Making Sony Playstation Disc Backups

As you can read above, this page has information about making backups. But you won't be left with additional 
questions after you're finished here. Everything is explained, step-by- step. No more, "So, what format should I burn the CD in?" or, "How should I copy the tracks?" Nope, this 'FAQ' will leave no questions unanswered.BIG COMMON QUESTION: "Does this mean that I can now make an EXACT copy of my Playstation games?" NO. You still need to either 1) use the swap method, or 2) get your Playstation modded. A good mod chip is the PSX Activator 2 from The Colorful You.Note: If you stick a Playstation game into your Mac, and you check out the contents of the disc, yes, you may see a bunch of folders. My advice, don't look at the contents like that 'cuz it will only make you wonder, "Huh, what is all 
of this and how do I keep them in order and why does CD-Copy only show one data track?" Honestly, I have no idea why it shows up like that. And, no, it won't work trying to copy all the folders you see onto your hard drive and then burning them onto a CDR.Anyway, onto what to do:


PART ONE

ASTARTE CD-COPY
1. Grab the 2.0 beta from their website 
(www.astarte.de) just to make sure we're on the same program here. The 
demo will work until September 30th, 1997
1a. Make sure you meet all the 
requirements of the program
2. Start up CD-Copy
3. Put your game in and 
let the program read all the tracks (1 or more)
4. If you see an error 
message (i.e. something like "Your backup will be 2 sectors longer than 
the original), I wouldn't try copying it. I got a few of those errors 
and I haven't tried copying any of those games so I have no idea what 
may happen. You can try those later if you want, but don't say I told 
you they would work
5. Select/highlight all the tracks that you see. If 
your data track has a menu arrow on the left side (the one's that you 
can flip to show the contents of a folder or something), don't flip it; 
leave it alone. Make sure you get all the tracks
6. With CD-Copy 1.x, you 
had to select 'One track' or 'Multiple tracks' when saving; you don't 
have to worry about that anymore with CD-Copy 2.0b. Before saving, I 
usually make a new folder to put all the tracks in. Save the tracks into 
the new folder
7. Don't mosh around while your tracks are being read. In 
other words, make sure the CD reader isn't jarred while reading the 
tracks :)
8. When all the tracks are done being copied, check for any 
errors that CD-Copy might have spit out. If everything looks fine, quit 
out of the program and your game will be ejected automatically also
9.
 Check in the folder with the tracks. Make sure that all the tracks are 
there and that you have one data track that looks like a piece of paper 
with a mini CD on it and the word ISO in a block. The audio tracks will 
look like pieces of paper as their icons. You can also check that the 
folder size is roughly the same size in megs as the game
10. You are 
completely done with the CD-Copy part

Making sure everything is working efficiently:
1. I don't want to go through all the networking situations 
and RAM conflicts and so forth so it's best to just start up your 
CD-burner now and restart your Mac with only the extensions it needs to 
burn the CDR
2. Try not to daisy chain your CD-burner if possible 




PART TWO

ADAPTEC TOAST 3.5
1. If you have Toast 3.5, we're on the same 
page. If not, try to get a hold of it, otherwise I can't guarantee these 
steps that you should take. If you have 3.5, just follow these 
instructions and you're on your way to making as many backups as you 
want
2. Start up Toast
3. Stick in your CDR material to be burned
3a.
 Although I've never had any problems with any of my CDR material, I'll 
just say what everybody else says and say this, "Don't use cheap CDR 
material." (Whatever)
4. Don't worry about the burning format since Toast 
will choose "Disc Image" for you anyway. But if you're still paranoid, 
you can choose ISO 9660 for the format in the Format menu (I know I do 
sometimes :) )
5. Open up the folder with all the tracks. Drag and drop 
the data track image/icon onto the Toast window. Notice that the 
description of the window is "Disc Image" and it gives information on 
how many megs the track is. If you don't have audio tracks, skip to step 
9. Otherwise, keep going
6. If you have audio tracks, go to the Format 
menu and select 'Audio tracks' at the bottom of the menu. The Toast 
window will scroll to the right and will now include a button for audio
7. Drag and drop all of the audio track images/icons onto the Toast 
window. Notice that Toast will give you information on how many audio 
tracks there are and how long all of them are
8. Click on the 'Audio' 
button to open up the audio window. Make sure all the audio tracks are 
in order. If they are not in order, drag and drop them into order. Once 
done, click 'Done'
9. Now we have our data set, and our audio set and we 
can rest easy that all of _our_ work is done. It's now up to the CD 
burner
10. Click 'Write CD...'
11. Since I have no idea how fast your 
computer is, set the write speed to whatever you want with the knowledge 
that the faster you write the more problems and skips you may have. For 
the first burn, maybe want to set the write speed to 1x (especially if 
your hard drive is fragmented). This is just so you don't set it to 4x 
or 6x, and then when your CD burner chokes and messes up your backup you 
don't think I gave you bogus instructions. I assure you that I've done 
dozens of backups this way and ALL of them have worked
12. Click 'Write 
disc...' and then, again, no moshing. And a rule that I follow, rather 
paranoidally, is don't use the blender, don't use your hairdryer, etc, 
etc, because you don't want any power surges
13. When the copying is 
done, a window will prompt you that your CD is done and gives you an 
Eject button. Eject the disc and you're all finished


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This is as detailed as I can get. I mean, some of the names may be 
wrong, like if I wrote that a menu says "Audio tracks..." but all it 
really says is "Audio", but it's the same thing; use common sense when 
descrepancies arise. Legalese: This information is to be used for backup 
purposes only. You are not to use this information to make copies of 
games you do not own.