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Miscellaneous questions about burning CDs

Question (Screenshots as bug reports):
MakeCD aborts with an error. I enclose a screenshot of the requester by E-mail.
Answer:
Please do not send us screenshots or error requesters! This burdens the Internet, and there are very few cases where a screenshot is required/helpful. Please use ASCII!

Question (Bug reports):
MakeCD aborts with the error xyz. Any ideas?
Answer:
If you can reproduce the error, you can help us by activating DEBUG=<file> in the DEBUG=<file> tooltypes. Then, restart DEBUG=<file>, reproduce the error, and send us the debug info.

Question (Burning CDs bit by bit):
Is it possible to burn a CD bit by bit? For example, I would like to burn a few audio tracks today, a few more tomorrow, and then fix the CD on the following day. Am I able to remove the CD from the drive in the meantime. Is there something else I need to know?
Answer:
Yes, in Track-At-Once-Mode the burning process can be interrupted for any length of time after the burning of each track. In addition, you are also able to take the CD-R out of the drive. You can even finish the CD-R in a completely different CD-burner. MakeCD automatically takes care of this for you. All the same, you should make sure that MakeCD does not fix the session without your explicit wish, since a CD player will only find the audio tracks contained in the first session, which in this case would not be your intention. So, make sure that you turn off automatic fixing.

Question (CD-R Size):
Today I am standing in front of a shelf with various 74 minute CD-Rs. Should I purchase the CD-Rs with 780 MB or the CD-Rs with 650 Mb? Actually, I would like to pack as much information onto the CD as possible, but provided that 780 MB CD-Rs are at least as good as 650 MB CD-Rs. Can I buy the 780 MB CD-Rs with confidence?
Answer:
You have fallen for a marketing ploy. 74 minutes are 74 minutes, that cannot be disputed. Both CD-Rs, however, store about the same amount of data. You will, of course, ask why the MB statements do not agree. This is quite simple: 330,000 blocks fits on a 74 minute CD-R. If you write 330,000 blocks to the CD-R, you end up with 330,000*2.048 bytes, i.e. 681,984,000 bytes (650 MB). Some firms mark state the capacity as 680 MB for marketing reasons (where 'M' no longer stands for "mega", but "million". If you then fill the 330,00 blocks of the CD-R with music data, you end up with 330,000*2.352 bytes, i.e. 783,216,000 bytes (746 MB), since music data does not require bytes for the sector header, ECCs or EDCs. To work the figures as much as possible, some firms then state the capacity as 780 MB or 783 MB. In conclusion, one can say that 650 MB, 680 MB, 750 MB and 780 MB CD-Rs all have the same storage capacity.

Question (Target CD-R: inconsistent storage shown):
The space shown in the target CD-R window in not consistent. If I add the used and the available space together, this does not agree with the total size of the CD-R.
Answer:
This is a known problem and depends on your burner. Some CD-burners include the pause after the last track that has not yet been written, others count this as free space. This can lead to deviations of 2-3 seconds - just ignore this.

Question (Storage question):
How can I tell if all the files I select will fit onto a CD?
Answer:
MakeCD is calculating since version 2.2 the amount of data to be written and is comparing this size with the amount of free space on the inserted media. If not enough space is available, a warning will be shown.

Question (Draco):
Shouldn't MakeCD run on the Draco too? I am experiencing all manner of problems.
Answer:
You are presumably using more than one memory module with the Draco. Place a large memory module (32MB if possible) in the first connector and make sure that there is still memory free on this module before you start MakeCD. MakeCD is stable if you have all data necessary for SCSI transfer in this first module. The buffer, whose size can be selected in the settings, can be stored in the other memory modules, but the (small) IORequests and SCSI commands must be stored in the first module. Incidentally, this is a bug in the dracoscsi.device - there is nothing we can do about it. If you follow our instructions, you should be able to get around the problem.

Question (Hanging SCSI bus):
My burner frequently hangs after a while. The SCSI bus seems to be blocked. What can I do?
Answer:
Try turning off reselection and synchronous transfer mode. There is a tool, CTRLscsi (Archivname: HWGCTRLscsi.lha), for V39/V40 Commodore SCSI devices. This tool is included with most versions of MakeCD and lets you turn reselection on and off for each unit. See also section SCSI problems, hanging SCSI bus

Question (Drive does not show all tracks):
I have a CD-R containing several tracks, but my drive does not show all tracks -- the last few tracks are always lost. This means that I am unable to use multisession or multivolume CDs as intended. What am I doing wrong?
Answer:
You have purchased a poor drive. Good drives show all sessions; bad drives can have problems and show only those tracks in the first few sessions.

Question (Corrupted data CD):
I have created a data CD using MakeCD. No errors were shown, but the image must have been corrupted, since several icons burnt to the CD are missing on the Workbench, and numerous archives are corrupt. I have tried using another version of MakeCD, resulting in another defect CD-R. Sometimes even the disk icon fails to appear, and sometimes the file system even crashes. My configuration is: A4000, Yamaha CDR 100, Toshiba 4101, Noname blank.
Answer:
Have you tested the CD on your Toshiba? Toshiba drives (and drives from other firms too) have always had problems with specific types of CD-R. The same blanks can be read without problem on other drives. Try this - your two apparently defect blanks can probably be read perfectly on another drive (e. g. TEAC). See the file `doc/Compatibility'. This contains details on some CD-Rs which we have found to be reliable.

Question (Read problems):
My CD-burner used to work perfectly will all types of CD (silver CDs, CD-Rs, etc.). For a while now, I have been able to read silver (pressed) CDs only. I experience problems trying to read CD-Rs - even those that I wrote a few months ago on this very CD-burner! What can I do about this?
Answer:
Somebody described exactly the same problem to us. After using a CD-cleaner, everything was fine again. Such problems are particularly common among smokers.

Question (Transfer rate):
The transfer rate for my CD-ROM drive is faster than it should be - or at least it appears to be. MakeCD's write window shows a very high transfer rate for the drive. Why?
Answer:
MakeCD the interval between sending a read request to the CD-ROM drive and receiving back the request together with the data. That is all. Some drives used intelligent buffer technology while MakeCD is not using the drive to fill its buffer with data that it hopes will be requested on the next access to the drive. The drive often "guesses" correctly and the drive is able to send the data directly from the buffer to MakeCD without even having to access the CD. This is why the drive appears to be so fast. Were it not for the small pauses, the value would be slower.

Question (CD- drives):
What are CD-RW drives? They have something to do with CD burning too, don't they?
Answer:
CD-RW drives are CD-burners which can also write to the new CD-RW media. CD-RW media are special CD-Rs which, although significantly more expensive than CD-Rs, can be written to up to 1000 times, although they can only be used with CD-RW drives. CD-RWs cannot be read using CD players or CD-ROM drives built prior to 1997. Only some drives built before 1997 can also read CD-RWs.

Question (Fixing the CD-R):
I am unable to fix my CD-R! I have fixed all the sessions and now I want to fix the CD, but I cannot!
Answer:
You can only fix the CD-R if you have written tracks to the last session. When you fix a session, a new session (without tracks is opened. This is why you cannot fix the CD-R, because you have not written further tracks since fixing the last session. When you fix a session, the lead-in for this session is written. This includes the track table of contents for this session required by the CD-ROM drive to find the tracks. This is why unfixed session cannot be read on CD-ROM drives. The lead-in also contains information about the start of the next session, even if this is empty. When you fix a CD-R, the principle is exactly the same, except that, instead of the information about where the next session begins, a marker indicates that there are no more sessions on the CD. Since a drive runs through all the sessions one by one when reading the tracks, it will stumble at the last session if the CD-R has not been fixed. This is because it encounters unreadable data when searching for the last session. This slows down the reading of the track's table of contents. For this reason it is best to fix the CD if you are sure that no further tracks need to be written.

Question (Safety measures when burning):
What do I need to turn off while I am burning a CD? I know that I should turn off my screen blanker as well as quit any programs running in the background. Is there anything else to worry about?
Answer:
To be honest, we, the authors, turn off absolutely nothing when burning a CD. Our screen blanker continues to run and does not interfere. Sometimes we type in texts during burning -- without any problems. It only becomes critical if a program crashes (so only use stable programs), or if a program takes up lots of processor time at a higher priority. We have been told that the switching of high resolution screens on graphics cards can cause a buffer underrun if the graphics card driver is set to a higher priority. We have not encountered problems using normal AMIGA-Screens.

Question (CD-burner recommendation):
CD-burners
Which CD-burner should I buy?
Answer:
We always recommend Yamaha CD-burners (CDR 100, CDR 102, CDR 200 and CDR 400), as well as the Ricoh MP6200S. It is well worth looking at the file `doc/Compatibility'.

Question (CD-ROM drive recommendation):
I am planing to buy a new CD-ROM drive. Any tips?
Answer:
Angela has a TEAC CD516S (SCSI), which also has an ATAPI version, and is very satisfied with it. The drive should theoretically read at 16 speed - on the A3000 we could only measure 12 speed. But the drive has a number of advantages: These tests were carried out with a TEAC CD516S, firmware version 1.0D. The firmware version 1.0g is reputedly even better and resolves a few problems. e.g. firmware version 1.0D swaps the audio channels of the TEAC, but this has been resolved in firmware version 1.0g. Therefore we heartily recommend updating to 1.0g.

Question (CD-burner support):
When are you going to support my CD-burner XYZ?
Answer:
It is not easy to support all the different makes of CD-burner, because there is no SCSI command set which has been implemented for all CD-burners. Try our MCC driver for modern CD-burners. If this driver doesn't work, try the other drivers. If none of the drivers work, we need the programming docs for your CD-burner and often a loan unit for this version. Check `doc/Compatibility' to see if support is already planned for your drive.

Question (Add entire CD or image file):
What is the difference between Add entire CD and Add image file?
Answer:
Add entire CD reads all the tracks from your read drive and adds them to the track list. Track types are set automatically. Add image file(s) opens a file selection window which you can use to select one or more image files to be added to the track list. For technical reasons, the track types cannot be recognized and set automatically -- you may need to set this yourself.

Question (Block medium):
What do I do about the block medium. Do I need to create a special partition for it?
Answer:
Actually, even a hard disk would be appropriate. It would then be very easy to mount a CD-ROM file system on this disk so that the image can be tested. This saves you having to use cdromemu.device. Also, you can send such disks to a press works. If you are not sure what you are doing, you are well advised to leave the block medium alone - if you make a mistake, you can destroy a lot of data. Should you nonetheless proceed and end up destroying the RDB, perhaps RDB-Salv can help you: http://home.pages.de/~Angela/rdbsalv.html

Question (Corrupt CD):
I have written a CD which seems to be defective. My CD-ROM drive cannot read it at all. :-(
Answer:
Fix the session or the CD-R so that you can access the CD using the CD-ROM drive. Make sure that you are not using a cracked version of MakeCD. Many crackers are incompetent and often cause far more damage to the program than they realize. Please don't blame us for viruses on cracked versions. You should download a clean, slightly limited version from our home page.

Question (Root directory):
This is a nice feature, since you can use the name of the track as the name of the ISO image. This saves time as well. The files are always written to PROGDIR: -- except if you change the path by hand. This can be irritating. Please can you add a feature so that you can chose the default directory?
Answer:
You are referring to the Root directory gadget in the top left of the main window. Simply enter your work directory there.

Question (Read error):
I want to read a CD with data and audio tracks. At the end of a data track, MakeCD reports a read error!?
Answer
The table of contents (TOC) of a CD only saves the positions where the CD tracks begin, not where they stop or how long they are. On reading a CDs table of contents (TOC), MakeCD attempts to strip the pause after a track from the length of the track. For technical reasons, this only works if the pause after the data track is not unusually long and if the CD shows no read errors at the end of the track (e. g. through scratches). If the method used to determine the track length fails, you can either reduce the track length before reading, or ignore the error by selecting "Use File" in the error requester.

Question (Problems not concerning data tracks):
Reading and writing is fine with data tracks, even with disconnect, but I get problems with other track types. Why?
Answer:
Some SCSI host adapters increase their performance if you e. g. make assumptions about the block size, z. B. that the block size is a power of 2 or a multiple of x bytes (x = 32, 64, ...). These assumptions are wrong for unusual block sizes such as 2352 bytes (audio tracks) and that will cause the host adapter to fail.

Question (Repairing CD-Rs):
Which burners can I use in conjunction with the repair option in the Target CDR window? What will be repaired?
Answer:
If the writing was interrupted by a power failure, the Philips burners and compatibles offer a command so that a defective CD-R can be used again -- but only if the CD-R was not removed from the drive! This is the feature used by the MakeCD Philips drivers. The Yamaha CDR100/102 and compatibles do not support repair. The Sony 926S, Yamaha CDR200 and Yamaha CDR400 have a very powerful repair command which can even cope with defective CD-Rs that are not recognized at all on other drives. Most devices finish the last track automatically should the data stream be interrupted and the burner is still running. The track is then too short, but at least further tracks can be written to the CD-R.

Question (CD-R label):
I have removed a small label from the CD-R. I have accidentally removed a some of the golden surface at the same time (now stuck to the label). There is now a small hole in the middle of the CD which can be seen through. Can I paint over the hole? I have already tried putting the label back, but the CD still cannot be read.
Answer:
No, I'm afraid that the disk is damaged beyond repair. Unfortunately, removing the label often damages the reflective surface, destroying the CD.

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