Wow! That's some thoughtful response! I wish I understood half of
it... :

Seriously, I'm glad I now have something to print out and show a PC
guru (something I clearly am not). If and when I get this fixed, I'll
let you know how I did. Thanks very, very much...

jk


On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 10:19:51 -0500, Trent©
wrote:

On 16 Mar 2004 23:23:07 -0600, Jonathan King wrote:

This problem has been vexing me for nearly two months now. Here's the
background; I'll try to be brief:

That's the first place to start. What did you do/change about 2
months ago? New hardware?...new software?

After years of trouble-free CD burning, I've been struggling with a
real problem ... burns proceed normally until read-out,
then fail. The many, many error reports I've collected (using several
different pieces of burning software) all end more or less like this:

5:00:44 PM #21 SCSI -1066 File Cdrdrv.cpp, Line 1431
SCSI Exec, HA 1, TA 1, LUN 0, buffer 0x07770000
Status: 0x04 (0x01, SCSI_ERR)
HA-Status 0x00 (0x00, OK)
TA-Status 0x02 (0x01, SCSI_TASTATUS_CHKCOND)

[snip]

5:00:45 PM #22 CDR -1066 File Writer.cpp, Line 301
Invalid field in command

5:00:45 PM #23 Text 0 File ThreadedTransfer.cpp, Line 229
all writers idle, stopping conversion

5:00:46 PM #24 Text 0 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1658
Set remaining time: 0:00,000 (0ms) - OK

5:00:46 PM #25 Phase 38 File dlgbrnst.cpp, Line 1800
Burn process failed at 12x (1,800 KB/s)

I've done all of the following, without fixing the problem:

(1) Clean install of Win2000
(2) Uninstall, reinstall all manner of burning software packages:
Adaptec, Roxio, Nero, Feurio

I'd use only 1...Nero. Completely uninstall all the rest...ESPECIALLY
Roxio. And I wouldn't install drag/drop.

(3) Replaced old Plextor drive (and legacy CD-ROM drive) with new
Plextor DVD/CDR drive and separate Liteon CDR drive. Former uses
Roxio, latter Nero as burning software.

Again...get rid of all except Nero. And re-letter your drives. Make
the burner W...the reader R.

Interestingly, as was true with my old drives and continues to be true
with the new onesupon reboot I usually get two or three full burns,
then the failures begin again.

Do some maintenance on your drive. Empty out your Temporary Internet
Files...do a chkdsk...defrag, delete tmp's, etc.

I'm pretty convinced by now that this isn't a software problem;

I'm not...especially when yer runnin' more than one burner software.

Make sure there's no firmware update needed...and that the speed of
the discs matches the speed of the drive. I'd run with just one
burner...at least temporarily. Use the Plextor. And you might try
burning at a slower speed.

And see if the problem is there when burning both data and multi-media
files.

one
error message I got using the Roxio program suggests that the drive is
"stopping" during burning. (Though there's no apparent impact on the
visible buffer reading, i.e., it doesn't drop to zero from 87% or
wherever it spends its free time during burning.) This made me think
that my four-year-old hard drive (C may in fact be the problem,
though it hasn't given me any other trouble.

I doubt if your hard drive is the problem...although available space
on it might be a problem. Again...clean it up and chkdsk it. If yer
not running NTFS, scandisk it.

I recently installed a second hard drive, which is labeled D: by
Win200.

Recently?...like, about when the problem started? Make sure your
jumpers on ALL the drives are set properly. When adding a slave
drive, its sometimes necessary to also change the jumper on the
original drive.

If you have both opticals on the same controller, make the burner the
master. Again, BOTH drives need to have the jumper set accordingly.

I tried copying the Roxio program folder over to my new D:
drive, along with some data files to burn, thinking that might solve
the problem ... but it didn't. I then tried to "reinstall" both the
Roxio and Nero programs to the D: drive (after uninstalling them from
the C: drive), but neither would let me do that: they both installed
to C: without offering any other option.

Could be a jumper problem. And I've seen a LOT of cases where a
program will get confused as to drive letters with yer kinda setup. D
has always been the default for cdrom's...so many programs will still
look at the D drive as an optical drive. As noted above, put your
optical drive letters at the end of the alphabet.

So here, at last, is my question. Really three questions:

FINALLY!!! lol (just kiddin')


(1) Does the error report above, or the anecdotal evidence I've
provided, confirm the notion that my old hard drive is the culprit?

No. And I'd say that its not the problem. But you might be able to
prove this by cloning the original to the new one...then run the
machine from that drive to test it.

(2) If so, what do I have to do to install one or both CD-burning
software packages to the D: drive?

I haven't installed either program for quite a while...but the program
should give you the option. Carefully follow the bouncing ball.

Is this a master/slave kinda deal?

Definitely. If the software can't see another drive, you won't get
the option to install there. But you should at least get an option to
install somewhere else...to another folder, for instance.

Double check your jumpers. Make sure the primary hard drive is set to
'master'...NOT 'single' drive...if you have those options.

Are there little switches and widgets and connections inside the box
that I, as a hamfisted English major, won't know how to deal with?
And if I change the parameters of both drives, will all the programs
currently on my C: drive (and functioning well) have to migrate there
too?

Just go into Disk Management and change the drive letters for the
optical drives.

(3) Or should I just bite the bullet, back up as much data to CDR as
possible from C:, and replace that drive too?

I don't think the mechanical part of your hard drives is the problem.

Try some of the above...and some other suggestions. Then let us know
how you do.

Good luck.


Have a nice week...

Trent

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!