I've been trying to backup my PS2 games and I'm not having any joy. Perhaps someone can help?
I have had my PS2 chipped - a "Magic" modchip, professionally installed. I can play imports without any problems and have on occasion played CD (not DVD) backups belonging to friends.
I have a TEAC DVD burner, connected to my laptop computer via a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card. I have no reason to suppose that any of this is causing me problems.
I am running Alcohol 120, and it seems to be able to rip and burn image files without any problem.
I am using Ritek DVDs which my supplier assured me were PS2 compatible.
I burn only at 1x speed, even though I could burn much quicker.
I still end up with coasters, time after time after time - I haven't had one success yet. My PS2 doesn't even seem to recognise the backup disc at all - I don't even get the "please insert a PS2 disc" prompt, it just chunters away for half an hour before giving me a "disc read error" message.
This is driving me to distraction, and costing me a fortune in blank discs. Does anybody have any idea what I might be doing wrong? Am I missing a setting in Alcohol, perhaps? Would another piece of software or another brand of DVD be better? Any advice would be very much appreciated.
Ritek's are fine, in fact they are in most ppl's mind(on afterdawn) the best media for PS2 backups.
However, the way you are burning shouldn't be the problem. When I say that, I only use Alcohol for PS1 Backups. Try DVD Decrypter to burn your PS2 DVD Backups, open it and use mode>iso>read to make an image of the game to your hard disc, & mode>iso>write to burn the image to disc at the slowest speed that your media and burner allow.
I also notice that you can play CD Backups, so it might in fact be your modchip. Maybe read up a little bit about the modchip, as it may well require a software upgrade(bios etc..), or maybe a firmware. When I mention that though, I am going by what I have read in different threads as I myself use swap magic and the slide card to boot my backups.
Thanks, Teggy - I'll give DVD Decrypter a whirl and see where it gets me. I'm pretty sure my modchip is okay - I only bought it eighteen months ago and at the time it was the all-singing, all-dancing next best thing. Were they still selling non-DVD modchips back then?
I'm pretty sure that I've got rid of all the documentation from when I had the PS2 chipped. I take it that without opening the unit there's no way of finding out which modchip it was that I had installed?
I don't know how you may find out what the chip is without opening, sorry. However the last I heard of non DVD chips was about march or April 2002, as I said I don't have a modchip so...
You mentioned though that it was all singing all dancing, in that period did it run DVD Backups?
No, it's never run a DVD backup, but then up until the last month or so I'd never tried - I actually had my PS2 chipped to play imports mostly. What I meant was that I wasn't buying an old chip, it was top-of-the-range at the time. I'm pretty sure it will play DVD backups, I just need to try a good one!
I'm going to give DVD Decrypter a whirl tonight and see how I get on. Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.
In case the DVD Decrypter thing doesn't work, does anyone else know whether Alcohol 120 is theoretically okay to burn DVD backups, or am I missing a trick?
alcohol 120% can make a backup of ps2 games just fine. But, DVD Decrypter is used by many on this forum. So, if you're still having trouble, what version ps2 do you have and what dvdr's are you using? (+ or -).
I think I've got a version 1/2/3 PS2 (ten screws on the bottom, no extra screw in the expansion bay, SCPH-30004), and I'm using DVD-R. Do you think that might be the problem?
Do you need to know exactly which version I've got?
Hmm... not quite so sure now. Although I have ten screws, SCPH-30004 is supposedly a model 4 code. However, I don't have the version 4 "electrical warning" sign anywhere on the case. I think that makes it a 1/2/3, but it doesn't completely conform to either definition.
