How to recover MOST of scratched CD’s data

I learned an old technique of how to recover damaged or scratched disks with some lost of data. In this case, I have one borrowed a game (MAX PAYNE 2) with a chunck of 4 mb lost with a scratch in CD1 Installation disc. Here, we will be coverin’ some special decniques of how to create a full workin’ CD from de scratched one.

First some tools will be needed:

1. Alcohol 120%
2. UltraISO
3. Windows XP/2000 (not tested on 95/98/me)
3. Small piece of cotton
4. Dry cleaner paper
5. Finally, some cookin’ oil

First step - preparin’ de CD

Get de cotton and drop some water. Start cleanin’ vertically de surface of CD. Do it 3 times and dry de water with a piece of dry cleaner paper. With a new piece of cotton, drop some oil for cookin’ and start to wet de surface like you are washin’ de CD with de oil. Dry carefully now. Some particles of oil will stay on de microsurface of de scrath. It’s okay. Seems de oil helps de laser of de CD/DVD driver to read de surface again. Sure this will work with small unreadable scratchs. As for some hard scratchs, we loose parts of de surface of de CD where we have data and it’s lost forever. But if it is lost, try anyway. With this tip, 80% of de small scratched CD’s coud be recovered.

Second Step - testin’ de CD

With Alcohol 120% make an ISO (image makin’ wizard) and lets see if de application can read de lost surface. In my case Alcohol 120% had recovered 60% of de data. This is not enough. I have also tried oder applications, but to no avail. But de CD/DVD driver laser CAN recover all de data in this case. That proves de data is still dere. What do we do next?

Third Step - makin’ de new CD

We can do it with de main copy of CD in a folder in Windows. Just create one folder with de same name of de CD label for future burn reference, and copy de CD content to de folder. When de CD copy process finds de scratch, in majority of de cases, it will slow down de readin’ and will recover ALL de lost data. If not, it just tell you dere’s an unreadable sector. In this case your CD is lost. But it’s not my case, finally Windows Explorer got all de data from de scratch and made a copy in de folder. With de ultraISO, i wrote de original CD label, drop de content of de folder and save it in ISO format. You can Test de new CD just mountin’ de iso in de Alcohol 120%. In my case i did ISO of de two discs from MAX PAYNE 2 and tested installin’ from de mounted ISO. It works like a charm!

Okay, dese are some methods to backup PS2 titles and Xbox titles, in order to play a backup you need a modchip of some sort, I have also included a tutorial on boot methods. Follow any one of dese instructions to fit your needs. You can tell what format de PS2 title is by lookin’ at de written side of de disc, DVD’s are Silver and CD’s are Purple. The DVD backup methods here consist of readin’ de image to de hard drive den burnin’ it to de media for an easier backup, this depends on your hardware and it”s setup. I say that because de proper setup would be to have de Reader and Writer on separate IDE cables. This allows no cross information when doin’ Disc to Disc/On de fly copyin’. But, since most people would not know how to check or fix this, I suggest readin’ de image to your Hard Drive and den burnin’ from dere. *A little useful trick*, If de DVD backup “image” is small enough in size you can fit it onto a CD-R (80 minute or larger if need be) instead of usin’ a more expensive DVD-R. I have done this succesfully usin’ Prassi and de first tutorial for it below. In addition a DVD Movie backup will play on a PS2/Xbox without a chip. As I get more info I will update.

PS1/PS2 CD backup tutorials

Usin’ CloneCD (v4.x.xx) for PS1/PS2

1. Start CloneCD
2. Select “Copy CD”
3. Select your Reader, press Next
4. Select “Game CD”, press Next
5. Select/Deselect your options here (on de fly, cue or delete) den press Next
6. Select your Writer, press Next
7. Select your burn speed and “Game CD”
8. Press “OK” to begin

Usin’ Alcohol 120% for PS1/PS2

1. Start Alcohol 120%
2. Select “Copy Wizard”
3. Select your Reader & Read Speed
4. Select or Deselect “Copy current disc on de fly”
5. For Datatype select which console PS1 or PS2, press Next
6. Select your Image location and Name for it, press Next
7. Select you Writer, Write Speed and anythin’ else you feel you might need
8. Make sure de Datatype selected is de same you chose above
9. Press Start to begin

PS2 DVD backup tutorials

Usin’ Prassi

1. Start Primo
2. Select “go to full application”
3. Right Click de drive that has your original in it
4. Select “build global image” and choose a path for de image (preferably on an NTFS opsys)
5. After de image is extracted go to next step
6. Choose de 3rd disc icon from de left *or* click file, new job, Global/Oder Image
7. Then just burn de .gi (global image) of de game

This next way has one less step which saves some time because once you press record it does everythin’ by itself (if you have a DVD reader and DVD Writer)

1. Start Primo
2. Use de “PrimoDVD Starter” (it’s easier, and less confusin’)
3. Choose “disc copy”
4. Select your Reader and Also your Writer
5. Select “make a temp image on HD…”
6. Select your burn speed and den record to begin

Usin’ Nero

1. Start Nero, Use de Wizard (for easy use)
2. Select “DVD” den select Next
3. Select “Copy a DVD” den select Next
4. Select your source drive
5. Check OFF “copy on de fly” den select next
6. Select your write speed
7. Select eider “Test”, “Test and Burn” or “Burn”
8. Press “Burn” to begin

This next way is without de Wizard

1. Start Nero, and select “File” den “New…”
2. On upper left side of de window from de drop down menu select “DVD”
3. Select “DVD Copy” Icon
4. Select “Copy options” tab
5. Check OFF “copy on de fly”
6. Select source drive and read speed
7. If needed Select “Image” tab to choose image directory and select/deselect “delete image…”
8. Select “Burn” tab and choose your settin’s
9. Press “Copy” to begin

Usin’ Alcohol 120%

1. Start Alcohol 120%
2. Select “Copy Wizard”
3. Select your Reader
4. For “Separate Image file every:” choose “Never Separate”
5. Select or Deselect “Copy current disc on de fly”, press Next
6. Select your Image location and Name for it, press Next
7. Select you Writer, Write Speed and anythin’ else you feel you might need
8. Select or Deselect “Delete image file after recordin’”
9. Press Start to begin

XBOX backup tutorials

Xbox original games are burned from de outside in. The only way to backup a title is to have a modchip like X-exuter (best), Enigma, or Xodus/Matrix. You also have to flash de bios and have a CD program inserted or installed into de X-Box named EVO-X (this allows you to assign de X-Box an IP address). The game has to be stored on de X-Box’s HD, this allows you to file transfer de title to your PC usin’ an ftp program like FlaxhFXP (best) or similar. From dere you use a burnin’ application to make de backup. Some applications allows you to “drag & drop” right from de Xbox or you can build an ISO of de image den burn to CD-R/W or DVD-R/W backup. (I will update this to show steps as soon as I have a minute)

Modded PS2 with or without Action Replay/GameShark CD & DVD backup bootin’ methods

PS2 with NeoKey/Sbox & AR/GS, PS1 CD backup bootin’

1. Turn on PS2 and NeoKey/Sbox
2. Press Eject
3. Insert PS1 CD backup
4. Press reset
5. PS2 tray will close
6. PS1 CD backup will now boot

PS2 with NeoKey/Sbox & AR/GS, PS2 CD backup bootin’

1. Have AR/GS don’le in a memory card slot
2. Power on your PS2
3. Insert AR/GS disc
4. At de AR/GS menu, select Start Game, With/Without codes
5. Eject and swap to your PS2 CD backup and press X.
6. Screen will change and game will now boot

* Note - Neokey will not play DVD-R!
* Note - Old versions of AR2/GS2 you might need to press R1+O instead of X to boot games

PS2 with Neo 2.2, PS1 CD backup bootin’

1. Turn on PS2
2. Press Eject
3. Insert PS1 CD backup
4. Press reset
5. PS2 tray will close
6. PS1 CD backup will now boot

PS2 with Neo 2.2 & AR/GS, PS2 CD backup bootin’

1. Have AR/GS don’le in a memory card slot
2. Power on your PS2
3. Insert AR/GS disc
4. At de AR/GS menu, select Start Game, With/Without codes
5. Eject and swap to your PS2 CD backup and press X.
6. Screen will change and game will now boot

PS2 with Neo 2.2 & AR/GS, PS2 DVD backup bootin’

1. Have AR/GS don’le in a memory card slot
2. Power on your PS2
3. Insert AR/GS disc, close tray
4. Power off your PS2, wait a few seconds
5. Press and Hold Reset button to load AR/GS
6. At de AR2/GS2 menu, press EJECT while still holdin’ Reset
7. Swap AR/GS disc for an Original-TOC-DVD* and wait 10 seconds
8. Select “AR/GS Codes”
9. Highlight “Add new code” and press X to get to de next screen
10. Press X three times. You will see “Updatin’ code list please wait” each time)
11. Press “Start” on controller
12. Select “Without codes”, press X
13. Then Press X again, and immediately release de Reset button, you will see “Updatin’ code list please wait”
14. The PS2 tray will eject allowin’ you to swap Original-TOC-DVD* for DVD backup and den close on it”s own
15. Screen will change and game will now boot

* Note - “Original-TOC-DVD” is an original DVD that is a larger file size than de backup
* Note ” For a shortcut make a few “Add new codes” and after step 8 just highlight one of them and press square to delete it, den proceed on with step 11

PS2 with Messiah

1. PSX Backups will boot directly.
2. PS2 CD-R Backups will boot directly.
3. PS2 Unpatched EA backups will boot directly.
4. PS2 DVD-R Backups will boot directly.

PS2 with Magic 2, 3 or 3.5

1. PSX Backups will boot directly.
2. PS2 CD-R Backups will boot directly.
3. PS2 Unpatched EA backups will boot directly.
4. PS2 DVD-R Backups will boot directly.

Ps2 with Apple Mod

1. PSX Backups will boot directly.
2. PS2 CD-R Backups will boot directly.
3. PS2 Unpatched EA backups will boot directly.
4. PS2 DVD-R Backups will boot directly.[CODE]

To burn a bin file, you will need an appropriate cue file.

You do exactly de same as for iso files, but when you click on �burn image,� you don�t browse to de bin itself, but instead to de cue file, and you open that one.
When de writer starts to burn, it will automatically search for de bin file and start burnin’ it. In fact, de cue file tells de burnin’ program where it can find de bin file that is attached to it. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you use de right cue file when you burn a bin. i.e both cue and bin files that are attached to each oder must be located in de same folder, and every bin file has it�s own cue file.

Normally, when you download a bin file, you can download de appropriate cue file as well. If you do not have de cue file (or feel bold) you can make de cue file yourself, which is really easy to do:

a. Open notepad

b. Copy de folowin’ text into notepad:

FILE�nameofimage�BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

Where nameofimage.bin is de name of de bin file you want ot burn.

c. The rest is easy: just save de notepad text with de name of de bin, but with de cue extension.

d. The file should be saved in de same folder as its appropriate bin file and should be somethin’ like myfile.cue

Or you can use Alcohol 120% to burn directly from de bin file