CD Protections using other means to "protect" the CD

- OverSize/OverBurn the CD

How it works?

Some games are over 660 Mb in size so they can't be copied ,as most of the CD-Writers are not capable of writing more than 659 Mb to a 74 minutes CD-R. With the release of the 80 Minutes CD-R this "protection" is not that effective anymore. Usually there is no real Data in the OverSized part of the CD as some CD-Readers are not capable of reading this part of the CD, it is just used to make it a bit harder to make a backup of the original CD. (About Overburn read more here).

- Illegal TOC

How it works?

This protection can be recognized when looking at the CD tracks. Usually there seems to be a second Data track (usually after some audio tracks). The CD ISO standards don't allow this thus the name Illegal TOC. In most cases the second Data track is pointing to the first Data track. The original CD usually contains 4 (or more) files of about 600 Mb each which would impossibly fit on a normal CD when first copying all files to a local harddisk. So when you look at it with Windows Explorer it will look as the CD is some GB big!

- Dummy Files

How it works ?

This protections creates Dummy Files which are pointing to random parts of the CD which are already in use by other files. When copying the CD content to harddisk and trying to burn the CD, it seems that it the CD image is much bigger than the track size(s) on the Original CD (sometimes the tracks are over 2 Gb in size!). This protection is usually found in combination with the Illegal TOC protection to create a low budget solution against CD backup. With the release of the 80 Minutes CD-R this "protection" is also not that effective anymore.

- Physical Errors

How it works?

The CD is damaged on purpose. Most CD-Readers are not able to "copy" these kind of errors and will stop reading the CD. All above protection methods can easily overcome with CloneCD but also with most Software CD-Copiers (Nero, Padus DJ).