A CD Drive to Make Backups?

[mj9123456]

Hi. I want to burn some PC Engine CD backups, but the drive in my desktop won't write CD-Rs at 8X, nor will the external one I got in the mail today for that specific purpose (it won't go lower than 10X). I'll be using a SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 adapter to connect whichever drive I get to my desktop (it's a shared computer and I can't replace the main drive itself). Can someone please recommend a drive that can burn CD-Rs at 8x (and of a quality that'll work in my Duo)? Thanks.

[NightWolve]

http://www.ysutopia.net/software/ImgBurn.zip

Here's a clean copy of ImgBurn. Use that for burning your CD-Rs and just select the slowest speed allowed. If that is 10x, so be it. That should still work fine if you do things right. For one thing, always make sure you're selecting the CUE file to burn with, not the ISO, which is a common mistake resulting in CD-Rs that don't work.

EDIT: I had a YAMAHA whose lowest speed was 10x, not the end of the world and it's not the reason you're making coasters that don't work at all... Either burn software or hardware problem, CD-R brand totally sucks or user problem, selecting wrong file for burning, etc.

[thesteve]

if it doesnt work try another drive, as some dont support the format at all
the write speed is not as critical

[tbone3969]

I have burnt all of my CDrs at 10X or higher and they work fine in my DUO however my TurboGrafx CD is another story.  It will only play about 20% of the burnt games. 

Also make sure you are using the TurboRip program to verify that the images are legit and ready to burn.

[mj9123456]

FYI, I have a PC Engine Duo that I got from forum user Keith Courage. I'm using the type of discs he recommended, and I'm using Alcohol 120%. I haven't tried burning any games at 10X yet, as I was under the impression that 8X was ideal. Rather than wasting CDs, I figured I'd ask for a drive recommendation here. Since the drive I got today only goes down to 10X, I'm going to return it and get a different one.

[NightWolve]

Chances are, you might not find a modern drive for sale that goes lower than 10x and as was said, the write speed isn't that critical. You reduce the chance for skips with low speeds, but you're simply getting CD-Rs that don't work at all... Your drive is most likely not the problem. Try burning with my ImgBurn before dismissing the drive.

It goes like this: The lowest speed the CD-R and drive support is ideal. Using max speed is a bad idea. That's the principle. It's not locked in to 4x, 8x, 10x, etc. It's getting paranoid to go off and say try to find old drives that can burn as low as 1x or 2x, etc.

[mj9123456]

Chances are, you might not find a modern drive for sale that goes lower than 10x and as was said, the write speed isn't that critical. You reduce the chance for skips with low speeds, but you're simply getting CD-Rs that don't work at all... Your drive is most likely not the problem. Try burning with my ImgBurn before dismissing the drive.

It goes like this: The lowest speed the CD-R and drive support is ideal. Using max speed is a bad idea. That's the principle. It's not locked in to 4x, 8x, 10x, etc. It's getting paranoid to go off and say try to find old drives that can burn as low as 1x or 2x, etc.

Hi. Thanks for your input. However, I never said I was getting CD-Rs that don't work at all. I'll try to burn a few at 10X and see how they work. I was just hoping to burn at 8X since that's what was recommended to me, and I figured it could reduce the likelihood of having problems while playing the game.

[deubeul]

I have an old external CD writer from 2002 that I found at my job, seemed to be brand new. I thought I found the messiah for burning backups  . I had to install XP on an old P4 because there's no W7 driver available. I could burn at 2x with it, I tried with verbatim and TDK CDRs with both cloneCD and Imgburn. My Duo-R didn't read anything, but my CDromrom did. At first everything was fine, but I soon had huge glithes that blocked the game with the only CDRs which worked, Verbatims.

Then I burnt the same game with Imgburn on a W7 recent PC with budget DVD writer at the lower speed it could, 14x, and TDKs and Verbatims worked flawlessly on both systems. But I can't tell if it will shorten the life of the lens, it was last week.

BTW the game I burnt is XAK3 in english, mad props and huge thanks for your work, NightWolve, I had mad fun playing through it !! 

[thesteve]

the 8X rule was based on 2 things
1 if your buffer underruns its likely to cause a glitch in unknown data formats (PCE)
2 if you burn faster then the laser must push harder to write the disc, so running in the upper range for the drive will cause you issues

[NightWolve]

Chances are, you might not find a modern drive for sale that goes lower than 10x and as was said, the write speed isn't that critical. You reduce the chance for skips with low speeds, but you're simply getting CD-Rs that don't work at all... Your drive is most likely not the problem. Try burning with my ImgBurn before dismissing the drive.

It goes like this: The lowest speed the CD-R and drive support is ideal. Using max speed is a bad idea. That's the principle. It's not locked in to 4x, 8x, 10x, etc. It's getting paranoid to go off and say try to find old drives that can burn as low as 1x or 2x, etc.

Hi. Thanks for your input. However, I never said I was getting CD-Rs that don't work at all. I'll try to burn a few at 10X and see how they work. I was just hoping to burn at 8X since that's what was recommended to me, and I figured it could reduce the likelihood of having problems while playing the game.

I see, so you were in search of a solution for a problem that had yet to manifest itself because of a word-of-mouth developed firm belief that 8x was a magic burning speed and you hadn't even tested a burn from this new drive because it didn't allow anything below 10x...

Well, again, it's not that critical and the difference between 8x to 10x isn't huge. What you wanna pay attention to is skipping/stopping on an audio track such as background music. If the game loads, you've got a working burn and if the background music never skips, then stops, there is no problem, it is compatible with the CD-R.

* If a good CD-R burn doesn't work at all, but it works with an emulator, then your CD laser would need tuning or possible replacement.

* If you do get skips on real CD-ROMS, or CD-Rs, even then, the first thing to try is relubrication of the laser's sliding poles, that usually fixes that problem.

* If CDROMs work perfectly, but CD-Rs randomly misread while music is playing and it stops, the game goes on with no sound, that's where a good CD-R brand and slow burn might make a difference.

Anyhow, yeah, try it out first before feeling you must replace this drive because it can't burn slightly slower... You been led into being excessively cautious about this if you believe you really must find a drive that can burn a bit slower without even having tested anything from the drive you just bought.

[tbone3969]

XAK3 in English sounds cool.

[Trenton_net]

These days burn speed really doesn't matter anymore. As long as your CD-R Media is rated for a particular speed, it will be compatible with burning at that speed. The real issue is figuring out what CD-R Media dyes work best with your PCE setup.

[Necromancer]

What the hell is XAK3 in English and where to I get the image file.  I wanna play it.

Try google.

Asking for ISOs is a bannable offense.

[tbone3969]

What the hell is XAK3 in English and where to I get the image file.  I wanna play it.

Try google.

Asking for ISOs is a bannable offense.

My bad.  Totally understand.  Please disregard that post.

[NightWolve]

What the hell is XAK3 in English...  I wanna play it.

My first PCE fan translation project. Also the first PCE translation of a CD RPG.

http://xak3.ysutopia.net/