is Desperados so resistant ?

Try this:
READ:
thick on both read subchannels data from data and audio
thick on fast error skip
thick on intelligent bad sector scanning
WRITE:
burnproof/just link
select read and write speed at 4x
make me know if this works....I've been able to make 2 backups of the game...one from the original disc and one from the backup itself.
Hope that this can help.