Basicly, I have a few cds that are in less than ideal condition that I would like to preserve before they get any worse. At some point I would also like to make duplicates of all my cds so that I can use them in my car or loan them to people without worying about them getting scratched up and destroyed.

So, this is where the problem lies.... I have been trying to use EAC (I belive I have the offset set correctly) to bnow I have managed one correct copy (according to accurate rip and comparisons to the original cd) It seems that most cds I try end up havign a totaly different disc id etc, this one actualy had the same id and everything. Any idea why this only worked with one particular cd?

Thanks, any help/ideas are apreciated.

I'm not exactly sure what your question is, but EAC is definitely the way to go.

A Plextor Premium drive and ripping with Plextools was the way to go for me. Also do a search on this board for CD restoration.

My question is how do I create exact copies of audio cds? I manged to make one exact copy but most cds will not work in the same way.

If the disc is not in the accuraterip database, you have to either:
- rely on EAC's secure mode (can be very slow depending on your drive, but secure)
- rely on EAC's burst mode with test&copy to get matching CRCs (=> relatively fast and secure)
- buy a Plextor drive and use Plextools Pro (rips as fast as EAC in burst mode => very fast and secure)
Take your pick!

The disc is in the databse, the problem is that my duplicate has an entirely different disc id. Like I said though, I was able to make one copy that showed the same id and everything.

I don't really know anything about disc IDs, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was difficult to created an identical ID, and the one you did manage was just a lucky break.

Rip an original and your copy of that original to WAVE (Action > Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet > Uncompressed...) , and then use EAC's WAVE compare feature (Tools > Compare WAVs...) to check the two WAVEs. If they are identical then that's the best you can do.

You say you believe that you have the right offsets set. What is your drive and what read and write offsets are you using?

If not, it may be the other discs you are testing all have audio right at the beginning and/or end of the disc and a few samples are being lost dues to offsets. Many disc don't. More information here.

There are many different pressings available for a given CD. That's why you seldom get a match.
When Accuraterip says that the rip is OK, it is OK. When it says that it is not OK, it doesn't mean that it is necessarily wrong.

Is it possible that burning with pauses changes DiscID? If so, turn off the pauses in your favourite burn program...