DPM of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

[shawman]

Ok first post...

I realize this thread has been going on for awhile but there still seems to be a few unclear things to me. I own a legally purchased copy of SCCT with the case and all just clear up any questions about that! It is my intent to create a no-cd crack like the rest of you, however, it seems like everyone's solutions require you to burn the image to a cd...defeating my purpose. Now I don't know everything about this topic but I am learning quickly.

First off I am using the US version of the game and I already have it loaded on my computer so I can still play while trying to figure this out. My first step was to use ALC120% to create a MDF/MDS of the game. I set DPM count to high and my CD/DVD burning drive only reads at 1x so I think thats ok. I did read in the help file though that setting DPM count to normal creates a better image.

Second I used SFNightmarre to disable my cd drive and node. Now I don't know if I should disable anything else. I've read the english read-me file but I don't know what each little enable/disable function corresponds to (except ATA which obviously was a bad choice ). When I do that it successfully disables my CD drive like intended.

Third (and this is where I have trouble)...I used DAEMON Tools to create a virtual drive and mounted my MDS file on it. The first part of the game loads just like it would from the CD but then while checking the CD it brings up the following error: "The Disc Key you entered does not correspond to the disc in the drive. Make sure you use the correct Disc Key." I've seen this error earlier on in the forums but why does it come up?? When I check for information on the error is brings up the error code and the Disc Key that I entered when I first loaded/patched the game. I thought it might have to with the fact that I have a program file of the game on my HD but I don't see how that would affect the error. And if the MDF/MDS is a true 1:1 copy of the cd why doesn't it ever ask me to input my cd key (or does ALC120% build that step into its imaging)? I've tried many ways of mounting the image on different virtual drives including using the one in ALC120% itself but no success. I have also set virtual drives in ALC120% to 0 so that I only had one operational "virtual" drive coming from DAEMON tools and vice versa.

On another note I read earlier in the forums as well that you should create and MDF/MDS file of the game without any DPM count but when I do this and mount it as in steps 2/3 it comes up with an error like "please place the cd in another drive"...or something to that effect. Since I'm not exactly sure what DPM count is I don't know why this error would come up. So in addition to all my other questions why are virtual drives blocked by SF3 and how does it determine that they are virtual? What prevents you from mounting the image directly to the actual installed CD drive on your computer?

Yea its long but I think that about covers everything!!