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I have a copy of a very old and obscure software CD (circa 2004). The disc uses SafeDisc copy protection and needs to be in the CD tray for the program to run.

I have been using the original CD under Wine on Linux without a hitch for years. However, a few weeks ago, the CD became damaged and is no longer viable.

Fortunately, I do have an ISO backup of the CD created with Alcohol 120%, meaning it contains all the protection data needed by the program to verify the CD. In Windows, all I have to do is mount the ISO with a disc emulator such as Alcohol 120% or MagicISO and the program runs flawlessly.

Is there a similar way to mount the ISO under Linux or directly under Wine with copy protection emulation such that the SafeDisc data is accessible? I have tried the native GUI mount methods in Wine as well as the Linux mount utility (mount -o loop src.iso /media/cdrom), etc. etc, but none of these methods emulate SafeDisc copy protection.

I should note that I have received permission from the publisher to circumvent the SafeDisc DRM to run it on Linux as long as I don't disclose that I am doing so. They also no longer make the software or have any old CDs in their inventory.

user339676
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  • i remember safedisc. that was a long time ago - it was a big deal when i was working at DVDXCopy. We had this thing - GamesXCopy - and it could crack it. You could do it without the CD. I thought Alcohol could too, though? Anyway, the forums we used... dark lair or something? a moment... nope - way off. [afterdawn.com](http://www.afterdawn.com/search/search_results.cfm?cx=007976064430744583596%3Aiixdheoudzk&cof=FORID%3A11&q=safedisc). and they're still around. that link looks promising. – mikeserv Jan 01 '16 at 10:45
  • Have you tried to burn a physical copy with Alcohol 120% or MagicISO and tried that? – Hvisage Jan 24 '16 at 21:25

1 Answers1

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You can use CDemu to read Alcohol 120% .mds images and the like, and will work with most CD copy protection formats. There's a "Bad sector emulation" option you may have to tick in the gcdemu GUI before loading the image.

It's not in Debian GNU/Linux, but it's quite easy to build packages (and the commands to do so are documented). http://cdemu.sourceforge.net/

boltronics
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