How To Make A Maxi Image?

[glenbo]

i keep seeing them popping up,they are called maxi images,they are a super compressed version of the original game...like 4gb compressed to 122kb and you mount the rar file,and the game starts...works with battlefront 2 and others.

i think this would be the ideal way of getting tiger woods 2006 to work without a disc,by compressing teh courses disc like this.

dont get me wrong,maxis are blank clones,so it is not like i am downloading a full image of a game.

just a blank version of it.

but while im on the subjext,if it is that easy to compress 4gb to 122kb,imagine the prospects..you could do this to your entire game collection,and put them all on to one dvd if it is possible to do it with real games and not just blank clones.

[ASSCAPPER]

let us know when you find more info,i'm noob, i need to know more...more...mooooorrreee......,what the hell's happening to me?:o

[DABhand]

There is a utility that will remove data and convert to 0's but im buggered if I can remember its name :P

[glenbo]

shame tho,imagine if you could compress all your games to a couple of kb lol,would be amazing.

[ILLUMINATOR23]

I only know how to craete a "Mini Image" ...with MiniImaeRipper

But youre talking abou a max Image...sure

MiniImages are not working with Securom, only Safedisc...
But Maxi Images are universal..

Would be very nice if somebody can give us a tip how to create Maxi Images

[Muji-FightR]

well, mini images are made by doing a normal / real image and filling the image with zero data...
SD and SecuRom look for the files, they can find them, but they will not (not yet !!) look what the file looks like/what it contains...
so they find teh files which are just dummys...
the only problem is making the data in the image to zero data...
that's the point where i suddenly got stuck :P

[caki]

Hmm, Maxis might trick the new Civ4 checks. Anyone have any infos on how 2 create one? I will expiriment a bit once I come home.

[caki]

I am at school now, on a ****ing linux so I cant test this. However, am I missing something, or do you have to unrar this?? If so, it will be 4 gigs. But here's and idea... Use Windows compression on it and windows might compress it back, and you will still be able to use the image. I do it for all my images. Ill try it when I get home :)

Its funny, I was working on this same concept, but it looks like BLeH beat me to it :P.

[Qui]

Please tell us, if u found a way to make a Maxi-Image...

Need one for Heroes of the Pacific and Conflict Global Storm :D

[caki]

Hehe guys, just made a mini image using the maxi method, but this is even better ;)

I compressed the file with Windows Compression

Before: 770 MB
After: 1.19 MB


Hehe, here is the mini image for Civ4 that I just made:
removed until i figure out wtf is going on

You will need SD4Hide by skull to use it.
REMEMBER TO COMPRESS WITH WINDOWS TO GET A MINI IMAGE EFFECT!!
Enjoy ;)

Anyone interested in a tut??

EDIT Not a good mini image. Workiing on another. Please be patient...

[Big J Money]

What is SD4Hide, and is there a way to get it other than BitTorrent? I was never able to get that thing working.

[Edit: Nevermind, I found it a lot closer to "home" than I even realized. Or at least, I think this is it.]

=$=

[caki]

SD4Hide:

http://rapidshare.de/files/7156175/sd4hide-skl.rar.html


It hides daemontools from cd protections.

Its very stable and very good to use.

Post No. 300 yay. Hopefully its useful :P

[Qui]

@rendari

Yeah, a Turtorial would be very interesting...

please post it :D (want to make my own mini/maxi Images) :D

[caki]

Never mind. I am having the same problems as DABHand had with his mini image. Works on some computers, but not on others...

Wtf??

Ignore the mini image for now...

[Big J Money]

I can't seem to get this mini image to work. I've downloaded DAEMON and I've mounted the file, but I'm still getting the "Please Insert CD..." error. Now I decided to use sd4hide, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Am I supposed to do something to make Civ IV think my CD drive is a different one? Am I supposed to be running SD4hide with command like arguments? Are there DAEMON settings I am supposed to play with?

Ugh...thanks

=$=

[leezer3]

Never mind. I am having the same problems as DABHand had with his mini image. Works on some computers, but not on others...

Wtf??

Ignore the mini image for now...

Hiya,
Dunno if you saw Dab's post on the subject, but the prob with him was that the full install still left some files to be run from the CD. Mebbe Civ4 is looking for summat of this nature?

-Leezer-

[caki]

Not true since you can take out the CD in the middle of the game and it works. I figured out whats wrong, now all i need is a hex editor that doesnt crash when I load a 700MB file :P

[pc84]

so nobody know how to make a maxi image ?
damn :(

[glenbo]

lol,i think we have drifted 17 posts off topic :P

[varkey]

can somebody tell me how to create a maxi image and compress it??

[sylvio]

A lame question: how to be use WINDOWS COMPRESSION?
When I has mouse right-click I can select COMPRESS AND E-MAIL or
COMPRESS TO RAR or a part of SEND..COMPRESSED...
And in PROPERTIES also nothing about Compression.

[caki]

How about advanced in general properties?

[Farshid420]

How about advanced in general properties?

I might be completely missing your point, but I already have "compress contents to save disk space" on all my drives, and when I check individual files, it's all checked off, so what am I doing wrong? Are there any steps I'm missing? Is there any way anyone can give us who are lost a step by step? Any help would be greatly appreciated :confused:

[ShizoFraen]

How and where is Windows Compression. plz a step by step tut.

[Grumpy]

@ShizoFraen
Right click the particular file you want to compress,
Choose 'Properties' from the menu.
Then click the 'Advanced' button
Then tick 'Compress contents to save disc space'
Click 'OK'
Then 'Apply'

[Farshid420]

Grumpy, maybe I'm missing something, but nothing happens when I do that... "Size on disk" only goes down by about 15 megs... still got a huge mdf file here :/

[Muji-FightR]

Compressiion rate always depends on the stuff you want to compress, images often cant be compressed by 50%, so the megs you might save can be only around 15... :confused:
btw, Windows just compresses if the file is used very rare, if its frequently used, Windose wont compress it as it would take too much time to decompress everytime you use it again

[Farshid420]

Ok, so here's my question again: How do you make a Maxi MINI image, like the ones on GCW, that are a few hundred kb at most, yet can be used in place of an original image to play a game without the original CD? Please try to be as detailed as possible :)

[pc84]

This is what i do to make a maxi-image :

I open a mdf file with Winhex,and i click on edit/fill the file,make sure there is 00 in the box and click on OK button.Wait during operation and save the file.

BUT when i do that,when i mount the image,Windows say me that the disc is unreadable ! :eek:

I've missed something ?

[Diranar]

I want to know thsi too, there must be a trick or some Data that HAS to be on DIsc, maybe if you let the first 150KB untouched?

[ShizoFraen]

Can somebody make a Tutorial, plz
How about a tut, how to make a mini image with a hexeditor

[BarryB]

Windows Compression is probably referring to the built in compression for the NTFS files system in Windows XP/2K/2K3, so you can only use this if you have XP/2K/2K3 and an NTFS partition!

This allows you to compress a single file, many files, a folder/s or a whole drive! I believe that files are still uncompressed (but in memory) so you don't need any extra HD space as it just reads part of the file to memory when needed, ideal for those GigaByte sized images!

[caki]

Very Ideal for maxi images ;)

[ShizoFraen]

Yeah i've got WinXP with a NTFS Drive but it still doesnt compress it that extreme

[markl187ld]

1: Create an image in alcohol, with DPM set to high and using the Securom Profile

2: Open WinHex and create a blank file the exact same size (in bytes) as the .MDF file Alcohol has just created.

3: Save this blank file with the same filename as the .MDF file Alcohol made, then overwrite the Alcohol image with this blank one.

4: Use windows compression to compress the file.

5: Mount in Daemon Tools and play the game. If you're using Daemon Tools 3 you'll need to use a virtul drive hider such and SR7.Stop.

Thats it. If you don't understand what a hex editor is or any of the above instructions. Tough.

[Farshid420]

Those were some great instructions, thank you markl187ld! :)

I was just wondering, will this work for any of the high end security measures, like SF and SD, as well as SR?

[dede]

:eek: Hi friends, can someone plz explain to me what they have for an sens to create this sorte of image? if i need to use (as exemple) 4 gig's of hard drive space to mount this image and play the game i can immediatly use the full image created by my own with original DVD and dont need to write corupted datas on my hard drive with a maxi image LOL !!!!!
they are only an interest for user they have a pirated software and they can not make her own image, so theyre can eazy download 2 megs and extract 4 gig's to play !!! non sens shiot :D that is in contradiction with GCW's rules.:p

[Farshid420]

Right, cause those of us who have the games want to keep a 5 gig image on our HDs, per game that we have... nice call boss... :rolleyes:

[markl187ld]

:eek: Hi friends, can someone plz explain to me what they have for an sens to create this sorte of image? if i need to use (as exemple) 4 gig's of hard drive space to mount this image and play the game i can immediatly use the full image created by my own with original DVD and dont need to write corupted datas on my hard drive with a maxi image LOL !!!!!
they are only an interest for user they have a pirated software and they can not make her own image, so theyre can eazy download 2 megs and extract 4 gig's to play !!! non sens shiot :D that is in contradiction with GCW's rules.:p
Um yeah..

Use windows file compression on the files then they'll only be around 100kb.

You could use your disk space to store a full image.. Or, you could use it to store (a potential) 300,000 maxi images, It's up to you.

[markl187ld]

Those were some great instructions, thank you markl187ld! :)

I was just wondering, will this work for any of the high end security measures, like SF and SD, as well as SR?
AFAIK it only works for Securom. :(

[Farshid420]

AFAIK it only works for Securom. :(

Ok, no worries, still good to know! hehe ;) And I'll try it out with the others, and let you know what I find! :)

[ShizoFraen]

Stupid Question, how do i look up the exact file size in bytes ?

[Farshid420]

Right click the image file, Properties, and it should be there :)

[ShizoFraen]

1: Create an image in alcohol, with DPM set to high and using the Securom Profile

2: Open WinHex and create a blank file the exact same size (in bytes) as the .MDF file Alcohol has just created.

3: Save this blank file with the same filename as the .MDF file Alcohol made, then overwrite the Alcohol image with this blank one.

4: Use windows compression to compress the file.

5: Mount in Daemon Tools and play the game. If you're using Daemon Tools 3 you'll need to use a virtul drive hider such and SR7.Stop.

Thats it. If you don't understand what a hex editor is or any of the above instructions. Tough.

sry mate, doesn't work for me.

[caki]

AFAIK it only works for Securom. :(
Works for SD also... :)

Same concept, different method ;)

[Baron]

So i presume that by copying the image in AH120 and creating a blank file the same bytesize, youre "fooling" the game by inserting the created mini or Maxi-disk which has a "dummy" TOC (table of contents) MDS File???

I'm a total noob at this game???

[caki]

Yep, thats what you are doing.

[sylvio]

Okey okey.. I uses Total Commander, I unpacked the MaxiMI make the
WCompression, but in TC I was cannot see the RIGHT Compressed LENGTH
and (thah' very important) HDD Free LENGTH!! It was the TC's bug or not?

Anyway some days ago I write a method for that know programming a little.
How can make a MaxiMini-Image conception:
- Read the CloneImage .MDF and the file-structure/sub-dir's files
Also get/read the offsets for ALL the files (Start/End/Length in bytes what
that need)
- Get the file offsets in the MDF and put/fill Hex 00 TO ALL FILES at the
beginning (offsetStart) to the offsetEnd, this can be make FILE AFTER FILE

If anybody makes a Win32 Execute with this method it can creates the
MaxiMini-Image from the right CloneImage

[ShizoFraen]

I wanted to know:
For Safedisc 4.6 you have to keep the last 200kb of the Original Image and insert them into the maxi image. could someone tell me how i can do this in winhex ?

[caki]

Just don't erase the last 200kb. Remember to keep the first part of the DVD intact too.

[ShizoFraen]

I wanted to know how to make a Safedisc Maxi Image. What exactly do i have to do ? I thought i have to copy the last 200kb out of the Original Image and Paste it in to the Maxi Image, but it didn't work for me. plz tell me howto.
(i tried it with The Movies)

[Joe Forster/STA]

Don't copy & paste from the full image into another image; instead, fill most parts of the full image with zeros and you'll get the maxi image!

[ShizoFraen]

but how do i know what to zero out.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Trial and error. Keep the first and last Megabyte of the image and, if that works, you can make a backup and continue shrinking these to a few hundred kilobytes.

[ShizoFraen]

But were talking about SD 4.6 CD's or not. I would like to know how to make a maxi image of SD 4.6 DVD's

[Joe Forster/STA]

If you're talking about the problem of the copy protection checking areas scatterred all over the CD/DVD, not only at the beginning and the end... well, there's obviously no automatic method for finding those parts. (Perhaps, Bus Hound could help?!) To keep your sanity, you might wanna make a full image instead.

[alban]

What are the right Settings for Bushound? I ve made a scan with CDB and Hexdata only. What I got was a really Huge list of Sectors to be scanned.
Do I have to keep all that sectors in the Image File? That would be very much work... Or have i done something wrong?



Data - Hex dump of the data transferred


Data
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
00 00 00 00 00 00
12 00 00 00 38 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
28 00 00 00 01 1e 00 00 02 00
28 00 00 00 01 20 00 00 20 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
5a 08 2a 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
5a 08 2a 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
ad 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
28 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 01 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
5a 08 2a 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
51 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
ad 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00
28 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 50 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 51 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 52 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 53 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 54 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 55 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 56 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 57 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 58 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 59 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 5a 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 5b 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 5c 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 5d 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 00 01 5e 00 00 01 00

CUT--------------------------


28 00 00 07 de ef 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 0a e1 ad 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 10 75 30 00 00 01 00
28 00 00 10 f6 6b 00 00 01 00
00 00 00 00 00 00
28 00 00 15 9b 97 00 00 01 00
00 00 00 00 00 00


This is for Quake 4 DVD (SD 4.6)

alban

[caki]

Like Joe said, for the Safedisc DVD's just keep the first megabyte and the last megabyte there, 00 everything else. For safedisc CD's, just look for patterns that if erased give you an invalid image. Then, keep those patterns in the final image, and its all good. Unforuneatley, I find the DVD maxi images to be more useful because when they are compressed by windows compression, they are around 2 MB, while safedisc CD's can range from 5MB-50MB:eek:

[alban]

Ok. Thanks for your Help.
I try now to make an Maxi-Image for the CD-Version of NFS MW.
I got it so far that it is about 150 Megs compressed (and game starts).
I logged with Bushound that the last sector is 272805 (641637360 bytes in image) which is checked.
But the image is 811534080 bytes large.
So my problem is if i fill the last 150 Megs the image isnt mounted anymore!
How can I solve this Problem?

//edit: Using Trial and Error and Ultraiso i shrinked it to 12,5MB
Here have a look at it and if you want you can upload it to GCW
http://rapidshare.de/files/9966366/NFS_MW_maxi-alban.RAR.html (8MB)

//edit2: I have just created a Maxi Image for Quake 4. 336 KB. Thanks for your support!!
alban

[caki]

Heh yeah, trial and error. How long did it take you, out of curiosity??

[alban]

Oh, the Trial and Error period went about 2 hours until i took Ultrasio where is written at which sector a file starts and when it ends so that i could delete all files which are not read when a cd is insert like the cab files of direct x.

All in all i would say it took about 3 hours...

alban

[caki]

Weeeee, twice as fast as me lol