Backup Copies Of Games
Whereas there has only been reasonably effective copy protection for a relatively short time in the case of audio CDs, for games, its use has long been the norm. THG does not intend to give you any instructions at this point on how to make pirate copies. However, using two games (Comanche4 and Serious Sam2), we did test to see to what extent the burner is also suitable for making backup copies.
One glance at a screenshot from CloneCD4.01.10 shows immediately the principal capabilities of the drive.
As you can see, the CRW-F1UX supports CloneCD's RAW-DAO mode. It should therefore be suitable for making backup copies.
In order to find out the copy-protection mechanism of the games CDs, we first ran a surface scan using ClonyXXL 2.0.0.6. The result of this scan can be seen in the following screen shots.
This shows that Serious Sam2 is protected against piracy by Safedisk 2.51, and Comanche4 is protected by Safedisk2. Then, in the first stage, an image of the original CD was made using CloneCD, and in the second stage this was burned onto a CD-R. In order to check that the backup copy would work, we installed and ran the game in each case. The following table shows a summary of the results.
| Game Title | Copy Protection | Copy Works | Read w Clone-CD | Write w Clone-CD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comanche 4 | Save Disc V2 | Yes | 10:37 | 3:01 |
| Serious Sam2 | Save Disc V2.51 | Yes | 10:45 | 3:01 |
Consequently, provided you have the right tools, functioning backup copies of games can also be produced really quickly using the CRW-F1UX.
Conclusion
Yamaha's USB2.0 version of the CWR-F1 is in no way inferior to its internal brother. Its write performance is very good. This writer's 24x write speed on the new Ultra-Speed RW media is outstanding. In read mode, the device is not so impressive, not least because of poor error correction.
In Disc-T@2 and Advanced Audio Master Recording Quality, Yamaha provides the user with two extremely interesting special functions. However, these lose a little of their fascination at second glance, because of the "inadequacies" already described. But this does nothing to alter the fact that the CRW-F1UX offers all the features that a user expects from a modern writer.
We consider it an exaggeration to describe the device as a mobile burner: its dimensions (W x H x D) of 18.2 x 5.8 x 27.5 cm and a fighting weight of 2.2 kg (including mains power unit and cables) do not exactly invite you to take it with you on your travels. The price is a similar case - it costs over $200, and being around $70 more than for the internal version, that's not exactly peanuts.
