I actually bought the WH16NS40 to redump PS3 games, as it's one of the few PC drives that can read PS3 discs, but I figured I'd test how it fares with Libcrypt PS1 games.
The WH16NS40 is an internal drive from the mid 2010s, still very popular and very easy to obtain new, so it's a very common pick if you have a desktop that still has 5.25'' bays (and if you don't, you can just use a USB to SATA adapter). I should note that my drive is flashed with LibreDrive, so it reports itself as WH16NS60, however this does not affect writing capabilities.
The bottom line - It does work. See below for the exact test.
The game I used was Final Fantasy VIII, PAL version, as it's known to be Libcrypt protected, and furthermore, it straight up doesn't boot if the key is missing, unlike some other games, that only break after a bit of gameplay. This saves me the need of playing the game (or at least part of it) multiple times just to see if it works. I don't currently have a real working PS1, so I used DuckStation, as it's a very accurate emulator.
The software used was CloneCD (yes, that ancient app) using the "Game CD" profile for both reading and writing.
Reading
I've ripped the original disc using CloneCD, then used psxt001z to create an SBI file form the CloneCD subchannel data file. The created file was 11KB in size. That's around 10 times larger than the reference SBI file downloaded from redump. The difference can be explained due to some minor scratches on the disc, as my copy of the game is not brand new.
Anyway, even though the SBI did contain some extra junk, it did contain the proper keys, because the game booted just fine. This means that the WH16NS40, despite being a relatively modern drive, is capable of reading Libcrypt keys from the subchannel data.
Writing - Control phase
I've intentionally used ImgBurn, which does not support writing subchannel data, in order to create a "bad" copy as reference. I've then re-ripped it and created another SBI file. It was 720KB in size, and was all junk. The fact that it wasn't completely empty was probably because I used a pretty old CD-RW for the test. Anyway, as expected this SBI file did not work in DuckStation, and I just got a black screen. This is good because it does prove that without the proper key, FFVIII straight up doesn't boot, saving me the need to play through the game.
Writing - Test phase
This time, I've used CloneCD to burn the disc, including all subchannel data, to the same CD-RW (after full erase). Then I re-ripped it again, and created yet another SBI file, which was 721KB in size this time, again full of junk because of the old and scratched CD-RW - but it did contain the Libcrypt keys because this SBI file worked and DuckStation was able to boot the game. This means that the WH16NS40 is able to write Libcrypt keys to discs, giving you an opportunity to play Libcrypt proteced backups on real (modded) hardware without having to use any cracks.
Cheers!
The WH16NS40 is an internal drive from the mid 2010s, still very popular and very easy to obtain new, so it's a very common pick if you have a desktop that still has 5.25'' bays (and if you don't, you can just use a USB to SATA adapter). I should note that my drive is flashed with LibreDrive, so it reports itself as WH16NS60, however this does not affect writing capabilities.
The bottom line - It does work. See below for the exact test.
The game I used was Final Fantasy VIII, PAL version, as it's known to be Libcrypt protected, and furthermore, it straight up doesn't boot if the key is missing, unlike some other games, that only break after a bit of gameplay. This saves me the need of playing the game (or at least part of it) multiple times just to see if it works. I don't currently have a real working PS1, so I used DuckStation, as it's a very accurate emulator.
The software used was CloneCD (yes, that ancient app) using the "Game CD" profile for both reading and writing.
Reading
I've ripped the original disc using CloneCD, then used psxt001z to create an SBI file form the CloneCD subchannel data file. The created file was 11KB in size. That's around 10 times larger than the reference SBI file downloaded from redump. The difference can be explained due to some minor scratches on the disc, as my copy of the game is not brand new.
Anyway, even though the SBI did contain some extra junk, it did contain the proper keys, because the game booted just fine. This means that the WH16NS40, despite being a relatively modern drive, is capable of reading Libcrypt keys from the subchannel data.
Writing - Control phase
I've intentionally used ImgBurn, which does not support writing subchannel data, in order to create a "bad" copy as reference. I've then re-ripped it and created another SBI file. It was 720KB in size, and was all junk. The fact that it wasn't completely empty was probably because I used a pretty old CD-RW for the test. Anyway, as expected this SBI file did not work in DuckStation, and I just got a black screen. This is good because it does prove that without the proper key, FFVIII straight up doesn't boot, saving me the need to play through the game.
Writing - Test phase
This time, I've used CloneCD to burn the disc, including all subchannel data, to the same CD-RW (after full erase). Then I re-ripped it again, and created yet another SBI file, which was 721KB in size this time, again full of junk because of the old and scratched CD-RW - but it did contain the Libcrypt keys because this SBI file worked and DuckStation was able to boot the game. This means that the WH16NS40 is able to write Libcrypt keys to discs, giving you an opportunity to play Libcrypt proteced backups on real (modded) hardware without having to use any cracks.
Cheers!
