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MDF/MDS Dumping Guide

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(WIP)

Forum discussion (Old) here.

Redump.info normally dats games in either Bin/Cue (CDs) or ISO (DVDs and BDs) formats. There are limitations to both of these though that makes them lack information needed to run PC games with certain types of copy protections. And in order to make a working dump one needs to do it in a format called MDF/MDS.

Data Position Measurement (DPM)

Protection achieved by measuring the physical location of the data itself, and by far the most common method of copy protection that requires an MDS.

Used by

Program required

Dumping Process

Note: Getting DPM can be hard for many drives. Omnidrive or Kreons are currently recommended.

  • Install (If you haven't already) Alcohol 120% and press the "Image Making Wizard"
  • Select a drive and the "SecuROM *New (4/5/7)" profile (Or just SecuROM if disc is a DVD).
  • If desirable, change the output path/name in the Reading options tab.
  • Press start and change measuring speed to 8x
  • Wait for the dump to finish.
  • Once done. Right click on the MDS in the main Alcohol 120% window and press "Properties", then "Extra Info". This will bring up the so called MDS chart of the disc used to determine whether the process was successful or not (see below).
  • Once done you should have a working MDS that you can pair either with the MDF generated now. Or an ISO created with Redumper.

Checking if gathering DPM was successful

  • Outside of SecuROM. A good MDS chart should be smooth like the picture below.

  • While a bad MDS chart has noticeable bumps along the line.

  • SecuROM meanwhile has deliberate bumps in the DPM taking the form of distinct square waves along the line. These can either be a single instance.

  • Or multiple instances depending on the disc/version

  • The DRMs resistance to these bumps varies per implementation. As a rule of thumb, SecuROM can often survive a few bumps here and there. While for most others getting the line as straight as possible is necessary. The only way to truly know whether it was good enough is to mount the MDS and try and launch the game.

Disc Manufacturing Information (DMI)

Discs with these DRM store data in DMI portion of a DVDs Lead-in. And while technically part of what Redumper outputs. The ISO format cannot hold this data.

Used by

Program required

Dumping Process

  • Install (If you haven't already) Alcohol 120% and press the "Image Making Wizard"
  • Select a drive and the "SafeDisc" profile.
  • If desirable, change the output path/name in the Reading options tab.
  • Wait for the dump to finish. Once done you should have a working MDS that you can pair either with the MDF generated now. Or an ISO created with Redumper.

Twin sectors

These discs store extra data used by the DRM by utilising a quirk in how both CD and DVD drives seek sectors. Unique in that it requires both an MDS and MDF (or an MDX).

Used by

Program required

  • DAEMON Tools Pro or Ultra (Not free).

Dumping Process

  • Install (If you haven't already) DAEMON Tools Pro and press "Grab"
  • Select a drive and select either MDX or MDS.
  • Optionally; change where to save the image as well
  • In the Device Tab select the "Tages" profile.
  • Press start. Once finished you should have working Twin Sector dump. Note that in this instance you cannot separate the MDS from the MDF as they will only work with each other. And they will both also be encrypted.

Content Scramble System (CSS)

These are PC games that utilize DVD-Video style CSS encryption.

Used by

Programs required

Dumping Process

General Dumping Guide

(Draft, WIP)

Dumping MDS with Alcohol 120%

For most MDS-only protections the following procedure is used:

  • Install Alcohol 120%
  • Navigate to "Image Making Wizard"
  • Select any drive
    • What works best is unknown, but our "Kreon" drives seem to work well for most
  • Insert disc
  • Select Datatype at the bottom relevant to your protection
  • Select Read Speed (This is for the MDF, and doesn't matter for most cases)
  • In "Reading Options" you can select where you want your files saved
  • When ready, click start, you may be prompted for DPM read speed, what works best is unknown but 8x seems to work well.
  • If the DPM measurement fails in log output, you can cancel the dump.
    • In this case, your drive will not work for this disc, try a different drive or swap to DT Pro for MDS dumping.
  • If the DPM measurement succeeds you can cancel the dump at this point if you'd like or let the MDF finish dumping.
    • For most protections the MDF will be identical to ISO or ISO-converted BIN.
  • To check the quality of the DPM measurement:
    • Navigate back to A120's main menu.
    • Right click your MDS in the list to the right and select properties or drag the MDS in to that space.
    • Select properties in the pop-up
    • All non-SecuROM discs, most notably StarForce, should look like this.
    • SecuROM should look similar to the above, except with a varying number of flat plateaus which look like this when zoomed in.
    • Sometimes they'll work even if they look bad, but this can be a good indicator.
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