Problems with: Nero "In-CD" and Pacific Digital Mach 40 CD-RW

[jjflash1812]

Hi,

I don't know if this is a good place to post this, but hopefully someone here might have some suggestions. I haven't heard back from Nero or Pacific Digital yet either, but I'm really frustrated. I've always used Adpatec Direct CD in one form or another in the past, but I've read such good things about Nero here, that I looked for two things in a CD-RW drive--that it would work with Symantec's Ghost program for imaging and that it had Nero for CD burning. I found a nicely priced Pacific Digital "Mach 40" (40x16x48x) drive at Fry's for $90 with a $40 rebate.

Good news: it works with Ghost. (I've tried LOTS of drives that DON'T!!).

Bad news: It doesn't work with In-CD, nor Direct CD. Nero burns CD's OK, but I want the convenience of drag and drop like Direct CD.

Here's a copy of my email to Pacific Digital with more details.

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email me directly at: stp@earthlink.net also.

TIA for any help.

Stephen Porter
Los Angeles

-----------------------------------------------------------------


I recently (two days ago) purchased a Mach 40 CD-RW from Fry's. I read a positive review of your products in PC magazine and thought I would try one.

The problem I am having is that the "In-CD" software, which is part of the Nero Burning 5.5 that came with it DOESN'T work. It continually returns a message saying that the media in the drive is invalid. I've tried 3 different brands of CD-R discs including the one included in the package. I've also tried the CD-RW included in the package. Nothing works. Additionally, it is very difficult to UNINSTALL In-CD. I run Windows 2000 Professional and any attempt to uninstall the product meets with "Program is running. Shut down and retry." Of course it WON'T shut down until/unless you go to Win2K Task Manager and shut the PROCESS down.

I finally gave up and uninstalled the Nero and the In-CD and re-installed my old trustworthy Adaptec Direct CD--but THAT gives me the message that the Pacific Digital "Mach 40" is not a supported drive.

Infuriating. I bought this drive because I WANTED the Nero Burning software. But it won't work. Additionally my OLD software won't work.

What is going on? Should I just return the drive to Fry's?

Stephen Porter
Wasting WAY too much time on this.....

 

[zepper00]

I was wondering, do you habitually install software and hardware without visiting the mfr's web sites and making sure that you have the software and firmware versions that are known to work best with your configuration as well as the latest patches/updates? And reading their FAQs for known issues? If so, it's a wonder that you ever have any time to do anything but troubleshoot <g>. You may even need a Service Pack for W2k if it isn't already up to date.
In case you were unaware, Pac Dig doesn't make any hardware or software itself, it is just a packager for the retail channel. Look on the label on the top of the drive to find out who actually made the drive and the real Model No. and then drop by their site for the latest firmware update, if any (be sure to read and follow installation instructions). Pac Dig may have these things on their site too, but will almost always show up first on actural mfr's site.
Finally there is always the chance that your drive is defective. If all else fails, exchange it.
.bh.

 

[dexmanone]

If using a CDRW in In-CD, did you format it? Does the formatting function work? Have you tried removing the CD Creator and then then running In-CD? If you have, did you remove all Nero first, then remove CD Creator, then install Nero clean?

 

[jjflash1812]

Hi....

Thanks for the actually helpful suggestions.

I discovered, to my surprise, that In-CD *only* works with CD-RW's and not with CD-R's as does Direct CD. After formatting a CD-RW, as you pointed out, then the drag and drop functionality works.

I called Pacific Digital's techs and they said that they were aware of problems with Direct CD and that particular drive. They said that the latest version of the Direct CD *would* work with the drive--according to their documentation anyway.

I've tried all combinations of uninstalling and clean installs. The bottom line is that In-CD just isn't made for CD-R's (which really surprised me after hearing all the rave recommendations for Nero. I find the ease of drag and drop to cheap and fast CD-R's with Direct CD very convenient. I've reinstalled EZ CD Creator 5.1, with Direct CD several times and Direct CD just won't recognize this drive. I've got a message into Roxio tech support about where to go from here.

All this in search of an affordable CD-RW that will work with both Ghost and Direct CD! Despite the previous poster's snide remarks, these manufacturers are very lax about actually specifying what will work with what. Check Symantec's Ghost specs and you find only a bunch of older drives that are hardly even available--at least in the affordable price range. I used to buy SONY 140EX's which worked well with both Ghost and older versions of Direct CD, but haven't seen them at Fry's in ages.

I guess I'm really behind the curve as far as knowing where all this incompatibility stems from. It would be nice if buying a CD-RW were much more of a no-brainer. From what I had heard/read here and from techie friends I thought Nero would be *the* one program that would handle just about anything--but apparently In-CD doesn't handle opening and closing CD-R's for writing.

Thanks again for your helpful suggestions.

Best regards,
Steve Porter

 

[dexmanone]

that was either a fast "bump" or you forgot to poke at the keyboard before hitting "reply to thread".

 

[zepper00]

Sorry for being a little flip--my bad. I hadn't noticed that you were trying to use In CD with CD-R media. I've never tried packet writing on anything but CD-RW media and that has always worked. Yes, Roxio's packet writing software is more flexible in that it will write to CD-Rs and formats on the fly.
The accolades for Nero are for it's main CD-R burning package. The same high reviews usually also mention that the packet writer is just "good enough" for most users. Luckily, Ahead has provided utilities on their web site to allow you to have both Roxio and Nero installed and choose the one you want to use each time you boot up. Look for them at www.nero.com 's support pages. Good luck.
.bh.

 

[jjflash1812]

Thanks. I think I've got a temporary solution.... I've got a nice Antec case with plenty of empty slots, so I'm going to install the old CD-RW that works with Direct CD in another Bay.... Then I can use Nero for whatever and Direct CD for packet writing. I'll check with Nero's site on how to get the two to co-exist. A big part of the problem is that the mfg's of these drives and especially the software, really don't have great tech support--which is hard to do when you're selling these things like commodities. I wish someone would come up with a standard though--and use the Direct CD model, of course ;-).

Steve

 

[zepper00]

There are a couple of updates over on Roxio's forum in the support sections. One updates ECDC retail 5. to 5.1 and the other, dated 7/30/02, is an update for burners that have come out after the 5.1 update. Another updates the OEM ECDC (5.xx Basic) to 5.3 and includes support for all or some of the burners in the above updates. ECDC 4.x has no more drive updates coming, it will only work with those covered in the final update they issued last year (4.05).
You also might be onto something in having both drives installed. I recall that OEM versions of the old hard drive partitioning utility from Ontrack was customized so that unless at least one hard drive from the mfr that supplied it was in the machine, it wouldn't work. You might have to have the drive that came with Roxio in there alone to get it to install. Then you may be able to add your new drive. Just a speculation...
.bh.

 

[jjflash1812]

Thanks for the tips. I have the latest 5.1 Roxio Gold (or whatever they call it) version.

I just installed the older CD-RW in another drive bay. Configured it as slave on the 2nd IDE channel and voila! Reinstalled EZ CD Creator with Direct CD and it now sees the 2nd drive. So, it's a bit of a kludge, but I have what I mainly wanted--a CD that will work with Ghost to burn image backups and one that will handle the Direct CD stuff. For burning music CD's I've just been using MusicMatch Jukebox, so, unless I decide I really need or want Nero, I'm OK for now.

Thanks for the tips and help!

Steve