Age of Empires 2 CD Protection. HELP!!!
 

I have an original AoE 2 CD which I want to back up and I also want to be able to play off the hard drive.

Firstly, I have found a patch for playing without the CD, but I don't know what version of AoE 2 I have (there are about 3 patches for it). How do I find out?

To back up the CD- I have found that AoE 2 uses SafeDisc v.2 for CD protection. How do I get rid of this protection? Is there a patch that does it for me, or is it more complicated than that?

First of all it doesn't use Safedisk 2. It uses Safedisk 1. So this is even easier. If you have a writer capable of RAW mode, then you can use Clone CD to copy it - check the Fast Error Skip box.

If you haven't such a writer then nyou can get a copy of UnSafedisk and "fix" the exe. Or you can download it from GCW.