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Got problems with inconsistant burns? Grogey's problem solving guide.
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grogey
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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8. May 2004 @ 19:42 |
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Grogey's Guide to Solving the Problem:
What problem you may ask. Well somtimes no matter what advice we follow we just can't seem to get good backups of our dvds. I was a classic example, I'd read something in the forums and then follow the advice and get a couple of good burns - jump up and down and post that all my problems were solved, only to burn another bird scarer. (where I come from we don't make coasters, instead we use the useless discs to hang in fruit trees as bird scarers!
If you aren't happy with your burns and aren't getting consistant results then here is my list of suggestions for solving the problem. You don't necessarily have to follow the order - as there really isn't any one particular order......just a matter of finding the tip that helps you. I've personally done each one of these and am today happy to report that I've now got 100% success rate on my discs - other than human error of course!!!
1)Check conflicts between software programs. For example are you trying to burn discs with Nero and have Roxio installed on your computer as well. It is well reported that Roxio and Nero fight like cat and dog - infact from what I hear, Roxio fights with every other burning software out there.
2)Don't do anything else on your computer while it is writing to disc. Unless you're getting perfect burns everytime and have tested that you can run other programs while you are burning - then don't!!! As ScubaPete says: Quote:
Don?t use your PC for anything at all while it?s working. -
I'M NOT KIDDING ! STAND BACK FROM THE COMPUTER !
3If your system still doesn't seem to be coping then use MSCONFIG.
In WindowsXP go to the start command and then select run. Type in msconfig and click on OK. From the dialog box you can disable everything or be selective. For example I couldn't do without my audio so I left that enabled.
Should your burns still be causing you grief then you'll need to take more serious steps such as those outlined below.
4)Update your burner's firmware. Your firmware is the symbolic arrangement of data or instructions in a computer program or the set of such instructions that you flash to your drive. My personal advice is to do a websearch first with the following search indicators:
MODEL OF DRIVE MEDIA TYPE (discs you use) FIRMWARE
E.G. I searched for Liteon LDW-411S RitekG04 FIRMWARE
That will enable you find links to opinions of how the different firmware versions available for your drive work with your chosen media. Update to the best firmware and with a bit of luck your problem might already be solved.
This is a good link for obtaining firmware:
http://dhc014.rpc1.org/ Or simply go to the manufacturor's website. You may also need a flashing program which can also be found on that site together with instructions.
5)Check your media - is it inferior quality? Many recommend RitekG04 and Verbatim Datalife which have Advanced AZO Metal Dye. Are you burning to far to the edge? Recommendations are that you set your burning software to have a custom disc size of 4350 to 4360. This makes sure you don't overburn. Again check that your drive likes that particular media. I have great success with SONY04D1 and CMC MAG F01 which certainly aren't considered "Best of Breed", yet they are reknowed for suiting my particular drive.
6)When was the Last time you checked your data cables? A very simple and inexpensive step to take - but if your cables aren't in good working order then the data isn't going to get through to the burner correctly.
7)Check the configuration of your hardware. Lets say you have 2 hard drives, and 2 optical drives: a burner and a DVD-ROM. In this scenario have your hard drive with operating system (windows version) set as your Primary Master. Primary Slave should be your burner drive. Your second optical drive is for reading so set it to Secondary Master finally install your storage hard drive as the Secondary Slave. The chances are that you will be storing your movie files on your second HD so to ensure the best data transfer when writing to disc you'll want your source(HD where files are stored) and destination (burner) on separate ATA cables.
Of course there are many other variables to consider when deciding on the end configuration of your system. Certainly too many to go into in this short guide. But some pertinent questions to ask yourself would be:
Have you got other hard-drives installed on a RAID controller. How much room have you got in your tower? Will the data (ATA) cables allow me to use this configuration? The maximum length for an ATA cable to be within ATA specification is eighteen inches. Any longer and you risk corrupting data on transfer.
8)Defrag your Harddrive. I help a few friends and locals out with their computers when they complain they don't know why it isn't running as fast as it used to. More often than not they haven't heard of defragmenting their hard drives. Disk Defragmenter puts fragmented files and folders together on your computer's hard disk, so that each one occupies a single, contiguous space on the disc. This way, your system can gain access to your files and folders and save new ones more efficiently. By consolidating your files and folders, Disk Defragmenter also consolidates the volume's free space, making it less likely that new files will be fragmented. Simply open up My Computer and right click on the drive you wish to defragment. Select Properties from the drop down list. Select the tools tab on the dialog box and then click on Defragment Now. Simple as that. It takes a little time - especially if you haven't done one for a while so be patient.
9)Reinstall your operating System. This can be helpful for fixing all sorts of bugs - and I've often read that a complete reinstall once a year is a good thing - for heavy users. Just make sure you have back-ups of all your software and documents.
10)If you are using Nero for your burning - go to the utility section of their website and download a neat little program called cleanpack. This pack contains a registry checker and a driver clean tool. The Driver-CleanTool will deactivate drivers that caused problems in Nero in the past. Then to ensure they are deactivated you run the registry checker. http://www.nero.com/en/631898242809219.html
11)Lastly but certainly not in the least - do a websearch and see if there are any modifications that you can make to your drive that will improve the quality of your burns. In my experience I was able to modify my Liteon LDW411S to a Liteon LDW-811S - so now I've got an 8x burner!! The research I did lead me to the conclusion that a 411S modded to an 811S with firmware version HSOK had much better results with the RitekG04s that I was using at the time - and will shortly be using again when I get some more!
### edited to stop getting chopped off at the knees.
_
Grogeybear
My best advice for NEWBIES is: "use the search function.
THE BEST REVENGE IS TO LIVE A GOOD LIFE
Aim for Charm not Perfection
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. May 2004 @ 06:06
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Staff Member
2 product reviews
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8. May 2004 @ 21:21 |
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deadcat
Senior Member
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8. May 2004 @ 22:10 |
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Quote:
7)Check the configuration of your hardware. The general recommendation is to have your Harddrive with operating system (windows version) set as your Primary Master. Primary Slave should be your burner drive. If you have a second drive for reading then set it to Secondary Master and so on
I thought having a burner and hard drive on same channel was big no no?? Dont you have hard drive 1 and 2 on primary master/slave, and cd burner/dvd on secondary master slave?? because the cd will slow down hard drive
I could be wrong though
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Staff Member
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8. May 2004 @ 22:37 |
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deadcat: The main thing is that you don't want to have the burner on the same channel as the drive you burn files from. If the files you burn are going to be on the Primary Master drive you should have the burner on the Secondary channel. If the files you're burning are on a different hard drive that's on the secondary controller you should have the burner on the primary channel. Theoretically, it doesn't matter if youi have a hard drive on the same channel since Windows is supposed to be able to use different speeds for devices on the same IDE channel, but in practice that's not guaranteed so it's generally best, as you said, to have the burner on a channel with either no other device or another optical drive.
The choice of Master or Slave is another issue entirely and I've seen computers not recognize a burner when it was set to Master (I had this problem with my first DVD-R) and other computers not recognize a burner set to Slave. As long as it's not on the same channel as a hard drive I'd say it's best to have it set to Master, but if it's sharing a channel with a hard drive make it Slave.
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grogey
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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9. May 2004 @ 05:43 |
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Mmmmmmmm must be pick on Grogey nite tonight.
vurbal - Sorry but I hadn't actually read your guide prior to tonight. Yes there are similarities but certainly they are very different. Whilst you have concentrated more on media and software, my guide tends to lean more towards dealing with hardware, and system configuration. Would probably make a great guide joined together.
deadcat & vurbal It is really all about which school you went to. I pronounce my nickname growgee while you probably say groggey. It is all about attending different schools of thought.
The reality is that with computers today any drive should work in any position - there are always exceptions of course. Most people have their hard drives on one cable and their optical drives on another. Fine, but if you want consistant On The Fly burns then having your DVD-RW and DVD-ROM on separate cables is a must. Copying is faster and more consistant when source and destination are on different cables. The majority would have their HD with OS as the Primary Master. Another consideration when deciding on which configuration to use is how much room you have in your tower. The maximum length for an ATA cable to be within ATA specification is eighteen inches. Any longer and risk corrupting data on transfer.
On my IDE channels I have my OS HD, DVD-RW, DVD-Rom and CD-RW........so which to put where? There is the possibility of buffer underuns when source and destination are on the same cable. And yes I certainly could swap my DVD-ROM with my DVD-RW but then I risk problems ripping if I was ripping to my OS HD.
I actually have 3 other HD on a RAID controller so the point for me is mute - my OS HD is used for just that - my operating system and program files. Of the 3 Raid HDs, 1 is used primarily for MP3s, another for movie files and the third for graphics and any other movie files. So perhaps I should have extended the information I gave to say:
Quote:
The general recommendation is to have your Harddrive with operating system (windows version) set as your Primary Master. Primary Slave should be your burner drive. If you have a second drive for reading then set it to Secondary Master and a second storage hard drive as Secondary Slave. The chances are that you will be storing your movie files on your second HD so to ensure the best data transfer when writing to disc you'll want your source (HD where files are stored) and destination (burner) on separate ATA cables.
followed by all the other information included in this post.
http://fdisk.radified.com/ suggests:-
Quote:
primary-master: boot/system hard drive
primary-slave: CD or DVD-ROM drive
secondary-master: CD or DVD burner/writer
secondary-slave: storage hard drive
Does it not seem erroneous to you? If indeed the secondary-slave is the storage hard drive then it is the most likely place you'll store your ripped DVDs so for optimum data transfer you would actually want to have your burner as the primary-slave - just as I suggested in the first place.
As I said earlier - all depends on which school of thought you attend. My tip - think outside the square and discover the colour grey.
Grogeybear
My best advice for NEWBIES is: "use the search function.
THE BEST REVENGE IS TO LIVE A GOOD LIFE
Aim for Charm not Perfection
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. May 2004 @ 05:56
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brian100
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9. May 2004 @ 10:34 |
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I have my system configured with 2 HD on primary, 2 optical devices on secondary.
As I never copy "On the fly" (which is fraught with potential disaster..and whats the point?..you only save yourself 10-15 mins) I honestly feel this is the optimum configuration for me.
Looking for my old AD |
Staff Member
2 product reviews
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9. May 2004 @ 18:11 |
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Brian100: I'm with you. I have a 40GB HD for my primary master, an 80GB HD as primary slave, my burner as secondary master, and my DVD-ROM as secondary slave. I also have a 160GB HD in a firewire/USB 2 enclosure that I move between my main desktop and my laptop. The more of your posts I read, the more I get the feeling that we think quite a bit alike. Hopefully that doesn't mean there's psychologically related hospitalization in your future. 8D
grogey: There's a lot of wisdom in what you said.
Quote:
My tip - think outside the square and discover the colour grey.
There's a lot to be said for finding a better way to do things. I keep all my CDs as images on their own hard drive and have a separate partition for my swap file to keep it from fragmenting my regular partitions, so I certainly see the value of a little creative thinking.
BTW, I wasn't implying that your post was a repeat of mine. There's a lot of common ground, but we chose different areas to explain in more detail. I just thought it might be useful for someone who was actually using the search feature to read mine for additional information.
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grogey
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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9. May 2004 @ 19:46 |
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Thanks vurbal. You are quite right - the two guides would actually compliment each other quite well.
And I will admit that by the time I read your post and deadcat's I was feeling more than a tad put off by some other replies to my posts in other threads. So I was on the defensive right from the start.
Quote:
There's a lot to be said for finding a better way to do things..........so I certainly see the value of a little creative thinking.
Thanks, this is one of the reasons for writing the guide - I'd previously followed all the general advice about using good quality media and upgrading firmware etc.
If I'd stuck to thinking black is black and white is white I would never have discovered the incompatibility problem with my burner and RitekG04 discs. I might even have ditched the burner thinking it was a dud and gone and bought a new one. Glad I didn't waste my money as since I solved my particular problem I've now backed up over 50 of the kids's movies with 100% success rate.
I've said this many times in different threads that it is really a matter of testing until you come up with a media that suits your own system.
brian100, I take your point about copying On The Fly - it is risky. However my own experience has shown that with the right configuration (for one's own individual needs) good original disc and media that suits one's own burner the results can be very positive.
As a single mum of 3 (don't anyone go there, because it is not by choice) sometimes saving that 10-15mins in a day is a blessing. When my firstborn was a baby it used to take 1 minute and 20 seconds to heat up his bottle in the microwave - I was constantly amazed at what I could actually accomplish in that time rather than standing in front of the microwave watching it go round!! :D
Grogeybear
My best advice for NEWBIES is: "use the search function.
THE BEST REVENGE IS TO LIVE A GOOD LIFE
Aim for Charm not Perfection
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. May 2004 @ 19:59
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brian100
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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9. May 2004 @ 23:13 |
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Vurbal
Quote:
Hopefully that doesn't mean there's psychologically related hospitalization in your future
I wouldnt worry about me, the padded cells and thrice daily soup ration is quite a comfort to a corrupted & warped mind.
It's the after 9pm punishment stick and tickle torture that finally breaks one down!
Grogey
Good for you in saving 10-15 mins a day, In your situation it must surely be a godsend. IF the "on the fly" method for you works..hey...go for it!. Personally I like to take the slow steady plod approach, eliminating (if that's possible!) the chances of failure. You tend to get "conditioned with patience" if you adopt CCE to re-encode! Perhaps that's the reason for my tired eyes, lumpy posture & flat bottom condition.
Looking for my old AD
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. May 2004 @ 23:13
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deadcat
Senior Member
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10. May 2004 @ 03:30 |
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Mmmmmmmm must be pick on Grogey nite tonight.
I apologise, was merely asking a question as im about to instal another harddrive in my computer and was told that was how to go about it. I only bought it up because most guides iv read say hard drive on separate channel to optical, but most guides iv read are out of date so i dont know ;)
however i just re read your guide with it changed and now it makes perfect sense so good job
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Staff Member
2 product reviews
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10. May 2004 @ 05:57 |
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And I will admit that by the time I read your post and deadcat's I was feeling more than a tad put off by some other replies to my posts in other threads. So I was on the defensive right from the start.
No big deal. I didn't take it personally. There's always a need for another informed opinion around here, and from what I've read of your posts I'd say you qualify. Just for future reference, you'll find I come off a little impersonal most of the time, so don't take it personally. When I'm being an ass you don't have to read between the lines.
Brian:Don't forget about the good meds. A good thorazine cocktail is a wonderful stress reducer. ;)
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