Converting CDI to NRG? or how to not use DJ?

[Ponybwoi]

I've tried many times to use diskjuggler (v 3.5) to burn a CDI. I've tweaked settings to almost every possible combination (mode1/2,TOC,etc) and I get the same result every time. I'm guessing that my CD-RW (Creative 4224) sucks, but who knows. The error I get (always after about 5% completion) is:

E-17890 9/22/01 5:34:40 PM - CREATIVE CD-RW RW4224E (E: Bus 1,ID 0): (CDB: 2a000000304400001000, Status: 040002, Sense: 037201) Session fixation error

Anyway, is there a way to convert the CDI to an NRG image so I can use Nero to burn it? I downloaded the Nero version of the Utopia boot cd, and everything worked fine (on the first try). I downloaded the CDItoNero utility, converted my CDI to an NRG, it burned w/ no problems, but does not work in the dreamcast (which is about 2 years old). There must be a way to unpack the CDI, rearrange things, and repack it in a NRG format that will work in the dreamcast.

Thanks for any ideas!
Jeff

[Wayne]

It's been suggested by one person that you can avoid those errors by burning using RAW and DAO mode.

[MajinPenis]

Yup, well thats almost true, my original problem were "illegal field in parameter" errors, which I btw fixed with RAW/DAO write. However this could very possibly fix pony's "session fixation" errors, as they appear to be caused by improper use of TAO. TAO or Track-At-Once is used to write all the sessions separately and can even be burned at different times, so it looks like TAO is trying to split up the 2 or 3 sessions on the CDI and probably leave empty session space in between thus going against the CDI's original settings and causing those errors. So my suggestion is that you do use RAW write to burn the CDI exactly as it was meant to be. If you still get some kind of errors, then I'll be glad to help out some more.

[Curt]

I had exactly the same problem with exactly the same writer, you got to get a new one mate, it just wont burn the self booting disks.

You got 3 options,

Get a mate to burn them for you,
Buy a new burner,
convert then to non-self booting games for use with the boot disk.

They will not work no matter what format you convert them to.

Hope im of any help
email me on curtis_10b********com if you need any more help

[Ponybwoi]

Thanks for the advice all .. I'll try tweaking the settings a bit more.
I dont mind having to use a boot CD to get the games to work, so can anyone point me in the direction of getting the files out of the CDI so I can repack them as an NRG file? One last thing .. I do plan to get a new cd burner at some point, as my PC is way overdue for an upgrade. I'm looking to spend $200 or $250 roughly .. any suggestions?

[sixdsix]

Depending on your motherboard, I would upgrade to a Celeron 900 flip chip for about $70, and another $70 for a 256 133mHz RAM chip...

You could get the newest Intel MB for about $130... then the chip for $70.. and the RAM for $70 and you will have a nice cheap upgrade....

Oh.. btw.. Changing Disk Juggler settings on CDI's do shit.

[Ponybwoi]

Thru my job i can get a Pentium 4 w/ a nice MB and 256MB RDRAM for like $350 .. but what is a decent, low cost CD-RW I can get? Also, I've done some searching but cant find how I can extract the stuff from the CDI, and repack it into an NRG. It doesn't matter if the cd can self boot or not. Anyone know of a tutorial I can check out?

[32_Pistoleta]

The problem is that no all writers can burn too small sessions. So when the burner finalize first session it's get an error. This is the famous problem of all the almost all new burners. So try first to burn 300 sectors for the first session (this is come when you doing self-boot game by yourself) - if you got an error again, then that's the problem i'm talking about. Just find somebody with another burner and test your image on it... sure this helps...

[sixdsix]

Go to DCcopyworld.com and download the simple exe called "cdi2nero"...