Archival of Disk Images

[ianoid]

I have a bunch of betas that may or may not be unique. In any case, I fear for the death of them in the long term, and I would like to make sure that I have disk images of them now. What is the best way to archive these? Iso files or bin files or what? I am using ImgBurn now, but I'm open to recommendations.

Thanks, ian

[drx]

There are basically 3 levels of data on a disc.

1. The files (2048 bytes per sector)
2. The error correction data (additional 304 bytes per sector; audio tracks use this space instead of having error correction.
3. Subchannel data (almost never used in the past, now some copy protection mechanisms rely on it).

1 alone is equivalent to a standard .iso file and is considered not so great (mostly because most .iso dumps are done badly; but also because it's not strictly a 1:1 disc dump).

1+2 is a BIN/CUE dump, which I've been doing for all my discs for a while now. Properly done, this ensures archival of all data.

1+2+3 is done in a format has .img, .ccd and .sub (for the subchannel data). I only use this when it's necessary.

For BIN/CUE's, there are some programs, of which the most highly regarded are CDRWin (which I use on Windows) and CloneCD (I think). On Linux/Unix, you can use cdrdao (let me know and I'll explain how).

For the third method, there's only CloneCD I think, right now.

Now choosing the proper format is only half the work. You have to watch out for some things:

* DON'T use error correcting mechanisms when dumping
* try to dump at low speeds (1-4x), especially audio tracks
* do several dumps and see if they match (preferably on different drives, I do three different dumps and compare them; I have some tools I wrote to compare dumps and "choose" the best one, but there's some manual work involved I'm afraid)
* use very good CD/DVD drives with good lasers and good error benchmarks (otherwise you'll get a lot of wrong reads)

Then there's audio tracks. I usually dump them with EAC (Exact Audio Copy), which is superb at dumping audio tracks (it has some algorithms that make sure it's a good dump). But again, there's some manual work involved.

Thinking about it, this is a lot work... I should really think about coding a set of tools to automate all of this. Dumping CD protos is a nightmare (old CD-R's... aaaaaaah)

Hope that helps.

[ianoid]

I really appreciate all the information. Unfortunately, I'm a far better collector than I am a technical guy, so I need something quick and dirty and relatively reliable. I'll start using CloneCD ongoing, though. If something more automated comes along, I'd love to use it.

[ianoid]

Twilight pointed me to this URL:
http://www.redump.org/

The instructions are a bit intense given my ability to commit to major projects. I pretty much plan to use CloneCD unless I can get some other simple approach together. I was proud enough to be making ISOs, but it looks like I'll have to redo most of those. I could test the ISOs, but I doubt I could challenge ever bit.

Note that I am talking about Beta discs, not final burns, stuff meant to play on a debug unit.

[Barc0de]

There are basically 3 levels of data on a disc.

1. The files (2048 bytes per sector)
2. The error correction data (additional 304 bytes per sector; audio tracks use this space instead of having error correction.
3. Subchannel data (almost never used in the past, now some copy protection mechanisms rely on it).

1 alone is equivalent to a standard .iso file and is considered not so great (mostly because most .iso dumps are done badly; but also because it's not strictly a 1:1 disc dump).

1+2 is a BIN/CUE dump, which I've been doing for all my discs for a while now. Properly done, this ensures archival of all data.

1+2+3 is done in a format has .img, .ccd and .sub (for the subchannel data). I only use this when it's necessary.

For BIN/CUE's, there are some programs, of which the most highly regarded are CDRWin (which I use on Windows) and CloneCD (I think). On Linux/Unix, you can use cdrdao (let me know and I'll explain how).

For the third method, there's only CloneCD I think, right now.

Now choosing the proper format is only half the work. You have to watch out for some things:

* DON'T use error correcting mechanisms when dumping
* try to dump at low speeds (1-4x), especially audio tracks
* do several dumps and see if they match (preferably on different drives, I do three different dumps and compare them; I have some tools I wrote to compare dumps and "choose" the best one, but there's some manual work involved I'm afraid)
* use very good CD/DVD drives with good lasers and good error benchmarks (otherwise you'll get a lot of wrong reads)

Then there's audio tracks. I usually dump them with EAC (Exact Audio Copy), which is superb at dumping audio tracks (it has some algorithms that make sure it's a good dump). But again, there's some manual work involved.

Thinking about it, this is a lot work... I should really think about coding a set of tools to automate all of this. Dumping CD protos is a nightmare (old CD-R's... aaaaaaah)

Hope that helps.

very insightful. Always good to read good advice. An application handling the matter in the structure you followed in your post would be a great tool for anyone wanting to archive disk images. Who knows, there might even be a market for it!