CD/DVD Drive/Writer Problems: Fixing Problems with CD and DVD Drives - Page 2

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CD/DVD DRIVE PROBLEMS - PAGE 2

Visit the Disk Drives section of this site for information on internal and external hard disk drives and CD/DVD drives/writers.

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1. - Why can't I just copy DVD movies to a hard disk drive and then play them?

2. - How can I copy VHS tapes on to DVD discs using my computer?

3. - I installed two replacement CD drives and now at start-up Windows produces this error message for both of them: "ATAPI incompatible, press F1 to resume"

4. - What is bitsetting with regard to DVD writers and is it an important feature?

5. - Burning DVDs with Nero 6 Reloaded produces CRC errors

6. - Why can't I write to DVD RAM discs with my LG 4160B DVD writer?

7. - The specifications of my computer don't match the requirements of a DVD writer that I bought

8. - If I format a CD-RW disc and drag and drop files to it, would another computer be able to read and write to the same disc?

9. - Why can Windows XP can only read some of the CD-RW discs I burned with Nero and Roxio in Windows 98?

10. - How can I transfer the contents of many 3.5" minidisks created with a camcorder to a single DVD disc?

11. - How do I change the drive letter of my DVD drive (from H: back to D: ) using Windows XP?

12. - Why can't I use CD-R90 CDs?

13. - Why won't the CDs that I burn from ISO files boot? - The ISO files that I burn to CDs aren't bootable

14. - My PC only boots into Safe mode so I can't save files to an external USB CD writer

Why can't I just copy DVD movies to a hard disk drive and then play them?

Problem

I'm trying to copy my DVD movies to my hard disk drive. I can copy but can't play them. Is there some program that will let me burn a DVD movie on to my computer and play it? I have already tried one program and it uploads the movie into Audio and a Video folders.

Answer

To do that, a program that creates a virtual DVD drive is required. You then use a DVD burning program (such as the free DeepBurner detailed in the Q&A above this one) to create an ISO or image of the DVD. Once this is done, you right-click the virtual DVD drive and select the option to mount the image for viewing.

Several programs can do this. Alcohol 120% from http://www.alcohol-software.com/ - does that very well.

However, be aware that you could be violating copyright law in your country by breaking the copyright protection on the DVD.

How can I copy VHS tapes on to DVD discs using my computer?

Question

I need to know what the easiest, cheapest way of copying VHS tapes on to DVD discs is.

Answer

I assume that you have a relatively recent computer that has at least 128MB or 256MB of RAM so that it runs Windows 98 or Windows XP (respectively) comfortably.

Simply capturing VHS video and burning it on to DVD discs won't be a prohibitively expensive business, but you will require some hardware and software. Of course, you'll need to have a DVD writer and the software that can burn files to DVD discs, and the software that allows you to edit video.

Then, all you need is a TV adapter card that supports MPEG2. The Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Expert TV card that costs only £40 (June 2004) is just what you need. It comes with DVD authoring software, and, more importantly, also a video-editing package.

You can find a UK supplier by entering a search phrase such as "winfast tv2000 xp expert" + uk in the Google search box at the top of this page.

You can use a computer with a 450MHz processor (very slow by today's standards) for video editing if you want to waste a lot of time. A computer used for video editing should be as fast as possible, and have as much free hard-disk space as possible. Anyone who wants to buy a new computer for video editing should get one that has at least an AMD XP 3000+, or preferably one of the latest AMD Athlon 64 or Intel Pentium 4 processors. See the Processors pages on this site for more information on them.

A new dual-layer DVD writer can write to CD-R and CD-RW discs, and single-layer and dual-layer DVD discs. The dual-layer DVD discs can store up to fours hours of video or film.

External devices are also available that can capture and convert analog video to digital video (DV). A good example is called Director's Cut from Miglia - http://www.miglia.com/ - a neat box device that connects to a VHS recorder in the same ways as a television set can, and uses a FireWire cable to transfer the video to a computer. It also allows edited digital files to be returned to a VHS cassette. In February 2005, it was priced at around £200.

I installed two replacement CD drives and now at start-up Windows produces this error message for both of them: "ATAPI incompatible, press F1 to resume"

Problem

I have a computer running Windows 98 that went bang when the power supply unit gave up the ghost dramatically. I replaced both CD drives and the power supply unit, but this message comes up for both of the drives when Windows 98 tries to install their device drivers: "ATAPI incompatible, press F1 to resume." - What am I doing wrong?

Answer

ATPI stands for the AT Attachment Packet Interface, which is an extension to the EIDE interface that allows support for devices such as hard disk drives, CD/DVD drives, or other IDE computer peripherals.

This issue can be caused by any off the following possibilities: the IDE drive cable is loose or not connected, or the settings in the BIOS are not set properly.

If any hardware has been installed, or the computer has been moved it's possible that the IDE drive or power cables connected to the hard disk drive or the CD/DVD drive may have become loose or disconnected.

Whenever working inside a computer always remember to take precautions against electrostatic discharge (ESD), commonly called static electricity. If necessary, read the warning about static electricity in on the first Build a PC page on this site.

Make sure that the affected hard disk drive or the CD/DVD drive is connected to the motherboard or IDE adapter card properly. See the two Disk Drives pages on this site for information on the cables attached to disk drives and the motherboard's or a PCI adapter card's IDE channels.

If the cables appear to be connected properly, disconnect and then reconnect them, making sure that they're inserted into their connection points properly. And make sure that none of the pins in the IDE connectors on the drive itself or on the motherboard have been bent, or have broken off.

If all of cables have been checked or disconnected and reconnected and you continue to experience the same problem, it's possible that the IDE settings may not be set up properly in BIOS. All of the IDE options should be set to the Auto options.

If you have followed the above steps and continue to have the same problem, it's possible that the computer may have faulty cable(s), drive(s), motherboard, or PCI IDE adapter card, if one is being used.

What is bitsetting with regard to DVD writers and is it an important feature?

Question

I was on the point of buying a well-reviewed DVD writer - the LG GSA-41208 - but then I read somewhere about how a bitsetting feature can improve disc compatibility. This particular drive doesn't support it. Can you please explain what bitsetting is? I want to buy a drive that can play and record to the widest range of disc formats.

Answer

There are other terms for bitsetting - bit setting, compatibility bitsetting, and bit mode compatibility.

At the moment, only certain brands of DVD+R and DVD+RW drives can apply bitsetting. With DVD-R discs bitsetting isn't possible because the field that is changed by bitsetting is pre-set during the manufacturing process.

There is an entry called the Book Type Field that is in the start-up section of each DVD disc. This contains bits of information that tell the drive what kind of disc has been loaded - whether it's a DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, etc.

In order that a DVD drive or home player can identify what kind of disc is loaded, it queries the Book Type Field. The few bits of information in that particular area of a DVD disc, commonly referred to as the compatibility bitsettings are programmed to tell the drive which of the low-level format specifications the disc media is, such as DVD-ROM, DVD+R or DVD+RW, etc.

Most DVD players can read a DVD+RW or DVD+R disc, but a small minority of them can't recognise the format at all and can therefore report a disc error when a disc is loaded that is not marked as an ordinary DVD-ROM disc in the compatibility bits. Usually, these players are physically able to read the disc, since the reflectivity of a DVD+RW disc is identical to that of a dual-layered DVD-Video disc that all players must be capable of reading, but compatibility problems can arise due to different interpretations of these bits in the various firmware versions. Therefore, in most cases, the problem can be solved by updating the firmware. But in cases where a firmware fix is not available, or when you want to increase the chances of playability when you give the disc to other people with an unknown player, you could solve the issue by using bitsetting to mark a DVD+R or DVD+RW disc as a DVD-ROM disc.

To instruct your DVD home recorder to mark your DVD+R or DVD+RW discs as DVD-ROM, a special procedure must be followed. On a DVD+RW video recorder, you need to press a number of keys on the remote control. With a computer's DVD+R/DVD+RW drive, the use of a special utility is required to accomplish this.

Note that there are issues about whether bitsetting can take place before or after making a recording. See the following two links for more information on this subject:

Compatibility Bitsettings / Book Type Field -

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Article.asp?mid=0&sid=2&aid=42

Apply Compatibility Bitsettings Using a DVD+R/+RW PC Drive -

"To change the compatibility bitsettings using a DVD+RW PC drive, you need a dedicated utility. Currently, there are several of these tools available. Of the DVD+RW drive manufacturers, Hewlett-Packard has publicly released a tool to change bitsettings on a DVD+RW disc (which can only be used with the HP DVD100/DVD200 drive), and Ricoh made a tool to change bitsettings for DVD+R discs (for usage with its MP5125 drive). The programs on this site are developed by users and can be used with all drives. We suggest you to use one of these (even if you own a HP or Ricoh DVD writer), because of their unmatched functionality. It is strongly advised not to install the HP utility on your system if you plan to use any of these, since it will most likely interfere with these tools and cause unexpected behaviour." -

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/article.asp?mid=0&sid=2&aid=44

Other factors that can affect disc playability and/or compatibility

You should note that the compatibility of burned DVDs is commonly much more dependent on factors other than the state of the bitsetting.

The most common incompatibility problem is caused by improperly formatted DVDs that can play on a computer's DVD drive but not on a standalone home DVD player. The burning utility Nero has often been blamed for being the cause of that problem.

The brand of DVD+R (or DVD-R) disc being used is also a known factor with regard to playability and compatibility. The most trusted and compatible brands are Verbatim, Maxell, TDK, and Mitsui (now known as MAM-A). It's certainly not a good idea to use unbranded, cheap discs.

It is also a known fact that discs burned at the slow speed of 1x can often be read by drives that won't read the same make and format of disc that has been burned at the slightly faster speed of 2x.

How audio and video files are encoded can also affect playback compatibility. The current rule of thumb in this regard is to keep the total bit rate to 7Mbit/s or lower, to use a Closed GOP setting for MPEG2 video, and always use a compressed option for the audio. E.g, Dolby Digital/AC3 audio compression is supported by all DVD players. Compressed audio can have a bit rate of between 128Kbit/s and 224Kbit/s, while uncompressed audio requires a bit rate of more than 1,500Kbit/s to achieve the virtually the same sound.

Burning DVDs with Nero 6 Reloaded produces CRC errors

Problem

I am using Windows XP Home edition and Nero 6 Reloaded to burn DVDs, and I'm getting cyclic redundancy check (CRC) errors from all of my recorded discs. The drive burns DVDs at 6x, but there is no brand-name on it. Can you tell me what could be causing this to happen?

Answer

The first action to take when troubleshooting the burning of CDs or DVDs is to try burning them at a slower speed, because the maximum burning speed of the drive might be exceeding that of the discs. If a slower speed corrects the problem, you may need to use that slower speed until your current stock of blank DVDs/CDs is used up. Then make sure when you buy new discs to obtain a type that specifically supports your DVD/CD burner's highest rated speed. It will say what burning speeds are supported on the container's label.

Never buy cheap, no-brand discs. You should always buy brand-name discs. Not very long ago, Tom's Hardware Guide found that discs made by Verbatim were the most drive-compatible make.

Note that with the cheaper CD/DVD blank discs, a specified maximum burning speed isn't necessarily a guarantee that they'll function properly at the full speed.

If that doesn't work, try different burner software just to make sure that yours isn't to blame.

Before you spend money, try the excellent free program CDBurnerXP Pro 3 from http://www.cdburnerxp.se/. The critics are raving about it.

Look under the letter C on the first Links page on this site for other free programs.

If it's not a software problem, try uninstalling and then reinstalling your current software, using the latest drivers and patches from the vendor's site.

If the problem still occurs, perhaps the inside of the CD/DVD burner may be have collected large dust bunnies that can be the cause of otherwise unexplained drive errors. These can be removed by opening the tray to the drive and then blowing them loose and out with a can of compressed air that can be obtained from most good computer shops.

Open the case and make sure that the drive is very securely screwed to the case at all four points, because the vibrations caused during use can make a loose drive malfunction. Make sure that the screws that are being used are short, because it is possible to screw a drive's mechanism up by using fastening screws that are too long.

If none of the above suggestions work, the lens of the CD/DVD burner may be unclean.

Note that the chances of damaging the drive increase markedly if you have to mess about with its optical mechanism, but you may as well try using a lens-cleaning kit, because if using one doesn't work, you'll probably have to buy a new drive.

You can try using a search phrase such as clean + dvd + lens in the Google search box at the top of this page to find suitable vendors of the cleaning kits.

Why can't I write to DVD RAM discs with my LG 4160B DVD writer?

Problem

I bought an OEM LG 4160B DVD writer and some Fuji DVD-RAM discs that the drive is supposed to be compatible with. The discs are housed in a kind of jewel case that has a sliding door at its rear. It's a similar design to a Zip disk's case, but bigger. The discs don't fit into the LG drive. There is an opening bar at the front of the case, so I tried loading a naked disc into the drive, but Windows 98 SE just sees it as an ordinary CD-ROM disc. I expected that it would install as a removable drive and that I would be able to copy files to it or read files from it with Windows alone. Therefore, need to know if DVD-RAM requires special software and/or drivers, none of which were provided with the drive.

Answer

DVD-RAM was the original kind of recordable DVD discs. It was followed by the competing DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW standards. Your LG 4160B DVD writer is compatible with all three of those standards.

The prices of the DVD-RAM discs have dropped considerably.

There are two types of media - Type 1 and Type 2.

Type 1 will hold up to 5.2GB on a single double-sided disc, with one-sided discs storing up to 2.6GB of data.

The unremovable double-sided discs are encased in a cartridge, but the single-sided discs are often available bare, in ordinary DVD cases, or in a cartridge from which the disc can be removed. In the UK, a supplier of DVD-RAM discs in an ordinary DVD case is PC World.

Type 2 is able to store 4.7GB on a single-sided disc, and 9.4GB on a double-sided disc, and can be removed from the cartridge so the disc can be used in other drive types if the data is in a compatible format.

The unremovable type of discs have to be used in a special DVD-RAM drive that is capable of using them. If the disc can be removed from its case, it can be used in any DVD writer that supports the DVD-RAM standard.

A DVD-RAM drive will read other CD/CDR/CD-RW and DVD media. Depending on the quality of the media, the DVD-RAM discs can be overwritten up to 100,000 times, making them a very attractive alternative to other removable media storage options.

DVD-RAM was designed for reliable industrial archive use. It has comprehensive built-in error and data integrity checks that are lacking in DVD+RW and DVD-RW. That is partly why its discs are able to withstand 100 times more write cycles than the media for the other two technologies. Because it records on the disc's lands and the pits, it is capable of higher-density storage. So if you want to store large raw images, the DVD-RAM media (discs) cannot be beaten for storage capacity and reliability.

You were correct in believing that no special software is required. All you have to do is format the DVD-RAM discs with the FAT32 file system. Even Windows XP has to format the drives with FAT32 because for some reason the NTFS file system isn't supported.

The formatting process is slow. It can easily take up to an hour, but after it's done, the discs can be used just like big removable floppy or Zip disks, which is very convenient given their large capacity to hold data.

However, note that if you're using Windows XP, it's built-in CD-writing capability might prevent using a disc as a large floppy disk, because Windows regards a DVD-RAM disc as a CD-RW disc, which can't be written to in the manner just described. Therefore, you should turn off the CD-writing feature in order to get things running properly. To do that, go Start => open My Computer, right click with the mouse on the DVD-RAM drive's icon, click Properties, and then click on the Recording tab. Uncheck the option called Enable CD recording on this drive.

Note that the device drivers for many DVD-RAM drives are incompatible with Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). If so, you will have to update the driver.

If you want to record to CD-R discs on that LG drive, use Nero or similar software, which may or may not have been provided with the drive.

LG drives usually come with Nero Express writing software, but OEM drives that aren't supported by the manufacturer, only by the vendor, often come as bare drives.

The full version of Nero software can be downloaded from Ahead Software's site at http://www.nero.com at a cost of $69/£37 (in March, 2005). The Nero Express that is provided with drives purchased from a retail source is confusingly called an OEM version, and it has limited functionality compared to the full version. The limited software can be found on eBay and purchased very cheaply (£6/$10 or thereabouts). Make sure that you have the latest version (version 6.6 in March, 2005), because if you have Windows XP SP2, version 6.0 isn't compatible with it, and, in any case, it supports dual-layer DVD discs, which stores twice as much data per disc. The dual-layer discs are comparatively very expensive at the moment, but will soon become affordable.

The specifications of my computer don't match the requirements of a DVD writer that I bought

Problem

In May 2005, a computer magazine gave a five-star review to the LG GSA 4163B DVD writer, so I had a look at the specifications on a supplier's and LG's websites. My computer runs an Intel Celeron 1.7GHz processor. I found nothing to suggest that my computer wouldn't be able to use the drive. However, when it arrived, I was highly annoyed that a minimum processor speed of a 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 or higher was listed in the system requirements. That information wasn't provided in the computer magazine or on those websites.

Answer

That kind of information is both inaccurate and confusing. Inaccurate because the slowest AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor only runs at 1.80GHz, but is rated by AMD as having an equivalent clock speed of 3000MHz+ (3.0GHz+). The Athlon 64 processors are AMD's current line of single-core processors. An Athlon 64 3000+ processor running Windows XP Home Edition and 512MB of DDR400 RAM in dual-channel mode could easily run that LG DVD writer and any of the software that comes with it.

Therefore, whoever wrote the information on the sites must have had only Intel processors in mind.

Any fairly recent computer (purchased as far back as three years or more ago) should be able to use any DVD writer. If an Intel processor is slower than 2.4GHz, or the rating of an AMD processor is slower than 2400+, the computer may not be able to burn data at the drive's top burning speed, but it should still be able to burn data at an acceptable speed very close to the top-rated speed.

I think that the reason that a 2.4GHz processor is specified could have more to do with the fact that it comes with DVD-authoring software that requires a processor with that kind of clock speed in order to do things such as edit video files or capture video from a camcorder and convert it into a digital file - optimally. Therefore, you have to take the software that comes with a drive into consideration when buying a drive. If you don't want to use DVD-authoring software, your computer shouldn't have any problem using the drive to burn DVDs. Indeed, your computer should be able to run that DVD-authoring software, but not at the optimal speed that it is capable of running at.

The best advice is to ignore the required system specifications and remember that to be able to edit video optimally requires a 2.0GHz Intel processor or an AMD processor with a 2000+ rating.

If I format a CD-RW disc and drag and drop files to it, would another computer be able to read and write to the same disc?

Answer

A technology called packet writing is usually used to allow a user to record files to a CD drive by dragging and dropping files to the drive's icon.

Packet writing software installs at the driver level. The Universal Data Format (UDF) used in CD packet writing allows the user to use a CD writer in the same way as a floppy or hard disk drive.

Note that the UDF format is only used for packet writing to CDs. Elsewhere, notably in DVD recording, it has other applications.

A user can write files to CD-R or CD-RW discs simply by dragging and dropping the files over the drive's icon in My Computer, or placed on the Windows Desktop, or save the files to the drive from within an application, and they should be written to a recordable disc automatically.

The format used in packet writing is called Universal Disk Format (UDF). In theory, a packet-written UDF CD ought to work on another computer with a CD writer and software that recognises the UDF format. Unfortunately, packet-writing and the UDF format aren't completely universal yet. Consequently, different software developers can use different flavours of packet-writing, and even within the proposed UDF standard itself there are two major variants. Recording in the usual CD format (ISO 9660) is much more standardised. An ISO 9660 CD can be written to on almost any computer and can be read on almost any other computer. However, the ISO format doesn't support packet-writing, therefore it can't be used for drag- and-drop recording. Drag-and-drop recording is the easiest way or recording, but another computer may or may not be be able to read the discs. Standard CD burning creates discs that can be read on almost any computer, but you can't use drag-and-drop; files have to be recorded by using the CD writing software. Therefore, if you have to be able to read recorded discs on any computer, it's best not to use drag-and-drop recording.

If you want a more complete explanation of packet writing, visit this page - http://www.mrichter.com/cdr/primer/udf.htm - or enter packet + writing + udf in the Google search box at the top of this page with its Web radio button selected.

Why can Windows XP only read some of the CD-RW discs I burned with Nero and Roxio in Windows 98?

Problem

Several years ago, I burned many CD-RW discs using Nero and Roxio in a Windows 98 SE system. However, when I try to access them in Windows XP Home Edition, only some of them can be read.

Answer

If your old CD-RW disc were not 'closed' or 'finalised' (US: finalized) when written, a standard CD drive won't be able to read their contents. Nero and Roxio, and other CD/DVD-writing software, have options that allow a user to close or finalise a disc when it has run out of space, or the user doesn't want to write any more data to it.

Closing a CD writes the table of contents to the disc and allows the CD to be read on almost any other CD drive. If your CD-RW discs weren't closed, then they ca only be read on a PC that has a CD writer and CD-burning software installed. The CDs themselves may have gone bad. This can happen very easily when they've been written on with solvent-based inks, or have glue-on labels. Moreover, with CD-R and CD-RW disc that were created with the first CD writers, the latest CD and DVD drives can have problems reading the discs because they find that alignment of the tracks is not what they require. If that is the case, specialised hardware can find and read data that appears misaligned to modern CD / DVD drives, but, because it is expensive equipment, only data-recovery services use it.

If you have the original drive that they were written on, you should be able to read the discs if they haven't gone bad. Alternatively, try the discs you can't read on as many different CD/DVD writers as you can. A computer shop might allow you to try reading the discs on their demo PCs - under supervision. If nothing works, the only other alternative is to make use of an expensive, reputable data-recovery service. But if the discs have gone bad, your files are lost forever, because not even a data recovery service will be able to access them.

How can I transfer the contents of many 3.5" minidisks created with a camcorder to a single DVD disc?

Problem

I have created many mini DVD discs with a Sony 403 camcorder. I would like to know how I can use my PC to transfer the contents to a single recordable DVD disc.

Answer

Most recent DVD writers can read 3.5" DVD minidisks by making use of the DVD-writing software that comes bundled with the drive. Likewise, CD writers can read CD minidisks. Therefore, you might only need to make use of a fairly current DVD writer and its DVD-writing software. If the camcorder is an old model, Sony may have included an adapter that allows a minidisk to be read from the tray of a full-sized (5.25") DVD writer that hasn't been designed to read minidisks. For example, for an older Sony Mavica that came bundled with CD-writing software, you would have had to make use of its adapter for a generation or two of CD writers until all CD writers could read standard and mini-CD-R discs. To transfer the files to a large DVD disc, first you would use a recent DVD drive, or a drive fitted with an adapter, to transfer files from the minidisks to a folder on your PC's hard drive. When you have enough files on the hard drive to fill up a DVD disc, you would just have to make use of DVD-writing software to burn them to a DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, or DVD-RAM disc. Then you would delete the files stored on the hard drive, and copy the next batch of files to it, etc. If for some reason that isn't possible, and if the camera has a USB/Firewire, or another kind of data-transfer cable, you can insert the mini-DVDs into the camera, one by one, and transfer the files to your computer's hard drive via the cable connection. That is a much slower process than making use of a drive to copy the files to the hard drive, but it should work.

How do I change the drive letter of my DVD drive (from H: back to D: ) using Windows XP?

Problem

I removed a second hard disk drive on my main PC to another PC in order to find out if its hard drive was the cause of a problem. However, when I reinstalled the drive in my main PC, I discovered that my DVD drive's drive letter had changed from D: to H:. How can I change the drive's letter back to D:? The computer runs Windows XP Home Edition.

Answer

The following two pages should provide you with the information you need.

How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307844&sd=tech

Changing Drive Letters in Windows XP? - http://www.dougknox.com/tips/xp_drive_letters.htm

Why can't I use CD-R90 CDs?

Problem

I have Roxio and Sonic CD-writing software, but I cannot find out how to make those programs write more than 700MBs of data to Philips CD-R90 recordable CDs, which support 790MBs.

Answer

CD-R CDs come in two standard sizes - 650MB, which is 74 minutes of CD audio, and 700MBs, which is 80 minutes of CD audio.

In order to write (burn) high-capacity R90 and R99 CDs requires a compatible CD writer and writing/burning software. Only CD writers that can burn CD-R discs at 24X or greater writing speeds are likely to be compatible with high-capacity CD-R CDs.

Most CD-writing software has a default limit of 79 minutes 59 seconds of audio. A standard audio CD plays at 150KB per second, so 700MB of audio data can play for that long. R90 CD-R CDs should support 90 minutes of audio, or up to 791MBs. The actual capacity of a CD is always a little less than the minutes of audio that the disc supports. R99 CDs support 99 minutes 59 seconds of audio, which translates as 878MB of audio data.

You CD-writing software has a fixed limit of 700MB. Roxio says that because the R90 and R99 formats go against the specifications that have been set for CD-R, which can cause problems, so the company refuses to support those formats.

To write to CDs that are larger than the standard 700MB discs requires software that can do it. Nero 5.5 and later versions can write high-capacity CD-R R99 discs (99 minutes 59 seconds, or 878MBs). However, you have to open Preferences, click on the Expert tab, check the Allow overburn setting, and set a limit. Remember that only CD writers that can burn CD-R discs at 24X or greater writing speeds are likely to be compatible with high-capacity CD-R CDs.

Visit the CD/DVD Drives page on this site to find out which writing formats and speeds your CD/DVD writer supports.

Why won't the CDs that I burn from ISO files boot? - The ISO files that I burn to CDs aren't bootable

Problem

I have burned two ISO CDs - SpinRite6 and BartPE - but neither of them boots, even though the WinISO utility it tells me that the CD is bootable. The one CD has the file SpinRite6.iso file on it and the other has BartPE.iso. I searched Google, but but found no information that would put me on the right road.

Answer

ISO stands for International Standards Organization. The ISO defined a standard CD format called ISO 9660. Any CD burned using the ISO 9660 format can be read by any operating system that supports the ISO 9660 format. For example, if you burn an ISO 9660 data CD on a Windows PC, the CD will be readable on Macs and Linux PCs, etc., and vice versa.

An ISO file is a kind of disk image or clone of an ISO-standard CD. It contains the data that's on the CD plus information about how the data is formatted. Therefore, you can't just copy an ISO file to a blank CD. The ISO file has to be processed by software that separates the stored data from the formatting information. The software uses the formatting data in the ISO file to burn an exact duplicate or clone of the original CD's contents. For example, if you download an ISO file of a whole distribution of Linux, you can't just copy the .iso file to a partition on your computer's hard drive and then expect to be able to run that distribution of Linux, you have to use special software that turns the .iso file into the full Linux installation CD that allows you to install that distribution of Linux.

Most normal CD-burning software can do this. For example, in Roxio's Creator Classic, it's the Record Disc From Image option on the File menu. In Nero Express, you use the the Disk Image or Saved Project option. However, note that some CD burning software can't handle ISO files.

Alternatively, you may just want to extract one or more files from an ISO file, and therefore you don't want to burn a whole CD just to obtain them. A utility such as WinISO allows you to do just that - extract a file or files from an .iso file without having to burn the whole CD.

Note that some software requires the companion files on the .iso file in order to be able to function, so you can't extract individual files. For example, the ISO files containing the setup programs for Linux distributions, or the BartPE ISO, require that the whole .iso file is translated and burned to a blank CD.

There are many utilities, free or paid for, that allow a user to burn a CD from an ISO file, or extract selected files from an ISO image. Click the following automatic Google searches to find them and more information on ISO files.

http://www.google.com/search?q=burn+ISO+to+CD

http://www.google.com/search?q=iso+file

It is also possible to create ISO files from CDs and DVDs, store them on a computer's hard drive and then use the ISO files as virtual CD/DVDs.

Lug Around Less by Creating and Mounting ISO Images of Your DVDs/CDs -

"If your job requires you to lug around a bunch of CD/DVDs just in case you need them, you might want to consider lightening your load by mounting your CD/DVD disks as ISO images on your hard drive. In this article, I'll first show you how to create ISO (International Organization for Standardization) images from your DVD and CD disks using Nero Burning ROM. From there, I'll teach you how to mount your ISO images as if you were inserting the original source CD/DVD into your drive. Why would you want to do this? Imagine the freedom of not having to lug around your CD/DVDs wherever you go but instead being able to copy your CD/DVDs as ISO images to your hard drive and subsequently use them whenever needed as "virtual" CD/DVDs." - http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=406936&rl=1

My PC only boots into Safe mode so I can't save files to an external USB CD writer

Problem

My PC runs Windows 98 SE. It will only boot into Safe mode and shows vertical lines on the screen. I think that it's on the way out, so I want to copy my many files to CD-R discs on my external USB Iomega CD-RW drive and then transfer them to my other computer. The problem is that I can't access the USB CD-RW drive from Safe mode. Is there a way out of this situation?

Answer

You need Windows to be running in order to be able to access USB devices, because the device drivers have to be loaded before they can function, and they aren't loaded by Safe mode. Therefore, backups made to an external USB device are not usually of much use when Windows isn't working. However, there are several possible ways to solve your problem.

I take it that the PC has a standard internal CD/DVD drive installed. Reinstalling Windows 98 SE over itself without formatting the C: drive first is the first option you should try to get Windows itself operating in normal mode. The file structure and data files will be preserved, but all of the programs will have to be reinstalled because Windows installs a new Registry that has no knowledge of them and therefore can use them. To do that, if the PC's BIOS supports booting from a CD drive, you can set it as the first boot drive, boot from the Windows installation CD, and follow the setup procedure that unfolds automatically.

If attempting that didn't solve the problem, check the motherboard's BIOS setup program to find out if it supports a "Boot from USB" setting for a CD drive. The settings for the CD-ROM drive boot priority (which includes CD and DVD drives) are usually on the second page of the BIOS, which is usually called something like Advanced BIOS Features. The older the computer, the less likely you are to find the required setting. If the option is there, you can enable it and then try booting from the external USB drive with the Windows 98 SE installation CD in it. If the PC supports booting from a CD, the Windows 98 SE is a bootable CD.

If the "Boot from USB" option is there, but won't work with your CD-RW drive, consider using a cheap USB flash drive. For under £20 you can buy one that can hold an operating system such as Puppy Linux from http://www.puppyos.com/, which can be used to boot the system.

Google search:

http://www.google.com/search?q=dos+win98+boot+flash+thumb+drive

Solving USB Boot Problems -

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=28700158

If you can get the external USB CD writer to boot from a CD, you can also make use of a version of Linux that runs from a CD to rescue your files. You have to download an .iso file and burn it to a CD by making use of CD-burning software, such as Nero Express, which comes with many CD/DVD writers. Puppy Linux will allow you use the USB CD-RW drive, copy files, make backups, etc. Click here! to go to information on this site on this subject.

If you can't get the external USB drive working directly, you can use a normal MS DOS boot floppy disk with USB drivers and access the drive via Windows 98's inbuilt MS DOS. Trial-and-error can be involved in finding drivers that work with each make and model of CD drive.

The following Google searches should provide you with links to suitable information:

http://www.google.com/search?q=usb+from+dos

http://www.google.com/search?q=dos+drivers+cd+cdr

When you have an MS DOS boot disk with USB drivers that works, if you are familiar with them, you then can use the MS DOS Copy commands to rescue your files. At a DOS command prompt, entering copy /? provides you with options that are available with the Copy command.

Using external drives for backups is not advisable because any backup that depends on a particular hardware and software setup leaves you vulnerable when it doesn't work or can't be accessed. For that reason, a backup image is a much better option, because it can be created on or restored to almost any Windows computer.

PC Buyer Beware! Copyright © Eric Legge 2004-2008. All rights reserved.