Copying Using Gear 4.2
Gear 4.2 (works with most all SCSI and IDE drives) will copy nearly all CD's as well.
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Unlike the automatic processes above, it is more of a quick manual copy. The fastest of the manual copy programs in my usage. Program also allows specifying read/write speeds to allow adjustment in read/write problems.
Results: Most users report near 100% success with this program on any disc.
Recommendations: Scandisk and Defrag hard drive before use. Do not run any programs other then gear while reading/writing. If copying the 1st data tracks errors and stops, lower the read speed (some users it works on say a 6x read, some 4x some must go to 1x.
Step by Step Copying Using Gear 4.2.
The method shown below is how to copy a Playstation game using Gear 4.2 to replicate the entire cd. Choose the pull down menu option Select Tools then Disc Information. A view of the entire contents of the disc will show up in a few seconds. Most discs have 1 data track and the remainder are audio tracks. A few discs report 2 data tracks, or no data tracks. A select few discs report audio tracks under 4 seconds.
Highlight track 1 - the data track. Select copy track name it anything you want - this name will not do anything but identifying the track you copied, when it writes the track this name will not be used in any way. When copying the data track, it will go to the directory you specified in options menu in the main view when you run the program.
If the read fails, don't panic, lower the read speed of the drive in options - recorder. Some discs require a lower read speed even down from 6x to 4x, 2x or even 1x to read it properly. If there is a 2nd data track - do it again with track 2 data track. Once the data tracks are copied, the rest is all downhill (easy) from here.
Go back to main view. On the left pull down selection, Select CD Track List under CD Type & Settings. Pull down menu choose PROJECT, highlight create/edit, then CD track list. Using the drive explorer, go to the directory you saved track 1 at (using the name you saved it with) and left click on the file (hold it) and drag it to the bottom my CD track list window. Do the same if there is a 2nd data track. In the bottom window you will see the track listed with whatever name you gave it.
Double click on the track (in the bottom my CD track list window) and change from Audio (MODE 0, 2352) TO CDROM XA Mode 2 2336 sector size. Click add pause (size = 2) if not already then ok. Do the same if there is a 2nd data track. Menu select VIEW - VIEW CDR DRIVE. A list of the cdr tracks will come up. Highlight all other tracks other then the 1st(or 1st+2nd) data track you already copied and drag them to bottom window. It will take a few minutes to copy these to hard drive first. file save and close If for some reason it doesn't copy these to the hard drive, in the main view of the program, in options for CD recorder, select use physical image.
On the right side, you can now write the CD, click write, or test if you wish to do a test write first. Remember you will need a mod chip to play these copies, because they don’t contain the original bad blocks of the original, and since many games are imports, the chip will also bypass that as explained.
Last revised 18-01-98