had it with DirectCD

Curtis Croulet wrote:

I conclude from the lack of suggestions that there is no substitute for
DirectCD. I'm trying to write a bunch of jpeg files. In addition to
DirectCD, I've also tried writing discs with Easy CD Creator. Unlike
DirectCD, it claims to go to completion and to write readable discs
(provided I use a write speed of 8x or less), but they are not in fact
readable on any of the three computers in my house.

I suppose it's possible that it's the CD burner (PlexWriter 16/10/40A)
that's causing problems, not the software. There's no way to know. I go
through a lot of discs and a lot of repeated tries with the software to get
one readable disc. Funny thing, I did write one good disc with DirectCD on
my first try (after a long time) yesterday, but I can't make another one.
There's got to be an easier way!

It's most unlikely to be the Plexwriter and improbable that it's your
software. That leaves the medium as the likely culprit. These days,
you'll have to hunt for blanks that write well at 8x or below; it's
easier to find a line that's compatible with your drive at 16x (most are
- I've been using Plexwriters exclusively for several years and find
them very tolerant).

However, if you're having trouble writing, try providing some usable
information - OS, what kind of write you're doing, what error messages
you get. For example, if you're trying to write a few thousand JPGs, you
are likely facing the problems discussed in "Arithmetic 101" in the
primer at my WWW site. In any event, the CD-R FAQ should be your first
recourse with the primer a more folksy reference.

Mike
--

http://www.mrichter.com/

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


Mike Richter (Roxio ****) splattered:

Graham Mayor (Mikey S-licker) peep-squeaked:

snip

You are a bit hard on packet writing. I've had no trouble with
variable-length packets; writing, reliability and reading have all been
flawless.

How about 'heard of none', Mikey?

-------------------------------
Mikey sees CD-RW everywhere (i)
-------------------------------

=================================
From: smh
Subject: Fragile Galore
Date: 11/16/01

Mike Richter (Slimy Scum) spewed:

Erasable media are not recommended for archival storage.
They're fragile and tend to be forgetful.

Seems CD-R is also fragile:

-----------------------
From: Jack Box
Subject: Salvaging Direct CD CDs?
Date: 7/1/01

Mike Richter (Friggin Scum) spewed:

I'm guessing that these are erasables. If so,
you are a victim of the forgetfulness of the medium.

my DirCD discs "in peril" are all CD-Rs (various mfrs)
not CD-RWs
-----------------------
=================================

------------------
What a Slimy ****!
------------------

--------------------------------------
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?)


Mike Richter (Roxio ****) splattered:

Graham Mayor (Mikey S-licker) peep-squeaked:

snip

You are a bit hard on packet writing. I've had no trouble with
variable-length packets; writing, reliability and reading have all been
flawless.

How about 'heard of none', Mikey?

--------------------------------
Mikey sees CD-RW everywhere (ii)
--------------------------------

========================================
From: Peter Kronenberg
Subject: Help! Can't copy files to Direct CD
Date: 10/1/02

Mike Richter (Slimy Scum) spewed:

Peter Kronenberg wrote:

I'm having a problem with Direct CD. I think it started when
I upgraded to 5.3.1.154. I upgraded again to 5.3.1.154 SP4,
hoping that would fix it, but it's the same.

It is more likely due to a problem with your medium
than with the updates.

Are you writing to erasables or write-once blanks?

Your symptoms are familiar to those trying to write
fixed-length packets to an unproven medium.

I'm writing to the same batch of CD-R disks
that I've been using for a while.
========================================

------------------
What a Slimy ****!
------------------

--------------------------------------
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?)


Mike Richter (Friggin ****) splattered:

Howard Kaikow (w/ Leaky Assholes) splashed:

There is nothing wrong with packet writing itself, rather the problem has
been the poorly designed/implemented, and less than adequately tested,
implementations of ISO/IEC 13346.
snip

The problem in fact lies with the error rate of CD media in general and
the specific problems of erasable media.

No Friggin ****, Mikey!

When Mikey was shilling for Take Two, supposedly a backup software, as
the second coming, Mikey spewed that it MUST use supposedly fragile,
unreliable, flaky packet writing format, and that's for it to work
IDEALLY !!

=======================
From: Mike Richter (Acraptec ****)
Subject: A note on Take Two
Date: 9/1/99

For Take Two to work IDEALLY, your drive must support
packet writing and you must have DCD installed...to do it.
=======================

Moreover, the supposedly *inherently* flaky, fragile, faulty, unreliable
packet writing format was good enough for BACKUP -- even when combined
with the supposedly *inherently* flaky, fragile, forgetful, unreliable
CD-RW media !!

=====================
From: Mike Richter (Roxio ****)
Subject: A note on Take Two
Date: 9/1/99

You may back up ...to a DCD-formatted erasable.
=====================

--------------------------------------
Mike Richter, were you born with
"Scam Artist" emblazoned on your face?
--------------------------------------

(Mike Richter, any Material Connection w/ Roxio?)

Thank you. In fact, in the distant past I *have* successfully written music
CDs, which seem to be easier than data CDs. When I did them, I found that
it was impossible to write a disc any faster than 8x. For another part of
your question, I've tried bulk CD-Rs from Staples and fancier CD-Rs from
Fuji and Memorex with the same result. I've now given up on DirectCD, which
spins for a few minutes and comes back and says it can't format the disc,
and tried writing the files with Easy CD Creator 4. Everything looks like
it goes OK (no error messages), but the resulting discs are unreadable. If
I tell it to close the disc when finished, it comes back with a message that
it can't write to a blank disc. I'm using Win 98SE.
--
Curtis Croulet
Temecula, California
33° 27' 59"N, 117° 05' 53"W

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

Mike Richter (Roxio ****) splattered:

Graham Mayor (Mikey S-licker) peep-squeaked:

snip

You are a bit hard on packet writing. I've had no trouble with
variable-length packets; writing, reliability and reading have all been
flawless.

--------------------------------------------
DirectCD Bug Sanctioned by the Specification
--------------------------------------------

================================================== =========
Mike Richter (Friggin ****) splattered (6/21/04):

Recent versions of DCD saved the user one step
when closing a variable-length packet session without
closing the disc: they format for the (presumed) next session
when closing the last.

"Save one step"! But the supposed benefit of the "save" is this:

===================
From: "Bob M"
Subject: Roxio Easy CD Creator & Direct CD 5.0
Date: 3/12/01

DCD 5.0 does not temporarily close CD's
so the session is always open, and most times,
unreadable on ANY CD drive.

They [cRoxio] hope to have a fix very soon
===================

Wow! The DirectCD bug is a "save one step" feature!

As I understand the spec, that's legal

And the DirectCD bug is even sanctioned by the spec, no less!
================================================== ===========

---------------------------
Wow! What a Friggin' ****!
---------------------------

--------------------------------------
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?)


Mike Richter (Friggin ****) splattered:

Howard Kaikow (w/ Leaky Assholes) splashed:

There is nothing wrong with packet writing itself, rather the problem has
been the poorly designed/implemented, and less than adequately tested,
implementations of ISO/IEC 13346.
snip

The problem in fact lies with the error rate of CD media in general and
the specific problems of erasable media.

That holds true even for the supplied CD-RW, isn't that right,
Slimeball?

======================
From: Mike Richter
Subject: DirectCD reports CD-RW as bad
Date: 10/6/01

DirectCD 3.05 reports my (one and only) CD-RW as "Unsupported or
bad media" yet Easy CD Creator sees it for what it is. It seems
odd that the CD-RW that came with the drive (a LG 8120B) doesn't
work.

The report is probably accurate. In formatting an erasable,
DCD writes and reads every block. In doing so, it detects errors
which would only be noticeable in mastering if you analyzed the
resulting burn - or if you needed critical data and they were not
retrievable.

Look for a line of blanks which fit your drive better. Alternatively
(and my strong preference), give up on fixed-length packets. They're
the most fragile and least reliable format available for CD
recording.
======================

Surprise:

==========================================
From: AquamanA
Subject: DirectCD reports CD-RW as bad
Date: 10/8/01

I also have the LG CED-8120B drive, firmware 1.02. When moving
to 3.05 DirectCD I got the same error message. When I dropped back
down to 3.03b, the message went away and the drive worked properly.

Just use the older DirectCD, your problem will go away.
==========================================

--------------------------------------
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 (Slimy ****) splattered:

The problem in fact lies with the error rate of CD media in general and
the specific problems of erasable media. The impact comes in the TOC,
which despite the best efforts of the implementers must at least in part
be scrubbed - erased and rewritten - whenever a file is written or erased.

"TOC" is scrubbed !!

Is the TOC the same as the Directory?

Wow! What a Friggin ****!

Because of the limited number of erase cycles the medium will tolerate,
fixed-length packets are implemented by holding the TOC in RAM.

Since it is in
RAM, it's subject to scrambling with a power transient or OS crash.

"Scrambling"? Cooking eggs, Mikey?

Risk losing data just to extend the life of media?

What good is the media with "scrambled" TOC?

Wow! What a Friggin ****!

The same limitation on erasures means that the disc is fully fragmented
by design - the sectors of even the first file written are scattered
across the disc so that - except for that critical area of the TOC - no
region will be scrubbed if a file is updated frequently.

Do you mean to say "that critical area of the TOC" will be scrubbed?

Do you mean to say "that critical area of the TOC" thus wear out?

What good is the cd-rw after "that critical area of the TOC" wore out?

Can data be accessed after "that critical area of the TOC" wore out?

Is the Directory in "that critical area of the TOC"?

On a write-once disc
with variable-length packets, there is some fragmentation

but since there's no scrubbing

Not even "that critical area of the TOC"?

Does the Directory not get updated?

Wow! What a Friggin ****!

and none of the spontaneous decay
characteristic of high-speed erasable media.

"Spontaneous" when that's contingent on something - scrubbing?

--------------------------
Wow! What a Friggin ****!
--------------------------

--------------------------------------
Mike Richter, were you born with
"Scam Artist" emblazoned on your face?
--------------------------------------

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

Mike Richter (Friggin ****) splattered:

There is nothing wrong with packet writing itself, rather the problem has
been the poorly designed/implemented, and less than adequately tested,
implementations of ISO/IEC 13346.

The problem in fact lies with the error rate of CD media in general and
the specific problems of erasable media.

The impact comes in the TOC,
which despite the best efforts of the implementers must at least in part
be scrubbed - erased and rewritten - whenever a file is written or erased.

Is it now TOC? Whatever happened to the Directory?

======================
From: Mike Richter (Roxio ****)
Date: 2/6/02

why you consider that the *format* of fixed-length packets is not
reliable

There are several reasons, but one predominates. When you remove a
fixed-length packet disc after having written anything to it, the
directory information is written back from RAM.

That means that at least portions of the disc are "scrubbed"
- rewritten many times.

The disc is supposed to tolerate 1000 cycles, but in fact read
accuracy goes down continuously with erase cycles and the 1000
number seems absurdly optimistic from the experience of most.
======================

Is the TOC the same as the Directory, Mikey?
Do you know what Lead-In is?

--------------------------
Wow! What a Friggin ****!
--------------------------

--------------------------------------
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 (Slimy ****) splattered:

There is nothing wrong with packet writing itself, rather the problem has
been the poorly designed/implemented, and less than adequately tested,
implementations of ISO/IEC 13346.

The problem in fact lies with the error rate of CD media in general and
the specific problems of erasable media.

The impact comes in the TOC,
which despite the best efforts of the implementers must at least in part
be scrubbed - erased and rewritten - whenever a file is written or erased.

TOC? Wow! What a Friggin ****!

================================================== =
Mike Richter (Slimy ****) splattered (7/31/04):

Each time a changed fixed-length packet disc is removed
from the drive, the TOC is written.

No kidding!

This Friggin Freak does not even know what TOC is!!
================================================== =

--------------------------
Wow! What a Friggin ****!
--------------------------

--------------------------------------
Mike Richter, were you born with
"Scam Artist" emblazoned on your face?
--------------------------------------