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FAQ
Q1. The Application loaded but NO drives were present in the Selection Combobox ?
IsoBuster uses different ways to communicate with the CD-ROM devices in your system.
Under Win95, 98 and ME this will be Aspi (Adaptec), under NT (4.0, Win2K, XP) this will be SPTI (SCSI Pass Trough Interface) by default. If both methods are present on the system IsoBuster allows to switch between them by means of 'Options \ Communication'.
When not all devices or no device at all are found something is most likely wrong with these communication interfaces. Try to upgrade or install Aspi to work around these issues. The wnaspi23.dll from Ahead also works very nicely, e.g. under Windows XP. Just put the dll in the IsoBuster folder (e.g. in c:\program files\smart projects\isobuster). You can find the dll here : http://www.nero.com/nero7/eng/ASPI_Driver.html
Contact Smart Projects if you think you've found an issue with Isobuster.
More Here.
Q2. How do I upgrade or 'fix' my Aspi layer ?
More Here.
Q3. What File Systems are supported ?
More Here.
Q4. What about Multi Session ?
All Multi Session CDs are supported. As a result you can see the file-systems per session and can retrieve files you long thought were lost. Even better, if the last session can't be closed (writer problem), that session is still accessible.
More Here.
Q5. What's the difference with Windows access to the CD ?
IsoBuster communicates directly to the Drive and doesn't use Windows' 'input' on the CD content.
Both the access and interpretation of the file system are done by this application.
Resultantly this application can read all sectors how and when it wants.
It can 'see' CDs that Windows can't
It can retry as often as it wants and interpret errors how it wants.
IsoBuster can read/extract a lot more than Windows can ... think VCD, SVCD, CD-i, ... .
Q6. What kind of drives are supported ?
All Atapi drives that are conform MMC/SFF8020i (rev 2.6) should work fine.
This means 99 % of the drives manufactured during the last 5 years.
Before that ... you still have a GOOD chance your drive supports the MMC commands.
IsoBuster should now interpret the gross of all CD-ROM drives out there !
Lots of effort is done to assure this.
Q7. What about IDE <-> SCSI ?
Both kind of drives work fine.
A lot of time was invested to make sure SCSI is supported optimally.
Q8. I can select a drive but can't see the file-system on my CD ??
A 1000 possible issues ...
- Or the CD has a file system this application can't deal with ... (unlikely)
- Or the drive doesn't understand the ATAPI commands ...
- Or the CD is beyond recognition (scratches, bad sectors, ...)
Still ... All info is welcome.
Specify CD title, OS it was meant for, Drive characteristics and name.
More Here.
Q9 I have a CD-i disc that can't be read ?
IsoBuster was tested on a range of 200 different CD-i titles.
They all worked well except for two titles.
After investigation it turned out that the CD-ROM drives just couldn't read the requested sectors,
because the sector-layout was FAR beyond specifications or because they contained audio tracks.
e.g. 'Uncover Tatjana' could be read on my Sony drive, but not on my Philips drive.
e.g. 'Het Nationale Muziekkado' couldn't be read on either drive.
Error : 05/64/00 : 'Illegal Mode for this track' (says it all ...)
Actually, 9 out of 10 chances when you have problems reading CD titles, the CD contains Audio tracks !!??
Besides a unique file-system these CDs have a unique Table of Contents (TOC) which fools the gross of all CD-ROM drives. When audio tracks are present, the CD-ROMs often treat the data as audio in the pre-gap which leads to all sorts of data corruption.
More Here.
Q10 What about interleaved files on CD-i ?
Not implemented in this application.
I haven't seen such a CD yet and must assume they don't exist.
If this application detects such files, it will add a little square on the left side of the file icon.
Q11. What about Mac CDs ?
Mac CDs that have an ISO file system are recognized by all IsoBuster versions.
As of version 1.7 IsoBuster also supports the Mac unique file-systems HFS and HFS+
Macintosh files are often split in two ... the executable part and the assets part (associated file),
known as Data Fork and Resource Fork
Both files have the same filename and are located in the same folder.
For ISO9660 support :
Both can be seen and extracted
but at this point this application doesn't automatically merge them.
For HFS(+) support :
IsoBuster shows them as one file and extracts the most appropriate part to your Windows system.
There is also the option to merge the files to MacBinary format for Mac compatibility.
More here
More Here.
Q12. What are those different Extraction types ?
More Here.
Q13. If I Extract the VCD *.dat file, the resulting file is smaller than when I extract with Windows ?
Yep.
Windows, for some stupid reason, copies all sectors raw and adds a header to the file saying so.
This is why you afterwards need tools such as dat2mpg to convert it all again.
More Here on VCD and More Here on Extraction methods.
Q14. Mpg frame-rate related issues ....
More Here.
Q15. Resulting file contains 0 bytes
If you choose 'Extract but FILTER only M2F2 Mpg frames' on a file that does NOT contain mpg data, there is nothing to extract ... .
Furthermore ...
'Extract but FILTER only M2F2 Mpg frames' Extracts mpg data that is formatted as such on the CD (e.g. VCD, SVCD, DVCD), located in M2F2 frames.
*.mpg files on a normal or standard CD will MOST LIKELY not be formatted as such !
These files need to be extracted using the normal 'Extract' option !!
More Here.
Q16. What about the famous 'mixed form' files on CD-i
No Problemo !
This application reads all sectors raw and extract the user data portion
based upon its own interpretation of the sector's form.
More Here.
Q17. What is that 'Frame' thing you keep referring to ?
A CD contains frames (or blocks), each containing a certain amount of data.
CDs generally contain 333.000 - 360.000 frames
DVDs a lot more ......... .
1 LBA (= Logical Block Address) = 1 Frame.
More Here.
Q18. And what about DVD ?
More Here.
Q19. Does this application interpret UDF File Systems ?
Yep !
More Here.
Q20. Can a CD (or DVD) contain more than one file system ?
Oh Yes !
Trick is that all those File systems must point to the same files and directories.
Sometimes there are deviations where both File systems are different (bad mastering software).
e.g.
DVDs must contain UDF but in most cases they also contain an ISO File System.
Joliet is an extension of ISO and can contain long file-names.
(Most CD-ROMs these days contain the Joliet extension on top of ISO9660)
More Here.
In case of Multi-Session, each session contains File systems too.
File Systems can often also be interpreted in different ways (several ways to go about it).
Choosing a certain path can lead to different results than when another path was chosen.
E.g. 'same' tables stored on several locations and different address notations (Intel <-> Motorola)
This application for instance interprets ISO in a different way than Windows does !
Mainly for the benefit of reading CD-i and/or giving you the opportunity to read the data anyway if Windows (once again) refuses.
More Here.
In the TreeView on the left, IsoBuster will add an icon for every (known) file-system it encounters.
In effect you will have multiple pointers to the same files and directories.
Pick the File-system you want (e.g. Long file names <-> short file-names) and explore the CD.
If one reference doesn't work, you have the option to explore via another file-system.
This is a real plus over Windows, since Windows sticks with one file system and doesn't even bother to post an error message when it encountered problems during file-system interpretation.
More Here.
Q21. Why do I get the DOS file-names when I browse the CD ?
IsoBuster looks for all file-systems it knows.
Standard, 'all' CDs contain an ISO file system
ISO9660 is limited to short file-names.
Extensions such as Joliet however contain the long file-names.
IsoBuster also cans for Joliet and add a root in the TreeView on the left
More Here.
Q22. File retrieval from CDs that weren't closed properly by the Write application.
This application can see and retrieve files from CDs that are not closed properly (e.g. after Buffer Underrun).
Limitation in this case is the drive in which you want to 'see' the CD.
A writer has no problems reading these sectors, but a normal CD-ROM might fail !!
In case of Buffer Underrun, the File system most likely will point to files that weren't recorded or were only partly recorded.
Extracting these files will fail with errors such as : 05/21/??, 05/63/??, 06/3B/0F, ... .
In all cases, Isobuster will read as much as possible and in all cases interpret the data that could be read !!!
(Unlike Windows which just stops on the first error)
Q23. Mpg seems screwed up or is causing mpg player to crash
When data is extracted using 'Extract but FILTER only M2F2 Mpg frames', each frame is checked for a certain signature before it is copied to the resulting file.
Sometimes frames (as part of files that are not really mpg) contain this signature (accidentally). Hence the application thinks it is extracting mpg and the result is not what you expected. (although not encountered yet and probably unlikely to happen)
Even though mpg is only extracted from Mode2Form2 frames.
Also, I did see some strange mpg formats on certain CD-i's (Not movies !) which caused problems with my mpg player as well.
If the mpg is stored in a 'unique' way you can run into all sorts of unpredictable problems, with any application !
A lot depends of the quality of the codecs on your system, since CD-i for instance seems to be able to handle some very different mpg formats.
More Here on Extraction techniques and More Here on CD-i and DVD.
Q24. File size on HD is different from what this application says !
In an ISO file system, all file-sizes are stored as if the file is residing in Mode1 or Mode 2 Form 1 frames.
This means, 2KB per frame. This is needed to be able to calculate the amount of frames that needs to be read !
However, on CD-i and CD-ROM XA discs certain files (e.g. *.dat and possibly *.rtf on Video discs) can reside in M2F2 frames.
So, more user data per frame. Result is a larger file on HD than what IsoBuster says !
More Here on Extraction techniques and More Here on CD-i and DVD.
Q25. Can't read certain files from DVD-ROM discs ?
Device reports errors : 05/6F/xx
The DVD standard allows protection on some DVD files ... (*.vob files for instance)
The DVD will not return the data of the blocks where the file-data is stored unless the drive is first told to give the data anyway.
The way to 'tell' the drive to return the data is 'kind of' secret.
Isobuster (at least for now) can not read these files either.
The moment you start your DVD decoding software and start playing a DVD movie, the drive is 'unlocked' by this software ... .
Once 'unlocked' we have to deal with yet another issue ...
Besides 'locked', these sectors are scrambled as well !
Q26. 'Device Reported' Error messages ...
When Isobuster can't access certain data, it will display the error message it got from the drive
(after depleting the retry-mechanism).
These error codes can differ depending on the manufacturer, although they all should be conform MMC2.
E.g. : 05/21/00 : 'Logical Block Address out of range'.
E.g. : 03/11/00 : 'Unrecoverable read error'.
More Here on Error codes
Q27. 'Device reported' Error message when reading from CD Image on HD ??
Isobuster is a multi-layered application, designed that way that functionality can easily be used in other 'Smart Projects' Applications.
At this stage you should think of it as a Front-End (Iso interpretation), a Middle part (Command sequences) and a Basic Engine (CD-ROM access).
(In reality there are a lot more layers (objects, C++)).
When doing File access, another 'Middle Part' is linked in the code that does the actual File access. However, this 'Middle Part' behaves as if it were a CD-ROM accessing Command sequence. The Front-End 'hardly' knows it is reading from a file instead of a CD.
Hence the term 'Device reported' instead of maybe 'Error while reading from CD-Image File'.
Q28. 'Device Reported' Error message xx/xx/xx ... means ... WHAT ????
As explained in Q26 and Q27, these messages are reported by the CD-ROM/DVD drive.
To know exactly what they mean you should look them up in the command spec for that particular device.
Fortunately they have to be conform to MMC(1,2,3).
This section covers the MMC Error codes. See if your error fits in here.
Q29. Can I edit Image-Files with IsoBuster
Nope, you cannot. The reason is complex as re-creating an image file sometimes is.
Reasons are … If a file changes size, it might very well be that the complete image has to be re-calculated. Depending of the type of image file and depending on the application that's going to be used to write the image-file, EDC and ECC code needs to be changed/added per block. The Iso and File-system might need complete re-doing … and what about the possible UDF file system then ? Or what about changing one session and pointers to the files from other session …
And I can think of a few more issues that would occur. Therefore I haven't even started considering editing Image files.
Consider this when you turn to other applications that provide this service :
Suppose you have an image that contains ISO and Joliet but also UDF and all File Systems point to the same files ...
If you edit the image file the ISO and Joliet File Systems are changed.
Under Windows 95 it all seems to work great when you create a CD from the altered image but under Windows 98 it works horrible and you have data corruption and so on ... . That is because Windows 98 defaults to the UDF file system (which remained un-altered) and the references to the files in the UDF file system are now all wrong ... .
Q30. Why are there multiple file-system icons in the window on the left ?
IsoBuster scans for all file-systems it knows.
When it finds such a file-system it adds an icon in the TreeView on the left.
You can pick whichever file-system you like to retrieve the file(s) and directories.
More Here.
Q31. What do all those icons mean next to files and directories ?
IsoBuster handles a lot (not to say all) exceptions that ISO and Joliet know.
Different from Windows IsoBuster indicates these exceptions to help TroubleShooting.
Should something go wrong with such particular files / directories we (possibly) know where to start looking for the problem.
More Here.
Q32. I extracted an iso or tao or whatever file from a track, session or complete image using IsoBuster, How do I write this to a CD-R.
Use a Write Application such as CDRWin, Nero, Creator, ...
More Here.
Q33. I want to re-create a CD (possibly change a few files) but want to safeguard boot-ability … Any idea how I can do this ?
More Here.
Q33. I opened an Image file and don't see all the tracks ?
Correct ! IsoBuster is not able to detect multiple sessions or tracks in image-files. This kind of functionality will get in there eventually but not for all image-file types simply because most of them don't contain this kind of information.
Exceptions are files that are opened with a *.cue file and *.pxi image files which are completely (multi-track, multi-session, CD-Text, ...) supported.
More Here.
Q34. I use NT/2K or XP, have SPTI selected as communication interface and can't see any drives ?
Read the SPTI bit here.
Do you have DLA installed and is there a CD or DVD present in the drive that you cannot see with IsoBuster ?
If so,
- close IsoBuster,
- eject the disc,
- start IsoBuster again, ...
Is the drive present now ?
If yes, you can now mount the disc and IsoBuster remains able to access the drive.
Another piece of good advice is to upgrade DLA to the latest version.
DLA locks drives when there is media inside that DLA wants sole access for.
Especially with older versions of DLA this can cause the effect that no other application (besides Windows itself which then works through DLA) can access the drive anymore.
Version 1.6 of IsoBuster had a feature that penetrated this lock and provided access anyway.
This feature has again been removed in version 1.7 because :
- Recent versions of DLA, on Windows XP at least, do not require the special handling anymore to be able to communicate with the drives.
- There were unpleasant side effects :
- It took twice as long to start up the application IF DLA system files were found present on the system.
- It sometimes could add 5-10-15 to even 30 seconds start-up time. Some, with many drives in the system, claimed seeing delays of even 2 minutes sometimes.
These delays were caused by time-outs in the DLA system files. DLA engineers informed us that they in term were facing Windows bugs that caused the time-outs.
- Some systems where DLA had been installed on at some time in the past, still contained some of these active (running) system files, and caused startup delays as well.
- Check to see if this file is not still present in your system directory : VxBlock.dll
- For those who were happy with the feature of 1.6 ... it has not been removed completely but it has been disabled. If you like to have it enabled again, mail us at support@smart-projects.net and we'll help you activate the DLA feature again !
Q35. I takes too long, to forever, until IsoBuster has started up ... what gives ?
First of all, do you have DLA installed ? Or traces of DLA system files (check for VxBlock.dll in your system files directory) ?
If so, read the previous topic Q34.
Do you have a bad disc inside one of your drives ?
IsoBuster, on start up, sends a number of information commands to all drives.
Some drives, when a disc is mounting (or trying to) in the drive, can cause long delays before responding properly to these information commands,
causing long delays at start-up.
If this appears to be the case, open the tray(s), start up IsoBuster, next close the tray(s) and let IsoBuster mount the disc(s).
Do you have disconnected network drives on your system ?
Under Windows NT, 2K and XP, IsoBuster scans all drive letters and sends a number of commands down to the device to see if it fits the profile, meaning : is it an optical drive (or virtual optical drive). Disconnected network drives sometimes have the annoying property to time-out on such information commands instead of simply returning an error right away. These time-outs cause the application to start up slower. Unmap the problem network drives if you want to get rid of the start-up delays.
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