I feel like ranting tonight. I have made 10 coasters tonight trying to write 3 fricking files on a CD. Either this drive is a piece of crap or Easy CD Creator is garbage.

Ive only ever had bad luck with EZ CD.

I hate to say it but...
uh.. now I use the built in XP cd write utility.

The interface is a little wonky, but I've yet to have a failure. Thats with an HP 9700 burner.

I'd say Easy CD Creator is your more likely problem.

I tried dragging and dropping in explorer and then the CD won't eject and I shut down the computer and stick in the paper-clip to get it out and boot up and the CD shows blank.

What other programs are there to use?

I have never had a problem with Nero Burning ROM.
www.nero.com

Seconded. Nero is the best. And in recent versions, Nero Express gives you a super easy interface. So you don't have to worry about all the advanced options if you don't want to.

yeah what everyone else said
Plextor - Good
EZCD - Bad
Nero - Good

I'm downloading the demo version now and will let you know if I was able to burn or make more coasters. I'm glad I bought a pack of 20 today, most are history already.

Thank you very much guys. I have finally burned my first CD (yes, I am very behind the times)

I just want to add another EZ-CD is garbage vote.

Xcdroast (front-end for cdrecord) under Linux works fine with my Plextors (and Lite-On's and ...).

Cheers!

I'm getting ready to remove Easy CD crap from my computer and will pay for Nero when the demo time is up. If I had used it to begin with I would have saved $6 or so on coasters.

And it didn't even load crap on system startup files like EZ CD crap does.

Xcdroast (front-end for cdrecord) under Linux works fine

Loser. I just use mkisofs and cdrecord directly. Who needs a GUI?

Yep, I use Arson now, which is also a front-end to cdrecord, etc. It has a more Nero-ish feeling to it, basically Nero for Linux. Never had a coaster from it.

(chuckle)

Did I mention that my burner is on a headless server? That might have something to do with it, too.

Ditto. But that's what exporting the display is for. I usually control the burning machine in my rack with my secondary laptop.

I just use mkisofs and cdrecord directly. Who needs a GUI?

What, you didn't write a shell script to burn the CD automaticaly on your headless server? I just put the mp3s in a directory and it wavs->normalizes->burns all with one command. (Data? On a CD? Isn't that what FTP is for?)

Matthew

And it didn't even load crap on system startup files like EZ CD crap does.

Amen! Another wonderful Nero user! I love the program. I even ordered the boxed version. Quite nice. I also have its MPEG2 decoder and it makes pretty good DVDs.

Anyway, enjoy. Nero is wonderful.

ok im going against the trend, but my opinion is that Nero is crap, and nero express is worse simply cause of the fact that it only recognises it's own multisession disc's, quite often when I burn disc's with another program, and like to add files, using nero it will not import the previous sessions cause it didn't write them, it will write my file and rewrite the TOC. And lo and behold all that is on the disc is my one file I just burned GRRR!!...

I use CloneCD for cd to cd copies, and RecordNow Max for files etc... (and since this came with my pioneer dvd writer)..
works quite well.

cheers,
Jai

In reply to:

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Loser. I just use mkisofs and cdrecord directly. Who needs a GUI?

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Bitt, I have a wonderfull image of you! Somewhere between my A-Level computing teacher and my old electronics professor at Uni.

Greetings!

Easy CD Creator used to be decent, until they got spun off into Roxio. EZCD4 worked, was stable, good. EZCD5 sucked. They broke the product, and have never gotten it working since.

I have not tried Nero, but I use CDRWIN by Goldenhawk. The UI is not as nice and windows friendly, but it was the first package (even before EZCD) to allow decent control of audio burns. It is quick, easy and gets the job done. And you can build compex CD formats (negative times, multisession CD-Extra, etc.) very nicely.

Edit - Historical note: I have been burning audio (and data) CDs ever since the dark ages of 19" rack mounted single speed burners (2x if you had the ISO image on a very fast hard drive) using a dedicated DOS workstation...

My two pence:

I actually use both EZ CD and Nero, each for different things, because I find that each one has strengths and weaknesses. I have both installed on my home PC.

On our "Master shipment files" server here at work, we use a very old version of EZ CD (version 3 or 4 I don't remember) and a very old Yamaha 4x external SCSI burner for our final shipment discs. Reason: Everything is rock stable, never makes a coaster, and we always only burn discs one specific way.

Really? Which version of EZCD? A while back I tried installing one version and it insisted on my removing every other bit of CD burning software and anything remotely related.

At home, I think it's V5. Not sure. Nero was installed second, maybe that has something to do with it.

Nero has a utility that allows you to run more than one piece of CD burner software, as some of these apps load files into memory before Windows is even finished starting. I thought this utility had to be installed and configured separately from Nero, but perhaps that is not the case.

Ok, a question for all of those that recommended Nero. How do I burn a music CD? I have made 5 coasters tonight (I am getting very good at that) trying to burn some MP3's. I get the errors that either the file is inaccessible or different. I have tried making music CD's and a data CD and neither have worked. I have dropped the folders in and tried creating the folders through Nero Express and I get the same errors. I hate to sound stupid since this should be so easy, but what am I doing wrong?

Maybe it's time to consider that there's something wrong with the drive?, has it been sucessful in creating any working cd's?

I burned 1 data CD that had 3 files. It looked like they were there when I read it. I hope it's not the drive, I've had it awhile and never attempted to burn anything until this week. But it would make me feel less stupid if I can blame it on the hardware instead of the operator

I'm not sure I understand how you're attempting to create the CD layouts. I assume you're using the wizard, or choosing "Audio CD" from the menu.

Then it sounds like you're dragging a folder of MP3's onto the layout pane. I don't think you can drop folders of files that way. You should just open the folder and drag over the files you want. If that isn't working for data CDs, that's a different problem.

The other problem may be that Nero just doesn't like burning MP3s. A friend of mine was shocked to learn that I convert all my MP3s to WAV before I burn them. I just don't want anything to screw up the process. Unfortunately, Winamp's output plugin for this purpose seems to change the files slightly, raising the high end. If anyone knows about this or how to fix it, let me know.

I'm trying to burn a CD using the same process I think you're using, so I'll see how it works. If it doesn't, I've got more CDs. If it does, I'll have a nice copy of Pearl Jam's Vs to give someone

I am having no problems burning MP3s directly.

How fast is the burner? If it is really fast, make sure the media you are using is rated to be burned at those speeds, and see what speeds Nero is giving you. One cool thing Nero does, though, is that it detects this automatically when the burn dialog comes up. Have you been moving the speed up to max each time if this is the case?

Other than that, I can't think of anything else... sorry

I get the errors that either the file is inaccessible or different

Nero requires a plugin to be able to work with mp3 files. This plugin has to be purchased seperately. Without this, you'll first have to convert your mp3 files to wav manually before writing them.

On another note : maybe you can use a CDRW disc for your cd wrinting experiments ? Then you won't end up with a stack of unusuable coasters if the problem does end up to be the drive itself (I doubt that though, I've never known a Plextor to go bad and I've sold dozens of them. But I suppose it can happen)

The burner I have is a 20X. I have tried burning at 20X, 16X and even 8X and get the same results. What I am doing is dragging over the folders of MP3s and choosing music CD. The media I am using is rated at 32X and I also used some that was rated at 16X.

I read about the plugin but it sounded like it was used more for encoding wave files but these are already MP3 files. It also mentioned that it was included in the demo version.

Maybe I will try another program.

I gave it another try just adding the songs and not the folders. It changed the MP3 files to CDA files and they won't play but they did burn.

I had some trouble myself when I first got Nero. My problem when trying to create an audio CD from MP3s, in those days, was that my computer didn't have the power to decode the MP3s and burn at the same time. Anyway...

I'm confused. You're not being very clear on the steps you're using. Are you attempting to make an MP3 CD, or a normal audio CD for use in normal CD players?

I'm try to make a MP3 CD. I tried CDRWIN that Paul suggested and no luck there either. Maybe the drive is bad or my computer isn't good enough. It's very frustrating.

I have seen some troubles with MP3 CDs. If you are making this for a specific player (like a CD MP3 player in your car), I would suggest you review the specific settings recommended in that unit's manual, and not use Nero Express. Make sure you choose to create a normal data CD (ISO9660, I believe), and check all of the settings to make sure they are compatible with your player's preferences. Also make sure that your filenames and ID3 tags are useable on that player.

I'm try to make a MP3 CD.

Please be clear on this...

Do you want to:

- Make an audio CD that can play on an audio CD player? (i.e., turn some MP3s into an audio CD)

- Make a data CD that contains a bunch of MP3 files, that can play on a CD-MP3 player?

Greetings!

It was just a data CD that happened to contain MP3 data files, not destined to be played or recognized by anything other than a computer.

Yes, what Paul says. Maybe that is the problem? I am making music CDs and I should be trying to make data CDs? I'm feeling like a complete idiot about this.

I am making music CDs and I should be trying to make data CDs?

That might be the problem. And don't feel like an idiot, it's not something they make very clear.

I mean, someone who doesn't already know about the technology, if they want to make a CD full of MP3s, might assume "MP3s are music, so I pick music."

Even some of the replies by the people in this thread who know the difference, made the assumption that if you wanted to burn a CD of your MP3s, that you really did mean an audio CD.

Anyway, to give you the background, CDs are made up of either audio tracks (like the music CDs you buy in the music store) or data tracks (like the software CDs you buy at the software store).

Whick kind you burn depends on what you want to do with the CD. If you want to store computer files like MP3s, like Paul said, then you make a data CD and drop the files onto it. If you want to play it in a stereo that can't play MP3 data CDs, then you need to make an audio CD.

Look at the bright side. All those things you think are coasters are probably playable on your audio CD player.

All those things you think are coasters are probably playable on your audio CD player

What are those? I don't have one

I appologize! I was giving instructions on creating CD audio discs. I'm sorry I didn't understand your intentions

I tried burning them as a data CD and when I go to open the folders there is nothing there. I get a folder was moved or removed error. I think I am giving up.

You may want to still consider problems with the drive. Since it is a Plextor, they do have firmware updates that may fix the problem.

Firmware here

You might want to try a different brand of CDRs as well, sometimes some don't work well with certain CD burners.

I'll try the firmware update. Thanks Tom. I haven't tried any more since the last batch of coasters but I have tried a few different brands of blanks.

After spending an hour on the phone with Plextor and making a few more coasters with their help, I am supposed to run this test on the drive and report the findings back to them. So it looks like this drive is screwed up and it hasn't been operator error after all

Greetings!

I bet that makes you feel better. Although it still sucks because you said that it was an old drive, and likely out of warranty.

Maybe 6 or 7 months old. I hope that it is still under warranty.

Should be, your are within 12months, which is the norm period for computer parts....

Well an update to this thread for anyone interested. I finally got around to testing the drive this morning and it passed the hardware test which surprised me but after that I kept getting a secondary IDE controller problem in Windows and it wouldn't see the drive. After hours of troubleshooting the problem it turned out to be a bad IDE cable. I replaced the cable and decided to try burning some MP3s again, and low and behold. It burned them. So now I like my Plextor drive

After hours of troubleshooting the problem it turned out to be a bad IDE cable.

Yeah, and none of us have gotten conditioned to automatically suspect a bad IDE cable at the slightest sign of trouble. I mean, it's the last place any of us would think to look.

Glad you got it working!

Argh! I HATE that!! That stalled the setup of my new machine for a day or two. That's SO annoying. But the feeling you get when it just starts working perfectly is wonderful.

So what program are you using to burn now that it makes less difference? Do you still like Nero?

Does anyone know of a company that makes reliable cables? I mean, cables aren't something we usually identify brands by, yet I know that they've given me half the trouble in my machine.

Tomorrow is my last day for the demo version so I guess I will go ahead and pay for the full version of Nero now that I can use it. I have to go out tomorrow and look for a longer IDE cable than the one spare I have. It isn't long enough to attach two drives to it in a full tower. Maybe I'll get two and replace the other IDE cable just in case it is going bad also, it's just as old.