How do I burn a crack to CD?
 

I use CloneCD and Alcohol to copy protected games on my PC. I create an image, then burn the image to CD. This works fine. I can then install the game and copy the crack from my hard drive to get rid of CD checks etc. I want to be able to make a crack folder on the first game CD to contain my downloaded crack. How do I do this with an image file? If I copy the copied CD with Nero or something similar and add a crack folder, the game will never work. I can only get a working copy of a game if I take a 1:1 copy. Other people can do this I have seen, but how?

If you are going to use a crack then there is no need to create a 1:1 copy.

You can just copy/paste the contents of the cd to a temporary folder on your hard drive. Then add a Crack folder with the crack. You only need to make sure that you label the cd correctly, exactly the same as the original.

I have tried this before, but it only seems to work with some older games. The newer safedisc protected games seem to be the problem. It is as if the installer does some kind of CD validation check as well as the game EXE. Most of the time the installer won't run at all, and sometimes it reports missing files. I always make sure I use the same label as the original CD.

Yes in some cases the setup.exe can also be protected - this is only the case in some games. I know the Westwood series of C&C used to do it all the time. There are a few other games that implement this too, but as I said, there aren't that many.
You could always have a look around for a cracked setup.exe for these games - although these can be hard to track down.