CD Burner

I have an internal CD Burner but I don't know how to use it. Does anyone know how to use 'Adaptec' create CD program. I heard from somone that you have to close off your CD's so that other computers can read them. Does this apply to CDRW's or just CDR's? How do you close off the CD, if this is what is really required? I don't know anything about it.

There should be an option when you burn to close the disc...

just try to make a copy of a CD - it shouldn't be that difficult, and it's not like blanks cost a lot if you mess up...

Okay, I'll get some CD's tomorrow, but are you sure you have to close off the CD? Have you done this yourself?

I've never used Adaptec, no, but with Sony HotBurn and Nero, it didn't work right unless they were closed.

You don't have to close anything. The cd's will play just fine
once you're done recording. Try it. What have you got to lose?
A blank cd costs about a dime. There might be a special format
for burning mp3's, because you want a little pause between
tracks. You should rtm to find out. I don't burn music cd's; only
data and images. There's no special procedure for burning a
data cd: you just drag the files you want to copy into the
copy area and when you have them all there, set your
preferences and burn. An image is even easier, but I don't
think you are doing that because it takes a little experience
before you can do that. If you're doing a straight cd to cd
copy, you put the blank cd into the cd burner and the source
cd into the drive you are going to copy from. If you only have
one cd drive, then it's just like doing a floppy: put the source cd in the drive,
, tell the program to copy it, and wait to be prompted to
insert the target cd.

I've been doing this for quite a while, now, ever since they came out. It's easy once you do a few. With the first burners, the
technology was such that you were told to close it out. I don't know
why, but I never ever closed out a burned cd and never ever
had a problem because I didn't.

Easy CD Creator is a crappy program. You should get CDR-Win
from Golden Hawk, Clone CD from Elaborate Bytes, or NTI CD
Maker 2000. Those are the best. They burn circles around Adaptec.

Hot Burn and Nero are two other burner programs you'll want
to avoid. Hot Burn (I believe) only works with Sony burners,
and Nero will crash your system for you. You'll make many
coasters. You could try Fireburner if you happen to come
across it. It's a pretty good program, but I've mentioned the
three I like best. I use 'em all.

rick barclay

Rick, were you able to read those cd's on someone elses computer? I heard that your computer can read them but not someone elses computer unless you close the cd.

Sorry - let me clarify...

My CD's worked fine on my computer when not closed... I didn't try on others...

What messed up was trying to play them on a normal CD player - it would play the 1st track and then stop...

When you convert .mp3's to .wav then .cda you have to use a CDR and burn them all in one single burn.

Anyway this is why I'm asking the question. I know you do not have to close the CD's to run them on your own system, but I think they need to be closed in order to run on someone elses computer, or say you went and bought a new computer, than your cd's will not work on it.

When you want to burn sound files and you want them to play in a cd player on a stereo you have to convert them to .wav format and then burn them. I have adaptec, and it does everything for you. I copied a bunch of files and burned them onto a data cd and transferred them to a friends computer and he could read it fine.

I'll try it when I get home (in about an hour)

Test 5-6 of your disks, not just one. I'm going to pick up some CD's tomorrow. I'll get to the bottom of this because I can test my CD's at school.

Originally posted by Witch_King
Rick, were you able to read those cd's on someone elses computer? I heard that your computer can read them but not someone elses computer unless you close the cd.

That's a good question. I'd say 90% of the copies I make
for other people they don't have a problem. There have been
some games I've copied that didn't work on other computers,
but whether or not this is because the cd wasn't closed out,
I can't tell you. It could be any number of other things causing
the copies not to work: video card conflicts, the cd media's
being incompatible with the other drive, dumbass computer
operators (we have many of those. One guy I know actually put the cd in upside down). It's hard to say. I don't
even think the programs I use for copying have a closeout
option. I really wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

I remember reading about closing out cd a long time ago.
That sounds so much like ancient history to me now. Is your
cd burner a scsi? CD creator, when it first came out only
worked with scsi drives. If you're burning music cd's I really
don't know for sure, but images and data I can tell you
unequivocally, they don't need to be closed out IMO.

rick barclay

I think my burner is and IDE, but I'm not 100% sure about it. The conman built my system. I think he did a good job, but I'm going to find out about this closing the cd stuff.

Dean,

I've got a HP burner that came with adaptec software. If your setup is the same as mine, you just put in the disk and it locks the drive as soon as it recgonises that a cdr is in there. Then it does whatever formatting it needs and allows you to use the drive just like any other drive (drag n'Drop, delete....).

If you want to record tracks from another CD or perhaps MP3 for use on a cd player, there is most likely another app with the drive to do this (My adaptec didnt do this anyway). This prog is used for music, direct copying, cd ripping.....etc. The adaptec stuff does the drive access and other low level stuff (in my case anyway).

Also, be sure to put the copying speed as low as possible (it gives better performance - especially with IDE).

Also, with my adaptec, when you use cdrw, it stores a low level prog on the disk that allows other cdroms to access the disk. As soon as this is loaded, the disk works as any other cdrom.

I dont use the adaptec stuff now, all my stuff is veritas. I had to download new sowtware cuz the adaptec conflicted with Win2K and stopped it shutting down. Bit this stuff seems to be just as good

Originally posted by Witch_King
I think my burner is and IDE, but I'm not 100% sure about it. The conman built my system. I think he did a good job, but I'm going to find out about this closing the cd stuff.

You have IDE. If you don't see a scsi bios check on bootup,
then you don't have scsi. Seriously: you should learn to
work on your computers yourself. Then you wouldn't have
to look to third parties for answers. I'll bet your conman is
clueless, but for your sake (and ours oh Pakrash) I hope he
can help.

rick barclay