🚀 go-pugleaf

Jason,

> In any case, 2mb vs 4mb is still a tradeoff as 4mb allows for more
> tolerance for multitasking when burning at 8x. Out of interest, what is
> the firmware revision on your drive and version of Nero?

Oh, please!!  If you're not going to spring the bucks for SCSI, then 
don't think about multitasking!  I wouldn't try to multitask with an IDE 
burner at 2x, let alone at 8x!  Heck, I wouldn't mess around with 
multitasking even if I =had= a full SCSI system!

At any rate, my firmware is just 1.01, and DMA is "checked" im my 
"properties" settings.  My Nero (damn crappy piece of garbage) is version 
"4.0.7.2 Creative."

> We're experiencing many problems with these drives and I'd be interested
> to know what your setup is like.

Well, let me just say that if you're trying to multitask, and if you're 
saying you're having problems, I'd gently recommend not multitasking!

The =only= problems I've seen have been quite clearly blamed on Nero, and 
trying to figure out how the hell to set it up.  The help is quite 
minimal, and we're expected to be virtual experts in order to make proper 
choices for all of its setup options.  I'm used to EZ CD Creator, and 
maybe it's less sophisticated, but it just got the job done, quickly and 
easily, and reliably.  I've had to figure out some "problems writing ISO 
table" or whatever -- I had to rename some files with really long file 
names.  And, the one that's really confounding me is this:

Nero always barfs on DOS executable files.  Like, for instance, I have a 
cable modem.  I bought Norton Utilities 4.0, and downloaded it from the 
Symantec web site -- no big deal with that kind of bandwidth, and I had 
the CDR (this was back with my old 2x JVC-OEM burner) to save it for 
posterity.  Well, I tend to make "master" backups of important programs 
like that, so I've got that thing (it's about 40MB) on a number of CDR's.

Well, Norton Utilities has a couple of DOS executable files -- stuff like 
Norton Diagnostics, DiskEdit, the DOS version of Norton Disk Doctor, etc. 
Nero stops recording when it hits those.  I learned that when I was 
trying to record some other files that included some DOS files -- I did a 
process of elimination, removing the DOS .EXE files, one by one, and, 
doing the "simulation," it stopped on each and every one that became the 
"first DOS .EXE file" Nero encountered.  I finally just zipped them up in 
a Zip file, and then everything burned just fine.

Well, now, if I want to make another copy of Norton Utilities for my 
next, updated "master" CD, Nero won't do it.  I guess I just have to zip 
up the whole 40MB thing?  You bet, unless I figure out that some setting 
is incompatible with the DOS executables.  Oh, and by the way, where did 
I get the DOS executables to put on my hard drive, so I could record 
them?  From older CDR's I had recorded with EZ CD Creator!

At any rate, those are the sum total of my "problems" with my Creative 
8432 -- it all boils down to figuring out how to set Nero up properly.  I 
see nothing to blame on the Creative CDR, but plenty to scream at Nero 
about.  I've recorded about 50 CDR's with the 8432 so far -- a mixture of 
audio CD's and data CDR's.

I'm just running on a cheap-cheap eMachines eTower 400i -- 400Mhz 
Celeron, with a bit more ram than it came with -- 192MB. <g>  My recipe 
for success is =very= simple:

1.  Never, ever record "on the fly" from any CD source -- get it on the 
hard drive first.  It only takes about two minutes to put it on the hard 
drive in a CD copy operation...  Just get any CD =out= of your CD-ROM 
drive =before= you actually start burning, to avoid that dreaded "spin 
up..."

2.  Always record audio CD's from .WAV files.  No audio extraction DAE -- 
get rid of that "table of contents" info that a CD comes with.  Record to 
.WAV files, and there'll be no problems.  This also goes for .MP3 files: 
pre-record to .WAV files first.  Trying to decode the .MP3 "on the fly" 
is some =massive= work for your computer to do, all while you're trying 
to dedicate its functions to burning the CDR!

3.  Finally, repeating what I've already said -- just walk away from the 
PC when you're burning.  Multitasking is =asking= for trouble!  That's 
why we got 8x IDE burners -- we're cheap, and now we only have to wait 
ten minutes before we can get back to business, after the burning's done.

Anyway, it works for me.  I hope some of this info helps, and good luck!
-- 
Tom Hoots
thoots@home.com