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To round off this review we will run some advanced tests on the Memorex Dual-X. these tests are: making backups of protected data and audio discs as well as an overburning test.

Copy protected data discs:

For this test we will use CloneCD (as usual) to make a backup of games containing some of the most popular copy protections. In the screenshot below we could see that the Memorex Dual-X supports all available write features in CloneCD: 

The Memorex Dual-X supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode which basically means that it can write uncorrected data and subchannel data. Below are our results for all the tested games: 

Motoracer 3 is protected with Tagé¨s, a protection that is added during the manufacturing process. So far no drives have been able to backup this game successfully.  

Flé¥klypa grand prix is a Norwegian game that is protected with CD Cops, again a very special protection that is added during the manufacturing process. So far no drives have been able to make a 100% working backup, a few drives in combination with a few media types may make a backup that works in a few drives. 

Desperados: Wanted dead or alive is protected with Laserlok, a protection that takes very long time to read for most drives, but most drives is able to make working backups of this game. 

The Diablo 2 expansion set is protected with SecuROM version 4.62.00 0100, a widely used protection scheme. Writers able to read and write subchannel data correctly should be able to backup this Game. 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice city is protected with a newer version of SecuROM: namely version 4.84.69 0071. Very few (if any) writers could reliably make working backups of this protection. 

Max Payne is protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Max Payne is version 2.30.33. If a writer supports 'Almost correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it will be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors. 

  Serious Sam is also protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Serious Sam is version 2.51.21. If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it will be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors. 

Command and Conquer: Generals is another game protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Command and Conquer: Generals is version 2.80.10. If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it may be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors. 

The protection on The Sims: Superstar expansion pack is also safedisc, this time it's version 2.90.40. Very few (if any) writers are able to reliably make a working backup of this protection.

The table below shows the backup capabilities of the Memorex Dual-X writer:

* Partially means that the 'Amplify Weak Sectors" must be turned on for the backup to work.

Let us first take the positive things; the Memorex Dual-X is fast at reading all protections that do not contain read errors, this shows that the drive is a fast subchannel reader as well. For laserlok is it also very fast compared to most other drives. But it does not win a price for its safedisc reading abilities, as many drives is able to read this protection under 10 minutes. Also this drive do not support 'correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" at all, so Amplify Weak Sectors must be enabled when backing up safedisc protected games. The drive fails to backup Motoracer 3, Flé¥klypa, GTA3 Vice City and The Sims: Superstar. But this was expected as no/few other drives is able to backup any of these protections.

Copy protected Audio:

For our protected audio test we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available for this test: 

Westlife: World of our own is protected with Cactus data shield 100. 

Natalie Imbruglias White lilies Island. This disc is protected with Cactus datashield 200 

 Shakira: Laundry service, that is protected with Key2Audio version 2. 

And finally Celine Dion: A new day has come, that is protected with key2audio version 3

Results:

The Memorex Dual-X is not your number one choice for reading protected audio discs as it was only able to read the Cactus data shield 200 protected disc. CloneCD gave us the same reading results as Exact Audio Copy; only the cactus data shield 200 disc was readable.

Overburning:

To test the overburning capabilities of the Memorex we used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed. According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn to more than 99 minutes:

To make sure that it actually works we wrote a 99 minutes disc in Nero Burning ROM: 

And the recording went successful as the above picture shows. (Notice that you must have Nero version 6.0.0.15 or newer, since older versions have a bug that makes overburning fail with this particular drive).

And then we tested the readability of the disc in Nero CD/DVD Speed: 

The drive read the disc at full speed to the end of the disc. Nero CD/DVD speed reported a positioning error when trying to do a full seek on the disc. Because of this we copied all files on the disc to our hard drive to test the real readability, and all files were copied without any problems.

Now that concludes our Memorex Dual-X review, head on to the last page to read our conclusion…