Jeeezzzzeee I feel like an A-1 ignoramous. It looks as if the solution to my problem is to:
CLEAN THE FREAKING DISK
I went back to DMC2 disk1 that had the infamous "common:28 sense:03 ASC:11 ASCQ:05" error and noticed a big ol thumbprint on it. Once cleaned, the error went away,,,duh!
Now for another question. I was originally trying to create a global image (.img) file and then burn back according to procedures outlined in the above sticky, however, in frustration with all of my errors I tried to use the wizard function on RecordNow Max 4.5 to make an exact copy. This worked with no errors during record and burn process. My question is: has anobody tried this method and does it work for them? I do not have a modchip yet so I cannot verify the disk I burnt. (didn't want to invest in Modchip until I knew I could back up my games)