So burning back-up PS2 games sounds easy.
 

But quite frankly this has become the chore of a life-time.

Here's the dilema. I'm trying very hard to burn some game images I downloaded and run them on my ps2 using Magic Swap, which claims to have the capabilities to do the job.

My ps2 is just fine, working 100% on all fronts. The only thing it wont do (with Magic Swap of course) is play the games I've burned. Now for some reason I've only been able to burn the games successfully in Nero but these burns wont work period. Not on my ps2 or my friend's.

So I do some research and try out DVD Decrypter and Alcohol 120%. These are great programs but unfortunately they just can't burn the games successfully. Alcohol is telling me there's a "No seek complete" or something silly like that.

Anyway, I really have no idea why it's failing so much, so I need some serious help. What is the problem?

Have you tried ImgBurn (its some sort of fork from the burning engine of DVD Decrypter)?

You're probably using crappy media. Just because it says "verbatim" on the box doesn't actually guarantee that it's a good disc. Your chances are better with Verbatim than with most, but you'd be even more well-advised to go to Rima and buy some top-quality media.

I forgot to ask: How fast are you burning the media? From my experience even the 16x-certified media perform very poor when burned at full speed (you clearly see this when running a PI/PO check - with kprobe e.g.). I always burn my media using the lowest speed write strategy that is embedded in the disc (for my current verbatim that is 6x - produces really low PI and nearly no-existant PO-values).

Another example: A friend of mine was burning his media using the maximum speed his burner and the media was capable - that is 8x. Most of the media weren't accepted in his dvd-standalone. He didn't know about how to do a surface check so i kprobe-checked the burned medias in my drive and the values were horribly high. Reducing the speed to 4x did the trick, the values returned to quite good quality (here and there some spikes - but nothing to worry about) and all the discs he burned after that did fine in the stand-alone.

EDIT: You could try checking the image files with pcsx2. Maybe the images are already bad.

What kind of blank media are you using? DVD+R or DVD-R? There are mixed reports on various PS2 models, claiming that some have troubles with one format or the other. If you do some basic research on the matter, I'm sure you'll find out what media to pick for your specific model (check the SCPH code on the back of the console).

Oh, this should go without saying, but you won't have much luck with DVD+/-RW or dual layer discs.

Well to answer a few questions...

I'm using DVD+R and I"m burning ususually below 4x.

I actually managed, almost as a miracle, to burn a good copy of KoF XI. I'm pretty sure it was luck.

THanks for your tips, with the info you provided I can do some better research, I assure you I spent a good amount of time (about a week) trying to pull this off before opening up the thread <3

A lot of people have replied already, but I figure I will share my thoughts since I do this rather extensively, myself.

First, it seems you are using +R discs. Have you given -R discs a go? I have much more success with them, though this is apparently dependant upon your PS2 version.

Second, burn as slow as you can, always. I burn my PS2 games at 2x, and they run fine.

Third, are you dumping discs yourself or downloading them off the web? You might be downloading bad images if you get them from the internet (that is, your copy of said image might be corrupted at some point for whatever reason). Try to dump a game you own yourself and see if the backup works?

Fourth, if you are willing to try the -R idea, I wholly reccomend buying TDK. They are my favoured brand, and I have not had one dud out of the 400+ DVD-R discs I have bought and used from them.

The thing is that no matter what the brand on the label, you don't know what you're getting. Most companies, such as Verbatim and TDK don't actually make discs. They buy them.

The way to find out what you've got is to use DVD Intentifier. Google for that, and then you can find out what you've got. The best are Taiyo Yuden. If you buy Verbatim, sometimes you will get Taiyo Yuden, but the best way is to buy them from Rima who will actually tell you who made the disc they are selling.