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CD-R ABCs
Multiple session CD-R
Other CD technologies
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CD definitions

CD-R ABCs

A CD-R (Compact Disk-Recordable) is a special type of CD which is coated with a photosensitive organic dye which allows a user to record information to a special type of cd for backup and duplication purposes. Once the CD-R disk is placed within the computer, the recording process begins; the laser heats and the dye reveals the areas to diffuse light just as a regular CD would. The CD-R drive does not actually create pits on the CD, instead the burner creates reflective sections on the CD causing the computer's CD-ROM laser to interpret it as a pit. Because of this method of creating a CD, CD-R drives are only capable of recording to the CD once. This unfortunately means if you encounter errors or do not complete the recording process, the CD may become useless.

CD-Rs are a low cost solution for backing up software. Each CD-R can cost from $3.00 to $10.00 and are capable of holding up to 650 MB per CD-R disk (74 minutes of music / up to 99 audio tracks) or larger. While tape drives are a low cost solution per MB when compared to a CD-R disk, tape drives are linear-access devices which can become time consuming if you wish to only recover one / few files. With a CD-R, you can browse the CD and choose individual or multiple files and restore them immediately.

Once a CD-R disk is finished recording, the CD will be able to be used in any standard CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD drive. There were issues with reading CD-R disks in the first revision of DVD.

MULTIPLE SESSIONS CD-R

Multiple Session CD-R discs were first implemented by Kodak to allow CD-R disks to be written to until the CD is completely full. You must have a XA-compliant or XA-ready CD-ROM drive to read all the sessions on a CD-R disc. Otherwise, your access is limited to the data in the first session recorded.

OTHER CD TECHNOLOGIES

CD-ROM -(Compact Disk Read Only Memory) The standard type of CD-ROM drive which is now shipped and found in the majority of computers today.
CD-RW - (CD ReWritable) drive which is a popular alternative to the CD-R drive. CD-RW has the capability of being written to at least one thousand times. The drawback with CD-RW discs is with the lower reflectivity of the disc itself can limit the readability. Many CD-ROM and CD-R drives may have a difficult time reading these disks.
DVD - (Digital Versatile Disc) New standard released in 1995 which originally was called Digital Video Disc and later changed to Digital Versatile Disc. DVD offers an initial storage capacity of 4.7GB (of digital information on a single-sided, single-layer disc the same diameter and thickness of a current CD-ROM
DVD-RAM - ReWritable drive type that uses a phase-change technology like the CD-RW drives. However, DVD-RAM discs cannot be read by standard DVD-ROM drives because of the differences in both reflectivity of the medium and the data format.

No running programs in the background.

If you have Windows 95 / Windows 98 you can check this by pressing and holding CTRL + ALT + DEL which will bring up a close program window. Within this window, remove anything listed but explorer and systray. All programs removed from this window will return after rebooting the computer. Also, ensure that screen savers are not enabled. If enabled and the computer has no activity, this will cause the screen saver to activate, possibly causing a bad CD.

Do not use compression software.

Compression software can cause several issues during the recording process. It is recommend that you do not create CDs off of a compressed hard disk drive.

Disable Power Management.

Ensure that all power management is disabled on the computer. If the computer or a computer component goes into power saving mode during the recording process this can cause issues.

13 milliseconds access time or better.

It is recommended that your Hard Disk Drive is 13 milliseconds or faster access time to keep the memory buffer full.

PC Defrag & Scandisk hard disk drive.

Ensure that you have defragged and ran scandisk on your hard drive recently which will help prevent the computer from having to search the hard disk drive longer.

Master on IDE channel.

If your CD-R is an IDE or EIDE device, it is highly recommended that you have the CD-R drive as the master and not the slave.

Device Conflicts.

Go to Device Manager by clicking Start / Settings / Control panel / double-click the System icon / click the Device Manager tab. Ensure within Device Manager there are no conflicts.

CD-ROM Properties.

In Device Manager, under the CD-ROM properties, ensure that Auto insert notification / Sync Data Transfer, and DMA are all disabled. To check this, click on Start / Settings / Control Panel / double-click on System / Click the Device Manager tab / click the plus next to CD-ROM and double-click the CD-ROM device.

Different CD-R disks.

If you have attempted the above recommendations and continue to receive errors during the writing process, attempt to use a different type or brand of CD-R disk.