Cloning Compact Flash for Backup Purposes

[Op-Bell]

You don't want anything that is a file copier. You need an IMAGE copier. That just copies every byte on the memory card to an .ISO file and can then write it back to make an exact copy on another SD card. This is an excellent program -
https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

One nuisance I've discovered is that you never know exactly how big a memory card is. They all say 16GB or whatever but the exact size is a little different because they have bad sectors that are mapped out and that affects the exact size. That's a problem when you make an image file from one card and try to write it to another. If the first card happens to be a tiny bit bigger than the second, the write will fail.

[Slotman]

Still trying to backup Aruze CF cards.  I have found that they are a TDK CFG8B type Compact Flash but when backing up the card authenticates perfectly fine but shows a GAME MISMATCHED error.
There has to be some low level code written in to a system partition that doesnt get copied over even when doing a byte by byte clone.

Something else I found strange is after making a .VHD of the original and doing a MD5 hash it is different every single time almost like the driver in the CF distributes the data differently each time its read.

Anyone successfully backup a Aruze CF card?  I have one that currently will not authenticate 1 out of 5 times and would like to get it to a fresh card before it becomes 100% unreadable.

[Stayouttadabunker]

I have a couple of questions for you on this.

The card that gave you the "GAME MISMATCHED error".

Did you use the Win32 Disk Imager program that Op-Bell suggested,
and does your original Aruze card still work?

[Slotman]

I have a couple of questions for you on this.

The card that gave you the "GAME MISMATCHED error".

Did you use the Win32 Disk Imager program that Op-Bell suggested,
and does your original Aruze card still work?

Original still works. 
The backup and original are 100% the same as verified by a hex editor.
There is some type of low level programming that has to be written in to an area that is not accesible without the proper drivers or software.

[Slots4me]

You need to use Windows7 or older

I believe that you do not want to put a CF card in a Windows 10 computer...

[autodestruct]

Or Linux (using something like 'dd').

Windows versions higher than 7 will index removable drives to make them more easily searchable in the future.  This often includes making thumbnails for large images, which are stored on the drive.  These changes make the disks fail integrity checks.

Anyone have a good source for Sandisk Ultra II cards that are confirmed to work?

[Stayouttadabunker]

Anyone have a good source for Sandisk Ultra II cards that are confirmed to work?

What size and for which gaming platform?

[Iamwally]

I know this is an old topic but I have not been able to get anywhere with writing these Aruze CF cards.  Not even for backup. I am actually trying to update my master CF cards to the latest master software and I cannot seem to get the card to write.  It's like there is some kind of write protection even though someone has told me there is not.  Wondering if there is some special driver or something like that that is needed to write these cards.

Thank you,

John