GC Clean Rip Viewtiful Joe [Backing up Game Disc] Problem/Error Every time.

[BigDaddyWeaves]

Hi I recently purchased Viewtiful Joe from a seller on eBay and the disc seems to look decent enough, I even tried cleaning it after my first rip with CleanRip didn't go so hot (it immediately failed.) The second try (after cleaning it) went much smoother. I made it all the way to 80% and thought I was in the clear, but then it spits out the same error. (I don't remember the error, something disc related.) Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated, I have read or heard that this particular game has anti-copy features set in place but I think we all know we're way past that now in the homebrew community OR could I be wrong? Tell me what anybody bold enough to answer this post says.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Failing at a different point after cleaning doesn't sound like some kind of copy protection (bad sectors or whatever). As far as I know Datel discs contain such anti-features, but can be dumped with latest Cleanrip anyway.

Sometimes Cleanrip goes to "Unrecovered read error" for no apparent reason. Inspect the disc for damage. Especially circular scratches are very bad. Try multiple GC/Wii consoles (not all drives are the same).

In one case none of my consoles succeeded in dumping a specific, mildly scratched disc (it didn't even look badly scratched, just a little). Had to take out the LG-8164b for this one and wait a few hours (RawDump on the PC is a quite slow method).

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

@KleinesSinchen So I should try a different Wii? I have another, I'll give it a shot.

 

[JaapDaniels]

For scratched discs you might be able to fix this by polishingwith the motion of the tracks.
This should work as long as it's only damaged on the plastic side, not the label metal side.
Just be carefull that you'll need to use fine polish cream with a soft towel or sponge.

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

Thanks for the tip @JaapDaniels I'll keep that in mind!

 

[JaapDaniels]

Thanks for the tip @JaapDaniels I'll keep that in mind!

Most discs are about 0.4 mm thicker than needed, so there's room for polish, just don't push your luck, a smooth flat surface is what you want.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

For scratched discs you might be able to fix this by polishingwith the motion of the tracks.
This should work as long as it's only damaged on the plastic side, not the label metal side.
Just be carefull that you'll need to use fine polish cream with a soft towel or sponge.

Don't try polishing with circular motion. Polishing will do further damage to the polycarbonate. With fine enough sandpaper (yes, sandpaper grain 3000, 5000, 7000, 10000) it is possible to cause so fine scratches that are not a problem (anymore). This is replacing few big, problematic scratches with many fine, unproblematic ones. Lastly I always use fine car polish with wax.
I've revived seemingly hopeless CDs/DVDs that looked like with that method. When applying 3000 grain sandpaper the disc becomes completely non-reflective. Gives the feeling: "Oh no!! Now I've ruined it!" It becomes shiny again when using finer grain and the wax at the end.
Why not in circular motion? Because any scratch, even a fine one, that follows the spiral track might make one or two complete sectors fully unreadable (while not hitting any other sectors). Scratches in random directions will hit many sectors, but only a bit, so the error correction has a good chance to recover.

Disc resurfacing can be found on YouTube, there are some good tutorials. But this is not something one should do without practicing on garbage discs -- and it is not the first thing to try (I would say it is the last thing to try, as it carries the risk of making things much worse).

Lastly, DVDs (which GC/Wii discs are based on) are more likely to survive scratches from both sides because the data layer is in the middle. On CDs the data layer it is near the label side (on the top) and on BDs it is at the very bottom.

@KleinesSinchen So I should try a different Wii? I have another, I'll give it a shot.

Yes, definitely try multiple drives. In my experience console drives (and slim laptop drives) are often garbage grade compared to full-sized PC drives. I've got a few PlayStation 2 DVDs that won't work in any PS2... but a good PC drive copied them at full speed without error (ESR patched DVD-R copies work flawlessly in PS2). For GC/Wii we run into the problem that they are not standard DVDs and not detected by normal drives (and only some old IDE-based Hitachi-LG drives can indirectly dump them through undocumented debug commands).

 

[JaapDaniels]

Don't try polishing with circular motion. Polishing will do further damage to the polycarbonate. With fine enough sandpaper (yes, sandpaper grain 3000, 5000, 7000, 10000) it is possible to cause so fine scratches that are not a problem (anymore). This is replacing few big, problematic scratches with many fine, unproblematic ones. Lastly I always use fine car polish with wax.
I've revived seemingly hopeless CDs/DVDs that looked like with that method. When applying 3000 grain sandpaper the disc becomes completely non-reflective. Gives the feeling: "Oh no!! Now I've ruined it!" It becomes shiny again when using finer grain and the wax at the end.
Why not in circular motion? Because any scratch, even a fine one, that follows the spiral track might make one or two complete sectors fully unreadable (while not hitting any other sectors). Scratches in random directions will hit many sectors, but only a bit, so the error correction has a good chance to recover.

Disc resurfacing can be found on YouTube, there are some good tutorials. But this is not something one should do without practicing on garbage discs -- and it is not the first thing to try (I would say it is the last thing to try, as it carries the risk of making things much worse).

Lastly, DVDs (which GC/Wii discs are based on) are more likely to survive scratches from both sides because the data layer is in the middle. On CDs the data layer it is near the label side (on the top) and on BDs it is at the very bottom.

Yes, definitely try multiple drives. In my experience console drives (and slim laptop drives) are often garbage grade compared to full-sized PC drives. I've got a few PlayStation 2 DVDs that won't work in any PS2... but a good PC drive copied them at full speed without error (ESR patched DVD-R copies work flawlessly in PS2). For GC/Wii we run into the problem that they are not standard DVDs and not detected by normal drives (and only some old IDE-based Hitachi-LG drives can indirectly dump them through undocumented debug commands).

ehm there used to be even an official kit to polish the discs.
done it about a hundret times.
i didn't say sanding it. i meant pollish as with like what you use to clean your hands after you got grease on them. sanding is was to strong. you'll be making scratches.
now i never tried bd to be honest, but cd's and dvd's can be pollished i'm most certain.
using somthing like: this

 

[KleinesSinchen]

ehm there used to be even an official kit to polish the discs.
done it about a hundret times.
i didn't say sanding it. i meant pollish as with like what you use to clean your hands after you got grease on them. sanding is was to strong. you'll be making scratches.
now i never tried bd to be honest, but cd's and dvd's can be pollished i'm most certain.
using somthing like: this

These cheap machines are problematic. Some say: "Excellent, easy, works every time" and some others say: "Didn't do anything." or "Made the issues worse!"

Polishing and sanding aren't really that different. Sandpaper 7000 just takes way more substance away (and faster) than the grains inside polishing cream. It depends on the visible damage. Polishing deep scratches with some kind of extra-fine cream is tedious and not promising,

Again: Any kind of mechanical rubbing away the outer most layer is a real invasive process leaving the disc more vulnerable afterwards. I tend to use any kind of resurfacing methods after exhausting all other methods... followed by an instand backup.

As for BDs in this topic: Wii U discs are very similar to BDs, so mentioning them is not fully off-topic. I would not polish BDs, but rather seek professional help if a high value BD is damaged. On the other side, the bottom coating layer on BDs is extremely hard and durable. I can't scratch them with my fingernails (easy thing on CD/DVD) and had to use a fine flat screwdriver to cause damage on BD coating.

 

[JaapDaniels]

These cheap machines are problematic. Some say: "Excellent, easy, works every time" and some others say: "Didn't do anything." or "Made the issues worse!"

Polishing and sanding aren't really that different. Sandpaper 7000 just takes way more substance away (and faster) than the grains inside polishing cream. It depends on the visible damage. Polishing deep scratches with some kind of extra-fine cream is tedious and not promising,

Again: Any kind of mechanical rubbing away the outer most layer is a real invasive process leaving the disc more vulnerable afterwards. I tend to use any kind of resurfacing methods after exhausting all other methods... followed by an instand backup.

As for BDs in this topic: Wii U discs are very similar to BDs, so mentioning them is not fully off-topic. I would not polish BDs, but rather seek professional help if a high value BD is damaged. On the other side, the bottom coating layer on BDs is extremely hard and durable. I can't scratch them with my fingernails (easy thing on CD/DVD) and had to use a fine flat screwdriver to cause damage on BD coating.

Sure thing you can make it worse.

• You can use too much paste and it'll be hard to clean residue and even harder to clean without scratching the disc again.
• You can pollish too long, pollishing away more than that thin scratch and since the disc needs to have a certain thickness to work proper, what's gone is gone forever.
• You can forget to clean the disc afterwards (that's why i choose the one with cleaning spray and pollish.
• the sponge discs need replacing quite often for they might've picked up sand.

And one note extra point is that not all damaged discs are scratched, some haven't been protected to (sun)light, and this is as far as i know unrepairable damage.

Don't clean with alcohol, for it damages the plastic, don't clean with acetone for it softens the plastic.
I'd normally just used water (a lot of it soft sprayed), and leave it drying on extra soft paper towel.

The balance takes a little practice, so start with discs you don't mind being lost forever.

 

[pedro702]

probably safer to not break the game and get a backup from the internet, just saying.

 

[BigDaddyWeaves]

Sad to say I agree with @pedro702

 

[SaulFabre]

Odd Tinkering posted a video about resurfacing discs, he did it with a badly scratched PS2 game, in its channel Odd Experiments:
(he used first polishing compund, then he used polishing liquid, using microfiber cloth)