Let me first thank everyone here, you've made a great forum.
I have read conflicting posts and tutorials about which file type to use when burning, the ISO or the MDS. I have attempted to burn the ISO several times and it has never worked with my Swap Magic discs. The ISO has a WinRAR icon to it, but it appears to just be a regular ISO. I see in one of the tutorials in this forum that mentions using the MDS file but that file is so small, can this possibly have the info for the game?
The only game I've attempted to back up so far is Tony Hawk's Project 8. I am using swap magic 3.6 with a flip top case. One disc I burned gave me an error when swapping saying it was not a valid disc, the other gave me an all black screen with some scanning type sounds but it never actually loaded anything.
The .ISO file is the image file (an exact digital replica of a DVD, whereby all of the data is stored in one file to completely preserve the data structure and integrity of the DVD).
The .MDS is the corresponding 'catalog' file. Burning software such as DVD Decrypter/Alcohol 120% reads this catalog file so that it knows how to burn the .ISO file.
Basically the .MDS contains information for DVD burning software and tells what .ISO files it should burn to the DVD disc, in which way and in which order, etc.
To answer your question, when burning, I always burn from the .MDS file if there is one. Choose the .MDS as a matter of habit.
not to confuse you, the above is correct and exactly what i was told to do when i first started backing up games. But you should be able to burn either one. I have burned plenty of ISO files instead of using the MDS and they work fine.
The reason your ISO has a WinRAR icon is that there is a section in the WinRAR setting that deals with file association. it has a check mark beside all different files types so that anything of those file types are associated with WinRAR and will have a WinRAR icon. If you take out the check mark beside the ISO file it will have a non-WinRAR icon. http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/248020 the first part of that tutorial will tell you how to uncheck it.
your problem could be caused by the following things:
1. fliptop not installed right
2. DVD burner needs to have the firmware updated
3. you are using cheap DVD's that are low quality
4. you are not burning them at the correct speed
listing how you burn them, at what speed, with what program, and on what kind of DVD (like Philips 8X DVD-R) would really help
Last night I chose the MDS file and lowered the speed from 4x to 1x and it worked.
I read in some guides that I should install wnaspi32.dll on my computer and I attempted that as well and DVD Decrypter said it was not install properly, I can't figure out why because I did what the guide said to do.
Regardless though, it worked so I guess I don't really need it.
Hi can someone please help me I downloaded a ps2 file and it turned into 52 WinRAR archieve's and I don't know which one 2 use with DVD Decrypter they all have an iso and mds file in them and they are all the same size except the last one its a bit smaller.
Originally posted by Maso83:Hi can someone please help me I downloaded a ps2 file and it turned into 52 WinRAR archieve's and I don't know which one 2 use with DVD Decrypter they all have an iso and mds file in them and they are all the same size except the last one its a bit smaller.
Typically, games are split into several compressed files. These files are usually found in RAR format and usually suffixed with .rar/.r00#/.00# file extensions. You only need to extract the first file in the sequence (usually named game.rar or game.r001/.001) and the rest of the files will be uncompressed automatically. If you need step-by-step instructions on how to extract RAR archives, see Hursty's WinRAR Guide. When these files are extracted (uncompressed), they 'come together' and produce a single image file (most commonly in .ISO format) which you can burn onto a CD/DVD (Nero, Alcohol 120%, CloneCD, DVD Decrypter, or ImgBurn). DVD Decrypter (http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk) is an excellent choice if you're looking for free burning software.
Extracting RAR files w/ WinRAR (http://www.rarlab.com)
1. Right-click on first file in the sequence (ie. game.rar, game.part01.rar, game.r00, or game.001). From the right-click context menu, select WinRAR->Extract OR Extract to game\.
NOTE: If the file has an extension of game.001 you will need to add it to WinRAR's user defined archive extensions so you can extract the files via the right-click context menu. To do this, open WinRAR->Options->Settings->Integration->Add .001 to the 'User defined archive extensions' box.
Burning PS2 DVD Images w/ DVD Decrypter (http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk)
1. Insert quality blank DVD into drive
2. Open DVD Decrypter 3. Mode->ISO->Write
4. Browse to image file
5. Set Write Speed to 4x OR half the speed of the disc (16x -> 8x)
6. Click on Hard Drive->DVD picture to begin burning
