External USB Drive: The Ultimate to Circumvent all copy protections.

[kohan69]

Like many I started struggling with the work of satan - starforce.

I finally invested in an external dvd-burner and never had any problems with any protection ever since.

If the recommended workarout doesn't work, all I do is right-clcik 'safely remove hardware' and STOP on the external usb drive, or simply unplug it.

This method has never let me down, and I would greatly recommend it to anyone still struggling with copy protection.

[Joe Forster/STA]

I don't think it's this simple, otherwise 1) a lot of people would be using it and 2) copy protection developers would've, therefore, found a way to circumvent it already... I don't think that this idea will get confirmed (so that it can be added to the FAQ)!

[TippeX]

i think what he means is to have ONLY a usb external cd/dvd drive

then

1. STOP the external dvd/cd drive
2. mount the game/image in a virtual drive (presumably daemon tools or alc)
3. play the game

in essence, its the same 'method' as disabling the ide cd/dvd drives via device manager or whatever, or using sfnightmare etc..

so overall, nothing new..

[kohan69]

Originally Posted by TippeX

i think what he means is to have ONLY a usb external cd/dvd drive

then

1. STOP the external dvd/cd drive
2. mount the game/image in a virtual drive (presumably daemon tools or alc)
3. play the game

in essence, its the same 'method' as disabling the ide cd/dvd drives via device manager or whatever, or using sfnightmare etc..

so overall, nothing new..

True, but like many others I had bad luck with Internal drive disabling - every other game requited a new version of star-something or whatnot.

External drive made life much easier.

I did not see this info in any sticky, sorry if this is a repeat.

[Joe Forster/STA]

@TippeX: If there's any new (= not yet in the FAQ) useful information in this guide, please, tell me what it is and where to insert it in the FAQ. Thanks!

[TippeX]

nothing really new in that one joe, its been covered a few times in the forum, using the usb connection to an ide cd/dvd driver, allows you to disable it (ie: hotswap, or maybe hotplug.. cant remember the right term) easily, without requiring a reboot, then the protection (typically starforce) will then only run from scsi units, so dt/alc can 'fake' the protection from a good image.. think this 'trick' was closed with the later versions of starforce though, hence me saying it wasnt really 'new'

[Joe Forster/STA]

Then this trick is not supposed to work with newer games.

@kohan69: Can you list (at least, some of the newest of) the games you have successfully played from a backup with this setup?

[kohan69]

It works perfectly fine with Dark Messiah 1.02, and does not involve hotswapping or unplugging (Was TippeX referring to TOCA driver2 ?)

Method:
1. Mount Image file with DT_4.08HE_32bit , it does NOT have to be the MAXI, the poseden_MAXI image, the original (PROCYON's) image works fine. No emulation is enabled.

2. Right-clcik 'Safely-remove hardware' on the taskbar, select the external drive and click STOP.

3. Play


Before Dark Messiah, I used this method on X3: reunion (latest starforce?)

[TippeX]

erm 'safely remove hardware' is hotswapping, the concept of being able to 'stop' the usb drives is so that you can plug in another...the issue here is this 'trick' working with different copy protections, you've mentioned dark messiah and toca 2 (securom, and starforce i think), and if we have to put this 'trick' into the faq its going to get very messy very quickly as its dependant certain protections (and indeed, the versions of those protections)..

[Joe Forster/STA]

Yeah, I'm not gonna add LOOONG lists of games and/or copy protection versions into the FAQ...!

[kohan69]

I'd be happy to test any games with this method. Please list a few.

[acal3000]

I have an external usb drive and this old and long discussed method never worked for me