Looking for software to backup or copy your games? Protect your investment using the following tools. You may be able to use your existing CD Burning Software to backup some PC CD-ROM Games. However many titles today have some sort of copy protection built in where ordinary cd burning apps can't bypass. The titles below are know to get around most copywright protection schemes to allow you to make a personal backup copy of your PC CD-ROM games.

PC Game Backup Software

Identify what type of Protection is on your Game disc

If you are just trying to find out what protection scheme is being used on your game disc then it's best to download a utility that scans your disc and tells you what is being used on it. These work for both physical discs and for iso files that you may have downloaded or mounted on a virtual drive.

Blindwrite Profiler - This is a game disc identifier that utilizes a database of current and past copy protections that are found on each game disc. It will give you the correct copy settings to use within BlindWrite to make a successful PC game backup, no matter what copy protection is used. But you must use this in conjunction with Blindwrite, which is a good thing. :) Download from the Developer

Protection ID - is is a great freeware disc scanner that will detect almost any codes found on today's game discs. This will find the following protection codes: Safecast, Laserlock, Starforce, SecurROM, Savedisc, CD Lock, Laserlock, VOB Protected CD's, Codelok, CD-Checks, etc.... Even if you may know about a certain type of protection it still may detect it since this is only a partial list.

Update August 2011: The latest download of this file seemed to contain Malware. We need to investigate further to be sure this file is safe.

Here are some tecnical details on the more popular game protection codes:

• SecuRom - There have been multiple version of this game protection scheme. In a nutshell this type of copy protection uses a spiral data track which has a varying structure that causes the disc drive to either take more or less time read a sector correctly, or in other words a delay between readings. The delays are then checked between each sector and if the correct pattern is not matched then the disc will be recgonized as being an incorrect file structure and will not display the information correctly. This makes it impossible to make a correct copy (using a traditional burning software) of the original game disc because the burning laser can't duplicate the structure properly. This is why a software like Blindwrite is necessary, because it will recgonize this type of protection and adjust the software to detect this and to read it correctly. It's also probably best to use a virtual drive tool such as Daemon Tools to mount the disc first.
  
  
• SafeDisc 3 - This protection was developed by Macrovision one of the leaders in disc copying prevention. This latest version utilizes an Access Control Manager which basically prevents a copy of a disc to run at all, this is due to their patented digital signatures which includes an unique key that is encrypted into the pressed game disc during the mastering phase of development. So if the game disc is replicated this unique key will prevent current burning hardware and traditional burning software from reading the disc correctly. This protection also includes an emulator detector which will prevent an authentication from a virtual drive software, thus making the game unmountable by these types of software.

There are many other types of protections availalbe, but if you stick with using a software that can detect these copy codes and adjust your settings correctly for both the read and write phases then you will have better luck in copying PC games.

Also see: [ XBox Game Copy Software ] [ Wii Game Copy Software ]