Changes in primary dumping software [Important!]

[mrpijey]

It's been reported that DiscImageCreator has a serious bug that affects DVD dumps, where some DVD dumps become incomplete without the software reporting any errors. With a member upload (where both DIC and A120% dumps were uploaded) I was able to verify that there was a difference of several hundreds MB missing from the DIC dump, and without DIC reporting any errors. This bug seems to not appear with CDs, and it does not happen with all DVDs.

For this reason BetaArchive will no longer use DIC for dumping DVDs, only CDs where possible. You will need a supported optical drive to dump CDs with DIC, see their github page for a list of compatible drives. For DVDs use Alcohol 120%.

I will try to check our DIC dumps on the FTP over time, but it will take a considerable amount of time and I am not discounting losses since we may not be able to make correct re-dumps of any broken releases.

If you are able to check your own dumps in your personal archive just compare the dumped size of the ISO vs the reported data size on the disc, and see if there are any empty folders etc.

Summary: Unless you have a compatible optical drive for dumping CD-ROM discs using DiscImageCreator all optical dumps are to be made using Alcohol 120%.

[Exemptus]

Noted, thanks. It is my understanding the bug does not affect all dumps. I trust you'll be telling us when time allows if any of our dumps are defective. I have no problem re-scanning with A120% (lots of time at home now, obviously).

[mrpijey]

Yeah, I am working on setting up scripts that allows me to check the dumps, but it will take some time to go through all the dumps on the FTP. But if there are any errors I will get in touch with the uploaders and ask if redumps are possible.

[mrpijey]

After some extensive testing I think we can continue to use DiscImageCreator as a primary dumping tool. Some discs may be dumped badly, but I can now easily find and check these and any bad dumps will be reported to the uploader. I will also verify each upload to make sure it's properly dumped.

So once again, DiscImageCreator is to be used primarily, Alcohol 120% as a backup or when your drive isn't compatible with CDs.