GD-ROM "Swap Trick" Ripping Process - The Main Guide
0.0 Disclaimer
Please note that producing a backup of your LEGITIMATELY OWNED Dreamcast games, using the methods described in this docuement (and all related pages on my website), for YOUR personal usage at home, is NOT illegal; or at least, definitely not in the UK. As for other countries - I have no idea, so consult your local solicitor now if you are concerned. Anyway, moving on...
1.0 Introduction
This document is a catalogue of my attempts to rip Dreamcast games using a PC, numerous CD/DVD drives, and the translated "swap trick" guides that exist. My main reasons for doing this guide are numerous. Firstly, the few documented working methods of ripping / backing up Dreamcast games are with fault - they are either too slow (e.g. transferring games via the DC's modem or serial port to a PC), or too expensive (e.g. buying a Broadband / LAN Adapter or DC Katana development unit).
This is problematic for anyone, say in the UK, who wants to exercise their right to a backup copy of their DC games - possibly to use in an emulator like Chankast - but who doesn't want to spend a fortune, or masses of their time, dumping games. Secondly, I was bored at the time and wanted to engage myself in something a bit (ahem) adventurous. for a change. =P
1.1 Getting started
Chances are that you are new to this method, in which case I'd recommend you print off and read both rip guides, links to (and local mirrors of) which are in section 1.2 of this guide (don't worry, they don't take too long to read =P), and also print off & read this document itself as it contains extremely important information regarding the ripping process. Make SURE that you do this first, because this guide assumes that you have read & understood them. However, in order to minimize confusion, I have tried my best to keep each section as clear and easy to follow as possible.
In the future, I think the best solution would be to combine the features of the best documents about / related to this process (which I tend to refer to as the "GD-ROM swap trick method"). They would be taken from StateS' ripping guide, Yursoft's ripping guide, maybe also the Kortex guide (it's an expansion of the one by Yursoft) and this page you are reading now (written & published by myself), into one reasonably-clear & easy to follow guide. As much debt as is owed to the writers / translators / etc of these guides, I still think there is room for improvement - just, don't hold your breath expecting me to write this "ultimate" ripping guide anytime soon =P
Definitions used in this guide:
-Any places where I refer to the "inetd / vagrantcharly / StateS guide" ALL refer to the same guide - basically, inetd was the original author, vagrantcharly (of Emuparadise) did an English translation of it, and StateS released the translation on MegaGames' forums in 2004. However, since I get impatient at times I don't tend to write out all three of their names, so I apologise for any confusion that may result.
1.2 Credits (no particular order)
- inetd of NetSearch Ezine (the guide is in issue 7, section 0x17), who wrote & published this guide originally (it is a shame that it was not "discovered" earlier, or I / we may have succeeded in ripping any type of DC game by now =P)
- El_Maska_45 for posting the above guide on Sonic-CulT in June 2004
- Greg2k, who did a translation of the above in June 2004 (this was the second one I read, but, being in English, it was the first that I nderstood =P)
- StateS of MegaGames, who published an(other) English translation by vagrantcharly (of Emuparadise forums) of the original document to the MegaGames' forums in March 2004. Further thanks to StateS also for recently uploading a partial translation of Yursoft's rip guide, and the original Spanish version
- NiktheGreek for info on the encryption in NAOMI games
- Karsten Kolb for the DrinkTeam trap disc image, for testing & providing the modified BIOS files for the Yamaha CDR-400t and the Pioneer 303S, and for version 1.6 of GD Lister
- The authors of the various utilities in the toolkit I have compiled, without which it would have been hard to get very far at this project with
- People who tested their drive with the rip guide and posted results, which is very helpful to say the least
- And finally, thanks to all those who've given me support & encouragement while I've been doing this.
- Also, apologies if any of the above links are now broken - the Internet Archive may be of some help in any such cases!
2.0 Preparing your PC for GD-ROM ripping using the ripping guides - The Hardware Side
2.0.0 Is there any risk that I could damage my drive by opening it up and / or performing the swap trick on it?
As long as you take care and don't do anything stupid with it, the chances of you damanging your drive are extremely low. I've opened up & tested a lot of drives myself (namely, all those on in my results document, except for entries credited to other people), and all of them were still working afterwards. And that's without wearing safety gear like an anti-static wrist strap, or working on an anti-static mat. To be on the safe side though, such equipment SHOULD be worn / used at all times. Did I mention I'm not responsible if you damage your drive doing this? Ah yes, I have now =P
2.0.1 How should I lay out my PC for the job?
I'd recommend you place your PC in a space where you have easy access to all the insides; lay it on its side if it's a tower case as this will make things easier. Naturally you will need to have the case lid removed at all times so you can connect up your drive for testing and do the necessary disc-swapping.
2.0.2 What tools & other things will I need?
You'll need the following equipment:
- Your PC for testing (be it desktop or tower case, arranged in a flat or upright position - the latter is my current setup) and test drive set up appropriately
- Your data & audio trap discs, and a couple of games to test out
- An interchageable-head screwdriver and plenty of bits for it - at the minimum, ENSURE that you have lots of cross-head and Torx bits / screwdrivers, as these are the only two types I've ever seen on CD/DVD drives
- An anti-static wrist strap - just in case you have to go near / handle your drive's PCB (or indeed any other sort of printed circuitry for that matter)
- A paperclip or two, preferably of the thicker variety. Why, you may ask? Well, when dismantling your drive, the first thing you will need to remove before anything else is the bezel / fascia covering the drive tray - hence, you need something to eject the tray with to remove it. Without removing this, you will not be able to remove the rest of the drive's bezel / fascia and / or unscrew the lid from the drive itself
2.0.3 What drive makes models should I be looking to test out / buy for testing & ripping ?
If you want to rip GD-ROM discs fully (that is, a FEW games with single data tracks ONLY since there are still issues with extracting other DC games with single data tracks, and those with mixed data & audio tracks), you WILL need to get a LITE-ON LTD-165H DVD-ROM drive. But of course, it's not likely you'll have one of those, and obsessively trying to find one is not going to help much as I can do all the testing of this drive by myself. So you will need to look at getting at least one unique drive; just make sure it isn't one I've said is crap *anywhere* in this document.
If you already have CD/DVD[-ROM/ -RW] drives in your main PC, and you want to test them out, just check they are not on the list of non-working drives first. However, if your drive(s) are on the non-working list and lacking model numbers beside the description, test it out anyway, as there can be many different models of the same drive type.
Same goes for if you are going to buy one, be it new or second-hand. Obviously I don't recommend that you buy loads of new drives, because you'll be pissing your money away, especially when some of them may be clones of each other, so reducing the effective yield of your bulk purchase. Take care with buying anything, period.
2.0.4 Are there any particular brands / models of drive that I should avoid at all costs ?
There are quite a lot of specific models you should avoid. However, entire brands shouldn't necessarily be avoided (unless there is a half-decent amount of proof). A compiled list of drives that do and don't work, taken from numerous internet-based sources, is:
--GD-ROM "Swap Trick" Ripping Process - Second Drive Compatibility List
(last updated by STC-Fan on the 06/02/2006)--
0) UPDATES
29/08/2005 - removed the Plex 12/20 since I've tested and added it to my
results table, and chopped out some other old and / or irrelevant bits.
06/02/2006 - added the Artec 52x CD-ROM, Artec 54x CD-ROM, Acer 50X CD-ROM
and Pioneer DVD500M to the Working Drives List, from the Kortex Rip Guide.
w00t! Also tidied up the layout and fixed some small spelling errors.
1) GENERAL NOTES
For the sake of accuracy, I have made numerous spelling & grammatical
corrections and gotten model numbers for most of the drives. No offence
at all to those who originally compiled it, mind you! After all, the
fact that someone has made a long list of what drives work & don't work
is a major step forward in itself.
If you notice some of the drives missing from this list compared to the
original, that is because I have taken them out because I have already tested
that particular model, in which case it'll be on the "Drive Testing Results"
page - make SURE you also check that first. I am NOT responsible if you waste
loads of money on a drive that doesn't work at all because you were too lazy to
read this or the other document.
CD-Recordable FAQ also has listings of clone drives, and I have
used some of the info there to update this list. Any such entries are
marked with a double asterisk (**). For the full list, go here:
http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq05.html#S5
Incidentially, you can find the "Drive Testing Results" document at the
following sites:
Main Site: http://stc.hacking-cult.org/ (thanks to drx for providing this =P)
Mirror: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/menace-59/gd-rom_stuff/ (my home ISP webspace
- I'm having problems accessing this now, so it's not updated much anymore!)
I can be e-mailed at: thedaytoday[AT]gmail[DOT]com
Of course, the whole issue of "which drive model is being referred to
when I see (e.g.) Creative 24X written there?" is quite thorny. Naturally
if there is only one model of a particular drive, you can be pretty sure
it won't work. When there's loads, however (see the LG 52x model list),
things become uncertain.
As it stands, if you have a drive listed as not working that has more than
one clone, it'd still be worth you testing it out with the rip process -
at the end of the day, even if some branded drives have the same stuff on the
PCB as each other, it's the way the firmware is configured that makes all
the difference.
2) STATUS
Almost all of the drives now have at least one model number associated with them,
which means this list is fairly useful now. Problem is, we can't be totally
sure if all are correctly identified as working / not working - after all, that
Yamaha CRW2100S doesn't seem to work for me (hence I left the entry unchanged, and
just added a note below it). Still, it's probably better to go along with this than
with nothing else, or just the list I've made in the main ripping doc - granted,
all of those entries are probably correct, but then, it's nowhere near as long as
this list.
3) WANTED
Model numbers for drives in this list which do not have them, but be careful - some
drives of a certain specification can have more than one model number associated
with it, for instance, if an older drive has been upgraded and re-released with a
slightly different name and / or serial number.
4) CREDITS
-These two pages for older working & non-working drive lists:
http://membres.lycos.fr/multisistemas/ lista_cdroms_que_funcionan.htm
http://membres.lycos.fr/multisistemas/ lista_cdroms.htm
-The rip guide by Kortex, which lists a few more working drives
-Various other websites listed in the rest of this document
5) DRIVE MAKE + MODEL NUMBER LIST #2
-All drives are internal + IDE/ATAPI unless stated otherwise. Where external
drives are concerned, I've not put anything - probably these will either be
SCSI, USB or FireWire. If I can, I'll try and get some details for any such
drives later on.
-Drives are roughly listed in the following format in single lines:
manufacturer / brand / both of them [space] model number [space] reading capabilities
[space] interface, if not IDE [space] drive type (e.g. CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc)
-For CD-RW drives, the speeds for each mode (read, write & re-write) are not
in any fixed order. Most of the time though, the highest speed listed
will be the reading speed, the medium / middle speed will be the writing speed,
and the lowest speed will be the re-writing speed.
5.1) WORKING DRIVES LIST
Artec 50x CD-ROM
Actima 48x CD-ROM
NEC CD-3010A 40x SCSI CD-ROM
Artec 52x CD-ROM
Artec 54x CD-ROM
Acer 50X CD-ROM
Pioneer DVD500M
Yamaha CRW-2100S CD-RW (clones: Pacific Digital 161040ei but CDRFAQ
have a question mark by this one, so I can't be sure) **
-Having now retested that Yamaha drive with the Yursoft trap discs, which got
no different results to my home-made ones - got the same old "Unrecoverable
drive error" messages in CDRWIN trying to rip anything from a GD-ROM -
it looks like this can't rip GD-ROMs. Unless of course it needs a modified
firmware, but I haven't yet seen one.
5.2) NON-WORKING DRIVES LIST
LG 48x CD-ROM (models: CRD-8480B, CRD-8482B, CRD-8484B)
LG 52x CD-ROM (models: CRD-852[0/1/2]B, GCR-8521B, GCR-8523[B/BB])
-I used to have a CRD-8521B, but as I was never able to get hold of the firmware
for it, so I trashed it.
Philips CDD2600/3610/3600 CD-RW
(clones: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/6893/cdd3610.htm*)
Creative CD5233E 52x CD-ROM
HP SureStore 7200x CD-RW (where "x" can either be "e" for external
or "i" for internal)
Vibra 44x CD-ROM (could be Creative, since they use the "Vibra" name in
some of their products)
Artec 56x CD-ROM
Toshiba 32x CD-ROM (models: various, see Toshiba's ODD Archive page for more
details: http://sdd.toshiba.com/)
Sony CDU-711 32x CD-ROM
Creative 5240 DVD-ROM (5x DVD reading, 24x CD reading)
HP SureStore 8100 CD-RW (clones: Sony CRX100E)
LITE-ON LTN526S CD-ROM
Plextor UltraPlex 32TS SCSI CD-ROM
Teac 55S SCSI CD-RW
Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32A SCSI CD-RW
plextor PlexWriter 8/2/20 SCSI CD-RW
PHILIPS PCA408CD 40X CD-ROM
ASUS CD-S450 45x CD-ROM
PHILLIPS PCRW8432 (Only shows up on the page that this list originally came from
- probably a typo, if not then it's either incredibly rare or a figment of
someone's imagination =P)
Samsung SC-148F 48X CD-ROM
Delta OIP-CD5200A 52x CD-ROM
Samsung SC-140B 40X CD-ROM
Delta / Olympic 4x4x20 CD-RW
Creative 24x CD-ROM (models: iNFRA 36oo [aka CD2420E], CR58[7/5]-B, CD-2422E)
- a full list of Creative optical storage products can be seen here:
http://dmzweb3.europe.creative.com/wwenglish/general/Products_List_storage.htm
RICOH MP7063A CD-RW (firmware 1.90)
TOSHIBA SDM-1502 DVD-ROM (firmware 1012)
Plextor 8/4/32A CD-RW
Yamaha CRW8824S CD-RW
Plextor UltraPlex 40X SCSI CD-ROM
Waitec T-Rex 40/16/10 CD-RW **
AOpen DRW4624 CD-RW
TEAC CDR56S 600 (SCSI firmware 1.0P)
Toshiba SDM-1201 DVD-ROM (SCSI firmware 1011)
*In case this page is down, the list of drives is mirrored here:
ATAPI* CD-R/RW CRW6206A
BTC BCE 62IE
CyberDrive CDRW602
Delta CDE6121
Delta ODR6121
Delta ODE-6121
Delta ODE-8141
Delta ODR-6121
Dysan CR-622
Dysan CRW-1622
HP CD-Writer Plus 7100
HP CD-Writer Plus 7200
HP VersaWriter CD 3100
JCI JCD-62RW
JCI CDRW-622
JCCOM JCD-62RW
JVC XR-R2060
Memorex CR-622
Memorex CRW-1622
Mitsubishi CDRW226 I
MMagic MCR-265
Octek RW260
OTI Socrates
Philips PCA267CR
Samsung CD-R/RW SCW-230
USDrives CDRW602
WPI CDR-622
WPI CDRW-622
*Note: This drive is probably an AOpen. It's just that these drives
always appear in Device Manager with a description of something
along these lines. Another way of telling if your drive is AOpen
is if the model name in Device Manager ends in AKH, or if the
drive cover has the acronym "MTRP" stamped on the front of it,
below the drive's speed rating (e.g. 52X MTRP).
Please note that some drives originally in this compiled list have since been removed, because either me or someone else tested the drive (in which case it will be listed here).
CD/DVD Drive Testing Results
0.0 Disclaimer
Please note that producing a backup of your LEGITIMATELY OWNED Dreamcast games,
using the methods described in this docuement (and all related pages on my website),
for YOUR personal usage at home, is NOT illegal; or at least, definitely not in the
UK. As for other countries - I have no idea, so consult your local solicitor now
if you are concerned. Anyway, moving on...
1.0 Introduction
This document lists all the drives that I, and other contributors, have tested
using the ripping process described in the other two GD-ROM ripping docs
on this site. Although a couple of large (but scrappy) compatibility lists have
existed on the Web for several years now, they lacked detailed information
about the listed drive's ripping capabilities - as I have found during my time
testing drives, it is not always merely a case of "this one can't rip anything,
but this one rips everything" and so I have tried to clear up the situation.
Of course, with the literally huge amount of branded drives swamping today's
computer market, this is a far from easy task, and it has taken me quite a
while to test all the drives you see in this list; hence, help from contributors
is massively appreciated. As a companion to this document I've also
produced a tidied-up list of compatible and non-compatible drives based
on various sources from around the Internet, which can be read through here.
2.0 Table of results for drives tested with the GD-ROM ripping process
Test games: see table note no. 2 just below the bottom of the table for a
full list. All games tested are PAL|E unless stated otherwise.
Please remember that partial rips can only be produced by CDRWIN if
Error Correction is set to Ignore / Replace and the program is closed via
Task Manager once the ripping process halts - this has to be done
because when it is set to Abort it will automatically close the ripping
progress bar and delete the incomplete ISO upon hitting any errors.
By doing this, you may be lucky enough to be able to dump games
which have a very small amount of data, e.g. Crazy Taxi, which only
takes up around 100MB.
In this table, some date-of-drive entries which only have a year may have
been guessed, either because: A) I need to get the drive out of its
respective PC again to check it, or B) the drive is now in a PC that I
have given to someone else (and so I have guessed to the best of my
recollection). I have used asterisks (*) to designate drives where B) applies.
Total number of drives tested: 29
Manufacturer, model of drive, Date of drive's Can rip table of Can do a complete / partial rip of the high-density data track?
and type of drive production contents (TOC)
file?
NEC / Toshiba CDR-1800A CD-ROM * September 1997 Yes No / No; fails randomly at 8%-20% completion
AOpen CD-940E CD-ROM April 1999 Yes No / No; similar problems to the NEC
JLMS/LITE-ON LTD-165H DVD-ROM 1 November 2002 Yes Yes / N/A
Sony DDU-1621 DVD-ROM 2 11th February 2003 Yes No / No
Sony CRX-225E CD-RW 3 2003 No No / Yes
Acer / Benq 640A-272 CD-ROM 4 August 1999 Yes No / Yes; up to 38% of a GD-ROM
Yamaha CRW-2100S CD-RW 5 December 2000 No No / No
Mitsumi CRMC-FX120T CD-ROM* 1996 Yes No / No; contstant failure at 1% completion
ASUS CD-S360 CD-ROM 6 December 1998 Yes No / No; similar problems to the NEC
Samsung SM-308 CD-RW+DVD-ROM Combo December 2000 No No / No
TOP-G BDV 212B DVD-ROM 7 Not Printed on Drive No No / No
Mirai (Sanyo) CRD-BP1700P-M CD-RW April 2002 No No / No
LG CRD-8322B CD-ROM 8 August 1998 Yes No / Yes; up to 703MB can be extracted
LG CRD-8240B CD-ROM 8 September 1998 Yes No / Yes; up to 790MB can be extracted
Samsung SW-408 CD-RW 9 Unknown Yes No / No
Creative CD3630E CD-ROM 10 December 1998 No No / No
LITE-ON SOHD-167T DVD-ROM 11 Unknown No No / No
NEC CDR-1901A CD-ROM 12 Unknown Yes Yes / N/A
LITE-ON 24102B CD-RW 12 Unknown No No / No
Relisys / Teco DVD-8216 November 2001 No No / No
LG DRD-8160B DVD-ROM 13 February 2002 No No / No
TEAC CD-532EB CD-ROM 14 June 1999 Yes No / Yes; up to 3/4 can be extracted
Hitachi CDR-7930 CD-ROM 15 January 1997 No No / No
NEC CDR-1400A CD-ROM 15 December 1996 No No / No
Panasonic CR-594-J CD-ROM 15 August 2001 No No / No
Plextor PX-20TSi/Plex 12/20 CD-ROM 16 June 1998 Yes No / Yes; about the same amount as the LG CRD-8240B
Plextor PX-40 TSi/ UltraPlex 40X October 1999 No No / No
NEC ND-3540A DVD+ / -RW (DL) July 2005 Yes No / No
Actima 50X CD-ROM Oct 1999/Feb 2001 Yes No / Yes (up to 703MB)
2.1 Results table footnotes
1 ↓
The best drive to use. So far I have successfully ripped these single data track
games: Sonic Adventure, Fur Fighters, Metropolis Street Racer, Fighting Vipers 2
and Crazy Taxi; and these mixed audio & data track games: Ready 2 Rumble
(all data & audio tracks ripped) and ChuChu Rocket! (just the first data
track & CDDA tracks; only 89% of the second data track can be ripped, and
examining it reveals nothing but null data). However, currently only Sonic
Adventure and R2R are playable in Chankast, despite the fact that all those
titles are confirmed as working in it.
For reasons unknown, all other single data track games have been found to have
some of their files corrupted. Although CDRWIN does not report any errors
for rips of these games, such games are rendered unplayable as a result.
As of 14/02/2005, I have finished testing all of the available firmware revisions
from this page; you can read through the results here. But given that none of
the firmware revisions actually made much difference to drive performance, it's
not likely that I will extensively test different firmwares on any future drives.
Finally, this drive does have one minor annoyance; the disc fastener is integrated
into the drive casing, meaning that you must remove the whole lid to swap discs;
to allow this to be done easier, I bent the two rear metal side clips at the end of
the drive outwards. Having said that, I suppose it's better than conventional disc
fasteners that have to be screwed in & unscrewed out all the time.
2 ↓
This is virtually identical to the LITE-ON DVD drive (uses Mediatek components),
however it is built much better mechanically (i.e. the tray operation is very quiet).
Why the LITE-ON works so well and this Sony doesn't work at all is odd. Some
research has also discovered that some Artec, Gigabyte, LG, Memorex, Relisys,
& TOP-G have used / currently use Mediatek chipsets in their drives.
3 ↓
Same drive as a LITE-ON LTR-52327S.
4 ↓
This was the first CD-ROM drive, that I tested, to get anything substantial off a
GD-ROM disc ("anything substantial" being a small amount of files from Sonic
Adventure, and CDDA tracks 02-04 from ChuChu Rocket!).
Also, this drive is very similar to the Wearnes CDRW-4424. I had a broken
CDRW-4424 and I dismantled it while I was bored; the rubber stubs that held
the drive tray, laser & motor assembly to the metal casing and the usage of
mostly Philips chipsets on the drive's PCB mean this is likely an Acer clone.
5 ↓
Attempting to extract the TOC in CDRWIN always led to an "unrecoverable
drive error" with both my home-made trap discs and the Yursoft ones. Also,
the Pacific Digital drive model 161040ei CD-RW drive is believed to be based
off this model, but with an IDE interface.
6 ↓
Drives made by ASUS are apparently made with the same components as
Pioneer drives, whose DVD-ROM drives are in turn similar to Philips and
some AOpen drives.
7 ↓
The MT1318E oscillator (QFP-type) in this drive is like the MT1338E in the
LITE-ON I tested. The rest of the drive PCB is also very similar to it - yet its
model number appears to be ripped off from BTC (though I doubt BTC had
anything to do with the drive's construction - I have a broken BTC DVD-ROM
drive made around the same time and most of the parts on the PCB are made
by Sony). Regardless, it's evidently a pile of crap.
8 ↓
The third & fourth best CD-ROM drives to use respectively, even though they
can't completely rip GD-ROMs they can rip a substantial amount from the
high-density area, so - as stated earlier - some games may be dumpable with
these two drives.
Having said that, it's not anywhere near as bad as having to painstakingly unscrew
the fastener as is the case with a lot of drives; these LG drives have fasteners
held down with plastic clips, which can simply be pressed inwards with a small
screwdriver for removal.
9 ↓
Thanks to moi (yes, that is his username =P) at the BOOB! DC Research forums
for testing this drive.
10 ↓
This drive is a rebranded Samsung SCR-series drive.
11 ↓
Thanks to another user at the BOOB! DC Research forums for testing this
drive - I've forgotten his name now, so if you are the person who tested this drive,
contact me and I'll credit you here.
12 ↓
Thanks to Onky at the EmuTalk forums for testing these drives.
13 ↓
A friend lent me this one for testing, cheers.
14 ↓
This drive can "only" rip up to about sector 440,000 of a single data track DC game;
the second highest of any CD-ROM drive (Onky's drive being tops, since it can do full
rips =P). The firmware revision on the drive is 2.0A, while the latest is version 3.0B,
so it might have been worth updating to see if it's possible to extract any more from
those DC games. At least, it might have been worth doing, were it not for a small snag.
Basically, when I actually got around to booting into DOS from a bootable CD, and
then running the flash utility, I was presented with a "firmware revision not
compatible" message. Apparently, the utility will only upgrade your drive if your
firmware revision is v1.0, not any other version. Since I can't be bothered to ask Teac
why this is so, it seems this "plan B" to get the drive to read more GD-ROM data
is grounded. Ah well.
15 ↓
To be fair, while these drives all failed to get anything, on the outside they were
not in great condition. Mind you, all of them still seemed to be in good working
order, so I guess it's just bad luck more than anything. Where PCB similarities
are concerned, the Hitachi & Panasonic (yes, a non-crappy-fixed-lid Panasonic =P)
both had two similar Sanyo chipsets, although the Hitachi featured additional
chipsets, one made by themselves, the other by Sony. The NEC, on the other hand,
looked eerily like one of the LGs, as it had an OTI 910 chipset, a Sony oscillator of
some sort, and a couple of other bits I forget. But all of them do seem to be unique
models to anything else I've tested, so I guess it was worth it.
16 ↓
This drive - the first Plextor I've tested - can rip up to or around the same point
that the Teac drive is capable of. No firmware upgrades are available for this, so
it doesn't look like it'll be possible to squeeze anything more from this.
17 ↓
Plextor have got about 10 different firmware revisions for this drive on their
website, but after the whole fiasco with flashing my LITE-ON over and over again
to try and get improvements - only to get nothing - it's probably not worth the effort.
3.0 The End
Yes, it is. And I'm glad, because it took far too much of my life to test all these
drives, write this guide, and so on - hope you appreciate my efforts!
Possible drive problems, and some known "crap" drives:
Construction of your drive could be an obstacle, like my broken Toshiba SD-M1502 DVD-ROM. Now, while this drive is broken (well, I DID get it for free =P), that didn't stop me from taking a look inside it. From doing this, I discovered that the disc fastener inside it has cross-headed screws which are VERY small (about 2-3mm wide) and shallow, so small that I had no screwdriver to hand that could remove them. So either those definitely remove the fastener (which itself is very big, spanning the entire width of the CD tray), or there's something else holding down the fastener, say, plastic clips at the sides. I didn't recall seeing anything like that last time I opened it for examination, but I'll have to double-check this soon. For now, if you happen to have this (or a similar) Toshiba drive, it's probably not worth you wasting your time to open it up if you can't get the damn fastener off, eh? =P
While I'm not sure if there any any Panasonic DVD-ROM drives out there, I recommend you don't buy any drives made by them in 1998 (or beyond, possibly) - I have a CD-ROM drive made by them in 1998, and despite my best efforts have been unable to remove the top of the drive. Perhaps it's superglued down or something (the integrated disc fastener may have something to do with it) but put simply, it makes taking an Acer 640A-272 apart look absolutely trivial. Also, since I've tested a newer Panasonic that has no disc fastener (see near the bottom of the results table) that couldn't rip anything, you'd probably best be avoiding all Panasonic drives, just to be on the safe side.
Try not to buy branded drives that could be clones of other drives, such as Samsung (which are clones of Ricoh drives), or re-branded Mediatek drives (other than LITE-ON) - see the clones list on the "Drive Results Table" footnote #3. Despite having similar parts, they most likely WILL NOT produce the same results as a real LITE-ON, even if the components in the drive have the same / similar numbering (e.g. MT1329E). The problem is that the firmware in these clones will often be slightly different; although, for clones of LITE-ON drives, it *may* be possible to, for example on the Sony DDU-1621, overwrite the (Sony) firmware with a vanilla LITE-ON firmware from this page. But I have never tried this out; you do so at your own risk!
A note about two DVD-ROM drives, namely the Afreey DD-4012E (though the PCB is printed with "DD-4010E" =P) and the BTC BDV-108A - both of these drives use almost identical PCB components, those being the Sony CXD3011R-1, Sony CXD1867R, and the Hitachi H8/3079. Some of the smaller components are differently numbered like the tiny Texas Instruments and Philips chips (and the tmTech T224162B EDO RAM chips run at different frequencies), but I wouldn't think any of those would make much difference to whether either drive could rip GD-ROMs or not. That is not for me to decide - those two drives I have are broken =P
2.0.5 Are the rumours true about certain Yamaha CD-RW drives being able to rip whole GD-ROM discs with a modified firmware?
To date, the only model that has been reported to be flashable to allow ripping of GD-ROM discs is the CDR-400t. Probably it will also work for the CDR-400c, as this is the same drive but with a caddy-loader instead of a tray-loader. A news post on this French forum also adds that there is a modded firmware for the Pioneer 303S DVD-ROM drive.
However, having been e-mailed these files by Karsten Kolb, he has told me that the Yamaha BIOS files were not actually modified by the person who first released them (Kalisto), but in fact were taken straight from the Katana dev kit R9 (confirmed by his analysis of Kalisto's BIOS file and one taken from the dev kit using Hex Workshop). He said that the Yamaha BIOS file does not actually work as intended when flashed to his CDR-400t - although it comes up OK in the Windows Device Manager, it does NOT allow for GD-ROMs to be read any easier than normal, because of a "Device Name Not Available ASYN - Start Unit Request Failed" error from his SCSI card.
He also mentioned that in the dev kit documentation, there is no indication that an authentic Katana GD-Writer (model HKT-0400) can read GD-ROM discs anyway. So unfortunately this BIOS is not of much use to us. :(
As for the Pioneer 303S firmware, Karsten has not been able to test this, because despite having the relevant drive, he is unable to flash the file to his drive because it is older than the firmware already present on it. But, despite this, he examined the modified firmware against an official Pioneer firmware from their website - the only different was that the bytes in the checksum were slightly different, while the contents of both files were otherwise identical.
StateS has said that there may be a modified firmware in existence to allow an older Yamaha, the CRW2100S, to read GD-ROMs natively, though I have not seen any firmware as of yet.
Finally, I have also heard speculation that another Yamaha CD-RW drive, the CRW-F1, can also be flashed with a modified firmware going around the Net. However - as with the CRW2100S - I have not yet seen any news articles or downloads perporting the actual existence of modded firmware for either of these drives. Chances are the rumour about the CRW-F1 is false.
2.0.6 Regarding drives from Plextor, Optorite & Sanyo that are capable of overburning CD-Rs to high capacities - is it possible for them to fully rip GD-ROMs ?
Possibly. The reason for this is that the GD-ROM disc was designed specifically to avoid being read by anything other than a DC. Remember that putting a GD-ROM disc in a PC CD/DVD drive normally will only allow you to see the inner sector of the disc, which is the same density as a conventional CD-ROM - only the discs' outer sector has high-density properties, packing in about 1 GB.
As it stands, all of the current technologies to create large-capacity CD-ROMs, like Plextor's GigaRec and Sanyo's HD-BURN, rely on converting the entire disc to a higher density, not just a portion of it, allowing you to increase the capacity of a 700MB CD-R to 1GB, or a 900MB CD-R to 1.3GB (latter only applies to GigaRec). This means that the oversized discs still do not have the same density as a GD-ROM disc.
Of course, there is a chance these drives might work better with the swap trick in the ripping guides in section 1.2, but generally they are expensive and not worth buying just for testing - well, unless any of them happen to come up cheap on eBay or at a car boot sale.
2.0.7 What about those LG CD-ROM drives that are similar to the DC GD-ROM drive unit - is there any way to modify them to fully rip GD-ROMs ?
(NOTE: The models being referred to here are the LG CRD-8160B and the CRD-8240B. As far as I know, no other models apply to this question.)
What's interesting about the aforementioned drives is that both use some components that are the same / similar to those inside the DC's GD-ROM drive.
For instance, inside the CRD-8160B, there is an Oak Technology OTI911 CD-ROM decoder and a Sony CXD3005R DSP, instead of the OTI912 & CXD3005R pairing in the DC's GD-ROM drive (both of which are combined into a single chip called the OTI9220). Though I have this LG drive, the motor inside it (or maybe the laser) appears to be worn out, so it cannot read any discs at all. But for 50 pence, it was hardly a bad purchase, if only for the research factor.
Meanwhile, in the CRD-8240B (thankfully mine works, though it did cost me about 20 times that of the aforementioned model =P), there is an OTI912, but a CXD3003R instead. Hence, neither drive is exactly similar to the DC's GD-ROM drive. Mind you, this would be impossible as it stands, because other photos of the DC's drive PCB reveal what appears to be a custom Sega chip on the board (though as the photos were of a different DC, it's possible that this was really an OTI9220 that had a Sega logo on it).
Now - although it's PURELY hypothetical - I have thought of modifying the LG CRD-8240B to *possibly* /fully read GD-ROMs by soldering off its CXD3003R DSP and soldering in the CXD3005R from the CRD-8160B, effectively making a drive with both core chipsets identical to those in the DC's GD-ROM drive. But I'm not considering this just yet for two important reasons:
A) Doing any kind of soldering work on the drives would be a pain in the arse, because both CXD300x chips are surface-mounted Quad Flat Packages (QFPs). And, as I'm sure you know, working on such chips can be a hellish experience without expensive kit (like the PDR Solderlight).
B) The *only* thing that enables the DC's drive to actually read GD-ROMs is believed to be it's firmware. But nobody's dumped / extracted it yet, possibly because it's in some kind of "undumpable" IC, like the SVP graphics chip in the Mega Drive release of Virtua Racing, or is on a chip with heavy encryption.
2.0.8 Is it possible to rip all type of DC games, e.g.those with audio tracks, bleemcast! titles, etc. ?
Varies. While it is possible to extract single data track DC games (which have one data track in the high-density region from sector 45000 to 549100), success with mixed audio & data track games has been patchy - please see results table footnote no. 2 for more details. One thing is certain though - even where it's possible to dump mixed-track games, currently there is no utility in existence to create self-booting images of them with the CDDA tracks. Not yet, anyway.
Also, even if you can extract an entire single data track DC game (or the second / ending data track of a mixed audio & data track DC game) without ANY errors in CDRWIN, this does not mean your rip will necessarily be completely uncorrupted. See my "Other Essential Guides" document for info on verifying some of the files inside DC ISOs.
Concering ripping audio tracks; an updated version of the GD-ROM swap trick ripping guide (originally written by inetd) by Yursoft has been posted on EmuTalk by StateS. Using information in his partial translation of it, I have been able to rip a BIN file of all the ChuChu Rocket audio tracks without any errors.
But, contrary to what is stated in the guide, the tracks are not extractable using GD Lister because I am never prompted for the source audio file. Initially I thought this is because GD Lister v1.7 may not work with it - but having got hold of v1.6 (the same as mentioned in Yursoft's guide) from Karsten I still get no prompt for a source file after specifying the starting LBA of any audio track.
For now though, using information from the ChuChu Rocket TOC file, I have manually cut & extracted the CDDA tracks from the BIN file into individual WAV files using Audacity, and have also done the same with my Ready 2 Rumble CDDA tracks. All that's needed now is a way to insert these into a self-booting CDI image.
As for bleemcast! titles, they are in a proprietary format called MIL-CD which I cannot find any info about on the Net. In an ordinary CD/DVD drive they appear to be a single audio track of about 600kb. Ripping it to an image file is possible, but all it is (for me anyway) is a file full of null data, which is useless. It is possible to play them directly in Chankast by putting it in a CD/DVD drive and selecting the relevant drive letter; however after the BIOS screen Chankast crashes with an illegal operation error.
Someone asked me whether NAOMI discs would be rippable using my method; the answer is, maybe. Unfortunately, they require small security chips to work properly, and I have no idea how to crack or dump the security chips.
2.0.9 How should I dismantle my drive? Is there a correct order for removing each part ?
The order I use to gain access to the inside of all the drives I've taken apart to try with the GD-ROM swap trick process is as follows:
1- Locate the emergency ejection hole on the front of the drive. Get a long, sturdy pin or paperclip and push it into this hole, firmly but carefully, until the tray pops out of the front. Then remove the bezel / fascia cover on the tray itself; it will usually be held in by some plastic clips (look for these before attempting removal!). Take care when doing this; the older the drive, the more brittle (and fragile) the plastic may have become. However, I've taken apart over 20 drives and only slightly cracked the drive tray on one (the Plextor PX-20TSi from 1998), so the chances of it happening are quite low.
2- Remove the rest of the drive's plastic fascia; the clips for these will be present on the sides, and the top & bottom of the drive. Push each in with a blunt plastic tool (ball-point pen lids and flat-head screwdrivers are ideal for this) and ease the cover out one clip at a time. On some drives, the fascia may still not come out after doing this (I often find it's hard to push out the bottom clip); should this happen, loosen / remove the two (or more, possibly) screws on the bottom of the drive casing which are nearest to the front to help with removing the fascia.
3- Remove the four (or more) screws holding the metal plate on the bottom of the drive; the screws holding this frequently also hold the large metal plate covering the top & sides of the drive. Most likely only old drives will have a top cover that is removable without having to unscrew the bottom plate from the drive (the first NEC drive I tested was like this, as was the Mitsumi drive). Don't throw it to the side; leave the drive resting on this for now so the drive circuit board is still protected by something.
4- Next, remove the top section covering the drive. After removing the bottom cover, you may find this lifts straight off with ease; in other cases, it may be held in with plastic clips visible from the left & right sides (i.e. the sides where you put screws in normally to mount a drive into a PC case). After doing this, you should be able to determine how your drive keeps discs secure after they are inserted. It will (usually) use one of two systems:
- A strip / piece of metal going over the drive tray, held in with plastic clips, screws, or both, which looks like the drive in this picture (in other words, a seperated disc fastener - usually it's magnetic as well, for added strength).
- A small, round piece of plastic embedded underneath the metal drive covering, which looks like this (in other words, an integrated disc fastener).
5- The only real difference between each of these disc retention systems is the amount of time it takes to change a disc; for instance, on my Lite-ON DVD drive (shown in the previous photo), only two clips have to be pressed in on each side to remove the top covering, then discs can be swapped and the cover placed back on to the drive. Whereas, with a seperate disc fastener, the smaller size, added screws and magnetic attachment make it a bit more tricky and time-consuming when changing discs. If the fastener is magnetic, though, and there are plastic clips, you could just not bother to screw the screws back in when changing discs - I've done this myself with a number of drives and not noticed any apparent problems.
6- If you managed to get your drive apart down to the disc fastener, you're probably in a good position to get the rest of the things sorted out to do this GD-ROM ripping. If not, you may have to call it quits - or get another drive, perhaps... =P
2.1 Preparing your PC for GD-ROM ripping using the ripping guides - The Software Side
2.1.0 What's the best version of Windows to be using this ripping guide with ?
I have used this ripping guide in Windows 98 SE and Windows XP Pro and had no difficulties whatsoever. But it can probably also be done in Windows 2000 and / or Server 2003 as they are more or less the same as Windows XP. For Windows 95 and NT 4, I really have no idea whether all the stuff will work or not. Good luck if you have one of those last two systems, then =P
2.1.1 What applications will I need to carry out this ripping ?
You will need only one file - which is the GD-ROM ripping toolkit (for Windows only), containing *every single* app and utility that is described in the StateS and Yursoft ripping guides*, and in the guides I have written myself. Some things inside it DO need to be downloaded though, like CDRWIN, because I have limited webspace - so I've put a link to it inside the toolkit. Get it from the front page, or if pressing the Back button is too much effort, click here to download it. =P
*I have actually left out one utility that is mentioned in the Yursoft guide - it's the one called GDFixer / GDK. The reason I have done this is because its patching functions are all done by ExoBoot, so there was no need to include this as a result.
2.1.2 How do I create and / or burn the GD-ROM trap discs ?
Trap discs are mentioned in both the StateS and Yursoft ripping guides; these are what you need to extract data / audio tracks from your target GD-ROM discs. While they are mentioned in both guides, and while both explain methods of making them, there is little clarity on what you actually need to put ON the discs, data or audio-wise.
Hence, this section will plug that gap for you; what follows is an explanation of how to use both the two pre-made trap discs that have been released on the Net, and also two methods of producing your own trap discs.
Pre-made Trap Disc #1, produced by DrinkTeam
Released in 2001, and quite hard to find on the Net nowadays. I recieved it attached to an e-mail from Karsten Kolb - many thanks to him for this, saved me a ton of Google searches :)
From first impressions of the mixed-mode track layout of the disc, it appeared to have combined audio & data ripping capability into one 70 MB disc image file.
However, my hopes were dashed - after repeated testing of both methods of CD audio extraction (of all tracks into a raw BIN file, and also of tracks onto seperate WAV files) I could not manage to get anything. So it seems that only data extraction is possible with it; I have not been able to get it to rip CD audio on any other drive with this disc, either.
On the plus side though (but only under Win98 SE, for some reason) it does allow you to view the files & directories on the high-density sector. You can't copy them - at least I haven't been able to copy any ChuChu Rocket files in this way using my LITE-ON drive - but it's a neat trick, to say the least.
If you want to use this trap disc image, it can be found in my GD-ROM ripping toolkit on the front page of the GD-ROM section of my site. Using it is easy, just burn it in CloneCD - it may work in others, but no other CD burning apps have been tested with it - and use it as directed in one of the main GD-ROM ripping guides.
Pre-made Trap Disc (Set) #2, produced by Yursoft
Released in 2002 by Yursoft. Props to StateS for pointing me to both of these - I didn't even know they existed until he mentioned them! This set comprises two trap disc images; one for ripping audio tracks, the other for ripping data tracks, and have a combined size of just 4.55 MB. These should be your first choice for ripping under any circumstances.
As with the DrinkTeam trap disc, the Yursoft trap discs can be found in my GD-ROM ripping toolkit. Using it is easy, just burn it in CloneCD - it may work in others, but I've never tried burning it in anything else (e.g. Nero) - and use it as directed in one of the main GD-ROM ripping guides.
Home-made Trap Disc Guide, produced by inetd, expanded on by myself
Basically, in the inetd guide, it does tell you how to modify the all-important CCD file that you get whenever you dump a disc image with CloneCD. Confusingly, though, it didn't tell you what sort of CD it had to be, or if it had to be of any particular capacity, and so on. So to try and rectify this, I have written two (relatively) detailed guides on how to create your own audio & data extraction trap discs.
How to create an audio trap disc:
1- Open an audio editing program like Cool Edit or Audacity and create a .WAV file of the following specs - 44100 Hz, 16-bit, Stereo - and insert a small amount of silence into it, say, about 10 seconds, then save it.
2- Open a CD burning program like Nero Express, create an audio CD with it and add the dummy .WAV file to it, then check the settings for burning and ensure it is set to "Disc-at-once" mode. Finally, burn the CD.
3- Open CloneCD (and it MUST be CloneCD), click on the "Read Disc" function and follow the instructions to create an image of the disc.
4- Once the image has been ripped, open the directory it's in and open the image's .CCD file in Notepad or something similar. Under the section [Entry2], change the values for PMin to 122, PSec to 4, PFrame to 01 and PLBA to 549150, and save the file.
5- Burn the now-modified image using CloneCD. The options I used in the CloneCD Write CD dialog box were as follows:
- Write Speed: Can be any - lowest I've tried was 4x (worked fine), highest was 16x (also fine). You could try burning higher, but don't come moaning to me if you finish up with a coaster =P
- Write Mode: RAW DAO
- Simulate Writing: Disabled
- Buffer Underrun Protection: Enabled
- Perform Laser Power Calibration: Disabled
- Amplify Weak Sectors: Disabled
- Don't Repair SubChannel Data: Disabled
- Always close last session: Enabled
How to create a data trap disc:
1- Get hold of WinWaster (a program which allows you to waste a given amount of space in a single file) and create a file with it of exactly 702 MB*. Use any filler character you want, it doesn't matter.
2- Open a CD burning program like Nero Express, create a data CD with it and add the dummy file to it, then check the settings for burning and ensure it is set to "Track-at-once" mode. Finally, burn the CD.
3- Follow the last three steps taken for the audio trap disc to complete your data trap disc.
* The file you create in WinWaster can actually be of any size - the reason I thought it had to fill the disc is because I read a post by El_Maska_45 on Sonic-CulT in July 2004, where I recall him saying that the trap discs (and the images of them) were "filled up" - but he didn't have them on him. With no other info to go on at the time, I took this rather literally. Mine work perfectly though, and they seem to work as well in practice as the Yursoft ones, so I can't say I was disappointed.
2.2 OK, I've read all of this - what next ?
Print off and read the ripping guides found here. Now that you have trap discs (so you can miss out how to make them in both guides), and the hardware & software sides of your PC sorted out, you're all set to get down to ripping stuff. So have a go at it - and if you did manage to get an ISO dumped of a DC game, click here to progress to "Other Essential Guides" so you can, basically, turn that ISO into something usable.
3.0 The End
That's all for now - apologies if your head exploded while trying to digest all of that information!
![Dreamcast Ripping Guide v.1.0 [NON CDDA]](https://www.neperos.com/journal_pictures/9f9e53//Dreamcast_p1zio434bb63828b.jpg)
