> > The CD runs just fine. The must insert the errors in empty spots on the > > disk or something. I think it's somewhat similar to the copy protection > > used for playstation games. The playstation's is somewhat different though > > as it makes the cd burner choke. The protection on The Sims and some other > > PC games makes the reader choke when trying to grab a bit for bit copy. PC games usually put corrupt sectors within a certain file on the CD, which is not actually storing any game data. Its just there for copy protection, with some kind of nondescript name. Just try cat-ing each file to /dev/null until you find the one that gives IO errors. Thats the one... One way around it is to just remaster a new ISO, with all files but the bad block file, and for extra points, cracked binaries as well... > I think that Playstation CDs have an extra track on them that is not > readable by the average CD drive. I forget what Sony calls that extra > track, though.. Anyway, there are two reasons why Sony does it. One is Not extra tracks, just some info hidden in the subcode. (Just the string SCEA, is my understanding. (Sony Computer Entertainment America, its SCEJ for a japanese disk or somesuch, etc...)) No consumer cd burner will let you mess with subcode info thus the need for modchips. (Or hacked cdburner roms...) Also, few PC cdroms will let the CPU get at the subcode info, thus emulators can't enforce copy protection...