I have a backup that I have been playing for several months, and just recently when I tried playing it, an error message came on the screen, "Cannot read disk". I cleaned the disk and still nothing, this is the only time that this has happened. I haven't made any changes to the xbox360 recently.
Has this happened to anyone else, or does anyone have any good advice?
Thanks

Check the disc surface under a lamp. See if there are any noticable deep scratches. Even if there is not, your options are limited. First thing to do is test other backups. If they still work, then try copying the backup to another disc. Ripping backups of 360 games is easy. You can use DVD Decrypter, or Xbox Backup Creator. The way I've always done it is mode-->iso-->read with DVD Decrypter. That will create the iso and a mds file. The mds is more or less worthless for 360 games, you'll want to manually create a dvd file to use with ImgBurn or CloneCD. That is very simple. Right click anywhere on your desktop. Select new-->text document from the right click menu. Just leave it named new text document.txt for now. Double click on the txt file and it will open notepad. Copy and Paste this into the text file.

In this example, Game.ISO is a generic example of a 360 iso. Replace Game.ISO with the name of the iso created with DVD Decrypter.

I.E.

Make sure the second part matches the iso name exactly.


Go to file-->save at the top of notepad. Close the text document. Right click the new text document and click rename or highlight it and hit F2. Rename the text document whatever your iso is called. Make sure you change the extension from .txt to .dvd!

I.E.

Hit enter or click off the dvd file. Windows will warn you about changing the name of file extenisons, click yes and the file will be renamed with the extension changing from .txt to .dvd.

Now you have a dvd file that can be loaded into ImgBurn or CloneCD, then just burn as normal to get a working backup. If you don't want to do that, then Xbox Backup Creator 2.4 and later will rip backups of 360 games. When I've copied a backup, I've always done it the way I mentioned, because I know it works. XBC probably works fine for copying a backup to another disc, but I've never done it that way. Using XBC will create the .dvd file automatically.

__________________

If you go to the options tab and enter it manually does this replace the steps above or do you have to do both? I think this may be another reason my backups get stuck. I only did it on the options tab, I never created a text file.

In newer versions of ImgBurn, that is a no-no. I went to LightningUK directly on that one, and he said that ImgBurn 2.0 and later will read the LayerBreak from the .dvd file. I used to set the L0 manually with ImgBurn, and I got a couple coasters with 2.2. I reset it to normal and just used the .dvd file for the program to read the layer break, and have never had a coaster since. So to answer your question, definitely do create a .dvd file manually if there isn't one present with the iso. Another option is to simply have XBC rip the backup for you and automatically create the .dvd file. I can't verify that works 100%, but the app is so good, I really doubt there would be issues doing it that way. If you don't want to take any chances, then do it the way I mentioned with DVD Decrypter.

__________________

Thanks for this LS, just had a game ISO with no .dvd file - will let you know how it went

__________________

i use imgburn and dont even bother about the dvd file anymore as its set the lb on auto but if you get a file with 0000 extention you will need to make a dvd file

__________________
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Aah I see, thanks for the info Booboo

I used IMGburn anyway, just all other times I've used it I have selected the .dvd file... anyway, made me a .dvd file and it burned OK just like all the others

BTW booboo, where do you get your discs from and which ones do you use?

I use datawrite or Aone (8x) discs, both are RicohJPN dyes and work very well, have only had one coaster out of around 20 discs so far, and that was down to the program messing up and not the disc itself. Far cheaper than verbatim discs and like me I know you're from the UK and the verbs can be hard as hell to find (and expensive) - costs me around £7 for 10 discs of the above that I use

__________________

I always use Verb's, but we obviously have a much better selection in the U.S, it will always come down to $2 a disc though, compared to about $1.60 for Ritek/Ricoh. I've never used Ritek dyes, from what I've read on CD Freaks/ImgBurn forums, Verb's are far better, but sometimes they exaggerate the difference, so I dunno.

Usually selecting the iso is fine, but if there is no dvd file and the Limit Break is set to auto, ImgBurn will likely produce a coaster unless the Layer Break is set manually. So it's always best to just create the dvd file when there is none with the iso, alleviates virtually any chance of a coaster.

__________________