DiscGuard DiscGuard is quite a good protection
being very effective against piracy and the piracy industry. When first
released it was the best CD-Copy Protection released, but now we have even more
difficult protections to get around (one being SafeDisk 2). DiscGuard was developed
by TTR Technologies Inc. The protection works in three ways: The DiscGuard
protection is applied, which encrypts .exe files, and allows a valid
signature to be detected. The applications and signatures are then
pre-mastered. An authorized mastering plant then creates the glass master
which contains the signatures from the pre-master, and begins replication.
When the DiscGuard verification software detects that the application is
being run from a counterfeit copy CD, a demo version of the application or
other alternate program can be run at the software developer's choice. A
major problem for legitimate owners who purchased an original game was that
some CD-Rom's refused to run the original CD containing the DiscGuard
protection such as Colin McRae Rally, so Codemaster's had to release a patch
that removes the protection! For more information on how the DiscGuard protection
was developed please visit the DiscGuard
website.
Detection Of The Protection
The following files should exist on the
original CD or in the games installed directory on your computer:
IOSLINK.VXD
IOSLINK.SYS
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:
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 (ProtectCD)
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 (ProtectCD) 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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