Roxio DirectCD's recording speed can't be adjusted anymore...

Thanks to read. I already posted in Roxio's forums but since i didn't got
any response yet, i'll try also here. Here's the snip of the message i've
posted the

Hi everyones. Thanks to read. I currently use ECDC version 5.3.5.10 under
Windows98SE with a Sony CRX-140E 8x-4x-32x cd-rw drive. I've been using
DirectCD for my automated backups for more than 2 years without any
problems. But since about 2 weeks, the CD-RWs became unreadable after 2~3
days. I use the plurial since i've tried 3 different CD-RWs of the Sony
brand. I've even tried an old batch that i've bought at another store a year
ago...and in less than 48 hours, the disk is useless. If i try the disk on
the CD-ROM drive, i have the same result than in the CD-RW drive...it
searches, and searches and searches indefenitely. Please note that this
problem happens only for the disks written since about 2 weeks. All the
other disks(same brand) written a month ago or even those written 2 years
ago are perfectly readable. I went to the conclusion that the Sony CD-RW
drive may be defective or dirty (bought it in october 2000). I carefully
opened it's casing (i'm familiar with electronics) and blasted (gently!) all
the optics with a can of pressurized air. This dislodged a lot of dust. I
even cleaned and relubed the guide where the optic pickup assembly moves on.
Reassembled and tested the unit. The previously bad disks where still
unreadable but since the recordings were made with the dirty optics, i
wasn't surprised. I then formatted another (new) CD-RW and gave it a try
with a few test files. In less that 36 hours, it was impossible to add
anything on it, the disk was, again, unreadable.

Since i use BootIt NG, a disk imaging software, and i still have an image
made from the C: drive in october, i imaged my actual configuration, and
reverted the C: drive to the october's image. I then did another CD-RW burn
with some test files, but at the time i'm writing this, it's only been 4
hours since then so i'll wait a day or two, and will check the results. To
further check if the CD-RW drive is the culprit, i also made a standard
recording using ECDC in Joliet mode2 format. Now to finally go to the point:
I noticed that with this actual version i use ( 5.3.5.10 ), i can't anymore
adjust the recording speed of the drive. I remember that two years ago when
i was with the version 5.1 of ECDC i had some drop-down menus to adjust the
read and write speeds. Now with 5.3.5.10 all i can see (check the following
link:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/kilo.watt/i...cd_options.gif ) is the
maximum read and write speeds of my CD-RW drive without anything to adjust
them! So here's the problem: All the blank CD-RWs i have and the ones that
already contains data that need to be updated from time to time are 1x-2x-4x
rated. So if i have to buy a new CD-RW drive, most of them are now of the
52x-32x-52x speed. So my question is, will the new burner will try to write
at it's maximum rewrite speed (let's say...32x) on the 4x max. rated CD-RWs
i have? Is DirectCD is smart enough to detect the 4x maximum rewrite speed
that my CD-RWs are rated for and adjust the burner's speed in consequence?

--
Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
Montréal Québec
PS: 1000 excuses for errors or omissions,
i'm a "pure" french canadian! :-)
Come to visit me at: http://kilowatt.camarades.com
(If replying also by e-mail, remove
"no spam" from the adress.)

Welcome to the world of the Roxio nightmare.

You should copy the discs that are still readable to a more reliable
format (any that is not packet writing, not DirectCD, not Roxio, and
not CDRW). Eventually all of the DirectCD discs will fail and you
will have to spend much time trying to save the data, if possible at
all.

Quit while you can, and find a better way to do your backups.





















On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 23:42:05 -0500, "KILOWATT"
wrote:

Thanks to read. I already posted in Roxio's forums but since i didn't got
any response yet, i'll try also here. Here's the snip of the message i've
posted the

Hi everyones. Thanks to read. I currently use ECDC version 5.3.5.10 under
Windows98SE with a Sony CRX-140E 8x-4x-32x cd-rw drive. I've been using
DirectCD for my automated backups for more than 2 years without any
problems. But since about 2 weeks, the CD-RWs became unreadable after 2~3
days. I use the plurial since i've tried 3 different CD-RWs of the Sony
brand. I've even tried an old batch that i've bought at another store a year
ago...and in less than 48 hours, the disk is useless. If i try the disk on
the CD-ROM drive, i have the same result than in the CD-RW drive...it
searches, and searches and searches indefenitely. Please note that this
problem happens only for the disks written since about 2 weeks. All the
other disks(same brand) written a month ago or even those written 2 years
ago are perfectly readable. I went to the conclusion that the Sony CD-RW
drive may be defective or dirty (bought it in october 2000). I carefully
opened it's casing (i'm familiar with electronics) and blasted (gently!) all
the optics with a can of pressurized air. This dislodged a lot of dust. I
even cleaned and relubed the guide where the optic pickup assembly moves on.
Reassembled and tested the unit. The previously bad disks where still
unreadable but since the recordings were made with the dirty optics, i
wasn't surprised. I then formatted another (new) CD-RW and gave it a try
with a few test files. In less that 36 hours, it was impossible to add
anything on it, the disk was, again, unreadable.

Since i use BootIt NG, a disk imaging software, and i still have an image
made from the C: drive in october, i imaged my actual configuration, and
reverted the C: drive to the october's image. I then did another CD-RW burn
with some test files, but at the time i'm writing this, it's only been 4
hours since then so i'll wait a day or two, and will check the results. To
further check if the CD-RW drive is the culprit, i also made a standard
recording using ECDC in Joliet mode2 format. Now to finally go to the point:
I noticed that with this actual version i use ( 5.3.5.10 ), i can't anymore
adjust the recording speed of the drive. I remember that two years ago when
i was with the version 5.1 of ECDC i had some drop-down menus to adjust the
read and write speeds. Now with 5.3.5.10 all i can see (check the following
link:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/kilo.watt/i...cd_options.gif ) is the
maximum read and write speeds of my CD-RW drive without anything to adjust
them! So here's the problem: All the blank CD-RWs i have and the ones that
already contains data that need to be updated from time to time are 1x-2x-4x
rated. So if i have to buy a new CD-RW drive, most of them are now of the
52x-32x-52x speed. So my question is, will the new burner will try to write
at it's maximum rewrite speed (let's say...32x) on the 4x max. rated CD-RWs
i have? Is DirectCD is smart enough to detect the 4x maximum rewrite speed
that my CD-RWs are rated for and adjust the burner's speed in consequence?

.. --------------------------------------
Mike Richter, were you born with
"Scam Artist" emblazoned on your face?
--------------------------------------
(Mike Richter, any Material Connection w/ Roxio?)

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...mindspring.com
(Messages 10, 12 -- 34, 54 -- 69)

( No pipsqueaks have been able to prove ANY of the above is a libel )
( -- despite Mikey's supposed to have proof of misquotes!!! )


KILOWATT wrote:


Now to finally go to the point:
I noticed that with this actual version i use ( 5.3.5.10 ), i can't anymore
adjust the recording speed of the drive. I remember that two years ago when
i was with the version 5.1 of ECDC i had some drop-down menus to adjust the
read and write speeds. Now with 5.3.5.10 all i can see (check the following
link:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/kilo.watt/i...cd_options.gif ) is the
maximum read and write speeds of my CD-RW drive without anything to adjust
them!

That may have something to do with this bug and fix(?):

-----------------------
DirectCD 3.05
Fixes

For some recorders, it was possible to select recording speeds
that were not in fact supported.

Some older, low-speed recorders cannot correctly write high-speed
rated CD-RW media, but DirectCD would formerly allow you to try.

DirectCD now checks the media and
will reject as appropriate. === FIXED ???

DirectCD 5.3.4
Fixed:

Burn to Ultra High Speed media on non-Ultra High Speed Drives,
no longer allowed === FIX a FIX ???
-----------------------

.. --------------------------------------
Mike Richter, were you born with
"Scam Artist" emblazoned on your face?
--------------------------------------
(Mike Richter, any Material Connection w/ Roxio?)

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...mindspring.com
(Messages 10, 12 -- 34, 54 -- 69)

( No pipsqueaks have been able to prove ANY of the above is a libel )
( -- despite Mikey's supposed to have proof of misquotes!!! )


KILOWATT wrote:


So here's the problem: All the blank CD-RWs i have and the ones that
already contains data that need to be updated from time to time are 1x-2x-4x
rated. So if i have to buy a new CD-RW drive, most of them are now of the
52x-32x-52x speed. So my question is, will the new burner will try to write
at it's maximum rewrite speed (let's say...32x) on the 4x max. rated CD-RWs
i have? Is DirectCD is smart enough to detect the 4x maximum rewrite speed
that my CD-RWs are rated for and adjust the burner's speed in consequence?

Those MultiSpeed cd-rw should be burned at 4x. But, as you asked, is
DirectCD smart enough to do so? Based on the drivels Mike Richter's
been spewing about the requirement for speed matching, I rather doubt
it.

--------------------------
Is the sky falling, Mikey?
--------------------------

================================================== ====================
Mike Richter (Friggin' Scum) wrote (12/24/03):

Most likely, you are using the wrong media.

If it's UltraSpeed, it wants discs in similarly marked
packages - rated 16x and above. If it's High Speed, it wants discs in
similarly marked packages, rated 4x and above.

================================================== =====
And the sky is falling Chicken Little, go tell the king
================================================== =====

================================================== ==============
Mike Richter (Friggin' Scum) wrote (12/16/03):

Erasable media have proved unreliable. In addition if you have a
HighSpeed drive (rated above 4x), you should not use media rated
for a maximum of 4x of less; they are not HighSpeed. You may get
apparently good results, but the error rate is likely to be high
and reliability will be low.

-------------------------------------------------------
And the sky is falling Chicken Little, go tell the king
-------------------------------------------------------

================================================== =====
From: Mitch
Subject: CD RW problem
Date: 11/30/03

Mike Richter (Friggin' Scum) wrote (11/26/03):

************************************************** *******
Mitch wrote:

If you have a Rewritable Drive
you can use 1x-4x CD-RW Media

If you have a High Speed Rewritable Drive
you can use 4x-12x CD-RW Media & 1x-4x CD-RW Media

If you have a Ultra Speed Rewritable Drive
you can use 8x-24x CD-RW Media, 4x-12x CD-RW Media & 1x-4x
CD-RW Media
************************************************** *******

Yes and no. Your drive may or may not write to media of a lesser
type than specified, but the quality of the write is generally
much less than that for the specified type, which is often less
than you'd want to begin with. I did not say that it would not
work, only that "you're asking for trouble".

Double-check your data, though. There may be an UltraSpeed drive
which will write as slowly as 4x, but I don't know of it.

And the sky is falling Chicken Little, go tell the king.
================================================== ======
================================================== ==============

================================================== ====================

-------------------------------
Mikey, you are a Friggin' ****!
-------------------------------

Ignore these idiots; you likely have a dying laser. This does NOT sound
like a s/w problem and the Roxio psycho squad will find any excuse...
You are clearly getting a poor burn for some reason beyond s/w!

Are you using media of the correct speed rating for the drive;
confirmed??? Tried a few brands with the recommended rating??? Cleaned
the optics... you've covered all the bases...

BTW; use *only* discs speed rated for the drive you burn them on; using
4x RW on a 32x modern drive is asking for trouble...

Tim K


"smh" wrote in message
ws.com...
Usual psychosis snipped-

.. --------------------------------------
Mike Richter, were you born with
"Scam Artist" emblazoned on your face?
--------------------------------------
(Mike Richter, any Material Connection w/ Roxio?)

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...mindspring.com
(Messages 10, 12 -- 34, 54 -- 69)

( No pipsqueaks have been able to prove ANY of the above is a libel )
( -- despite Mikey's supposed to have proof of misquotes!!! )


KILOWATT wrote:

I currently use ECDC version 5.3.5.10 under
Windows98SE with a Sony CRX-140E 8x-4x-32x cd-rw drive. I've been using
DirectCD for my automated backups for more than 2 years without any
problems. But since about 2 weeks, the CD-RWs became unreadable after 2~3
days. I use the plurial since i've tried 3 different CD-RWs of the Sony
brand. I've even tried an old batch that i've bought at another store a year
ago...and in less than 48 hours, the disk is useless.

2~3 days???!!! 48 hours???!!! That looooonnng time???!!! DirectCD is
setting a new record!!! With DirectCD, the norm is about 5 minutes or
less.

---------------------------------------------------
Surely CDRW's don't develop errors after 5 minutes?
---------------------------------------------------

================================================== ===========
From: "BrianT"
Subject: Loosing Disk Space {formatting CDRW}
Date: 5/8/03

Mike Richter (Friggin' ****) spewed:

BrianT wrote:

Hi this is strange, anyone else get this? or can explain it
When I re-format a CDRW with Drag to Disk Full Format {EasyCD
6}, the space available after format drops by between 150 and
200 Mgs and I cannot get it back. A full format on a new CDRW
is OK. I have a LG 52x24x52x and use TDK or Packard Bell 10X
CDRW. This never happened with EasyCD 5.

The space you are losing is due to sectors found to be unreliable.
It's a good sign that the disc is developing errors and is ready
for the trash. You'll also find that formatting gets slower; it
takes time to retry verification and to mark the bad sectors.

If you insist on using fixed-length packets, you ask for that as
well as losing data.

Mmm, but if I format a brand new CDRW I get the full monty then if I
immediately re-format, quick or full, I loose 150Mg.

Surly CDRW's don't develop errors after 5 minutes?
================================================== ===========

--------------------------------------
Mike Richter, were you born with
"Scam Artist" emblazoned on your face?
--------------------------------------
(Mike Richter, any Material Connection w/ Roxio?)

.. --------------------------------------
Mike Richter, were you born with
"Scam Artist" emblazoned on your face?
--------------------------------------
(Mike Richter, any Material Connection w/ Roxio?)

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...mindspring.com
(Messages 10, 12 -- 34, 54 -- 69)

( No pipsqueaks have been able to prove ANY of the above is a libel )
( -- despite Mikey's supposed to have proof of misquotes!!! )


Timmy Kroesen (Pipsqueak) "Ummmmmm"-ed:

...OOOOOhhhhhhh.....g

...OOOOOhhhhhhh......

OOOOOhhhhhhhh.....

OOOOOhhhhhhh....

Stop that moaning you sicko. ;-)

(By DaveJohnson12)

"Tim Kroesen" wrote in message
Ignore these idiots; you likely have a dying laser.
snip
BTW; use *only* discs speed rated for the drive you burn them on; using
4x RW on a 32x modern drive is asking for trouble...

Have you ever owned a 32X writer, or any RW burner? Is this based on
personal experience or are you still parrotting of the rocket scientist's
crackpot theory that manufacturers are so cynical or incompetent that they
are incapable of or couldn't be bothered providing adequate firmware for
their writers.

Ignore the parrot.
Manufacturers still include 4X rewriting speeds on 52X writers, presumably
for backward compatibility with 1-4X media, though it's hard to tell from
the scanty specs provided for most models.

Just as several HS writers I have access to have no problems burning LS
media, my Ultraspeed also exhibits no misbehaviour with 1-4X media. The LS
media, some of it packet written has not faded after nearly 4 years
(obviously I can't make similar longevity claims for the Ultraspeed writer).
STILL waiting to lose ANY data from CD or DVD RW, can't make that claim for
write once media.

The one thing I wouldn't recommend is packet writing to 700MB RW discs
(though there may be others who have a writer/media match that works better
than mine). I have only found a single disc which is stable, 650MB discs
(even dubious, unheard of brands) have proved completely reliable, and the
same 700MB discs master with low error rates. If I ever lay my hands on some
Ricoh 700MB RW media I may investigate further.

Follow *all* advice at your own risk of course...g

Mine is to use the media the drive was *designed* for; not what it
*hopefully* may be backwards compatible with. Hopefully someone who
already had such problems will chime in...No; I don't use RW drives at
all; just read the common problems reported here daily for years...g

Tim K

"ned ludd" wrote in message
...

"Tim Kroesen" wrote in message
Ignore these idiots; you likely have a dying laser.
snip
BTW; use *only* discs speed rated for the drive you burn them on;
using
4x RW on a 32x modern drive is asking for trouble...

Have you ever owned a 32X writer, or any RW burner? Is this based on
personal experience or are you still parrotting of the rocket
scientist's
crackpot theory that manufacturers are so cynical or incompetent that
they
are incapable of or couldn't be bothered providing adequate firmware
for
their writers.

Ignore the parrot.
Manufacturers still include 4X rewriting speeds on 52X writers,
presumably
for backward compatibility with 1-4X media, though it's hard to tell
from
the scanty specs provided for most models.

Just as several HS writers I have access to have no problems burning
LS
media, my Ultraspeed also exhibits no misbehaviour with 1-4X media.
The LS
media, some of it packet written has not faded after nearly 4 years
(obviously I can't make similar longevity claims for the Ultraspeed
writer).
STILL waiting to lose ANY data from CD or DVD RW, can't make that
claim for
write once media.

The one thing I wouldn't recommend is packet writing to 700MB RW discs
(though there may be others who have a writer/media match that works
better
than mine). I have only found a single disc which is stable, 650MB
discs
(even dubious, unheard of brands) have proved completely reliable, and
the
same 700MB discs master with low error rates. If I ever lay my hands
on some
Ricoh 700MB RW media I may investigate further.

OK...thanks a lot for the replies. It been 3 days since the new test CDs
have been made (the one in DirectCD format and the one in Joliet mode2
format),and that i'm running on the october's image of the C: drive. Both
disks are still perfectly readable. This leads me to think that it's more a
sofware problem than a problem with my CD-RW drive...but it's too soon to
make conclusions. I'll wait...let's say a week, and if everything is still
fine, i'll revert back to the C: drive's image i've made 3 days ago. If the
problems are coming back withing the same 36~48hours period i've montioned
in my 1st post, this will confirm that it's not a drive problem. Ned, i also
think that even if i would use a new high speed drive with my old media,
setting the recording speed to 4x would produce results that are as reliable
as if i burn at 4x with my actual 8x-4x-32x Sony drive. Speaking of
recording speed, i still don't know if DirectCD will use the highest rewrite
speed that the recorder is able to perform, or if DirectCD would use the
highest speed that the media can support...still a mystery, and i don't want
to buy yet another drive just to check that point, unless i know for shure
that my actual drive is defective. Keep posting... i'll keep in touch. Bye.

--
Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
Montréal Québec
PS: 1000 excuses for errors or omissions,
i'm a "pure" french canadian! :-)
Come to visit me at: http://kilowatt.camarades.com
(If replying also by e-mail, remove
"no spam" from the adress.)










rated. So if i have to buy a new CD-RW drive, most of them are now of the
52x-32x-52x speed. So my question is, will the new burner will try to write
at it's maximum rewrite speed (let's say...32x) on the 4x max. rated CD-RWs
i have? Is DirectCD is smart enough to detect the 4x maximum rewrite speed
that my CD-RWs are rated for and adjust the burner's speed in consequence?