My Age of Mythology game along with some older ones are getting pretty scratched up and I don't think they'll last forever, although I have a cleaning disk tool (The one where you spray water on the disc and put it on the little wheel etc.) It doesn't repair heavy scratching. So I need a software that can backup some of my games, mostly older cd games. I tried Nero but it gave an error reading the disc which I came to the conclusion that they must be protected (silly me) so If you guys know of any especially free or a plug-in that will let Nero copy them I would be very grateful.

I tried CloneCD and 1 hour 24 mins later it was still burning the disk so I canceled the process, tried again and it takes too much time reading the games. I have Anydvd but it's only for movies. An app that works like Anydvd except for pc games would be great.

Remember that I'm a cheap bastard, would prefer if it's free.

I don't think there's anything for free. But you should give Alcohol 120% a shot, it's an image ripping/burning software. One of the best.

UltraISO is one the best tools to create backup images. It is not freeware however.

Since you bought those games, I do not see why it would be illegal to download an ISO copy of them via bit torrent. An ISO is simply a backup file.

yeah, just create an iso from the game cd using one of many free iso makers should take 20mins max depending on how scratched it is. Iso magic: http://www.mythusoft.com/download/ISOMagic_setup.zip is my weapon of choice although the above will work too. You can then mount the iso using emulation software like daemon tools if you ever loose the cd and itll trick the computer into thinking you've inserted the cd.

Wont work with newer games with copy protection so look after those ones, do illegal things or dont buy them in the first place!

ps. itd be bad to download it with bittorrent since you have to upload some part of the data necessarily to someone who hasnt bought the game.

Ah thank you guys very much, didn't know I had to make the image first. And yes I do own the games, but with repeated use and flying from one place to another it's a miracle it is still usable lol. So you can see why I asked for this. I don't have the patience to wait for large ISO torrents since my DSL connection is not that fast and i don't think the router is properly optimized according to Utorrent.

so Thank you guys for the info, I'm going to try them all.