Gauntlet Legends Help?

[DJB14336]

OK, I will apologize up front for being an idiot, so, please be gentle.

Got a rental copy for $10, but it is scratched to h*ll and back. It plays fine--even when I do the switch with my mod chip--yes I finally got one installed, so no more "knifing it"--so I assume it is not ModProtected, but not sure. I got the no solder chip from Modchip (V5)--fo $15 with shipping (it will do until I can snag a US version of the Messiah).

Anyway, I wanted to try backing it up first before I plunk $30 on a DiskDoctor and try to sand the disk down--I will get one, just tight on cash until next paycheck. I snapped off what appears to be a perfect copy with clone CD--CDRWIN Sector view shows all the same EDC's as the original--even got 0'ed out EDC's in the Mode2/Form2 sectors, just as the original shows (used version 2.8.3.1 CloneCD, it seems to work best with my DVDROM as reader, so I don't have to swap media--call me lazy). As a Double blind measure, I took the time to also rip one on CDRW with my burner as reader (LiteOn LTR-12101B, sold as Pacific Digital U-30104 12X10X32) and ran a file compare in NTI CDMAKER against the first dupe and it says they are identical, so I guess it is as good as it's gonna get.

The game starts the opening graphic, then freezes and I hear the drive spinning up and down and the head searching, like it can't read the disc. The image is about 590 MB's, so I know I may have trouble with files in the middle, but my PS2 Starfighter Backup is just as large on the same media created by the same process, and it loads and runs flawlessly, even with the CD Driver at high speed. I was curious, is it the medium? The Trainer/patch kit didn't seem to work either--ECCREGEN didn't ID any errors to regenerate after patching--I may have to actually confirm this manually in sector view when I have more time. I used JENSEN 32X 700MB 80Min CDR. Extremely highly reflective media--I've ripped VCD's at 12X on this media and they play flawlessly in my home DVD Player up to an overburn of 720 MB's. Do I need to use 650MB CDR's instead?

I don't have to get it ripped, but it's just bugging me that a tried and true combination for me has just gone belly-up all of a sudden. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks!

PS:--After it hangs, I can swap the copy for the original by normal eject, and the game continues like nothing is wrong--Really weird.