Ripping protected content...

[BowlofRice]

I'm sorry if this has already been addressed, in fact I'm reasonably sure it has been. However a search of the word "Rip" hasnt yielded any useful information so I hope you'll spare me your forumy wrath...

Anyway, my question is refers to people sugesting that in stead of using mini images or fixed exes, that people should rip their cds. I used to do exactly that and I'd love to continue to do that. However, nowadays my cd ripping tool of choice (CDRWin) is rarely able to rip CDs for reasons I assume involve gaming companies being evil. Occationally with modern CDs I can rip it, but the image will be useless. But more often then not, nowadays it's just completely worthless and cant even read the CD. How would I go about ripping say... the Sims 2, Open for Business? I used to use alcohol 120% but it didnt seem to have any better luck and it also damaged my USB ports (anyone else remember that bug?). I hear they fixed the USB thing, would getting and using alcohol 120% solve my problem?

Thank you in advance.