Brian writes: > On Tue, 3 Dec 2002 rpgoldman at real-time.com wrote: > > > I just picked up a spindle of 4x Memorex CD-RWs. > > Did you try it with speed=4? > > The older discs were more sensitive to the write speed than they are now, > so it may be that your new drive (I assume 32-48x ish) is trying to write > 4x media an obscene speed and cdrecord is failing. I don't THINK that can be it (although I'll try). The one CD-RW I had before this was an old one (Philips CD-RW 74min 640MB) that I got when I bought a burner for a different machine. That works fine. These are Memorex CD-RW 80min, 700 MB and don't work. Don't blank; don't write. Here's what I see when I try to use one of these puppies (two errors, one a blanking error and one a writing error): >cdrecord -force blank=fast dev=1,0,0 Cdrecord 1.11a31 (i586-mandrake-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2002 Jörg Schilling scsidev: '1,0,0' scsibus: 1 target: 0 lun: 0 Linux sg driver version: 3.1.22 Using libscg version 'schily-0.6' Device type : Removable CD-ROM Version : 0 Response Format: 1 Vendor_info : 'AOPEN ' Identifikation : 'CD-RW CRW3248 ' Revision : '1.09' Device seems to be: Generic CD-ROM. Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R driver (mmc_cdr). Driver flags : SWABAUDIO BURNFREE FORCESPEED Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R RAW/R96R cdrecord: Input/output error. read disk info: scsi sendcmd: no error CDB: 51 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION) Sense Bytes: 70 00 04 00 00 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 09 01 00 00 Sense Key: 0x4 Hardware Error, Segment 0 Sense Code: 0x09 Qual 0x01 (tracking servo failure) Fru 0x0 Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid) cmd finished after 0.000s timeout 240s cdrecord: Cannot get disk type. cdrecord: Input/output error. blank unit: scsi sendcmd: no error CDB: A1 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION) Sense Bytes: 70 00 04 00 00 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 09 01 00 00 Sense Key: 0x4 Hardware Error, Segment 0 Sense Code: 0x09 Qual 0x01 (tracking servo failure) Fru 0x0 Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid) cmd finished after 0.001s timeout 9600s ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > cdrecord -speed=4 dev=1,0,0 /tmp/copv-backup-27-nov-2002.img Cdrecord 1.11a31 (i586-mandrake-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2002 Jörg Schilling scsidev: '1,0,0' scsibus: 1 target: 0 lun: 0 Linux sg driver version: 3.1.22 Using libscg version 'schily-0.6' Device type : Removable CD-ROM Version : 0 Response Format: 1 Vendor_info : 'AOPEN ' Identifikation : 'CD-RW CRW3248 ' Revision : '1.09' Device seems to be: Generic mmc CD-RW. Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R driver (mmc_cdr). Driver flags : SWABAUDIO BURNFREE FORCESPEED Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R RAW/R96R cdrecord: Input/output error. test unit ready: scsi sendcmd: no error CDB: 00 00 00 00 00 00 status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION) Sense Bytes: 70 00 02 00 00 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 3A 00 00 00 Sense Key: 0x2 Not Ready, Segment 0 Sense Code: 0x3A Qual 0x00 (medium not present) Fru 0x0 Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid) cmd finished after 0.000s timeout 40s cdrecord: No disk / Wrong disk! A little googling suggests that others (on Windows as well as Linux) are having trouble with these disks: Regarding 700MB versus 650MB cds, from cdrfaq.org: Subject: [3-8-1] How well do 80-minute CD-R blanks work? (2001/08/27) In general, they work just fine. Reports from people who have used 80-minute CD-Rs indicate that compatibility with different CD-ROM drives is very good. However, bear in mind the following statement, which was sent by e-mail from a TDK representative: "The CD-R80 is a special product developed by TDK to meet the application needs of software developers and music studios. To achieve its 80 minute recording time, track pitch and scanning velocity specification tolerances had to be minimized, reducing the margin of error between drive and media. This means limited compatibility between some CD-Recorders and CD-ROM Readers. If you intend to use this recording length, please check with your hardware manufacturer. Use of the CD-R80 is at one's own risk. No guarantees of performance are made by TDK." Whether it's better to use 80-minute discs or "overburning" (described in the next section) is a worthy subject for debate. Both can cause problems on different CD-ROM drives, and not all recorders are capable of doing one or the other. Because of consumer demand, nearly all recent drives can do both. An 80-minute disc has roughly 360,000 sectors instead of the usual 333,000. This increases the CD-ROM capacity from 650MB to 703MB. I think it's time to take these back to OfficeMax.... And I recommend you all dodge them, too. R