PSX/PS2 dumping advice

[HwitVlf]

I have a few hundred PSX and PS2 games and I'd like to dump them for this site little by little as I have time.
I'm wondering if the dumping procedure in the 'Guide' section is still up to date and accurate. I'll only be dumping disks with a single data track for now until I get the hang of it.

[huygens]

Welcome! I still use the methods described in the guide. Just be sure to dump the track twice prefererably on two different drives.

A couple notes if and when you dump audio track games:
Drive choice is important. Look around the forum and you'll see various recomendations. See this thread (post 10) for my recomendations.

EAC cannot determine pregap on single audio-track games so you have to find the gap manually. For instance if you follow the guide and go back 150 sectors and find scrambled data, the game has a 2 second gap. If you had to go back 300 sectors to find scrambled data it's a 4 second gap, etc. You'd then generate the appropriate length padding file full of zeros, copy it onto the beginning of the extracted audio track, and delete that number of sectors from the data track. (Only for games with a single audio track!)

PM me if you have any questions along the way

[HwitVlf]

Ok, I'm finding the guide a little obscure in places. Namely, it says "If the disc only contains a data track, you are ready to check the image for errors, head on to the step called 'Checking and repairing the data track", but there doesn't seem to be a section called 'Checking and repairing the data track'.

Anyways, here are the steps I think I need to do:

On a PSX CD with only one data track:
  1. Use ISOBuster and right-click on Track 01> Extract Track 01 > Extract RAW Data (2352 bytes/block) (*.bin, *.iso)
  2. Run Psxt001z on the dumped Track 01.bin using the command-  psxt001z.exe --fix "Track 01.bin"
  3. Run HashCalc on the dumped Track 01.bin and record the MD5, SHA1, and CRC32 values
  4. Repeat using a different CD drive and verify that results are identical
   
Do I need to do any further procedures or checks? What information from these procedures should I include for a database submission? The "Mandatory" info listed in the dumping guide is only part of what is listed in the actual game entries. So the mandatory info would be:

Nectaris: Military Madness
   Serial: SLUS-00764
   Edition: Original
   EXE Date: 1998-10-21
   Size: Bytes 485184672
   MD5: c141e27b08123e34b42f326106aba2e7
   SHA1: 1cbb529c1f42761d8b78d18770cd09fb4d5f01d6
   CRC32: 40ec65af
   Region: NTSC
   Languages: English

But should I include additional information from psxt001z like the following?:
  Sectors 206286
  Mode: 2
  EDC in Form 2 Sectors: Yes
  System Area: US EDC
  Postgap type: Form 2, zero subheader, zero data, EDC

Should I include other information which seems to be included in database entries like Pregap, Length, Anti-modchip, and LibCrypt? If so, how do I find out this info (for single data track PSX CDs)?

[Haldrie]

Pregap: only needed for games with audio tracks and taken from the cuesheet that you are expected to post for games with audio tracks
Length: calculated by the database using the size of the track (so you don't need to post this yourself as you are already posting the track length)
Anti-modchip: I'm not exactly sure how to determine this other then trying to run a burned disc on a modded PSX that doesn't have a stealth mod chip
LibCrypt: you can use the libcryptdrvfast command to scan for this (psxt001z --libcryptdrvfast D; where D is the drive letter where the PSX disc is located), simply post the info from the sectors.log file that is created when running that command

Also be sure that the size of the track is the Size and not Size on disk in the file properties in Windows (if you are using the file properties to check the size that is).

[iR0b0t]

EDC in Form 2 Sectors: Yes
needed for 'all' psx dumps

Mode: 2
is't always mode2 for psx and ps2 cds, so its your choice to post it ,)

Sectors 206286
not needed, it will be calculated from track size you give in bytes

For Anti-modchip use:
- original modded hardware with a NONE stealth modchip
or
- an emulator, and boot it with a 'wrong' bios

[HwitVlf]

Ok great. That gives me enough information to get started. Thanks.

[r09]

- an emulator, and boot it with a 'wrong' bios

More specifically you should use pSX, because ePSXe apparently ignores the region of the BIOS and the game always boots.

This reminds me that I should check my old PSX dumps for anti-mod protection...

[HwitVlf]

Ok, that's good to know. I was using ePSXe so I guess I need to change my posted dump info. 

When playing some anti-mod chip games on a non-stealth modded console, it was possible to bypass the modchip check and resulting lockout by pushing the 'start' button continuously- thus skipping directly to the main menu. It should behave the same way on an emulator so it's probably important to not press any buttons until the game gets into its intro?

How long I should test play to verify; do anti-mod chip PSX games always lock out before the title menu?

One other question: on a couple of my dumps for games that already had one dumper in the database, I got an EXE date that was one day different than the previous dumper. I'm guessing that it's being caused by a system setting difference and not a human error. Has anyone else experienced dates that are one day off?

[iR0b0t]

How long I should test play to verify; do anti-mod chip PSX games always lock out before the title menu?

I believe it comes always(?) directly after the boot screen.

I'm guessing that it's being caused by a system setting difference and not a human error. Has anyone else experienced dates that are one day off?

It's indeed a human error,
but only when you take it from IsoBuster with default settings or from Windows explorer

You have now a chance to check it with the new psxt001z, use psxt001z.exe image.bin function

Code: Select all

psxt001z by Dremora, v0.21 beta 1

File: Track 01.bin
Size (bytes):   697459728 (OK)
Size (sectors): 296539 (OK)
EDC in Form 2 sectors: NO
ID: SCES-02622
Date: 2000-01-11
System area: Eu NoEDC

Or, use follows settings in IsoBuster

[HwitVlf]

Thanks iR0b0t I got the dates sorted out.

I have a question about DVD PS2 dumps. I'm not sure what error checking abilities the DVD format has so I don't know if one dump is enough or if I should dump 2 or 3 time to verify acuracy.  How many times should I dump a PS2 DVD game to make sure I'm getting an accurate image?