CD-R discs

A disc rated for 8x writing will write more reliably than "any old kind", but the latter will probably work. Depends on what you want to burn the CDs for--if it's a gold master for replication it usually needs to be better quality than something you're just knocking together for your own use.

Just a quick comment, why did you accept Wayned's answer in your CD-R vs CD-RW question that quickly, you should've waited for more comments.  His/Her answer was difinately WRONG. CD-Rs can be recorded more than ONCE. Oh well too bad..

>>>Do i have to use 8x CDs if my writer is 8x, or is any old kind ok?
No you don't have to use 8x CDs. Your writer is 8x, this means that it can write at 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x(max).  Bare in mind that some of the cd readers cannot read CD-Rs that are burnt over 2x. For example a playstation cannot read CD-Rs that were burn at 4x or above, so are some old cd players.  Also if your CD-Rs say 8x, this means that the disc is compatible with 8x writer speed.

Don't accept any comments yet coz you might get better ones later on. Or unless you are happy with with one. It;s for your own benefit

It depends on the model and software used, the model I have allows write once to cd-r and multi write to cd-rw.
I have a sony model.

I have a Plexwriter 8x CD-R, and I'm using Maxell discs (doesn't say 8x or 4x anywhere on the discs), and I havent been able to record more than 20 minutes of music before the drive stops writing and the software freezes completely. The drive tray wont open, I have to turn computer right off, then back on. The software came with the Plexwriter. Any thoughts? I will try an "official" 8x CD-R disc today.

disable the DMA setting for the drive in device manager

1)  right click my computer and select properties
2)  click on device manager
3)  click the + next to cd-roms
4)  click on the CD-RW drive and then select properties below
5)  click on settings tab
6)  remove the check from Use DMA
Hit OK and restart

Also, make sure you aren't doing anything else whuile burning and shut down any background apps like screen savers, virus software, etc.

Other possible things to try:

1. Make a disk image of the disk on your hard drive.
2. Write the disk at less that 8x (if you want to test, try 4x, then 2x). Sometimes, the writer goes faster than the computer can feed it. This can cause the write to stop.

I find that writing from the disk is more reliable than doing a disk copy, and that 4x is plenty fast enough.

Good luck.

I have a Plextor CD and CD-R. According to the Plextor Manager help files you need to disable auto-insert notification for your drive(s). If you have a NIC, that needs to be disabled also. There is also an entry that needs to be inserted into the system.ini file but I'm at a different computer right now and can't tell you what it is.

1cell - My manual specifically says DMA must be enabled, as well all other check boxes in the device manager settings tab. I got some 8x CD-R discs, but it does the same thing, records for about 15 minutes, then the drive light goes out, it stops writing, and the program says "waiting for drive", and hangs badly(I have to reboot). Any help would be appreciated. Getting frustrated.

Sorry, forgot to add, program says "timeout error, lost connection to drive", or words to that effect

Hum.. why don't you just disable the DMA??? do what is right or might help solve your problem. Have you also tried recording at lower speed? By the way if you have CD-RW disc, try using it with all possible configurations, coz you don't wanna waste your CD-R's.

a CD-R cannot have DMA enabled as far as I have ever known.

Is the plextor Ide or Scsi? It makes a difference, if scsi what scsi card are you using?

Thanks, everyone. I turned off DMA and it wrote to CD-RW just fine. Going to try CD-R now. I wonder why the manual said to use DMA? Last thing, can CD-RW be read by stereos, discmen, etc? I heard they couldn't.

Your best bet to get your written CD's read by other devices is to use Audio Recordable CD's.  They cost a bit more but the quality helps for what you want to do.  It's not perfect though, it all depends on what method is used to write the disk (ie. packet writing, session writing).

ALL CD-RW's cannot be read by home/car stereos and discmen. You'll  need CD-R for your audio music.

Scott, have you read all the comments?? NO-ONE here mis-interpreted his question.

TOTEM13 - Are you on drugs?  Don't you think 1cell deserves some of this points? He "SUGGESTED" you to disable the DMA. AND you went and disabled the DMA, and what happened? You got everything working now. God damn people.