Well I'm glad I was right about the CloneCD copy working! But isn't DAL just great with all the trouble he went to?

Verbatims should be available in Germany; but Sony, Yamaha, Maxell - anything with a protective layer is good. On top quality disks, don't try to burn greater than 8x. On unbranded CD-Rs, 4x.

Backups will not hurt the PS2 in any way (but this advice is offered based on my experience and is not guaranteed!)