Copying protected CDs

Copying protected CDs

Disclaimer: This article does not encourage you to copy discs illegally. It should only be used as a backup method for discs that you already own legally.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays most computer games and several other software comes in protected CDs.

This document briefly discusses how to copy protected CDs using proper software and appropriate CD burner.

The article is a bit technical in nature (though I tried to explain as easy as possible). To implement methods outlined here, you should have at least fair knowledge of installing software and CD writing.

The details of copy protection technologies are pretty confusing and I shall try to present the matter as clearly as possible.

Most game CDs sold nowadays are copy protected. That means, if you simply copy the CD using standard CD writing (burning) software, you won't be able to play the game from copied CD.

Though exact methods of copy protection technology vary widely, they mostly offer a similar technique. During creation of the original CD in factory, they introduce some bad sectors in the CD intentionally. While you run the game from your computer after installing, the main executable file asks the original CD (with patterned bad sectors) and its checks whether the sector pattern matches. If yes, then it allows you to play the game. If not, it decides that it is a copy and you can't play it.

It may sound simple, but in reality it is a very complicated technology!

Most common copy protection techniques are:

SafeDisc

SecuROM

LaserLock

StarForce

Each method has several versions. Higher the version, more difficult is to copy!

To bypass copy protection, you have two options:

Exact copy - create a 1:1 copy of the protected disc (not always possible)

Working copy - use an emulator (where the "image" of the game resides on hard disk and when run from there the game "thinks" that it is running from original CD)

HARDWARE

Whether you can successfully copy a protected disc does depend on your CD writer!

There is a concept called "1 sheep burner" and "2 sheep burner".

The first one belongs to usually older burners. They can NOT write EXACTLY CORRECT BITS of data on the CD. So, they can't always successfully copy protected CDs. If you this kind of burner, you must go for creating a working copy (emulation) of protected CD.

The second one, ie. 2 sheep burner can write EXACTLY CORRECT BITS of data on CD. So, they are often able to create perfect copy of protected CDs (with help of appropriate software).

SOFTWARE

Any one (or more) of the following software is necessary depending on hardware and protection method.

Alcohol 120%

Clone CD

BlindWrite

DiscJuggler

FireBurn

Personally I used only Alcohol 120% and CloneCD.

EXAMPLE

This is an example how I made working copy of "Microsoft Train Simulator" game.

This game came in 2 CDs. The first CD is protected with SafeDisc 2.70.030 method.

After installation, during runtime, it asks for the original first disc to be present in the CD drive.

I had "1 sheep burner" so I had to go for working copy method.

Step 1

I had to decide which copy protection method is applied on the game. For this several freeware programs are available on the net. Using one of those, I came to know that it uses SafeDisc 2.70.030 method. It is important that the protection method be identified correctly. Though in CloneCD you can simply select "Game Protected" during image making process.

Step 2

Using CloneCD, I created an "image" of the protected CD on computer's hard disk. Please note that, during scanning of bad sectors (usually at the very beginning) the reading speed of data will be extremely slow! However, you need not worry as it will increase dramatically once it passes the bad sectors.

Step 3

When Alcohol 120% is installed on computer, it creates a virtual CD drive.

So, I just "mounted" the image file (.ccd extension) created by CloneCD in earlier step to this virtual drive.

Step 4

From the Start -> Program menu, I clicked on the Train Simulator game (without original CD in real CD drive). Hooray, it ran from the virtual drive!

Step 5

I burned the image file to a blank CD-R.

I also copied the 2 original CDs to blank CD-Rs using normal CD writing software (eg Nero). To do it, I simply copied all files from CD to hard disk using Windows Explorer.

These 2 CDs, though not original, would help me to install (yes, install only - not run) the game to any other machine.

The whole operation took appx 3 hours.

Step 6

My friend wanted to run the game in her computer. So, I gave her the following - the image copy CD and 2 other copied CDs (thus 3 CDs in total). First, she installed the game from the 2 copied CDs. Then she copied the image file to her computer's hard disk. After that she had to install Alcohol 120% in her computer. Lastly, using virtual drive and mounting the image file on it, she can play it too.

Happy copying..... <:-o)