How to make your own Mini Image.
 

I could make a beautiful little tutorial to show you all how to create your own Mini Images but there is already an excellent one to be found here. ;)

Strange.

This guy only has 2-3 bad sectors and still claims that it works?
Surprises me since Cirkutz' MIR produces 22MB large files. And 2-3 sectors are never 22MB big :confused:

well i'd say its just an example plus he would have more but we just cant see the whole screen? But he did only let it go for approximately 15 seconds? And I know from my experiences that they go for longer than that, especially at 1x like its shown there!
I was going to write my own tutorial for it but then to include images etc would mean I would have to host them etc or upload them to a host site and well hey I got a bit lazy. :p

Just an update, Ive been doing a bit of messing around with these mini images and yes it does appear that all you need is 3-5 of the bad sectors!
So what I said in the earlier post about not being able to see the rest of his screen is irrelevant. ;)

damn
there is nothing about starforce :mad:

never is lol..starforce is gonna take over eventually :(
ive tried using those cleaner programs to run games in the past..granted they work but it also hammers your drives,i had to re-flash 2 of my drives after and had to throw a dvd r/w out cos of starforce mangalling my pc.

so my advice..leave it alone,refuse to pay for games that you cant make a back up of.and maybe if the rest of the sheep in this world dont keep buying this rubbish,starforce will go bust.

one thing i noticed that might make you chuckle,were i live..6 weeks after splinter cell chaos theory was released at ful price..it had been dropped to £9.99 everywhere,so i think that maybe people are aware of the star forcerubbish..i call that good news...bad sells=price reduction..and price reduction is the only thing better than making back ups of £40 games...why buy one when you can buy 4! lol.

OK this intro how 2 make a mini image is really "scientific" but my way is better! :D
U don't need bad sectors or **** like that.
As soon as u started the imaging progress u click cancel and then yes.
U need 2 do this as fast as u can 2 keep the file small. When u mount the image and u see an empty disc, u were to fast.
This workes for every existing protection but for starforce and securom u need a good mds file.
Without daemon4 the starforce image is useless but it WOULD work. :)

wow ill try that

Hmm... I think about CD Cops, Tages, LaserLock, ProtectCD ,...
Just some thoughts :)

hey they have cut the starforce mini image tutorial. can anyone help?

i tried alcohol 1.9.5.3105 and starforce profile 1/2/3 using dpr high at 4x speed but with no success. can anyone help me? please

i also used disable node and disable cd in order to disable my drives

Are you trying to play a game ? Dont understand your strange request :confused:
Well, if you disable node, many SF3 games higher than 3.5 wont work with an image/mini image...you have to disable your ide drives physically from your comp.
btw: they fixed the mini image thingie a while ago, im not 100% sure, but 99

You can do the tutorial and I'll host the pics for you :)

so does anyone know how to make sf3 mini images? i noticed theres a suffering 2 mini image on gcw...does it work? how exactly was it made? say i wanted to make one for x3...would that be possible?

No they don't work anymore. but i can say you how to make them.

Make youself a full 100% RMPS Image with Alcohol 120%.

Then when the file is done, get yourself Magic-ISO or Ultra-Iso or any other Image Programm. Open your Alcohol Image with it.
Now select all big files which you don't need and delete them in the image.
After that, safe your new image and booom you have your mini-image.

But you can be sure that this mini.images wont work, cause this was a bug and got fixed.

But "SFCURE" works 100%. Tested on Starforce 3.6 and UFO: Aftershock.

Yes, with version 3.4.65.?? an ISO check was included (the same now with Safedisc 4.6), so no MI working anymore.

P.S.: With SF 3.7 none of the known methods (USB/Firewire, SFCure, sfcdvd) will work anymore :( (maybe still for Win98/Me, NT) ; all eyes on DT4 (DT pro)

lol which games has SF 3.7 ? I guess this SF terror will never stop, it seems they are going straight forward to version 4 ...hope daemon 4 which is gonna be released before december (my hope) will be a last resistance against that stupid virus like copy protection

In Russia Metro 2 has; the demos of King Kong and Trackmania Sunrise: Extreme (and i guess some others) also install SF 3.7

Also have a look HERE

Does Mounting an Image over a network still work with sf 3.7???
It works with GT Legends, but I'm not sure what version of sf it uses...

@ziph
Try it and you will answer your own question! ;)

I was simply wrong/misinformed :rolleyes: ; Stalin Subway has SF 3.7

Well I know it works with GT Legends...But I am unsure as to what version of sf it uses....The only Sf games I own ar GTR and GT Legends, so if either of these are sf3.7 then I guess the answer is yes...if not, then I can't really try it myself can I...;)

Scan the disc and/or game directory using both A-Ray Scanner and Protection ID (PID) to find out what protection the game uses.

ok then...GT legends uses StarForce 3.6.10.03.... GTR uses StarForce 3.4.76.00....

So my original question remains valid...

Will mounting an image over the network still work (as I have already stated that I don't have any starforce games other than GTR and GT Legends)

And Grumpy's answer also remains valid. Try it yourself and you'll see...

Shall I explain it real slow like.....

I...don't...own...any...games...that...use...starf orce...3.7...so...how...can...I... try...for...myself...

I was simply asking if anyone had tried it. Someone who owns a sf3.7 game. I don't.

If no one knows than fine.

Sheesh...ask a simple question...

@ziph
Haven't tried myself, but as in demos the drivers usually are integrated, you may try the Stalin subway demo:
e.g. http://www.stalinsubway.de/html/download.html

@ziph: Whoops, sorry then... :)

Just found THIS new guide for Securom DVD. Tried F.E.A.R. ... and it works :) 232KB compressed

Is this guide useful and informative enough to be added to our forum FAQ?

Can't judge it, yet. At least it's very easy. Will do some further testing whether that start value '500' can be used for more (most?) titles.

Exactly! It seems to be too simple and, therefore, probably not working in many (most?) cases!

Hmm.. GTA San Andreas and Serious Sam II are also working; my last DVD to test is Vietcong 2, but first i have to install and make good B5T.

Its pretty much just making a maxi image, without the hex editing. So yeah, add it to the FAQ. And add if 500 doesnt work, try 1000 etc...

For Safedisc DVDs it should be the same thing, just do end at 500-1000 sectors before the end of the DVD. Didnt try that yet, but im pretty sure that will work

Also, if you want to make a maxi image for a Safedisc and Securom CD, it would require a bit more complicated work, but with bushound it shouldnt be that hard. Anyways, maxi image from DVD is more useful IMO, and only CD maxi images should be made if there is no DVD version out for the game, or if the DVD maxi doesnt work for the CD version.

Sweet as dude....must be that time of the month:p

Sorry for being so irritable...

Vietcong 2 working, too.
Also tested motoGP 3 (CD): working, but 95MB compressed, and like caki mentioned: not so useful anyway.

@caki
Made some tests with NFSMW; 1100096 sectors, last sector that must be in image is 902160. Before that there are four single sectors and two longer ranges (+ the stuff i missed), so leaving the last 1000 sectors isn't enough, at least for this title; you need Bushound for DVD's, too. Got it to 2,2MB compressed, of course i missed some gaps but they're really not worth it.

Is it possible that this method is working for starforce 3.6 also?Can you explain how to understand which sectors are important and which can be removed from the full backup image to make maxi image.

Sorry, no, but Bushound can :) ; if you start logging at the right moment, the trial (which can only log 32 commands) is also ok for Safedisc as you principally only need the last 10 commands of the check to get the sectors.

EDIT:
@ziph
Just found, that there's a new version of sfdrvup (i guess it's 3.7, but not the very new 3.07.013): http://www.star-force.com/protection/users/

EDIT2:
@neptun
To be more precise:
Install Bushound, Reboot; Start Bushound, go to "Devices" and choose your physical/virtual drive; then go to "Settings", "Phases to capture": uncheck all but "CDB"; "Columns to display": uncheck all but "Data", now go to "Capture", start your Safedisc(DVD) game, wait 1 second (2?, half a?, yes, thats the tricky part, as i mentioned: only 32 commands can be logged with the trial), then hit run; end the game and save your log; do the hex->dez conversion

Scheme of the last commands of Safedisc(DVD) check:

-
-
-
-
- 00 04 1a 1050
- 00 04 1b 1051
- 00 04 1c 1052
- 00 04 1d 1053
- 00 04 1e 1054
a 00 04 1f 1055
- 00 00 00
- 00 00 00
- 00 00 10
- 00 00 00
b 00 ca 63 51811
d 0d 90 69 888937
c 09 90 6a 626794
f 17 34 7b 1520763
e 12 b7 6f 1226607

Gaps:
a+1 to b-1
b+1 to c-1
c+1 to d-1
d+1 to e-1
e+1 to f-1
f+1 to last sector of DVD

... pretty logical ;)

After some further tests with my friends' Securom DVD games i would now say : Yes
Chronicles of Riddick, Pro Evolution Soccer 4, Battlefront 2 and Juiced also working :)

Zulu thank you for this information.I was wondering is there any way to transform the full backup image into maxi image?Is there a tool which can cut the unneeded sectors from the full image or is it possible to mount my backup image in virtual drive and make maxi image with alcohol or blindwrite from the virtual drive.Is this gonna work?

You can use a capable (best up to 4GB or more) Hexeditor; convert (*2048) sectors to bytes, then choose the blocks/gaps and fill them with zeroes (of course that's no "cutting" or rather a fixed mini-image)
I haven't tried BW5Tweaker on a mounted image, but if it's valid... why shouldn't that work ? Otherwise with Hexeditor.