Creating dual layer .iso's

[endlessflood]

How do I go about creating dual layer .iso images on the mac?

I have a dual layer DVD that I need to convert to a .iso disc image. The only option in Toast (I have 6.1.1 Titanium) is to create .toast images. I need to move this disc image to a PC so that I can apply a patch to it, so the .toast file doesn't help. There's a program called ISOlator that can convert a volume to a .iso but it doesn't seem to support dual layers (i.e. it doesn't seem to provide info about where the layer break is).

If this patch was available for the mac life would be so much easier, but it's not. Any suggestions? Or maybe there is another way to approach this?

[PS2Daddy]

a toast file is an iso
What you do is just change the .toast extension to .iso save it in toast as a data disk on a dual layered dvdr and you can transfer the image.

Or

you can just use dvddrecypter, nero, oe easy cd\dvd creator to save the image as an iso on the PC

This way you can save yourself a dual layered disk

Do you have a dual layer burner in your pc, is it in your mac, or is it external?
What exactly are you trying to do?
Are you saving your original copy of god of war and trying to patch it so it will play on your ps2?

[endlessflood]

Thanks for the reply PS2Daddy. I am trying to back up my original GT4 to a DVD+R DL using the Toxic patch. It will be used on my modded PS2.

As for where I'm at, it's such a mess you'll laugh.

I have the following gear:
-A crappy old PC with Win 98 (FAT32) and a DVD-ROM. This thing does NOT have firewire.
-An awesome Mac with Virtual PC (running Win XP (FAT32)) and an external (firewire) dual layer LaCie DVD burner.

I have these two networked so I can transfer files between them. Originally, I was going to use the real PC to rip the dual layer disk, patch the resulting ISO, and then transfer the ISO to my mac to burn it with the lacie. Unfortunately, the DVD-ROM drive in my PC seems to be cactus because DVD Decrypter kept failing to complete the rip with a "tracking servo failure". Instead, I've now ripped the disc on my mac using DVD decrypter under Virtual PC, and so have two ISO files (since FAT32 doesn't support files larger than 4GB - how wondeful) and an MDS file. So now I just patch it in virtual PC right? Wrong. The patcher won't run under virtual PC. BUT I was able to transfer the two ISOs and the MDS file to my real PC, and run the patch there.

So now I have the two ISOs and the patched MDS file ready to be burnt. But my only dual layer burner is mac only. I assume that in order to use Toast on the mac to burn my dual layer disc, I need to 'merge' (concatenate) those two ISOs BUT USING THE INFO FROM THE PATCHED MDS FILE.

Any ideas?

[PS2Daddy]

You need to see if you can convert your winxp in vcp to NTSF then yo can save your iso in the correct format then patch it in VCP It should work

Or

reformat your win 98 machine to ntsf

[endlessflood]

Jeez man, PC's suck. Win98 doesn't support NTFS, so that's a no go unfortunately.

I'll have to reformat my Virtual PC disk to NTFS, so I'll wait until I've found a PC program that can take the two ISOs and the MDS file and make a single ISO out of the lot. I don't suppose you know of any? If I can find something that will do it, I can hopefully put this whole sorry episode behind me.

With the NTFS formatted Virtual PC, I could re-rip the the disc as a single ISO. But as I said the patcher doesn't work under Virtual PC, and I wouldn't be able to transfer it to my real PC (running Win98 under FAT32) to be patched since it doesn't support files larger than 4GB. That sound you can hear is me banging my head against the wall...

If only there was a Mac version of that patcher, this whole thing would have taken about an hour from start to finish. Instead, here I am like 3 days later, still making very slow progress :)

[PS2Daddy]

Sorry man maybe you could go to a friend that has a pc and use you ext dvd-writer
Yep you have to format with win xp, 2000, or 2003 to get ntfs

[endlessflood]

I try not to mix with those sort of people :)

I refuse to admit defeat! I've reformatted my Virtual PC drive as NTFS and have ripped the disc as a single 5.3GB ISO using DVD Decrypter.

Because the patcher won't work under Virtual PC, I'm going to format my real PC in NTFS and install WinXP later tonight. Then I'll transfer the 5.3GB ISO to it, and apply the patch there.

I'm assuming the patcher will give me back just a single ISO still. If that's the case I'll be done, I'll just transfer the patched ISO back to my Mac and burn it with Toast.

Thanks for your advice PS2Daddy, I'll let you know how it goes...

[endlessflood]

OK, well after what I've been through, nobody really expected it would be that easy, did they?

When I tried to install WinXP on my real PC, I got a "blocking issue", namely that my IDE controller (the Highpoint HPT366 on an Abit BE6 motherboard) was incompatible with Windows XP, and so WinXP won't run on my computer.

The good news was that I upgraded Virtual PC from 6.1 to 7.0.2 on my Mac, and voila, the patch now runs in Virtual PC on the same damn drive image! So I created an ISO of the disc in DVD Decrypter running under Virtual PC (without an MDS file), applied the patch to it, tranferred the patched ISO to the Mac OS X side of things, and then burned it onto a Verbatim DVD+R DL using Toast 6.1.1.

Sweet, sweet victory! The backup runs perfectly on my PS2. I've tried arcade races, GT mode races, license tests, photo mode, etc. and it all works perfectly. The only drama is that the layer break seems to have changed on the backup. Whereas it was on my original at 1,622,400 (58.7%), it is now at 1,382,048 (50%) on the backup.

I'm not sure if the different placement of the layer change is due to the patch, or due to the fact that Toast isn't able to use an MDS file to figure out where to put the layer change and just selects 50% by default. Either way, the backup seems to be working perfectly after about 5 hours of testing. The load times are identical to my original, which is another thing I was worried about.

I'm going to do some more research on whether the layer placement change is normal or not. I won't be able to give GT4 a good workout for another fortnight or so, so maybe I'll post back when I'm nearly finished the game. If it works all the way through, then this Mac patch method will work for all dual layer PS2 games such as God of War and MGS3:Subsistence.

[endlessflood]

Great news: the 50/50 layer split is the result of the patch, so the method I outlined above will work for all dual layer PS2 games. PS2Daddy, could you add something like the text below to the "How to back up a PS2 disk using a mac" sticky?

What you need:
1. Virtual PC 7 for Mac (version 6 won't work)
2. Your Virtual PC file system has to be NTFS, which means you need to be running WinXP or Win2000. The FAT32 file system won't work. If you're already running WinXP under FAT32, you can convert it to NTFS without losing any data. Just do a google search for the PC instructions.
3. Toxic dual layer patcher for PC (to be run in Virtual PC)
4. DVD Decrypter 3.5.4 for PC (to be run in Virtual PC) [free]
5. Toast for Mac (tested with version 6.1.1).
6. A dual layer burner whose default book type for dual layer media is "DVD-ROM". This is most new dual layer burners, but some burners set the book type to DVD+R, which won't work.

What to do:
1. Insert your dual layer PS2 original disc into your mac with Virtual PC running.
2. Run DVD Dycrypter in Virtual PC. Go to Tools on the Menu bar, select "Settings...". Click the "ISO Read Mode" tab. Untick the box that says "Create MDS File". Click OK.
3. Click Mode on the Menu bar and select ISO - Read. Set the Destination and required file name. Finally click the large image which shows a DVD pointing to a Harddrive. The resulting ISO should be over 5GB in size.
4. Run the toxic dual layer patcher in Virtual PC, after reading the instructions that come with it. Click the "..." button, and select the ISO you created. You should get a confirmation that the patch was applied succesfully.
5. Transfer the patched ISO from Virtual PC back into the Mac OS X side of things.
6. Open Toast, select the patched ISO, and burn it to a DVD+R DL (that's DUAL LAYER) disc at 2x. Verbatim media is recommended. Test in your PS2.

Addendum: You obviously need a modded PS2 to run the backup. There are rumours that some mod chips won't read dual layer DVDs but I don't know if that's true. However, I've heard people with just about every mod chip imaginable say that dual layer backups work for them, so it's probably rubbish.

[PS2Daddy]

Glad you got it going



The patch will allow almost every chip to do the backup
Chips like magic 3.1 and older messiah 2 chips and any chip older than those wont play DVDDL unless you use the patch that is the purpose for this thing
(Dual layered originals always worked just problems with backups)

I used my wifes pc to do this with God of War a while back

I put the info in the sticky

Thanks :)

[endlessflood]

Thanks for your help PS2Daddy, it was a rocky road but we got there in the end.

It's great to know that you can do dual layer PS2 backups using nothing but a Mac - and as far as I know, this is the only place on the net to confirm that it can be done. A great resource for Mac-using PS2 owners.

As to the dual layer thing, the patch doesn't stop the backup being dual layer, it just seems to bypass the OTP vs PTP issue. Having had a good think about it, the only reason I can see that you wouldn't be able to run a dual layer backup would be if your mod chip actually couldn't even read ORIGINAL dual layer games. I can't see why that would ever be the case with a mod chip, but then I don't profess to be an expert.

One last thing, a quick list of dual layer games on the PS2:
-Champions of Norrath
-God of War
-Gran Turismo 4
-Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
-Probably Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
-Xenosaga
-maybe others...

[PS2Daddy]

The patch doesnt prevent the game from being dual layered however I have tried 2 versions of God of War the toxic patched and unpatched and when I turn off my dual layer dvd support on my infinity mod on the unpatched version it refuses to boot however when I turn the the feature on my unpatched version works just fine
The toxic patched version works regardless of my dual layer feature is turned on or off

[endlessflood]

Your mod chip is a special case, because the Infinity supports firmware updating.

The toxic dual layer patch basically just prevents the OTP vs PTP issue from raising its ugly head. The "dual layer" feature which you can turn on and off on your mod chip does exactly the same thing as the toxic dual layer patch, it just does it on the fly for any dual layer backup you insert.

If you have a modchip that supports firmware updating, you don't ever need to use the toxic dual layer patch, you just need to use the Toxic firmware update which gives you the ability to turn "dual layer" on/off. The toxic dual layer patch was released for those mod chips which are not firmware upgradeable. In that case, each individual game must be patched.

[PS2Daddy]

I was argeeing with you yep that why I was pointing out
Chips like magic 3.1 and messiah 2 chips and any chip older than those wont play DVDDL unless you use the patch that is the purpose for this thing
(there are a lot of chips still out there in ps2s)
Sony just implemented this type of OTP detection protection in GT4 and God of war and can assume that any new dvd 9 game will be this way from now on thus need for some chips to have new firmware updates
Therefore there is no need for a toxic patch for movies

For anyone that has a newer chip ususally they dont have to worry about this since the feature can be added since they can update the firmware I know that the DMS4, matrix infinity(they just fixed this about 3 months ago), o2chip, the ghost 2 and a few other ones definitly support it (gotta have people willing to write good firmware)

However the messiahs, older magic chips, most all the chip older than that, and the swap magic disk dont support it and the toxic patch make a lot of people happy since they dont have to go out and get a new modchip or get the dvd5 version (or recreate the dvd5) for a few games to play it on their ps2

Also to for those that have a pc it is best for them to change their booktype to DVD-Rom so that their ps2 will definitely work for them some ps2s are very picky about dual layered media and changing the booktype to dvd-rom can definitely make it more compatible with problem ps2 (so they can use the cheapest dual layered media possible :))

Speaking of mac tools I wish they would make some kind of cd\dvd gen tool for macs that you can use changing dvd 9 to 5 games and making exploit disks to load the independence exploit from your memory card I have to go to my wifes pcs for this :( (But I guess at the end of the day whatever you use to get the job done works for me :))