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Illegal TOC (Table Of
Contents)
This CD-Copy Protection is being used more
and more to stop the users of CD Writers from copying games, especially on
Playstation. The fake TOC works by giving false information about an original
CDs size. Each CD has a Table Of Contents (TOC) which describes the exact
size, location and a filename of of every file on the CD. When a games or
software company edits the CD they can get the CD to report that the size is
much bigger than than it actually is. Then when a CD-Copying program tries
to read the CD, the CD reports that it is way over the standard CD size of 650MB
sometimes reporting more than several Gigabytes.
Detection Of The Protection
You can simply use Windows Explorer to find out
if this protection is being used. To do this just simply right click on
your CD ROM drive letter, click properties and it will tell you the amount of
space on the CD which is more than it could hold. The CD will tell Windows
Explorer that it is holding much more than is possible. You will then
know that the CD is being protected with the Fake TOC protection.
You can use one of the many protection
detection tools from our Game Copy Protection Identifying Tools page to identify
whether the protection is being used on your
game.
Burning/Backup Solution
There are several different methods you
can use to successfully burn/backup your game, as follows:
A very simple way can be used to get round
this protection:
Use a CD-Burning program which gives you the
'Ignores Illegal TOC' option. These such programs are Nero Burning ROM, CDRWIN,
or Prassi. This will mean that when the copying programs read the Fake TOC, they
will not abort because they have been instructed to ignore the Fake TOC and
continue with the read/write process.
You
can use CloneCD to successfully burn the
game. Use ClonyXXL to scan the game,
it will then tell you what protection is being used on the game (Illegal
TOC)
and the correct settings to use in CloneCD
to successfully backup the game. You can also use Alcoholer
protection scanner and Alcohol 120%
burning software. Use Alcoholer to
scan the game, it will then tell you what protection is being used on the
game (Illegal TOC) and the correct settings to use in Alcohol
120% to successfully backup the game. BlindWrite
can also successfully burn a game with this protection on it. You can also use
Daemon
Tools to emulate the game and the protection. *Remember,
if you experience problems with burning the game at high speeds, (2 speed +)
(both the read and write process), then burn the game at lower speeds such
as 2 speed and under (both read and write process). A lot of the time
burning the game at slow speeds will solve problems of the install not
working, or the burner not bypassing the CD's protection.
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