Hi!

I know how to rip those nasty hidden tracks residing before the first track on a cd using EAC. The problem is neither my CDRom nor my DVD burner correctly read the track, all I get is silence.

My question now is, is it possible to create a cd image using a program so that the image will contain the audio data? I tried using VirtualCD hoping that I can rip the track using the image in one of the programs virtual cdroms. But VirtualCD refuses to copy an audio cd raw bit by bit, it uses the track indexes as well.

If I am not mistaken it should be possible to create an image if the cd is really copied 1:1; Because the drive is only confused by the track/index data or is it really unable to even read the sectors?

If creating an image will definetly not work I will try other drives, I have a few old ones left, maybe I am lucky enough to find a capable one.

Your only wish is to retrieve audio from the pregap of the first track ?
I suggest you try different drives. Both of my drives + EAC + EAC-image or append gaps to next track work. But I also remember someone mentioning that it didn't with his drive.
Using other drives should be much easier than the complex data image procedure.

I couldn't with either of my drives (Toshiba MD1502 and LiteOn SOHW832S), so I bought a Plextor PX-W5224A especially for the purpose (and the fact that is a beautiful piece of kit).

My old 8x Philips CD burner had no problems at all, I would easily rip it with EAC. The whole thing with creating an image could have been my last resort if all my drives were unable to read the disc.