How to Copy Data from CDs

Warning!

It is illegal and unethical to duplicate copyrighted CDs (unless you happen to be the copyright holder). Adaptec products are not intended for this purpose, and we discourage any Adaptec customer from doing so. Adaptec takes no responsibility for any illegal use of this product by our customers.

See Basics of Copyright Law

Two Methods

There are two methods for copying data from CD to recordable disc:

• Copy a track directly from a disc in a CD-ROM drive or a second CD recorder to a recordable disc in your primary CD recorder.
• Copy a track from a disc in your CD recorder to hard disk, using the Read function.This track can then be written to recordable CD using either the "File" option in the Write Source dialog box (for single audio tracks or ISO 9660 images), or through the Cue Sheet function (for audio or mixed-mode discs).

Which method you can use will depend on the capabilities of your system, as explained below.

Disc-to-Disc Copying

Source Formats and Devices

• Any ISO 9660 Mode 1 track can be copied.
• Copying CD-DA audio is supported only when you use as your source drive a CD recorder which supports reading audio tracks in digital format.

With MM

If Mode 1 is set in the CD-Image menu, the Write Source dialog box will show only devices containing Mode 1 data.

• If Mode 2 is set in the CD-Image menu, the Write Source dialog box will show only devices containing Mode 2 data.
• Macintosh HFS CD-ROMs can be copied using the "SCSI Device" option in the Write Source dialog box.

Device Speeds

Whether you can copy data directly from CD to CD also depends on the relative speeds of your CD-ROM drive and CD recorder. In most cases you will have to write at 1x speed. Always Test first to see whether adequate throughput can be sustained.

If your source device is not fast enough to support the throughput required by your CD recorder, you must first copy the track and save it as a file on hard disk (see the section below on the Read function).

Procedure

1. Click on the Toolbar or select Write from the CD- Recorder menu. The Write Source dialog box appears.
2. Select "SCSI Device;" you see a list of all the SCSI devices connected to your computer. The numbers in parentheses represent:
   • the SCSI interface card ID number.
   • the SCSI device ID number.
   • the SCSI device Logical Unit Number (LUN).
3. Select the source to write from. A dialog box opens.The name of the source device and the name (if any) of the source CD are reported.
   
   If the source is an ISO 9660 image, the program will recognize it, and the starting address and length should be given correctly. Click OK.
4. The Write dialog box opens.
5. The Mode should be set correctly by default; if not, correct it.
6. Select the "1x" writing speed.
7. If you wish after writing to verify that the data has been correctly copied, select "Verify Data."
8. Click on Test.
9. In the succeeding dialog box, click on Start to begin the test.
10. If the Test is successfully completed, proceed with writing by clicking on Write. Again, you will see a dialog box with a Start button to click.

Please ensure that you are not violating international law by copying material which is under someone else's copyright.

The Read Function

Read from the CD-Recorder menu

Keys: ALT + R, R

The Read function can be used to copy entire Mode 1, Mode 2, and audio CD tracks to hard disk from your CD recorder. However, the types of tracks you can read (and the appearance of the Read dialog box) depend on your CD recorder. (For each recorder, the Read dialog box looks almost exactly like the Medium Info dialog box, and provides the same information about the disc in the CD recorder; the only difference is the addition of the Copy Track button.)

1. In the Table of Contents area, select the track you want to copy to hard disk. Click on Copy Track.
2. A dialog box appears proposing the starting address and length (in blocks) of the highlighted track. These can be changed if necessary, but generally you should accept the defaults given to copy the entire track correctly. Click on OK.
3. The Save to… dialog box appears, in which you may specify the path and name in which to save the track being copied. If there is not enough space on the target drive to save the track, you will be warned and nothing will be copied.
4. Message: "Last Two Blocks Stripped…"

If the track you are copying is from a multisession disc, at the end of reading you will see the message

Last two blocks stripped (Orange Book link).

This is because a multisession track is always followed by two run-out blocks. These are included in the count of the total size (in blocks) of the track, but they do not contain data and cannot be read back. This message appears to alert you just in case you notice that you copied two blocks fewer than were reported in the read length dialog box, but don't panic—you have not lost any data!