Been seeing a lot of posts lately.. and noticed that far too many of you coming into the scene, and are having some problems. First.. a large number of you are clearly downloading ISOS's. XBOX-SCENE does not condone downloading ISO's!

To continue.. many release groups to this day still use various versions of XISO by YURSOFT. XISO.. from it's conception.. has been riddled with bugs. Version 0.71 introduced memory leaks and DLL conflicts. 0.73 introduced issues with directory chain handling.. as well as file count issues. 0.80 introduced problems with FILE NAMING issues.

YURSOFT.. has done little to clean up these problems. Current version 1.10+ include BURNING features, and an updated GUI from original.. but YURSOFT still hasn't finished removing OLD bugs from their newest software. They seem to prefer to add new features.. whether needed or not.. instead of tackling the issue of BUGS.

XISO's problems are not limited to the PRODUCTION of IMAGE files. XISO can still royally screw you if you use it for EXTRACTION of downloaded or "acquired" ISO images from third part sources. XISO seems to have issues, either with it's own buggered ISO files.. or ISO's produced by some other flaky third part software. Some Directories get duplicated, others unexpectedly LOSE files. Minor File Corruption also occurs on occasion.

All of these problems are intermittent. Many people would suggest that they have burned a number of copies.. where XISO was used at some stage of the process.. with success. This may be true.. XISO will not screw up everything. In fact.. it has gotten better with each new release. However.. it still trips over issues that it has had problem with for 6 months now.

YURSOFT.. a small outfit.. produces XISO. He was quoted as saying that he actually "DIDN'T OWN AN XBOX" during early development of XISO. Imagine.. producing a tool like this without owning an XBOX at all. (kind of impressive it works this well actually)

There is a third issue to consider.. and the final reason for not using XISO.. is.. it does NOT PRODUCE A PROPER XBOX ISO! The format it produces.. is a cross between UDF and standard ISO.. kind of like a mutant. It's worse actually.. as it does NOT PROPERLY mimic the original MS layout for files.

If you have discovered XISO.. by reading the EARLY posts (Pre-August 2002) or from the tutorials and Tools sections of XBOX-SCENE.COM.. then at least you can be forgiven. However.. we are currently trying to convince XANTIUM to remove the old and obsolete XISO TOOL + TUTORIALS from XBOX-SCENE. If however.. you have done a search for XISO.. and read the hundreds of posts about how BAD XISO is.. then you'll understand the need for me yet again to REMIND new people to the SCENE.

Sometimes.. you may think XISO worked fine. However.. later.. sometimes weeks or months later... you may end up discovering that you have a buggered backup. Typically.. you may learn this from going a certain distance in a games.. and finding consistent lock-ups. Or worse.. when the day comes that you may need to backup your backup.. and learn that you cannot RE-READ the backup FULLY using XBCOPY or FTP programs!

So.. XISO.. from it's early conception.. to today’s current v1.10+ versions.. is buggy.. and flawed. We have some wonderful members here on XBOX-SCENE.. like XEERO and MR ED, who are willing and able to answer your questions about Burning your backups. I've also taken a great deal of time, $$$, to research burning backup methods.. and produce the X-S DVD Forum PINNED GUIDE to BACKUPS. The HTML of PINNED GUIDE is a cleaned up version of the same PINNED GUIDE. Both detail better methods than XISO.. namely GDFIMAGE and UDF DATA methods of Backing up.

Please.. find another means other than XISO to make your BACKUPS. If you are having problems finding GDFIMAGE because it’s an XDK tool we can’t point to.. try looking in the usual places.. Internet, Newsgroups, IRC, etc. Also.. you do the UDF method.. which doesn’t require any XDK tools!

New Release: xISO v1.15
>> What's new/fixed:
* Recoded xISO creator because sometimes makes bad ISO files, sorry to all ppl , and a lot of thnx to Shawn (scr.bladeforce6@verizon.net), who works as betatester .
* Added some tool button to the toolbar.
* Added xISO Studio, now you can make your xISOs like Nero.

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HAH! For over 6 months.. we've been telling everyone that XISO produces a BAD ISO! It's nice to finally force YURSOFT to admit to it!

Months of DENIAL by YURSOFT.. and people who have supported XISO as an ISO creation tool... and finally.. we get the truth! This campaign to get people to see the light has finally paid off. Now.. to get everyone who is currently still using XISO to switch to better methods.

In the weeks and months ahead.. XEERO and Myself will do research into whether or not the NEW XISO truly FIXES the age old problems it has carried along with it since the beginning!

Follow this thread.. and Postings by XEERO and MR ED.. for more Info!



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So... The WARNING still stands.. at now BACKED by YURSOFTS own announcement! If you use any version of XISO before Version v1.15.. you do so knowing now that IT CAN produce a bad ISO!

The jury is still out on v1.15 and up! Follow Posts by XEERO, MR ED, and myself for more info as we get it!

xISO v1.15 sources
>> Yursoft released the sources of his xiso(info) creation/extracting tool, because he will not continue development of the tool.

Official Site: http://www.yursoft.com
Download: here
(January 25 05:55 GMT+1)

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This is amazing news. Finally that author and his POS software are retired. Hopefully.. someone with some skill.. can put some time into that code.. clean up the problems that were well documented during the last 16-20 months.. and release something decent.

Maybe the sky will fall too..