Hi Eve - RE: Writing CDs
Actually, it's a little more involved than indicated in Rocky's post.
First, if you plan on using Toast, which is the best (feature laden/easiest to use) CD recording software, period, then you'll need a Mac. If you're a PC user, you'll need to invest in the machine whose OS Microsoft has attempted to emulate, but, as of yet, still cannot duplicate for ease of use and intuitive interface.
Second, a number of data prep steps should be taken to ensure the correct writing of the CD.
1. Examine your data (Norton Disk Doctor) for master directory block errors/b-tree leaf problems/file naming and mod date corrections. This is actually fairly simple 'one-step' process w/ NDD.
2. 'Zero' your boot blocks (Norton Disk Editor) to ensure that any boot information from the source drive is not copied to the CD destination. Simply leaving the boot blocks unchecked can cause slow boot times if the CD were left in the ROM reader when shut down.
3. Optimize (Norton Speed Disk) your data. Fragmentation of data is the #1 cause of buffer under-run. Buffer under-run is the leading cause of CD write failure; the writer is asking for data faster than the system can provide if the data is severely fragmented.
4. Check file naming convention in Toast. If you are burning for 'standard' MS-DOS/WIN3.1 use, you'll need to ensure that Toast's auto-ISO naming truncation hasn't altered your file names. If you are burning for WIN95 use, you'll need a seperate utility such as 'DOS Mounter 95' to read such data into Toast (assuming long filenames). If you are burning for Mac, no additional precautions are neccesary.
5. Burn the CD in Toast.
Assuming a full disc (~650 Mb) you'll take about 20 minutes w/ a 4X recorder or 38 minutes on 2X. Same times apply to retrieving same amount of data from your CD-ROM drive.
Should you be burning multiple sessions on the same CD (say, 100 Mb today, 100 Mb next week, etc...) expect to lose about 15 Mb of disc space for file management overhead, and about 10 Mb each session thereafter. Should you be expecting to actually read those sessions, test your CD-ROM drive first with a multi-session disc. The Mac side of CD-ROM has been multi-session compliant for a few years. The PC side is still inconsistent. Whilst the MCDEX driver for WIN95 promises full compliancy, a number of OEM drives do not - that is to say, your OS may be able to deal with it, but your actual drive can't.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about CD writing. My firm has been involved with CD-R technology since 1991 - well before the mainstream of folks have ever heard of it. We were under continuous consultation by the writer of Toast (Markus Fest) for the implemenation of its feature set (before Toast's sale to Adaptec). Additionally, our firm stays at the edge of CD-R technology - we produced the first completely 'Blue Book' compliant disc ('Prestige Studios of the World, April 96) - before I get flamed, remember a 'QUAC' file is necessary for full 'Blue Book' - we were the first, and continue to pioneer the field.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY, I recommend JAZ as a much better solution for most users. You write to it faster, retrieve from it faster. You don't need to worry about multi-session. It can be treated as 'just another drive'. Just pop it in and it works. The drive cost is comparable, and (true) the media cost is more expensive. But for the reasons outlined above, the convenience is worth the extra money to me unless I planned on storing many, many, many, GBs of material for a long time.
-MrB |
