Samsung 8-4-32 CDRW writing at 2X

[buildingacomputer]

CDRW: Samsung 8-4-32 with 4 mb buffer
SOFTWARE: Adaptec Easy CD Creater v. 3.5C with patch.
PROBLEM: It writes at 2X all the time.
OBSERVATION: Click on "CD-R TEST" button of Easy CD Creater shows Samsung CDRW's 8X capability.
MEDIA: Tried various speeds and both 650 and 700 mb.
SOURCE FILE: WAV and data files from hard disk.
HARD DISK: Quantum 7200 rpm Fireball Plus 30 GB

Manufacturer's web site shows it as 8x drive.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Teatowel]

Could be a couple of things...

What is the maximum transfer rate of your HD?
Do you have anything else on the same IDE channel eg CD-ROM?
Have you tried quality media, eg TDK?
Have you tried different software?

 

[buildingacomputer]

Thanks for the reply.
1) Max transfer rate of HD: ATA66 cable and interface. Max writing speed = 8x = 8x150 KB=1.2 MB/sec. I thought ATA66 would handle up to 66 MB/sec transfer rate and was substantially higher than the max writing speed. Or is this something that I have to measure?

It is a new computer and I have not much software in the HD, Windows98SE, office package, Internet Explorer, a demo game, that's about it.

2) On this ATA66b cable, I connected the HD as master and this CDRW as slave. Nothing is connected to the secondary IDE interface. Should I try moving CDRW to that interface? If I should, can I use a regular 40 conductor cable?

3) Quality media: I haven't tried TDK. But I used Samsung, Yamaha, PNY. Will get Verbatim and try that tomorrow.

4) Other CD software: Adaptec Easy CD Creater came with the CDRW. Please recommend.

Thanks.

 

[Teatowel]

Right..the first thing you should do is connect the CDRW to the secondary IDE channel, especially as it is free. You can use a standard IDE cable for that.

As far as the max transfer rate of the HD goes, yes in theory is should be 66Mb/sec, but in reality it might well be substantially lower than that. I am not overly familiar with Adaptec Easy CD..there might be an option to check the maximum transfer rate.

Are you making an ISO image copy of your WAV files or data before you burn to CD? If you are not, and burning on the fly, this could be a reason as to why you can only burn at 2x. This is unlikely, as most systems have enough kick to be able to do it without an problems.

As a test, get an Audio CD, make an ISO image onto your hard drive, and burn that back to a new CD. This almost certainly can be done at the drives maximum speed. I recommend using TDK CDs as they are amongst the best. Look at

www.cdmediaworld.com

for more details.

www.fadden.com is the "bible" for cd-writing, it might not help you with your particular problem, but gives a general background to the subject.

EasyCD is supposed to be OK, but lots of people, including myself, use Nero. Go to

www.ahead.de

and download a demo version, that is fully functional but will expire after a month or so of use. Nero checks the maximum transfer rate of all your devices before burning. It is pretty easy to use and will support all speeds and modes that your drive is capable of.

Hope that helps!

 

[buildingacomputer]

Thank you TEATOWEL. I followed the steps you suggested and found out what's wrong with my setup.

1) Adaptec's CREATE DISK IMAGE button was not even highlighted. I went to Adaptec web site and found Samsung's previous models upto 6x were listed but not 8x. Apparently, this new model is not fully supported yet by Adaptec's newest patch.

2) Adaptec web indicated that WAV files not in the standard 44KHz, 16 bit stereo could not be converted into a disk image. I checked my WAV files prepared by Jukebox. They were okay.

3) Per you suggestion, I downloaded Nero. Boy, that was one easy program to use. I was able to create a disc image and write the image at 8x on my Samsung 12x CDR.

Thanks again for the step by step suggestion. Without your help, I would be thinking about returning the CDRW to vendor.

 

[Teatowel]

no problem