Backing up UT 2003 cd's

[vectrex]

Since the subject of this thread was suggested by Atari tech support, I figured it would be appropriate to ask here.

After purchasing UT 2003 earlier this year, I attempted to make a backup copy as I do with ALL my retail CD's. This proved impossible with the standard retail CD copiers at my disposal (Nero & Easy CD creator). After wasting a bunch of time and about 20 CD's I gave up.

Well, the time came to reinstall UT after upgrading my machine to WinXP and lo and behold....my original disc one doesn't work (fails on reading the disc). After contacting atari via web support, their reply was:


---------------------------------------------------------
It is Atari policy to only replace defective media within 90 day warranty
period. Since the game is outside the 90 day warranty period the game or any
part of it can not be replaced.

Unfortunately the game will need to be purchased again. You may want to call
around to local software stores and see if they can order it for you. You
can also try several online stores. Because it may be out of print in your
area it may be hard to track down a new copy.

Online Stores:
www.toysrus.com
http://us.atari.com/games/pc_cdrom.asp
www.ebgames.com

We recommend if you do find a new copy of the game create one back of copy
of the CD and put it way for safe keeping. That way if the CD becomes
damaged you can make yourself another copy. Be careful not to violate the
End User License Agreement
http://www.atarisupport.com/customer_service_main.php?browser=1&pageDisplay=
EULA#faq_prodissues Because you are only allowed to make one copy of the
game as long as you do not distribute that copy in any way.
---------------------------------------------------------

I contacted them via phone support and it went basically like this:

Me: : "blah, blah, blah,.....and I was wondering, since you suggested making backup copies of my game media, since you wont replace damaged media, how do I accomplish this?"

Tech: "We do suggest to make backup copies, but we cant tell you how to do that"

Me: "Ummmmm, excuse me........You wont replce the media because I should have backed it up, but you wont tell me how to do that"

<rating and raving>

......and basically the tech suggested that I search the web for ways to backup the UT 2003 CDs


So I'll start here and see if anyone has successfully backed up their UT 2003 CD's and how they did it.

Thanks folks

-Vectrex

[Zalgaddas]

Just use a standard CD burner.

Copy the CD's like you would any other game. After which install the 2225 patch so you don't need the disc in the drive anymore.

Done.

[Edit]

I didn't have to do anything special to make backups, the game won't launch natively with those discs unless you install the 2225 patch located on the support section of this site, at the top of this page.

[have_blue]

I always make backups of all my games so that what happened to you doesn't happen to me. But now that the CD is stuffed (ie, wont read) you wont be able to make a copy of it. You might be able to repair the damage with a CD repair kit.
It is possible to make full working backups of the CD's, but i've read that it's abit fiddly due to the copy protection used.
You can just make copies with Nero or something and then install the 2225 patch as stated in the post above.

[Zalgaddas]

Ah right, forgot to mention that. If the disc messed up al ready it won't copy for the same reason it won't install.