CD-RW Coaster

[Rick]

CD-RW Coaster


Under win XP Pro with Roxie EZ Cd (DirectCD) installed
I’ve found a problem
If you forget to Eject the CD-RW disk Before you shut down and or reboot
The disk becomes Unreadable

In one case when the disk is placed in the drive after this damage
Windows can’t read it. ( Normal)
But it even causes the drive to disappear from the system.

The system will not allow any access to the disk or drive.
In a few cases I had to reboot the system to get the bad cd-rw disk out of the drive


Don’t forget to EJECT that CD-RW disk

[YODA74]

Hmm now thats a new one I'm running both the same as you and have also forgotton to eject disk but never had any problem???

if you forget you could just use the paper clip trick and get the cd out without rebooting.But that still doesn't explain why the info was unreadable? that is a stumpper.unless you left it in and booted and it was trying to use that cd to boot off.(if you have it set for boot from cd that might explane it).ILL have to play with a couple of old cd's on that one. good one rick :( :D WAS this cd finalized to where you couldn't right any more info to it???

[Rick]

That is the Par that ticks me off
The CD-RW disk was brand new
It had 1 file saved to it

I formatted it a few weeks ago ( along with 9 others ) I hate that Job
I saved a file to it yesterday.
Then saved another this morning.
Testing for another post about saving from IE to cd-rw
The file saved
then I deleted the file.

Went on to other things and forgot to eject the disk on a reboot

I can’t even get the direct cd utility to read the disk or attempt to repair it.
I dropped it into another system ( win98 and EZ cd) same thing. Locks the system or drive
cd-rw disks don't get finalized

It is now in File 13 (Trash can)

[kayofcircles]

I had a lemon HP that never would..no way, no how..do the RW's without locking up the puter with the RW stuck in the drive. One of the lemon aspects was no pinhole for emergency eject, so would have to reboot and try and get tray open doing the rebooting. Using EZ and Direct CD, and 98. Fortunately, Direct CD would work with CDR disks, so just saved all my stuff that way for the year I had the HP. As you might suppose, I have an inherent dislike now for EZ CD Creator and all it's "parts".:)

[Rick]

I have no Problem with EZ
I just hate throwing $$ away ( cd-rw disks run $0.80 to $1.00 each )
I’m a cheap old man.

Other than this one issue I have not had to much trouble with my cd-rw drives or software
Under win9x or XP


As you might suppose, I have an inherent dislike now for EZ CD Creator and all it's "parts".


But is/was it EZ cd, HP or Win9x at fault ?
I'd lean more toward Win9x

or the combo of the two
win+ez

[mjc]

I've had pretty good luck with reformatting them in Linux.....basically you want a program that will control the laser directly and not worry about what is already on there...kind of like a "wipe" utility for a hard drive.

[Rick]

I'll have to give that a try.
When I get Linux installed again

[Paul Komski]

The version may be important; Roxio have an upgrade to 5.01 for WinXP.

This thread at another forum (http://pub173.ezboard.com/funofficialsonyfrm5.showMessage?topicID=94.topic) could be worth a peep.

[Rick]

I'm at version 5.3.1.154

But thanks
we have a thread here about the task of getting EZ5 and XP to work also

[Paul Komski]

..woops.. must have missed that one! :( Coincidentally, $5.31 is the approx. retail price of a CDRW here! - don't want to destroy too many of those! ;)

[Budfred]

Paul,

For that price you might want to get someone over here to buy a supply and ship them to you, they would almost certainly still be cheaper. I find them around here for free after rebate at times.

Budfred

[Rick]

Originally posted by Paul Komski
..woops.. must have missed that one! :( Coincidentally, $5.31 is the approx. retail price of a CDRW here! - don't want to destroy too many of those! ;)


OUCH

[kayofcircles]

Whoa!:eek: That's outrageous, Paul , and I agree with Budfred ..even counting in shipping, you can get someone here in the States to send you some for cheaper than that.

Rick : Don't really think was a window or HP problem BECAUSE after I gave up on that HP and bought a new writer, my husband took the HP and installed it in his puter running the exact same 98, and with similar RAM and such. That was right around the time that Roxio was taking over the software..and my husband was having trouble with getting the proper software updates and such, so went to HP and they had started offering Veritas software for their older writers. Husband downloaded Veritas software..and has never had one single problem with the HP, and is still using it.

Plus, there was a thread not too long ago where Sea had problems upgrading to a newer version of EZ CD Creator..and I read in other places about problems installing EZ CD on any puter that had any other writing software on it...etc and etc. So, I know that several people here are using EZ and like it, but others have had problems so my dislike is not totally irrational...lol.:)

[Paul Komski]

I can get them on-line from Amazon.co.uk for about GB£1.00(US$1.36) or from Amazon.com US$0.87 but I happen to know of someone who just bought a pack of 5 from a mega-store in Dublin for 24.99euro (~US$5.00 each!). It's just amazing that any company can rip people off to that extent.

Agree with you Kay about Veritas; that's what came bundled with my burner and it has worked flawlessly for me.

[kayofcircles]

Rick : Wanted to add one last comment from cranky old lady. Last time I checked months ago, EZ CD Creator was still in the top three CD writing softwares. And I suspect it falls in the category of an old nursery rhyme: "When she was good, she was very very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid!" We just saw the latter.

Paul : This probably isn't the "place" to ask this, but which brand of writer did you buy that included Veritas? And did your burner include a "backup" program? The reason I ask is because back when I was talking to the HP tech, he told me that Veritas has the best backup stuff..and we're still trying to figure how to get husband's work puter off the tape backup "cheap" enough so owners will go for it.

[Paul Komski]

Kay It was Prassi PrimoDVD 2.0 provided by NEC. Prassi were then taken over by Veritas (In Europe anyways (http://www.prassieurope.com/)), who now provide limited free upgrades for Prassi. I'm not sure what Storage Guard does - though it is free.

Veritas Backup (http://www.veritas.com/products/listing/ProductFamilyList.jhtml;jsessionid=3MSBSAS53G5WFQF IYBTCFEQ?categoryId=100&_requestid=113279) has a few different flavours.

Simple Backup $29 (http://www.stompinc.com/sbu/sbu-retail.phtml?stp)

If there was a specific backup package included, I have yet to find it. I just make image files and burn them. :(

[kayofcircles]

Thank you, Paul ...on two fronts. I didn't know that about Prassi and need to check. Although Prassi doesn't "support" my packet writing software..it's their software that was bundled with my Sony.

[Paul Komski]

Sounds like we are in a similar boat. I have no packet writing with that package either and Veritas (as far as I can tell) charge for getting the "upgrade" to add packet writing to the Prassi Package (which would have been free for the Veritas Package! Packet writing apart - I like the software.

[ErnieK]

Rick
I have the same problem as you. BUT! I use Nero 5.5 and IN-CD (Packet writing) Incd is not enabled at boot up and does not spring into action when disk inserted. As you say the drive can just lock and dissapear with reboot needed to eject disk during the re-boot. If drive does not disapear the error message of no disk comes up. Open Nero and then input disk and still the same happens

Disk is brand new, written to once, like you left in (Ricoh CD-RW) drive at shut down and now useless. Have tried everyhting to format and access it. In Win98 and DOS as well as other computers.

Disk is a RICOH type 74/650MB and now sits on the shelf gathering dust.

[Rick]

ErnieK

I Took A Nice RED marker and wrote on my last mistake
EJECT

Placed it on the desk as a reminder :)

[Sylvander]

Hello Rick

my Hewlett Packard came supplied with a prog called "CD Eraser" which I'd use, though I have never had to.

However, I leave CD-RW disks in the drive as a matter of routine and so long as I don't remove them when "Direct CD" isn't running I'm ok.
If I do, I just make sure "Direct CD" isn't running when I insert the disk [in the early stages of the startup] and that it IS running when I then remove it. Or is my memory playing tricks?

[Alejandro]

Rick, i also have XP and Easy CD creator (5.1 Lite came bundled with the recorder but i had Platinum 5.0.2 lying around, so used it). At first, it told me the recorder was not supported, so went to Roxio site and checked for updates. Downloaded 5.3.1.154 update, and, according to Roxio instructions, instaled the program, REBOOTED, then installed the update and rebooted again. It kept working bad (CDRW speed not correctly detected, etc.) till i saw on another site this suggestion: Install EasyCD and WITHOUT rebooting the 5.3.1.154 update, then reboot. Worked flawlessly!! Now the recorder is detected ok and works well.
Don't know if this has something to do with your problem, but if you followed the Roxio instructions like me, you could have a similar problem.
Note: i'm checking Roxio site now and there's a new update (Updates Easy CD 5.x.x Platinum to 5.3.1 SP4) so they may have corrected the instalation instructions, or this new update could work different, but check it out.

[FrankSG]

Just tonight I read in one of the readme files concerning CD-R and CD-RW that it is recommended that you eject your disk before you shut down, restart, or even before you put it in Hibernate. Otherwise it may cause some problems. My understanding is that it doesn't always cause problems, but it could. If you right click on the drive icon, select Properties and then click on the Recording tab, you will see a box down at the bottom where you can choose to "Automatically reject the CD after writing." On my computer the default was checked to eject it. I suppose that's the reason that option is there.
Frank SanGregory

[Sylvander]

Hello Frank,

I wonder which application this was related to. I've never come across any such notes and I read all of the supplied information.

Here's a table of how I typically use mine.
1. Easy CD Creator : CD-R = Auto Ejects
2. CD Copier : CD-R = Auto Ejects
3. Simple Backup : CD-RW = Auto Ejects
4. CD Eraser : CD-RW & CD-R = never used it, don't know

5. Direct CD : CD-RW = doesn't eject unless told to, can leave in to reboot

I've never had any trouble from any of these and I think they're all great.

[FrankSG]

Greetings Sylvander:
That readme file is in a folder on my hard-drive called DLA. I have an HP Pavilion 513n which I just bought not too long ago. It came with a DVD/CD-ROM Drive and the CD Burner built right in. I've never used a Burner before and had a lot of problems with it. The problems were not with the PC or with the drive itself. I did some reading on it, changed a couple of settings in Device Manager and it seems to be OK now. The folder (DLA) was not a folder that I added. It was there when I got my computer. There are still some things that I don't completely understand about it such as UDF file system and the ISO file system, but so far everything is working OK. If you want, I'll be happy to send you the readme.txt file. Let me know if I should send it directly through the forum. If through the forum, let me know how. Or should I send it directly to your e-mail address? Have a good day.
Frank

[Sylvander]

Very interesting!

Here's what part of the file said.

QUOTE
13. Hot Swap/Warm Swap/Hibernate/Suspend with Media in Drive
-------------------------------------------------------------
To avoid the possibility of data loss, it is recommended that you
remove any DLA media from the device prior to
Hot Swap/Warm Swap/Hibernate/Suspend. This will ensure any data
left in the cache is written to the media.
END OF QUOTE

This software is said, in the file, to "perform similar functions" to "Direct CD".

It's easy to understand that if the software was in the middle of a write and you disconnected the hardware you'd have problems.

I would have thought it was possible and desirable for the software to temporarily disable "Hibernate/Suspend" until the write is complete and then re-enable. It obviously doesn't do this.

I wonder if "Direct CD" does?
What about ALL the other applications?