My CD-R/RW drive won't write anymore!

My computer was bought in September 2000 and included a Matshita CDR-RW CW-7585 8x4x32 drive. OS is Win 98 SE. Bundled with the system was "Adaptec DirectCD v 2.5d" and "Easy CD Creator (and CD Copier) v 3.5c" software.

At the same time I bought half a dozen CD-RW's (Maxell CD-RW 74 650 MB) and have happily written and rewritten to these media without problem.

NOTE: I can STILL write/rewrite to THESE discs. No problem.

However, recently I needed some more CD-RW's and bought a box of "Logik CD-RW's 4-12x Speed ".

I cannot get these discs to "work "!

In "Direct CD" the "Media Type" shows "Unsupported or Bad Media ". Can't format or write to it.

In "Easy CD Creator" when I try to "create Disc" I get message "Please insert a CD with sufficient space into the CD recorder ".!!. It resolutely refuses to accept the new disc.

Similar problems with "Easy CD Copier ".

Various other negative messages appear.My system simply will not recognise my new discs as rewritable media.

I repeat-- no problem with "Maxell" discs---4 years old.

So --- is my problem that my 4 year old drive is unable to cope with modern,newer,faster discs, is my software out of date or are Logik Discs simply "incompatible" with my system? If the last mentioned is the case how do I go about establishing which make of RW media to buy?

All help would be greatly appreciated. I've spent hours trying to get the required results without really knowing what I'm doing! BTW I've downloaded "Express Burn" and "Deep Burner" and tried to run them but without success.

Regards,

Graham Newey

 

Especially on an older drive you may be getting bit by the plus or minus dog.

Welllll, actually I'm not sure on this. Anyone, do CDRWs have a +- designation as do CDRs?

If CDRWs DO have a +- designation it is most likely that your old CDRWs are either + or - and the new ones are the other. This seems much more likely than your getting a batch of new CDs that are all bad.

Jay

 

Jay, you may be thinking of DVD-R, +R.

Graham, the Logiks may be aimed at the modern market of CD-RW drives that are probably more forgiving than the older ones. Suggest you buy a few a different brands as singles (not 100 packs ) and see which ones your drive likes. If you want the best, try Verbatum, Imation are also quite good (maybe save these for your most important burns).
For general burning, I use mid-priced disks (TDK), they seem to be reliable and have worked on all my CD RWs.
You could go the webpage of the drive's model. They should recommend a media type there.

Someone posted a thread here a while ago about a program that can read who actually makes the CDs and their layering (I also read about this in a tech mag). Using this and the info above, you could find the type that is best (and least expensive) for your drive.

The CDs are made in "batches" (with batch variation). You may have come across a batch that your drive cannot run.

Matt

 

mattman's response was probably much more usefull than mine but I did notice something else on your origional post...

Your drive is, I think you said, 1-4X. The new CDs are 4-8X. You said the drive is old. (waiting to see if he gets corrected... ) It MAY be possible that due to age the drive has gotten a bit 'slow' or the drive may have been at the low end of it's tollerence while the CDs are at the high end of the tolerance. Your drive may just be seeing them as too fast. You might want to go back to 1-4X CDs if you can find them. I know that both Office Depot and Target still sell them. Or at least here in north east Florida they do. Remember to look at the second number (8-4-32X) for CDRWs. What that actually means is that the drive will read up to 32X, write to a CDR at 8X and rewrite at 4X.

I do have to admit that I haven't used RWs much. In fact I only have 2 of em. Just use to port between 2 computers that I don't want to network. If mattman says I'm wrong on this possibility trust him as I'm really just throwing out a guess on this post.

Jay

 

Jay, good point about the speed and something well worth checking.
I try and throw in as many thoughts as I can as well. Sometimes I ask for correction if I am not sure...sometimes I make a point that i cannot really qualify ...I suppose we all do, since we are trying to help as best we can. It is important to "have a go" if you think you can offer an answer, if it does not solve the problem, it may well spark an idea for someone else or the questioner themselves since they are in front of the machine. Don't be surprised to find that you are off on the wrong track though (been there, done that )

I think we are up against:

Graham, you should be able to return those disks and try others, it would be up to the supplier to prove that they were not faulty (Jay mentions 1-4X and 4-8X, but both should be supported by your 4X burning drive).

Search around the forum at this site
www.cdmediaworld.com
for your drives model number. They know CD media (what drives do with it is another matter )

Matt

 

Dear Jay and Matt,

Many thanks for your responses and the time and trouble you've both taken.

Re: "Speeds "---

My drive is "8x4x32" and Jay says this means I can rewrite (write?) to a CD-RW at "4x ".

My new (Logik) CD's have "4-12x Speed" on the front of their cases ( NOT 4-8X). Does this mean that I should be able to rewrite (write?) to these CD-RW's at 4x and/or 8x and/or 12x?

Matt--- you say that my "4x" burning drive should support "4x" and "8x ". What about "12x "?

I have to admit to being totally confused by all these numbers and "speeds ", and what my drive should and should not be able to do.

My maxell discs (4yrs old) have no number or speed on them. Would they be "4x" do you think?

All things being equal should my antiquated drive be able to cope with "todays" CD-RW's (or CD-R for that matter) discs? [notwithstanding all previous comments in this Post!!]

Regards

Graham

 

Dosen't matter on the 8 or 12. The key is the low end of the range on the CD speed. By rights anything that has a low end of 4 or less SHOULD work on your drive. But you said your drive is old... things wear out, errors occure easier...

You would not be able to write at 8 or 12 just because the CDRW is that speed. Your write speed to a CDRW is controled by the 4 in your drive's speeds. Now, by the numbers on your drive you could write to a CDR at 8X, but not a CDRW.

On your old CDRWs, they could be anything as long as the low end of the range was 4 or less. With no numbers they could even be 1 or 2X. Really, in my mind, your best bet if you don't want to upgrade your drive, is to try to find CDRWs with an upper number of 4. You can't write over 4 to a CDRW anyway.

If you wanted to consider an upgrade I have both a 52x 24x 52x CDRW drive and a 16x dual layer DVDRW. After rebates I paid $39.95US for the CD and $89.00US for the DVD. For the record both were bought at Office Depot. It's amazing some of the prices you can get there if you look for rebates. After an in store $30.00 rebate and 2 mail ins I got a Maxtor 120gig 7200rpm ATA100 Drive for $39.95US.

Jay

 

Graham, the drive is 8x4x32, so the fastest it will rewrite on CD-RW media is 4X...although you could check if there is a firware update for the drive that may allow it to run faster (or maybe even to run newer media), I'll try a search if I get time (search for "Matshita CW-7585 firmware ") or look for the drive's website.

I think Jay is right about the speed. If you want to try other brands, go for 1-4X, they should be the most suitable for the drive. As far as I know, without a firware update, 8x or 12X media will not help you burn any faster.

If you were "on a good thing" then maybe source a supply of Maxwell disks. Try one to make sure the drive is still happy with them, then get a bulk pack to suit your needs. To save legwork, I would source the supplier of Maxwell to your area, send them an e-mail and ask for the nearest stockist. I am sure the Maxwell people would be "chuffed" to hear they have a loyal customer . I do this or go out of my way if I am exceptionally happy with a product.

There will be a lot of similar drives around, if there is a market it will be filled...just don't try looking for blank 5 1/4" floppy disks .

Matt

 

HEY!!!!!

Watch what ya say about 5 1/4 inch floppies! Ha, ha, my first 'puter didn't even have a 5 1/4. It had a cassette tape deck for storage. As far as the consumer market... "What's a hard drive?? "

Jay

 

Gentlemen!

I seem to have "cracked" it!

Did a "google" search on "maxell ". Found they make a standard CD Rewritable Disc for 1x to 4x speed recording. [Conforms to Orange Book Part III whatever that means. Any ideas?]. They also make CD-RW's for "High Speed" (4x to 10x) drives.

Went to my local "Asda" store this AM and lo and behold, they sell "5" packs of maxell CD-RW 80 700MB 1-2 and 4x Speed. Cost £4.97 per pack. Pretty good I thought. Cheaper than the "Logiks ". "Asda" is what we call a "supermarket" in the UK and is part of the "Wallmart" group.

My new "maxells" work just fine!! Mind you capacity is supposedly 700MB. Put it in drive and go to "Properties" and capacity shows as 648MB. Format it in "Direct CD" and capacity now shows as 571MB. Now I know 571MB is better than nothing but where is my missing 129MB?!

So, I've now learnt that in future I must look for RW discs with a max "rewrite" speed of 4x.

Matt----- the "Logik" discs (4-12x Speed) are presumably "aimed" at "High/Ultra Speed" drives although it doesn't say so on the packaging. Acting daft (easily done) and using this argument I'll try and return them to "PC World ". However, I've obviously removed the sellophane, so-------

At the risk of overstaying my welcome, what about CDR's? Should I be looking for discs with a max "write" speed of "8x "? I see you can get "48x" and "52x" CDR's now. Do you think I'd have the same/similar trouble with them as I've had with my "Logik" CDRW's? [NOTE: I haven't bought any CDR's for 4 years either].

Many thanks AGAIN,

Graham

 

What version of EZCD are you using. Older versions would see a 700MB disk as 648MB but they would still use the whole 700MB. This was while using the regular EZCD program to burn a disk. I never tried a 700MB disk with Direct CD so I don't know if it will use it all or not.

This is normal. The lost space is taken up by the Direct CD formatting process. It needs this much space for the file system.