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How to successfully burn CD-Rs
release 2
by Burnin' of UNKNOWN Prez
Oct 16th, 2001
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Introduction
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No matter what you're thinking now, this text file is not a CD-ROM or CD-R
FAQ, I don't explain how CD burning works or anything like that. What I do is
give some advice about how to successfully write CD-Rs and how to keep the
amount of fucked up CDs minimal. And that all from the viewpoint of a user
who messes with CD-Rs only occasionally and doesn't do it daily for backing
up his documents. I don't consider myself to be a CD guru or anything, but I
do have 16 CDs and have written exactly half of them myself. And I have a
couple of tips for the non-expert users.
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The most important thing: the CD-writer
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If you know this field then you'll probably say that the CD-R is also very
important. You're right. But it's still secondary, the writer comes first.
Why? Because no matter how good the CD is, if the burner is not working
correctly then you'll have just for fun thrown out money and time. And if
the device is top class then you'll probably get a good result even if the
CD wasn't the best. So, use the best writer you can get. If you use others'
services to get your stuff on CD then look around and test all who do this
kind of thing. It's worth the money. If you on the other hand have a burner
and do the writing yourself then, well, good luck with it, there's no advice
I can give you about the writer. But if you are just about to buy/loan a
writer then hear around and take others' experience in consideration before
you give out your precious money.
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The second most important thing: CD-R
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I don't know about the rest of the world but here in Estonia we have 3 types
of CD-Rs: no-names which have virtually no identification about the
manufacturer or the origin (this means such information ain't present on the
cover of CD, I'm sure the clerks at the store more or less know where they get
the stuff they sell :), CDs by companies about whom nobody has ever heard of,
CDs from big well-known companies. The later ones are usually the best, even
if the price might be 2 or even more times higher than the no-names'.
Although, to be honest, it depends entirely of the place you buy. For example
I've seen such well-known names as Verbatim cost exactly as much as no-name
ones. And over the time the CDs get cheaper. But if you can't find cheap
well-known ones then don't worry, from my own experience I can say that the
no-name ones don't have to be worse. That especially goes if you have an
excellent writer (again an example: one of my best CDs is a no-name). The main
problem by no-names is that you don't know if the CD-R you bought today is
from the same company as the CD (which turned out to be good one) you bought
yesterday. But if you've got money and time you might test a little bit. As
for the expensive CDs: if possible then try to have the CD-R and the writer
from the same company. Theoretically there should be less chances that the
burner messes up. Also if you still got enough money then buy additionally a
second CD for cases when the writer fucks up and you loose the first one. An
unused copy is good anyway (you can for example sell it to someone in
desperate need and ask a lot of money for it).
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When writing
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If you let someone else burn the CD then you can skip this chapter because the
person has his own habits and it's not nice to get on someone's nerves with
something you've just read about in a text file :) But if you do your own
burning then some hints. First: the load. If possible then don't do anything
on that computer, just let it be on it's own and write. Writers need that the
data flows in a constant stream and if the HD suddenly gets a request from
your word processor to load a 75MB document then there's a good chance that
you can say goodbye to your new CD. Second: the speed. Unless you're in a
hurry don't use the fastest writing speed. Today's hard drives are fast enough
so there shouldn't be a problem with the data stream from HD not being
constant but better to take care then to be sorry. The best would be if you
would use the lowest speed your writing software offers. A good practice that
several people employ is to not turn off the computer for the night but let it
write. Even in the lowest speed it'll be ready in the morning (actually it'll
be ready in less than 1,5 hours, so...).
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After writing
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When the writing's ready, don't delete the files. Or if you have software
which let's you 'move' the files to CD-R then don't use this opportunity. Why?
You MUST test the CD first. Although writers are getting better and better the
process of burning CD-Rs is still an art with many dangers (which usually
result in a defected CD) in it so one must be careful. That especially goes
when the CD is going to be read in a different device than the one it was
written. The best would be if you take the CD home and test it. If it's OK
then you (or the owner of the computer where the CD was written) can erase the
files. So how to test? The easiest way is to copy everything to HD. If no
"Can't copy from drive x" messages appear then you don't have to worry about
read errors. That of course doesn't necessarily mean that the data in CD is in
fine. The best way is to use a data integrity checker which checks the
previously generated checksums (which means you have to generate them before
burning). If you use this option then take care how the checker treats file
attributes. I don't know about WinS*** but under DOS the reported attributes
depend on the CD-Extensions program and while the widely used MSCDEX says all
files are read-only the freeware SHSUCDX doesn't set read-only to files. So,
if possible, use software which only checks the contents of file and not the
attributes. And as you are at it: use a fast checksum checker. 650MB (or 700MB
or even more) is actually a huge anount of data and if you don't want to spend
your evening waiting for the checker to finish then you mustn't use some slow
utility. So forget programs which generate SHA or MD5 signatures, a simple
CRC32 (or even CRC16) will do. There are two more things. First: the "data is
OK" doesn't mean that CD can just be read. It means that the reading is fast.
Not as by a classmate of mine: "I stick the CD into the reader in the morning
and by evening I actually get some data from it" (although he was referring to
the quality of reader). Second: don't be satisfied when the CD works fine on
on the computer it was written on, test it on the machine where it will be
primarily used. That usually is the case when you take the CD home and check
it on your PC, but when the CD should for example go to a friend as her
birthday gift then try that CD on her computer. There will always be the
possibility that some x reader won't like the CD, but as long as the computer
for which the R was meant for eats the plate everything's fine.
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When somebody wrote the CD for you
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Again, I don't know if this is being done anywhere else, but here not
everybody owns a CD-burner. Only those who REALLY need it, have more money
and/or are more fanatic. Some of those people also offer the service to burn
the CD for you. If they're really nice or are your friends then they'll do it
for free. In other cases they charge you for it. Now a couple hints
considering this:
Make sure he/she won't charge you or gives the money back or at least makes a
new one when the writing fails or your computer refuses to read the CD. That
especially applies when he/she also provides the CD-R and/or it's the first
time you let him/her do this for you. If you don't get this guarantee then
better use somebody else's service or be ready to get nothing for your money.
The situation where the owner of the burner (and not you) gets the CD-R has
some advantages. Mainly because the owner knows which CDs the writer will work
with. Also if the writing is unsuccessful then he is the one who has messed
up and you can get your money back. And as last: less stress because you
aren't the one who has to run around and find a CD. But there's the chance
that you could (and probably would) find a cheaper R.
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My reader won't eat the CD!?!?!?
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From all those people I know of who have burned (or let someone burn for them)
a CD there's exactly 1 who hasn't experienced an unsuccessful write. And
that's only because he has 1 CD-R. The more CDs you make the bigger the chance
that the next one will be a failure. So be prepared for it. That doesn't mean
that you have to sweat by every writing session. What shall happen that will
happen. It's like death: sooner or later it gets everyone. Relax, man, don't
freak out, the failure by writing ain't so terrible as dying, I was just
joking :) So take it with humor and get used to it. If you listened to my
advice then you still have the files and you also have the second CD so go
ahead and try again.
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Conclusion
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Burning CD-Rs is like the rest of your life: whatever you do, you hope the end
result won't blow up in your face. But, there is one difference: when
something goes wrong then you can make things OK with minor expenses. At
least when you listened and did what I told you :)