncing][bouncing][bouncing]
The Psyches e-z guide to using cdrwin

As you are using cdrwin you are on to a winner from the start. Here is your step by step guide
to easy BACKING-UP. Before starting make a folder on your hard drive and call it the same as
your game e.g. (c:\) soulreaver and click enter once you have named it (same as you would
with any new folder you create.

[list=1]
insert your original Playstation game into your cd-reader
start cdrwin
select extractdisk/track/sectors
in extract mode choose "discimage/cuesheet"
choose you cd-reader i.e. 1:1:0
in READING OPTIONS select RAW
set ERROR RECOVERY to ignore
in IMAGE FILENAME type in the name of the folder you have created e.g. c:\soulreaver\soulreaver
click START
in a short while you will now have an image file and a cuesheet in that folder, these will be soulreaver.cue and soulreaver.bin. You will notice if you right click the .bin file that it is the same size as your game i.e. 611MB
unzip the patch that you have downloaded into the folder soulreaver.
open up the folder and you will now notice that it has more files on it. There are now 3 ways of applying the patch depending on the type of patch i.e. PDX or PPF. If it is a PDX there are two ways to do this.

A: open up the dos-prompt cd c:\soulreaver enter so that the directory you are in is c:\soulreaver. When this is done type in the command line of the patch e.g. PDX-SRUK.EXE soulreaver.bin and then enter. Remember that you will have to check the .exe file name, as they are all different, this info is available from the site that you got the patch from and is usually the name on the file. The screen will now tell you that the patch has worked.

B: when you open up the folder with all the files in it double click on the .EXE file and it will ask you the name of the IOS file or the .BIN file, type in c:\soulreaver\soulreaver.bin then enter the patch has worked method should now be shown.

C: If the file has a .PPF extension then you will need to get hold of a copy of PPF-O-MATIC, this is available from most Psx help sites to download. Using it could not be easier, just type in or find the PPF file and the .bin file in the box's provided and click start.

To 'burn' or record the disk in cdrwin click "record disk" make sure that your recorder is selected in the CDROM recorder box
Click LOADCUESHEET and find the file that you want e.g. c:\soulreaver.cue
Click "start recording" and in about half-hour or so you'll have a working BACK-UP assuming that your Playstation has a modchip or like.
load your disk into the Playstation and play your arse off! If you need patches then go to either www.psxstuff.co.uk or www.megagames.com follow the links on the message boards
[/list=1]

If the game you are backing up does not need to be patched then just go through steps 1-10 and steps 13-16, hope this helps you out there
ENJOY,
THE PSYCHES
[bouncing][bouncing][bouncing]

[thank you The Psyches]

[webmaster]

CHECK OUT THESE LINKS TO SEE IF YOUR CDWRITER IS SUPPORTED BY THESE POPULAR
PROGRAMS.

IT SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD THAT ONLY THE LATEST VERSION OF THE PROGRAMS MAY SUPPORT
YOUR MODEL.


Blindread http://blindread.free.fr/writerslist.htm

Cdrwin http://www.goldenhawk.com/devices_body.htm

Clonecd http://home.onet.co.uk/~cloneclinic/hardware.htm

Diskjuggler http://www.padus.com/hardware.htm

Ezcd creator http://cdr.adaptec.com/cgi-bin/cdrmain.cgi

Fireburner http://www.fireburner.com/rankings.htm

Nero http://www.ahead.de/en/Recorder.htm

PSXCopy 6.2 http://psxboost.hypermart.net/psxcuk.htm

Winoncd http://www.cequadrat.de/english/products/winoncd_3e.html

[thank you The Proxy Hunter]

[webmaster]

An interesting post by wild willie on CD Recorder recommendations:

I got this list from fireburner
check it out it might help you decide

IgD's Recorder Rankings
"Which recorder should I buy?"

If you have been following FireBurner from its earliest beginnings, you know that I have spent a lot of hours working with lots of different drives. I have also spent a lot of time communicating (or trying to communicate) with the companies that make these drives. On top of all this, I have received thousands of e-mails from people all over the world complaining about their recorders.

Below, I'm going to give you the advice I give to my friends and family when helping them purchase a recorder. I'm also going to tell you my own biased opinion as to which drives I like and which drives I do not

Feel free to e-mail me and let me know what your take is on my rankings

When shopping for a CD-R/W drive here are the things that you should look for:

Brand? Historically the best writers have been Plextor and Yamaha. As a general rule, stick with those companies and you can not go wrong. These companies are known for high quality products and good customer support. The brands to avoid are JVC and Sony recorders. These have been notoriously bad drives.

Speed? Get at least a 4X writer. Most new writers support this so you shouldn't have to worry about it. It takes approximately 20 minutes to burn a CD at this speed.

Interface? SCSI drives are better obviously because they require less CPU overhead and are thus more stable during the burning process. They are also slightly more expensive If you plan to do a lot of burning (>30 CD's per month) or wish to do heavy multi-tasking while you are burning you should a buy SCSI drive. If you do not have a SCSI card, I highly recommend Adaptec cards. Contrary to popular belief, a SCSI burner is no faster than an IDE one. The speed bottleneck has to do with how fast the laser can burn your media. It has nothing to do with the speed of the data interface.
Avoid parallel port and USB recorders.

DAO, SAO or TAO? Ideally you want a drive that supports both Session at once (SAO) aka "SEND CUE SHEET" and Disk at once (DAO) aka "RAW". Most new drives support SAO only. One important difference is that DAO allows duplication of some copy protection schemes while SAO does not. Another key difference is that SAO burning requires far less CPU overhead. With DAO, the software is responsible for performing a lot of heavy calculations that the hardware of a SAO drive does. The main point here is to avoid Track at once (TAO) drives. In TAO the drive's laser powers down in between tracks. This results in a mandoatory 2 second pause in between tracks and can be annoying when playing burned audio CD's.
FOR EXPANDED INFORMATION ON THIS SUBJECT, PLEASE CHECK OUT THE EDITORIALS SECTION.

Overburning? 80 minute CD support? Overburning refers to the capability of a drive to burn a few more minutes of data onto a CD over the media's certification. For example, sometimes you might want to put 75 minutes of data onto a 74 minute CD. You can purchase 80 minute blank media. It is nice to have a recorder that supports these CD's One form of copy protection is to make a CD that is larger than 64 or 80 minutes. If you are trying to duplicate a CD like this and your recorder does not support Overburning or 80 minute CD's, you are out of luck.

RW? The rewrite function really is not that great. You have to format CD's to erase them. This takes 20 minutes for a 4x re-writer. Blank RW media is more expensive than normal media. In my opinion, RW media is not worth the hassle since normal media costs < $1 per CD.

New or used? Warranty? Obviously it is desirable to purchase a new drive. Be smart when you are cruising the internet auction sites. The average life expectancy of a recorder is approximately 1-2 years. If you are a heavy burner (>30 CD's per month) the life expectancy would be closer to 1 year. Avoid used drives that are older than 1-2 years. When buying new look for a 1-2 year warranty. Do not plan on paying for your drive to be repaired when it dies. It generally costs more to replace a drive than it does to buy a new one.

My classification system consists of 5 stars.
The best drives get
Currently no drive gets the top ranking because none deserve it! To get a 5 star ranking, a recorder needs to be able to put any data desired onto a blank CD. There is no drive on the market that can do this that I am aware of. This feature would allow duplication of any copy protected CD. A lot of copy protection schemes rely on "bad sectors" on CD's that most recorders can not write. Sometimes I wonder if this is some kind of industry conspiracy. Most recorders seem to auto-correct errors thus preventing burning of "bad sectors".

Yamaha "Yammy"
Yamaha makes great IDE and SCSI recorders. Yamaha has a great web page as well as technical and developer support. I have been extremely pleased with the quality of these drives. Yammy drives are perfect for those who like to burn heavily. Yamaha drives do not support DAO aka "RAW" writing and only support SAO aka "SEND CUE SHEET". Yamaha may implement DAO aka "RAW" sometime in the future. I have personally verified this with Yamaha Developer Support.

Plextor
Like the Yamaha recorders, Plextor quality is great. Few people complain about them. Plextor drives are also perfect for those who like to burn heavily. The Plextor web site has good content and support seems good. Plextor Developer Support is excellent. The current production drive models do not support "RAW" burning in FireBurner.

Teac
Teac recorders are great just like the Yamaha and Plextor recorders. Developer support is great too!

Mitsumi
Mitsumi drives get 3 stars from me. The drives seem pretty stable. This company had a negative repuation during '99 because they were still selling TAO drives while everyone else was making DAO/SAO drives. This frustrated a lot of people. Lately, Mitsumi seems to be doing a lot to improve their repuation. The new Mitsumi drives support DAO aka "RAW" and from user comments they seem pretty reliable. I haven't heard anything about product support so I can not comment. In the past I have not been pleased with their developer support.

Hewlett-Packard "HP"
HP drives seem to be manufactured by Sony or Philips. HP has excellent developer support and technical support. The HP web page contains a lot of useful information. HP drives are available in both SCSI and IDE flavors. The problem with HP drives is that most of their drives do not support overburning. I have received a lot of e-mail messages complaining about this. HP drives are inexpensive and great for those just starting out.

Panasonic
If I have my facts straight, Panasonic manufacturers these drives but does not market or support them directly. Most of their recorders seem to supported and marketed by a company called ACS Compro. Their drives are decent and inexpensive. Some of their drives do not support RW. I have had a few negative personal experiences with ACS Compro. My brother had a 7502 drive that failed soon after purchase and we found ourselves in a situation where no one would reply to our e-mails or phone messages to the the support answering machine. Finally we got an RMA and it took about a month to get the drive repaired

Ricoh
I don't have a lot of experience with Ricoh drives. I hear good comments and bad comments about these recorders. These drives get a neutral rating from me. The older ones do not support the MMC. Purchase at your own risk

Philips
Philips gets 2 stars. If I have my facts straight, Philips actually has made drives for HP like the old HP 71xx and 72xx series. Philips drives seem to be more popular in Europe than in the USA. From what I have seen this company does not have a good repuation among CD-R/W enthusiasts. Apparently Philips has also been the target of a class action lawsuit filed by some angry customers. I have to give Philips the benefit of the doubt and say that I have not had tons of experience with their drives and company. I will tell you one thing, you won't want to pull into your garage with your girlfriend and try to impress her with one of these

Acer
This is another line of drives that I do not have a lot of experience with. I hear mostly negative comments about these recorders. I would not want to own one of these. Purchase at your own risk

Sony
In the CD-R/W community, Sony has a negative image. I personally dislike their drives. I have received numerous complaints via e-mail about Sony products. Recently a lot of these complaints have been about their new USB CD-R. Others have been about older drives and lack of firmare support. I have received a lot of e-mails complaining that Sony does not put firmware updates on their web page. Maybe I'm biased and misinformed but I would avoid these drives. To top it all of, many of Sony's older recorders do not conform to the Multimedia Command Set (MMC).

JVC
JVC is another recorder maker that gets only 1 star. They have a reputation for low quality recorders. I would avoid these drives too. JVC drives are also notorius for not conforming to the MMC command set.

Smart and Friendly
I'm putting SAF down here not because of poor quality but because (if my understanding is correct) this company does not manufacture their own recorders. Apparently SAF merely rebadges drives made by other companies. These drives get a custom firmware with SAF manufacturer and product ID strings.


[thank you Wild Willies PSX]

[webmaster]

Just a couple of quick notes.....your spot on with Acer. You did not mention Creative.. their drives suck big time and most will not copy psx games. JVC drives are manufactured by Smart and Friendly, hence they suck as well.

A lot of Panasonic drives are sold as Matshita (japanese panasonic).
I have a Matshita CW-7502 scsi and have had no problems whatsoever.

Keep up the good work.

[thank you Andrew67]

[webmaster]

I agree with acers as well, STAY AWAY.
Id like to add iomegaZIP cd 6501 to the good side, Since I knew what I was doing it hasnt givin me any coasters & has been compatible with all the software that ive tried, which iz just about everthing besides that fireburner or whatever its called, i've had no need to try it yet. Plus the drive is one of the least expensive that i've seen.

[thank you can'tthinkofaname]

[webmaster]

Submitted by TopGeezer, very useful nfo:CDR And Win2k

Many users people have problems setting up their CDR into Win2k OS. Below are some tips which help you install and operate smooth. You can always submit your info our E-mail is open!

- Software that works under Win2k:


CDR Related:
CloneCD latest versions
Ez CD Creator v4.02
Nero v4.0.91 (download updated WNASPI32.DLL file). Also check this page
Nero v5.0
CDRWin v3.8a
FireBurner v1.06
Padus DiscJuggler all versions
Prassi PrimoCD Plus/Pro
WinOnCD v3.7

CDR/W Related:
DirectCD v3.01


- Possible Problems and how deal with them


[list=1]
ASPI Problems:
Win2k doesn't include ASPI layer. Therefore you need to install one. Adaptec ASPI Layer seems as the best solution (for now). You can also use a freeware ASPI layer. Both files can be found in our Utils Section.

There is a slight problem if you don't have already installed the Adaptec's ASPI layer. The updater ,for latest version, will deny to go further and you will not be able again to upgrade. There are two solutions for this <problem>:

a) Download the SCSI Mechanic Demo from Utils Section . In setup you will be asked if you want to install the ASPI Layer. After installing ASPI Layer use the Adaptec's updater program and you will have the latest ASPI Layer installed in your system.

b) Head over to the following site and follow instructions.


Enable/Disable "Auto Insert Notification" for all Devices:
- First, you must logon as administrator.
- Go to "Start" > "run" and enter "regedit" in the box. Click ok, then then click on the following sequence:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Services > Cdrom > Autorun.
- Doubleclick on it, and set the desired value, "0" for disabled and "1" for enabled. The changes won't apply until you reboot.


Enable/Disable DMA for all IDE Devices:
- First, you must logon as administrator.
- Go to "Start"> "Settings"> "Control Panel" > "Administrative Tools" > "Computer Managment" > "Device Manager" > "IDE / ATA / ATAPI" > "Controllers".
- Do now just doubleclick on the device you want to change the DMA option.
- Now go to > "Advanced Settings" > "Transfer Mode".


Enable/Disable Sync Data Tranfer for all SCSI Devices:
- First, you must logon as administrator.
- Go to "Start" > "run" and enter "regedit" in the box. Click ok, then click on the following sequence:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\[DEVICENAME]\Paramerters
where [DEVICENAME] is the SCSI adapter in question. Under this key, you'll apparently find "DisableSynchronousTransfers" key. Simple change it to "EnableSynchronousTransfers".
[/list=1]

[thank you TopGeezer]

[webmaster]

ISO Download & Burning FAQ - Written by STeALtH

There seem to be lot's of people asking questions about downloading and burning PSX ISO files, so here goes.......

There is a folder dedicated to PSX ISO sites on this forum, and the address of the page is: http://www.cdrom-guide.com/ubb/Forum19/HTML/002660.html

So now that you have found a site that contains a game ISO that you want, what do you do next?

Well as we all know PSX games can be large, up to 650Mb in size, that would be a ridiculous size file to try and download so they are split into different, smaller files using (normally), WinAce or WinRar which are compression programs along the same lines as Winzip, but more efficient. These are called volumes, and once de-compressed after downloading will join together to form the actual game ISO. WinAce is probably the best program to use as it also handles WinRar files.


Winrar is available from: http://www.rarsoft.com/

WinAce is available from: http://www.winace.com


Actually downloading the files is quite straightforward, but they are not always direct links, sometimes the files are held on storage servers like I-Drive, these often require you to register to gain access to them, this is quite painless and you also gain an extra bit of storage space for you trouble so is a good thing! Once you have registered, you may (most of the time, do), need a shared-folder password, now this should have been mentioned on the page where the ISO was listed but the norm is to use the adddress of the ISO host website, such as, www.psxiso.com this would be an example of a password to the shared-folder!

It is worth mentioning here that if you forget or lose the passwords mentioned, as has happened to some you may not be able to download the whole game and be a couple of volumes short of a picnic so to speak.

And that these passwords are also used to unlock the files you have downloaded so need to be noted.

Let's assume that you've managed to download the game in however many volumes, onto your Hard Drive, now you need to uncompress it to reveal the actual game ISO.

One of the files should be either .ace or .rar this will be the header file and will extract and link all the other volumes. Using WinAce, double click the .ace or .rar file and let the program extract it to whatever directory you have chosen, if asked for a password (which you should have written down), enter it and let the program do it's business.

At the end of the extraction process you should have a .cue file and a .bin file wherever you specified.

This is the actual .ISO of the game and can be burnt to CDR using CDRWin.

There is already a FAQ on the use of CDRWin so I'm not going to go into detail about the burning part.

What you may find is that CDRWin reports the file as not being found from the .CUE file, I had an example of this recently and will use parts of that e-mail to explain!


"When I start my CDRWIN 3.8a and try to load the CUE sheet I get the following error -
ERROR:Unable to open file " D \ BACKUP \ PSXGAMES \ SEGAMASTERSYSTEM \
SEGAMASTERSYSTEM.BIN "
D drive is my regular cdrom and E drive is my recorder."


This is because the game image was created on a different system to yours and so the image file won't match the directory that you have yours in, luckily this is easily solved.

If, for example, you downloaded the above game, which once extracted left you with an ISO called SEGAMASTERSYSTEM.BIN and you put it in a directory called ISOS on your C: drive, then the line at the top of the .cue file would need to be edited using notepad or similar to read differently and point CDRWin in the right direction for finding your copy of the .bin file, so the lines would need to be changed from:

D:\BACKUP\PSXGAMES\SEGAMASTERSYSTEM\SEGAMASTERSYST EM.BIN

to:

C:\ISOS\SEGAMASTERSYSTEM.BIN

Once the .cue file has been edited to point to the right location for the .bin file CDRWin should burn the game with no problems!

For the FAQ on using CDRWin go to this url:
http://www.cdrom-guide.com/ubb/Forum19/HTML/000656.html

Hope that cleared a few things up about ISOs?


[thank you SteALtH]

[webmaster]

Think this is what you want.

Making dummy files:

There are many ways to make a dummy file, zipping a lot of stuff with no compression, capturing blank AVI and the like, but the best thing for making dummy files so far (I think) is a program called newfile made just for making dummy files. It is available at DCISOS.COM and at www.idrive.com/nodcisohere

Newfile is a DOS program which takes command line parameters (this means if you run it in windows, it will just end and dissapear and you will get nowhere). Run a DOS box (or actually go to DOS and navigate to the folder with newfile. Now at the command line type:

newfile <number of bytes> (newfilename)

example for a file called dummy.dat that is 610MB

newfile 610000000 dummy.dat

and in a second or two there is your huge dummy file.

BTW to figure out how bit a dummy file to make, unpack the bin file and look at how big the contents are (including subfolers) now take that number of MB and subtract from 650 or 700 depending on whether you are using a 74 or 80 min CD and thats how big the dummy file should be. (ie A 610 MB dummy file would be for a game that is 30-40MB on a 74 min CD, best to leave about 10 extra megs on the outside of the CD just to be safe)

[thank you Deve]

[webmaster]

Inserting a dummy file with VOB Instant CD Wizard:

To make use of your dummy file you need to unpack your bin or ISO file and get the dummy file on the CD with all the contents of the bin or ISO file. To do this you need winimage (available at zdnet.com and www.idrive.com/nodcisohere as well as many other places). Many places tell you to convert your bins to ISO using the binchunker in fireburner. This is not necessary as winimage will open a bin file, you just have to select All files (*.*) in the browser window when opening the bin file to see it.

Once the bin file is open, extract its contents to a folder.

IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE WHEN YOU EXTRACT, YOU CHANGE THE DEFAULT SETTING IN WINIMAGE "EXTRACT ALL FILES TO SAME FOLDER" TO "EXTRACT WITH PATHNAME"

Next copy your dummy file into that folder.

Now start up VOB ICDWizard and click the new virual CD button. Title the CD whatever you want and locate the folder with all the unpacked stuff in it. Now load the contents of the folder (including the dummy file) into the virtual CD). Once the virutal CD is done and loaded into VOB, open the virtual CD so you can see its contents. Make sure all the files are there and that you did not load the folder that you unpacked this all into (ie, if you had winimage unpack the bin into a folder called unpacked, make sure the contents of the CD are not in a folder called unpacked on the CD as well) and locate the dummy file. Right click the dummy file and select properties. Now slide the priority bar all the way to high priority, this will put the dummy file close to the inside of the disc. The click burn, I sugest 2x.

BTW if these posts make it into your FAQ can you please credit them to Devedander. I am just writing this up while I wait for my name to get fixed.

[thank you Deve]

[webmaster]

Courtesy of mr_skeezix:

Here's the info for making creative/memorex/smart&friendly 4x2x24 burners work for playstation back-ups. There may be other burners that are rebadged JVCs that it will work on, but I can't verify it.

Note from STeALtH: You will need to download 2 files to be able to do this, flash.exe and tez206a.hex both of which I have uploaded to a small site,
http://members.xoom.com/stealth_no1/flash.exe
http://members.xoom.com/stealth_no1/tez206a.hex


Run flash.exe and it will open a window with a list of the different drives on your computer. Select your burner from the list and push the "update" button. The firmware will then be downloaded to your burner, which will take a few minutes. After it is finished, it will ask if you want to restart your computer. Answer "no." Then exit out of the program and restart your computer from the start menu. When your computer restarts, it will recognize the burner as a JVC 4080. The software that came with the burner (usually NTI) will not recognize it anymore, but the new version of NTI will, and cdrwin will, also.

That's how it's done. Feel free to edit these directions if they need to make more sense. E-mail me if you need me to clarify anything.

mr_skeezix

I think we need to add that upgrading your firmware if done incorrectly can render your drive useless, it is a risky propostion and should not be taken lightly!

Neither myself, mr_skeezix or the CDROM-Guide Forums, accept any liability, in any way, for any damage caused to your drive by undertaking this procedure!

[thank you mr_skeezix and STeALtH]

[webmaster]

Just something Y'all should know: leave your CPU doing the job, don't go doing your homework in MS Word. Use as well the latest firmware for your writer, (available mostly at the manufactcror's website), and use the writer as well as reader to make the image. Note: firmware ain't hard- nor software, but is downloadable. It's used to reprogram some hardware in your writer, specially designed to be reprogrammed. I hope I'm right about this one, if not, don't wait to set things straight. I hope this serves The Psyches

[thank you king nero]

[webmaster]

in the very first topic inhere, you mentioned nero, that it doesn't get along well with other software. This problem is due to adaptec software (cd creator, ...), and has a simple solution: you just have to rename the scsi1hlp.vxd file (c\win\system\iosubsys) into scsi1old.vxd, or give it the .bak extension. restart ya computer, and all probs about adaptec should be gone. Adaptec is a real nasty piece of software, and bothers everywhere. it might ruin the other sw you're using to copy games, like nero: making buffer underruns, coasters of all kind, streaming speed decrease or even total loss of any streaming. I don't know what about other sw. I use nero(for over 4 years, updating/grading all the time till 5031, adjusted language files, once had a scsi error that disappeared updating and a no-can-write-or-simulate error, that disappeared also when i updated) and cdrwin on my plex 12x atapi, 'cause i like them more than the 'almighty' clone. you just feel better when ya patched a game yaself, copied it and ya find out it actually works!

[thank you king nero]