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To round off this review we will run some advanced tests on the NEC ND-2500A. These tests are: making backups of protected data and audio discs as well as some special discs test.

Copy protected data discs:

For this test we will use the new CloneCD 4.3.1.9 version to make a backup of games containing some of the most popular copy protections. In the screenshot below we could see that the NEC ND-2500A supports all available write and read features in CloneCD:

The NEC ND-2500A 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 uses a very special sub channel protection. 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. There is a few tricks that advanced users may use in combination with some writers to make a backup that will at least work in some drives, but this is still not a perfect copy.

Max Payne 2 is protected with one of the most recent SecuROM versions: version 4.85.04. 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. Note that some writers may still have problems with this version.

The protection on The Sims: Superstar expansion pack is also safedisc protected, this time it's version 2.90.40. Very few writers are able to reliably make a working backup of this protection. . 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. Note that some writers may still have problems with this version.

And Vegas: Make it BIG is yet another safedisc protected game, this time it's version 3.10.20. Very few writers are able to reliably make a working backup of this protection. . 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. Note that some writers may still have problems with this version.

The table below shows the backup capabilities of the NEC ND-2500A

*Only with AWS (Amplify Weak sectors) enabled.

Settings for CloneCD: Read subchannel data and write them uncorrected. Fast Error Skip: enabled. Intelligent bad sector scanner: enabled and set to 100-error skip. First we tried to write with AWS(Amplify Weak sectors) disabled, if that did not work we wrote again with AWS enabled, as a last attempt we tried the emulate option as well.

Drives used to verify that the backup works: Toshiba SD-M1502 and JLMS XJ-HD165H, No emulators or ATIP hiders is running while testing the backup copy.

The result with this drive was not among the best. It do not support 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns" and thus is unable to backup the latest safedisc protections, and for some older safedisc protections it needs AWS (Amplify Weak sector) to be enabled in CloneCD to be able to make working backups. It's also on the slow side for reading safedisc protected discs. The only good thing is that it has no problems with reading and writing subchannel data at full speed.

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, which is protected with Key2Audio version 2.

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

Results:

The NEC ND-2500A did only have problems with the Cactus Data Shield 100 protected disc; the others were read at full speed without any problems.

Overburning:

To test the overburning capabilities of the NEC ND-2500A we used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed. According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn to about 90min, setting the test value higher will result in an error message.

To make sure that it actually works we wrote a near 90 minutes long disc in Nero Burning ROM:

No problems with the writing so we tried to read the disc back:

The drive successfully read the disc but slowed down at the end. We of course also tried reading 99 minutes discs but the drive was unable to recognize them correctly. This means that the drive is unable to read and write discs larger than 90 minutes.

8CM CD-R and pocket card CD-R discs:

Now we will try to read and write to 8cm CD-R discs and pocket card CD-R discs from Memorex.

8cm CD-R disc:

The NEC ND-2500 did not have any problems with writing and reading the 8cm CD-R disc.

Pocket card CD-R:

As we could see the drive had no problems with writing and reading the pocket card CD-R disc.

Now, that concludes our NEC ND-2500A review, head on to the last page to read our conclusion…