These are the most frequently asked support questions for CloneCD. This list will be updated as we receive more support questions.
This depends on the type of CD-Burner you have. Some might be supported, some will never be supported. More than 80% of all CD-Writer models are already supported, at least in SAO-RAW mode. Here is a list of CD-Burners, and the chance, that they will be supported:
This option is only available, if your writer supports writing of 96 Bytes SubChannel Data (CD-Text, CD+G). This is a restriction of your hadrware, not of CloneCD.
CloneCD uses very uncommon sector sizes for the transfer. Certain DMA Busmaster drivers for VIA or ALI chipsets are not working properly with these transfer sizes. You should get an update of the IDE Busmaster drivers from ALI or VIA for your motherboard, or you can try to disable DMA for the affected devcices in the Windows Device Manager.
This is usually caused, because of a conflict between the Software "Plextor Manager" and CloneCD. To use CloneCD with Plextor CD-ROMs, you must uninstall Plextor Manager and reboot your computer. If you still have problems under Windows 95/98, make sure, that the file AUDIOFS.VXD is deleted from the WINDOWS/SYSTEM/IOSUBSYS directory.
This happens, if you have a writer, which was manufactured by YAMAHA and sold as a different brand (e.g., Philips PCA460RW). YAMAHA drives tell CloneCD, that they are capable of writing MMC-DAO-RAW, but if CloneCD tries to do this, they crash (and take your computer down, too).
"Real" YAMAHA drives (those sold under the "YAMAHA" name) are detected by CloneCD and any attempt to write to them is blocked.
There is no solution for this problem at the moment. You should not continue to use CloneCD with this kind of writer.
This depends on the CD you are trying to read. Read Errors can indicate that the CD is damaged or that your Reader isn't fully compatible with CloneCD, but errors might be placed intentional on the CD as part of a copy protection.
If read errors are intentional, you can ignore them. The copy will work.
Please use firmware version 1.07. It is available at Plextor's WebSite.
Further, your unit must be manufactured after March 1999. To be precise: The unit must have been shipped with Firmware 1.03. Earlier units will not work, even if the correct firmware version is installed.
The three files written (with the ending *.CCD, *.IMG and *.SUB) are
The three files must be in the same directory. They must have the same "front" name, e.g. CloneCDImage.ccd, CloneCDImage.img and CloneCDImage.sub. It is a good idea to create separate directories for Image Files from different CDs.
Yes. CloneCD does not modify, decrypt or descramble the data while reading or writing in any way. Copies created with CloneCD cannot be copied with other CD replication software. Only CloneCD can copy these CDs again.
In theory - yes. CloneCD does real 1:1 copies, including all errors or other anomalies which might belong to a copy protection mechanism. You could think of CloneCD making something more like an analogue copy than a digital copy. However, you would need several generations to actually notice a difference.
Well,... this is the major disadvantage of CloneCD. As CloneCD relies on special features not present in all CD-ROMs and CD-Writers, it only works with a couple of selected devices. But there is hope - please tell us, which device you are using. Use the "Send Email about a Device" form to send us an E-Mail. Probably we can support the device in a future release.
Yes, please! If you do this, we can add your device into the Hardware Compatibility list. We will further try to obtain such a unit to make our own tests to support it even better. Further, we want to know what kind of devices our users have. Please use the "Send Email about a Device" form to send us an E-Mail.
To copy CD-Text, you must use CloneCD version 2.0.4.1 or better. Further, the unit you use for reading must be able to retrieve the CD-Text information from the Source CD and your writer must be able to write it. It is possible, that a CD-Writer can write CD-Text, but cannot read it (Example: Mitsumi 4802TE).
This is a known problem specific to PLEXTOR drives. If your Audio CD with
multimedia extensions stores the computer data in the pre gap of the first Audio
track, the Plextor drive reads it as Audio Data instead of computer data. This
is a bug in the firmware of the Plextor Burner. As of today, all Plextor units
suffer from this bug. We are thinking of a possible workaround for a future
release of CloneCD.
Meanwhile use a different CD-Rom to read the CD. If the CD is read with a
different device, the PLEXTOR Burner will write the CD correctly.
Please note, that only very few titles are affected by this problem. All new
multimedia Audio CDs use the CD-Extra standard. CD-Extra CDs are MultiSession
CDs, so the Data Track is recorded at the end of the CD. The PLEXTOR Burners
will read and write these CDs just fine.
CloneCD Version 1.0.0.9 (or higher) has a workaround for this problem, and you can use the burner to read such CDs without problems.
Sure you can copy them! But the question should be - will they work? And the
answer is: No. CloneCD does not disable the boot protection found on console
CDs. As we already said, CloneCD does not modify the data it reads or writes in
any way.
However, if you have modified your game console already to accept backup copies,
copies created by CloneCD will work. There is even a nice side effect: Almost any
*additional* copy protection (apart from the boot protection) will be copied,
too. Backup copies created with CloneCD will therefore work better than copies
created by a different program. However, CloneCD was designed to make Safety
Backups of PC-CDs, not for game console CDs.