178 lines
9.9 KiB
Plaintext
178 lines
9.9 KiB
Plaintext
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How to successfully burn CD-Rs
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release 2
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by Burnin' of UNKNOWN Prez
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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
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FAQ, 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 the
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amount of fucked up CDs minimal. And that all from the viewpoint of a user
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who messes with CD-Rs only occasionally and doesn't do it daily for backing
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up his documents. I don't consider myself to be a CD guru or anything, but I
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do have 16 CDs and have written exactly half of them myself. And I have a
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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 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
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of CD-Rs: no-names which have virtually no identification about the
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manufacturer or the origin (this means such information ain't present on the
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cover of CD, I'm sure the clerks at the store more or less know where they get
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the stuff they sell :), CDs by companies about whom nobody has ever heard of,
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CDs from big well-known companies. The later ones are usually the best, even
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if the price might be 2 or even more times higher than the no-names'.
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Although, to be honest, it depends entirely of the place you buy. For example
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I've seen such well-known names as Verbatim cost exactly as much as no-name
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ones. And over the time the CDs get cheaper. But if you can't find cheap
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well-known ones then don't worry, from my own experience I can say that the
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no-name ones don't have to be worse. That especially goes if you have an
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excellent writer (again an example: one of my best CDs is a no-name). The main
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problem by no-names is that you don't know if the CD-R you bought today is
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from the same company as the CD (which turned out to be good one) you bought
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yesterday. But if you've got money and time you might test a little bit. As
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for the expensive CDs: if possible then try to have the CD-R and the writer
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from the same company. Theoretically there should be less chances that the
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burner messes up. Also if you still got enough money then buy additionally a
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second CD for cases when the writer fucks up and you loose the first one. An
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unused copy is good anyway (you can for example sell it to someone in
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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
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person has his own habits and it's not nice to get on someone's nerves with
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something you've just read about in a text file :) But if you do your own
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burning then some hints. First: the load. If possible then don't do anything
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on that computer, just let it be on it's own and write. Writers need that the
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data flows in a constant stream and if the HD suddenly gets a request from
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your word processor to load a 75MB document then there's a good chance that
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you can say goodbye to your new CD. Second: the speed. Unless you're in a
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hurry don't use the fastest writing speed. Today's hard drives are fast enough
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so there shouldn't be a problem with the data stream from HD not being
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constant but better to take care then to be sorry. The best would be if you
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would use the lowest speed your writing software offers. A good practice that
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several people employ is to not turn off the computer for the night but let it
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write. Even in the lowest speed it'll be ready in the morning (actually it'll
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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
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which let's you 'move' the files to CD-R then don't use this opportunity. Why?
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You MUST test the CD first. Although writers are getting better and better the
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process of burning CD-Rs is still an art with many dangers (which usually
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result in a defected CD) in it so one must be careful. That especially goes
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when the CD is going to be read in a different device than the one it was
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written. The best would be if you take the CD home and test it. If it's OK
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then you (or the owner of the computer where the CD was written) can erase the
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files. So how to test? The easiest way is to copy everything to HD. If no
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"Can't copy from drive x" messages appear then you don't have to worry about
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read errors. That of course doesn't necessarily mean that the data in CD is in
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fine. The best way is to use a data integrity checker which checks the
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previously generated checksums (which means you have to generate them before
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burning). If you use this option then take care how the checker treats file
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attributes. I don't know about WinS*** but under DOS the reported attributes
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depend on the CD-Extensions program and while the widely used MSCDEX says all
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files are read-only the freeware SHSUCDX doesn't set read-only to files. So,
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if possible, use software which only checks the contents of file and not the
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attributes. And as you are at it: use a fast checksum checker. 650MB (or 700MB
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or even more) is actually a huge anount of data and if you don't want to spend
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your evening waiting for the checker to finish then you mustn't use some slow
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utility. So forget programs which generate SHA or MD5 signatures, a simple
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CRC32 (or even CRC16) will do. There are two more things. First: the "data is
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OK" doesn't mean that CD can just be read. It means that the reading is fast.
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Not as by a classmate of mine: "I stick the CD into the reader in the morning
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and by evening I actually get some data from it" (although he was referring to
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the quality of reader). Second: don't be satisfied when the CD works fine on
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on the computer it was written on, test it on the machine where it will be
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primarily used. That usually is the case when you take the CD home and check
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it on your PC, but when the CD should for example go to a friend as her
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birthday gift then try that CD on her computer. There will always be the
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possibility that some x reader won't like the CD, but as long as the computer
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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
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everybody owns a CD-burner. Only those who REALLY need it, have more money
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and/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 it
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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 a
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new one when the writing fails or your computer refuses to read the CD. That
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especially applies when he/she also provides the CD-R and/or it's the first
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time you let him/her do this for you. If you don't get this guarantee then
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better use somebody else's service or be ready to get nothing for your money.
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The situation where the owner of the burner (and not you) gets the CD-R has
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some 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 (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)
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a CD there's exactly 1 who hasn't experienced an unsuccessful write. And
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that's only because he has 1 CD-R. The more CDs you make the bigger the chance
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that the next one will be a failure. So be prepared for it. That doesn't mean
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that you have to sweat by every writing session. What shall happen that will
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happen. It's like death: sooner or later it gets everyone. Relax, man, don't
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freak out, the failure by writing ain't so terrible as dying, I was just
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joking :) So take it with humor and get used to it. If you listened to my
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advice then you still have the files and you also have the second CD so go
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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
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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. At
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least when you listened and did what I told you :)
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