Ripping GDR's

Worth noting, we have found out that the serial rip method is pretty much not worth trying, this only seems to work with the BBA rip method... go on, guess which version I can only use...

 

Dot50Cal: Couldn't you re-create the layout in a ordinary cdr?

I keep wondering why the layout of GDRs are differente from the retail GD.

 

Im sure you could, if you can properly tip a GDR. I havent tried yet though, but plan to once I get some more information on why games with multiple tracks in session 2 dont work at all.

 

Hi, I'm new to this board, I read a lot on it before anyway.
I just registered to try to help you to rip your games.

It is possible to rip gd-rom using a pc drive, i'm usiing this technique for about a years now and i've sucessfully ripped THPS2 and toys commander ( including CDDA) this way, some games like trickstyle don't works and it<s a pain in the a** to find a compatible dvd-drive (only the Lite-On LTD-165H seems to works). Here's the original site about it :

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/menace-59/gd-rom_stuff/

I also wrote a tutorial in french about it :

http://dreamagain.free.fr/layout.php?p=tutoGD

To sums it up, you have to burn 2 "trap" discs (one data , one audio), this disc have a 122min+ TOC and can be burned with an old version of clone cd (it'll ask to repair the toc and you must say no.)

Then you put this trap disc in your drive, wait for it to looad, open cdr-win, choose to extract by sector, and select 45000 to 45032, don't start the rip now.

Use pararcd( an app to stop de cd spining) and swap the cd for the gd-rom without your drive knowing it ( i.e. by removing the top of your cd-drive or by using the manual eject button[like inthe xbox ripping early method])

then extract it. This will extract the ip.bin so you'll be able to see the toc in gdlister.

Now use the same method to rip all of the data tracks and the cdda tracks using a audio trap disc. HUDGE TRACKS ( i.e. 45000-549150) might have to be splitted to be ripped correctly(i.e. extrack 1.bin from 45000 to 369999 then extrack 2.bin from 370000 to 549150 then merging them with this line comamnd : copy /b 1.bin+2.bin complete.bin

Complete.bin would be the complete image (45000 - 549150)

Then extract the files using isofix or extract.exe


Sorry for my really bad english, I'm french speaking ( quebec canada) and I registered here only to help (MARK30001 told me about this thread and ask if I could help.). if you need any more precision feel free to pm me or ask in this thread.


I hope this might helps you.



PS: i've never tried to rip a gd-r beta with this method, however, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't works ... (but i've got problem with trickstyle using my drive, it ripped all zeros ...)


-=Familyguy=-

 

Nope. There is no such thing as an "NR" type DC.

The closest you'll get to a "test" DC are the early US units that SOA sent out which were Japanese units with the US BIOS (and region code) inside.



-hl718

 

Any luck so far?

You could try this alternative method for dumping GD-ROM discs here:
http://dumpcast.thekickback.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4

 

That sounds promising, will give it a go when I get things settled here.

Found out how to properly piece together ISO's that are seperated by audio tracks However that doesnt help GDR's. Its probably looking for the track information at a specific point on the disc, and GDR's apparently store that elsewhere.

Will give this a whirl and see if I can rip one properly though, I dont have high hopes though.

So heres a rundown of where were at:

Ripping GDR's that have 1 data track = A-ok!
Ripping GDR's that have more than 1 data track = Failure, unless you have another game which has the exact same track layout. The chances of that are slim to none considering the difference between retail and prototype are high.

Ill write a proper guide for this new method as it seems to rip multi track discs much better.


Edit: Ok, this wont work. It wont rip unless I can read the track layouts. :|

@ Family guy, Your help is appreciated but it seems even with the Lite-On LTD-165H the chance of sucess on a multi data track GDROM is very low.

Mark I have a question. I probably asked it before but I get so caught up in whatever Im currently working on that I forget a whole bunch of stuff ;D. Im back on a DC fix now and I was curious if theres a piece of dev equip that can rip a GDR (be it simply access to the data or an ISO) and then put that onto a hard drive, which would be able to get sent over to a PC. If so, please let me know. Id assume a Katana would be the best bet for this, but Im not sure and I'd figure I would ask the expert

 

Mark had a piece of hardware that would do it, I believe it was a GD-X duplicator.

 

I still have this hardware. So far it's the only method I know of that can fully dump GD-R discs, but it would be great for someone to develop a proper method using retail Dreamcast units.

 

As far as I can tell the TOC is on the GDR somewhere, probably a standard place for each yet different from the retail builds. Maybe someone could code a quick app (or even modify an existing method like dreamrip.bin) which will look at this sector and rip accordingly?

Thats the only thing stopping GDR's with more than 1 data session from being ripped properly. Its amazing to me that I cant find any information on this even through google. I cant believe Im the only one who ran into this problem.

 

@Dot50Cal

I've sucessfully rippped many games, including Toys Commander wich got 7 gd-da tracks (so 2 data tracks) the key is to plit the image you rip ( not the whole disc, or more than 300 000 sectors at a time) then merge it back. I can't swear that I'd works with a gd-r but I'm SURE it'd at least partially works.

The TOC (track alyout, not every files) of the GD-ROM is always located in the IP.BIN of it, wich is from 45000 to 45016 (or 45032?) LBA. You can load this ip.bin in a program like gdlister1.7 or gdinfo to get the track layout of the disc then.

I you wanna rip this track layout to use it to rip the games, you might try the swap trick, almost every disc drives can read the ip.bin (not all btw).

Simply burn a 46000+ LBA cd in data mode 1 then put it in your drive, wait for it to load, stop it with PararCD (or simply wait until it stops by itself) then open your drive wihtout using the eject button (using the emergency eject, a lil' hole you put a pin in and it open mechanically) then replace with the gd-r. then rip 45000 to 46000 (to be sure everything is in) in data mode 1 using cdr-win or any other software.

After that, you can open the resulting dump with gdlister1.7 to see the track layout.


NOTE: Truman's tool (aka cdreader aka cdtool, can be found on cdfreaks) can make some drives read outside of the toc without swapping, making it possible to rip the ip.bin without swap. It don't hurts to try ...


Well, I hope it will be of any help !

[edit]
After studying some gdrs and gdrbeta burning documents, I *think* that the ip.bin might not be embedded in the gdr HD track, but simply there as a file. This might be the cause of your problem.

-=FamilyGuy=-

 

Wow, Family Guy Most of that went over my head (I just started to get a handle on this stuff ;D ) but it sounds pretty promising. Ill try tommorow to get the first track which should give me the track layout information.

Once I have that it should be pretty simple to re-create a CDR with the same layout and use the swap trick like before, correct? But wouldnt I run into an issue since CDR's are 700MB and the GDROM's are 1GB? Or am I confusing storage size with LBA (arent the two directly related?)

*Ill be using the dreamcast + BBA, I dont have a PC drive which can read GDROM's.

 

You can have a fake LBA that says your disk is far more massive than what's on it. Not sure how that works exactly but I've seen it before.

 

What do you really want to do ?

I you wanna create a 100min+TOC disc, it's possible. I have some image in CloneCD format that does have a 2gig toc but 16 mb of data on it... Used to do swap tricks.

I you want to create a disc wich would have the same layout as your gd-r, then it'd be really harder to make it so. It'd require you to burn the low-density area of the disc 1:1 (with nero or whatever) then (again) create yourself a hacked image of the HighDensity (containing only the track layout info (a.k.a. toc)) and burn it.

I don't know if it'd be possible for CloneCD to start writing at the middle of a disc ... (or maybe you could *severely overburn* your cd making the write fail and the edge of the disc, but the toc to be intact)



Well, explain what you really want to do and I'd be pleased to help you.

If I was in your position, I'd try to rip the ip.bin with my dvd-drive ( pretty much any drives will work for this) using simple swap or truman's tool.


I hope it been of help !


-=FamilyGuy=-

 

Well I was thinking if I could get the IP.BIN out, and find out what tracks are the actual data tracks (the audio tracks are garbage, right?) I could burn a CDR which would mirror the location of one or both of those data tracks, and would swap the CDR out with the prototype before beginning the ripping. Is there any faults you can see with that line of thinking?

 

Well, I see some problems :

1.0 - Usually, audio tracks aren't garbage, but ... audio of the game ... (lol)
1.1 - The devs might had add the audio track as a dummy, but it's unlikely, in this case, the audio track would be some thing like the "this disc is for use only on sega dreamcast" or silence.

2.0 - I don't think that dreamrip would rip a cdr, because when you put a gd-rom in dreamrip, it usually beeps like when it boots up a disc. So your cdr might need to contain a 1st session in raw audio mode, then a 2de session with the ip.bin you extracted embedded and the h4x0r3d TOC at 45000 LBA (so session 1 must be (45000-11400L)*2352 = 79 027 200 bytes.
This audio file might really be anything, from 79 027 200 bytes of 0 named as 45000.raw to a fuzzy techno song.

3.0 - Then you'll have to create a iso for the second session and burn it. this iso must have the hacked toc (with track layout) + ip.bin as the bootsector ( 1st 16 sectors = aprox. 32KB)

3.X - For your cd to have to hacked toc, you might have to create a CloneCD ccd file and hack it to be multisession with the tracks you needs, then, once you burn it in clone cd, you must say YES to keep hacked TOC ...


I hope it has been of help !

If you can extract to ip.bin, I'd pleased to try to create yourself a clonecd image that would ***mimic*** it, if you acept to send me the ip.bin of course ( or simply the track layout). I don't know if it'd works on dreamrip though... with or without hotswapping ...

I think that for it to possibly works on dreamrip, you'd have to open dreamrip, put your h4x0r3d cdr, wait for it to load, swap it with the gd-r without opening the drive(a.k.a. remove the shell) then rip it ...


GOOD LUCK !!!


-=FamilyGuy=-



-=FamilyGuy=-

 

Ill see if I can get the IP.bin to you as I still cant wrap my head around LBA and the like XD. Thanks for your help thus far!

 

I have 11 GDR, most do not seems to run, but some have working betas. Would anybody help in ripping them? No time to handle that now.

 

Explain what you want to do and i'd be happy to help you in the best way I can.

-=FamilyGuy=-

 

Quick question, on a 2x data track GDROM (6 tracks total), in which track is the IP.BIN stored?

Thanks!