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Dumping best practices

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With the amount of new people lately doing stupid things, and destroying history. I've decided to put together a simple guide on best practices for dumping betas.

For most disc based systems redump.org have thankfully covered most steps, while their guides are strict we feel they're best and their guides plus tools can be found here: http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Dumping_Guides

We do understand some people may not have the correct drive types, so in these cases we highly suggest dumping with an means available. DVDisaster is a very handy tool and can dump most disc formats to an ISO. This sadly won't work on Dreamcast/PS1/Some PS2 games or the likes of 360 retail discs but will work for most other disc types. In the case of PS1/PS2 discs with multiple tracks IMGBurn will work by dumping as a BIN/CUE. Later versions of IMGBurn contain adware so older versions are recommended.

For Hard Drive based systems we recommend dumping the drive before doing anything, even turning it on could kill the system. Don't be like this user named hopefullyidontgetbanned who managed to destroy one of a kind builds, he installed rebug and played games which destroyed atleast 1 Final Fantasy XIV build which may now be lost forever, This user proceeding to release jailbroken dumps and inturn formatting his hard drive with a Windows PC... Our guide can point you in the direction and clearly states using Windows is a bad idea and not to use the system AT ALL.

For Playstation 3 consoles, the best way to dump the build is by decrypting the hard drive dump and extracting the data via R-Studio but we do understand you may not have the skills to do this. In these cases, and only once the HDD is cloned we suggest installing Rebug but make sure to use the right firmware. DECH 3000/4000's cannot be rebugged currently.

Once Rebug is installed install Multiman or enable WebMan, this'll enable you to use FTP, make sure your FTP tool is set to preserve timestamps. PS3 builds are very hard to date. So making sure they're datad correct is highly important.

DO NOT use Multiman's Folder to ISO tool, this doesn't produce a 1/1 build it actually modifies the data for CFW and isn't a pure dump. Only dump the folders as is with dates preserved. Target Manager sadly doesn't preserve dates even though an official tool.

The same also apply's to Multiman's BD to ISO function, this doesn't produce an original dump, it modifies the ISO and isn't a proper dump.

XBOX 360's are thankfully more simple, but again as above with PS3's the Hard Drive will need dumping first. Preserving timestamps is important still but not so much of an issue thanks to XEXTOOL which can date the builds XEX files.

The XBOX 360 also has XBOX LIVE builds, they normally have the header LIVE/PIRS do not extract these packages, release the original package as is. Extracted builds are often tampered with.

360 ISO's should also be dumped with a PC using Rebug's guides above, do not extract the data with an XDK/RGH as this messes with dates and doesn't produce an ISO.

Saving gaming history is highly important, and dumping data correctly is super important. If you dump it wrong history could be lost, data could be lost. The goal should to be save it as close to original as you can. Too often people download broken/tampered builds and reupload which causes issues years down the road for people trying to document it.
 

snescentral

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People ask me about dumping SNES games, and by far the best way available right now is the jailbroken Super NT. May prototypes lack an internal header, which causes problems with other dumping devices, but the Super NT can get it done.
 
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neo

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If people need help with Dreamcast discs I can try and offer info and help.

Either usinng the redump or tosec methods.
 
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Gameboi64

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Please don't dump your CD based games (PS1 and PS2, Mega CD, so on and so forth), especially PS1 and PS2 to ISO, as that completely changes how the disc is structured and the bytes/block format, not to mention the mode. DVDs can be dumped to ISO just fine, as they are all MODE1/2048, but CDs aren't always, and especially with Playstation CDs, they are in the MODE2/2352 format, which changing not only the mode, but bytes/block format would be changing the game for the worse. If at all possible, as not everyone has a DiscImageCreator CD compatible drive (only a few select people), please just dump your CD based games to a single bin/cue format.

The data portion is not the part that needs the special offset, (as I have checked) and every bin dump of a CD based game turns out the same with any drive, but that is the audio portion of the CD that needs it. It is the same process that (I can guess) Exact Audio Copy/XLD uses, but is only compatible with certain drives for some reason when those programs work with any and every drive.

DVDs and CDs can be dumped with any program to ISO and BIN/CUE respectively (CDs, as I said before require some special stuff for the audio), but it is often times just better to use DICUI. If you don't want to use it,you can use ImgBurn or just any sort of DVD ripping program that supports BIN/CUE and ISO. Other formats, like MDF, NRG and so on and so forth are not recommended.

Needed to get that off my chest, as I used to do the same until I just figured out that keeping it on the original format is much better for preservation than changing it to ISO, as that extension is more than an extension, but it is a file system standard. Yes. CDs use the ISO format, but that doesn't change the fact that BIN files can store just about anything while ISO files are a standardized file that everyone knows about because things used to be dumped to it until it was learned that BIN was better for CD. I recommend ImgBurn as that works the best, but as far as DVDs go, I would recommend DiscImageCreator. Not everyone can afford a redump drive, so I don't advise that you go out searching for one if you just want to rip a CD game you have. If possible, as far as betas go, have it shipped to someone that has a redump drive. Just always make sure to have your backup in case shipping messes up anything.

Other formats are a different topic, as it is best to look at the redump ripping guide for those. If you can't afford the drive, like I said previously, just send it to someone that you can trust and won't backstab you. Last thing we need is drama because of that.
 
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neo

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Idk if anyone trusts me but I have all the redump stuff needed for drives and have submitted dumps to them and familiar with how it goes.
 

darcagn

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Just a heads up for those who might be trying to dump Dreamcast discs, the Redump method does NOT work for dumping protos/GD-Rs.
You must use the Dumpcast/TOSEC method for dumping protos/GD-Rs.

If anyone needs assistance with dumping Dreamcast titles, please feel free to reach out to me. I've dumped and released several protos for the Dreamcast, I founded the Dumpcast site where DC TOSEC dumpers post/swap hashes 12 years ago, I have the System Disc 2 that makes proto dumping simple, and I have plenty of contacts who can vouch for me if you need me to dump a disc as well (recent example here).

In addition I have a video tutorial coming soon for dumping DC discs (GD-ROMs or GD-Rs). I'll post it in here when I'm done video editing.
 
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Just a heads up for those who might be trying to dump Dreamcast discs, the Redump method does NOT work for dumping protos/GD-Rs.
You must use the Dumpcast/TOSEC method for dumping protos/GD-Rs.

I had a feeling about this, their guides are very limited and often wrong such as PS3 dumps with Multiman which edits them for CFW. Would you like me to split this into it's own thread @darcagn ?
 

darcagn

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That's really up to you, I received a PM from @Dracarys about doing a tutorial, which I agreed to, and I'll let you guys post it here and/or on the wiki you have planned.
 

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