166 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
166 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
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How to successfully burn CD-Rs
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ver. 1.0
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by Burnin' of UNKNOWN Prez
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November 19, 2000
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Introduction
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No matter what you're thinking: this text file is not a CD-ROM or CD-R FAQ,
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I don't explain how CD burning works or anything like that. What I do is
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give some advice about how to successfully write CD-Rs and how to keep
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the amount of fucked up CDs minimal. And that all from the viewpoint of a
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user who messes with CD-Rs only once in a while and doesn't do that daily
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for backing up his documents. I don't consider myself to be a CD guru or
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anything, but I have a couple of CDs and have written about half of them
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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
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important. You're right. But it's still secondary, the writer comes first.
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Why? Because no matter how good the CD is, if the burner is not working
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correctly then you'll have just for fun thrown out money and time. And if
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the device is top class then you'll probably get a good result even if the
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CD wasn't the best. So, use the best writer you can get. If you use others'
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services to get your stuff on CD then look around and test all who do this
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kind of thing. It's worth the money. If you on the other hand have a burner
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and do the writing yourself then, well, good luck with it, there's no advice
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I can give you about the writer. But if you are just about to buy/loan a
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writer then hear around and take others' experience in consideration before
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you give out your 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
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3 types of CD-Rs: no-names which have absolutely no identification about
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the manufacturer or the origin, CDs by companies about whom nobody has ever
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heard of, CDs from big well-known companies. The later ones are usually the
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best, even if the price might be 2 or even more times higher than the
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no-names'. But, from my own experience, I can say that the cheaper ones don't
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have to be worse. That especially goes if you have an excellent writer (for
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an example: my best CD is a no-name). The main problem by no-names is that
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you don't know if the CD-R you bought today is from the same company as the
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CD (which turned out to be good one) you bought yesterday. But if you've got
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money and time you might test a little bit. As for the expensive CDs: if
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possible then try to have the CD-R and the writer from the same company.
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Theoretically there should be less chances that the burner messes up. Also
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if you still got enough money then buy two CDs: one for the actual writing
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and the other one for cases when the writer fucks up the first CD. An unused
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copy is always good anyway (you can for example sell it to someone in
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desperate need with a price twice as high as usual).
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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
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the person has his own habits and it's not nice to get on someone's nerves
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with something you've just read about in a text file :) But if you do your
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own burning then some hints. First: the load. If possible then don't do
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anything on that computer, just let it be on it's own and write. Writers
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need that the data flows in a constant stream and if the HD suddenly gets
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a request from your word processor to load a 75MB document then there's a
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good chance that you can say goodbye to your new CD. Second: the speed.
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Unless you're in a hurry don't use the fastest writing speed. Today's
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hard drives are fast enough so there shouldn't be a problem with the data
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stream not being constant because the HD can't catch up with writers request,
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but better to take care then to be sorry. The best would be if you would use
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the lowest speed your writing software offers. A good practice that several
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people employ is to not turn off the computer for the night but let it write.
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Even in the lowest speed it'll be ready in the morning (actually it'll be
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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
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which let's you 'move' the files to CD-R then don't use this opportunity.
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Why? You MUST test the CD first. Although writers are getting better and
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better the process of burning CD-Rs is still an art with many dangers
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(which usually result in a defected CD) in it so one must be careful.
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That especially goes when the CD is going to be read in a different device
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than the one it was written. The best would be if you take the CD home and
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test it. If it's OK then you (or the owner of the computer where the CD was
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written) can erase the files. So how to test? The easiest way is to copy
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everything to HD. If no "Can't copy from drive x" messages appear then you
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don't have to worry about read errors. That of course doesn't necessarily
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mean that the data in CD is in fine. The best way is to use a data integrity
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checker which checks the previously generated checksums. And by the way,
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there are two other things. First: the OK doesn't mean that CD can just be
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read. It means that the reading is fast. Not as by a classmate of mine: "I
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stick the CD into the reader in the morning and by evening I actually get
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some data from it" (although he was referring to the quality of reader).
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Second: don't be satisfied when the CD works fine on the computer next door,
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test it on the machine where it will be primarily used. That usually is the
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case when you take the CD home and check it on your PC, but when the CD
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should for example go to a friend as her birthday gift then try that CD
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on her computer. There will always be the possibility that some x reader
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won't like the CD, but as long as the computer for which the R was meant
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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 somewhere else, but here not
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everybody owns a CD-burner. Only those who REALLY need it, have more money
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or are more fanatic. Some of those people also offer the service to burn
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the CD for you. If they're really nice or are your friends then they'll do
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it for free. In other cases they charge you for it. Now a couple hints
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considering this:
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Make sure he/she won't charge you or gives the money back or at least makes
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a new one when the writing fails or your computer refuses to read the CD.
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That especially applies when he/she also provides the CD-R and/or it's the
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first time you let him/her do this for you. If you don't get this guarantee
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then better use somebody else's service or be ready to get nothing for your
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money.
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The situation where the burner (and not you) gets the CD-R has some
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advantages. Mainly because the owner knows which CDs the writer will work
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with. Also if the writing is unsuccessful then he is the one who has messed
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up and you can get your money back. And as last: less stress because you
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aren't the one who has to run around and find a CD. But there's the chance
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that you could (or 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
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them) a CD there's exactly 1 who hasn't experienced an unsuccessful
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write. And that's only because he has 1 CD-R. The more CDs you make the
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bigger the chance that the next one will be a failure. So be prepared for
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it. That doesn't mean that you have to sweat by every writing session.
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What shall happen that will happen. It's like death: sooner or later it
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gets everyone. Relax, man, don't freak out, the failure by writing ain't
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so terrible as dying, I was just joking :) So take it with humor and get
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used to it. If you listened to my advice then you still have the files and
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you also have the other 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
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end result won't blow up in your face. But, there is one difference: when
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something goes wrong then you can make things OK with minor expenses.
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At least when you listened and did what I told you :)
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