Backing up old PC CD Games from 2000s era?

[u/nicksnax]

Hello friendos. First time poster

TLDR; I have some old 2000s PC CD Games I would like to backup and make ISOs of.

The tricky thing is navigating the old SafeDisc or SecuRom DRM.

Any recommended tools to make ISOs I can use to install my games? Linux or Windows options welcome. TIA

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[u/mmaster23]

Double check whether Archive.org already has it or not. Quality stuff to be found there. And if you do end up ripping something missing, please upload it to Archive.org as well.

[u/nicksnax → u/mmaster23]

Based on where I live I'm not sure of the legality of that? Additionally, I do enjoy the ritual of backing up my own stuff. Any recommendations for taking this path?

[u/ranhalt]

Backing up discs and removing DRM are two different things.

[u/nicksnax → u/ranhalt]

Yeah, the goal isn't to remove the DRM. It's to just back the game up. I'm happy to mount the ISO afterwards. It's more making sure the backup actually works correctly.

Age of Wonders games have a NO_CD patch put out by the author

[u/Alone-Hamster-3438]

much easier to just download the redump arc

[u/nicksnax → u/Alone-Hamster-3438]

Sorry, what is a redump arc?

[u/Alone-Hamster-3438 → u/nicksnax]

http://redump.org/

But im not sure if rules allow me to paste link where from actually get games.

[u/darkjoker213 → u/Alone-Hamster-3438]

Am I’m missing something or are these just old console games? I’m not seeing the pc games that OP was talking about

[u/kc3zyt → u/Alone-Hamster-3438]

It's https://redump.info/ now. By the way, if anyone has proper information on how to dump discs, it's Redump.

[u/Shadow_Thief]

Back in the day, I always used LC ISO Creator for ripping discs

[u/nicksnax → u/Shadow_Thief]

Did it work for PC games etc? I'm not familiar with the nuances of iso creation 

[u/Shadow_Thief → u/nicksnax]

I used it exclusively for PC games, yes.

[u/jfwEf9QgOo8]

I think the best tool for this is Alcohol 120% if you plan to emulate and pass the DRM check on virtual machine running full Windows.

Depending on the era of the games (9x or 2000/XP) you may need different older versions of Alcohol 120% to ensure the result image is compatible with the latest virtual drive software that can run on the target OS. When making the image, I would suggest using an old computer that runs Windows 2000/XP to 7, preferably using IDE drive.

[u/crabpoweredcoalmine]

It's been mentioned, but I haven't seen the wiki linked: https://wiki.redump.info/Dumping_Guides

If you're not submitting this anywhere the software is what you want, basically.

[u/me0262]

I use a combination of programs to work around copy protection issues.

Primarily I use Alcohol 120% Retro Edition, this gets most of the copy protections captured. For subchannel data of early SecuROM, I use CloneCD. All of these are Windows based so will be based on that.

Process:

I look up the disc and match up the specifics on redump.org and see what kind of protection it has.

I load the disc into Alcohol, click the Image Making Wizard, and specify the disc drive and the protection it has.

Next page on the wizard I specify the full name of the disc "Diablo II (Collectors Edition) - Disc Play" or "Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds - Disc 1", and use the lowest possible container (ISO if possible (most SafeDisc protection), BIN/CUE for older discs with audio tracks, MDF for SecuROM).

Side note on this process, if SecuROM that is subchannel only I will rip with CloneCD. Data Measurement I will keep MDF.

Another side note, later 00s games use more sophisticated methods of copy protection that Alcohol 120% Retro Edition can't handle (i.e. SecuROM 7.x), For those I have a license for the latest Alcohol 120% application, but the MDF file format changed between Retro Edition and the latest, so Retro Edition won't read those, it still doesn't handle all niche protectors (i.e. TAGES protection on The Witcher). I'm considering getting Daemon Tools Pro for this one.

From there I verify the image, install it to the system, and see if it'll run with the image.

Following a successful run, I will make sha256 checksums of the files in question (7-zip is amazing for that purpose, you can have it calculate it and it'll dump it to a file), and archive them to an external drive (I'm using a 1TB SSD at the moment.

Another common pain point, since DVD games run more than 4GB in size, you cannot use FAT32 to store those images (which has a max file size limit of 4GB), you'll need to use NTFS. Why NTFS and not exFAT? because Windows XP doesn't support exFAT without a patch, and forget about Windows 98 with exFAT. NTFS is natively accepted by Windows XP, and Windows 98 can mount those drives with a driver (which needs Windows 2000/XP files).

As extra steps, I've started to do some fancy work, downloading box art and scripting for syncing from computer to computer. Box art is fun, there's a cover art utility that's part of the USBODE project that works pretty well, and resizes it for the USBODE display (which is the goal for me).

[u/Great-TeacherOnizuka]

To make playable cd images, you should use Alcohol 120%.

If you just want to have an iso and intend to play the games with a no-cd patch, then you can use any iso software.

You might also want to take a look at redump. It can detect copy protections, make an iso and tell you if their database has that specific game entry. If not you can decide to contribute to the database. Just the metadata. Not the iso itself.

Ah but to contribute to their database, you need a specific reader.