Are CDRWs unreliable?

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 16 Dec 2001 10:35 am

After the PRAM battery died on my Mac and corrupted the boot sector on my hard disk, I started doing a secondary back up of the disk onto CDRW discs (I already had a backup on another hard disk). I went through perhaps eight CDRW discs from 2 or 3 manufacturers, and about half of them failed the verification stage after the burn was finished. That's an awful batting average. My burner is the Plextor 8/2/20, and Plextor has a very good reputation, so I'm hesitant to blame the drive.

Have others here seen similar problems with CDRWs?

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<font size=-1>Bill (steel not out of the woodshed) | MSA Classic U12 | Email | My music | Steeler birthdays | Over 50?</font>

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 16 Dec 2001 11:21 am

The only CD-RW disks that I've used are Memorex CD-RW Platinum and I haven't had any problems with them, writing or re-writing.

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 23 Dec 2001 5:31 am

It has been my experience that the CDRW's are less reliable than the standard ones that do not have the rewrite capabililty.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 23 Dec 2001 7:47 am

I also use Memorex CD-RW disks and have had good luck with them. I have had bad luck with cheap and generic CD's, both CDR and CDRW. Maxell is also good. These are the only ones I will buy now.

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Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 23 Dec 2001 9:55 am

One of my students works for a software manufacturing firm here in Austin. They burn the software information onto blank CD's and package the product for the software company to resell.

His opinion is, paraphrased, "basically, a CD-R is a CD-R, is a CD-R. The advantage of Maxell or another "name brand" is that their quality control is probably scrutinized a little more closely." So there's a greater risk of CD failure on the cheaper brands.

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Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 23 Dec 2001 9:04 pm

Herb, I've actually had very little trouble with a wide range of brands of CDR (record only). Even cheapos. But CDRWs (re-writable) are where I have been having trouble. My failres have been on Sony (2 discs) and GQ ("Great Quality") (1 out of 1 tried). Obviously the latter is a near no-name, but with Sony I would expect quality to be good. One other factor I haven't ruled out: my external CD burner is in an enclosed case and gets kind warm. The read errors (which occur in the verification stage after a burn) may be due to heat. I may need to drill a buncha holes in the rear of the case for ventilation.....

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<font size=-1>Bill (steel not out of the woodshed) | MSA Classic U12 | Email | My music | Steeler birthdays | Over 50?</font>

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 24 Dec 2001 8:06 am

The CDR's that I had trouble with most were the Hotai brand. What I would experience would be when in the middle of recording a track, the recorder would stop recording. This would happen on probably 3 out 5 discs. With Maxell and Memorex, I have never had the problem, so I don't think it's my recorder (a Philips home stereo type recorder).

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Carter D10 9p/10k
Richard Sinkler