Dumping and protecting PSX, PS2 and other CD based prototypes such as the Saturn

I was wondering, what's the correct method for dumping PSX and PS2 games? With the PS2 I usually use DVD Decryptor for retail games, is this a solid method worth using for PS2 prototypes? Also what about the PSX and Saturn?

One thing I was concerned about was damage to the actual discs, is there anything to look out for when using a DVD drive to extract the data? Can it ever damage the disc depending on what type of drive you use? I just want to make sure before I start backing games up as I want to protect the originals as much as possible to avoid loss of data.

 

I assume by PSX you're referring to the PS1 (PS-X was its codename; however PSX is a PS2-based home media player with PS2 capabilities).

If you're looking for 1:1 dump (which still won't work without a modchip), I'm not 100% sure what's the best method.
If you don't mind the 1:1 factor of the dump, I'd recommend the following apps for both PS1 and PS2 discs:
CloneCD
IsoBuster
ImgBurn

For PS1 keep in mind the following: most PS1 CDs have no "copy protection" / subchannel data, so you should be able to back them up with software like IsoBuster, ImgBurn or CloneCD (these are my choices). Some PAL and JAP games do have "copy protection" (I think it was the anti-modchip stuff) which data is subchannel data; this is NOT dumped when using IsoBuster, not sure about ImgBurn. For these I'd recommend CloneCD (make sure it's set to dump subchannel data as well!)

No idea about the Saturn discs...

No drive should damage your discs, unless something's wrong hardware wise... If you're going to use a drive you've never used before, I'd say you try some discs that you don't care about. If these are read just fine, and don't come out scratched after the dumping, then you should be good to use the drive for dumping whatever discs you want.
I know some drives do a better job than others when it comes to reading/dumping discs... but you'll have to do your own research on this... IIRC, the best ones are really old drives.

 

Sorry should have pointed this out I'm only talking about ptototypes, I assume this still applies?

You say you need a mod chip to get a 1:1 dump, does this require modding the drive it's self?

 

No he means a 1:1 dump won't play on the actual console. Game discs have protection sectors CD-R can't recreate.

 

What I meant was:
The PS1 and PS2 pressed discs (a.k.a. retail discs) have data in an area that can be read by every CD/DVD drive, but can't be written to (ie. when copying a game to a CD-R). That's why a modchip would be required (or a swap-disc method).

If it's a prototype, it's most likely in a CD-R, so I guess you can ignore that part.
Everything else does apply to prototypes.

 

Well I use isobuster pro to backup my stuff. There are several guides floating the internet for each system. I wouldn't recommend dvd decrypt since it hasn't been updated since forever.

 

You can use anything with PS2 discs as they're straight data and DVD drives handle error correction for user applications (which is not necessarily a good thing). The same goes pretty much for data track-only PS discs, you do need to verify that the subcode data does check out though. If it doesn't this could mean all sorts of things like a scratched disc, a malformed data track, copy protection, many more. For a large number of PS and most SAT games that have audio tracks the steps needed to accurately dump the disc will probably be overwhelming. Check out redump.org for tutorials.

 

Thanks for the info!