Testing CD-R Software

Adaptec Easy CD Creator, Nero, and WinonCD

Producing a CD-Extra disc, with both audio and website data on it, allows you to distribute a disc that plays audio when inserted into a standard home CD player, but will reveal computer data, pictures, programs, websites, movies or what-have-you when inserted into a computer. We tested three programs capable of producing CD-Extra discs and discovered that there's more challenges to building a disc with this feature than one might assume on first glance.

Test 1: CD-Extra
We started with Adaptec Easy CD Creator 3.5c, as shipped with the HP 8200 and 9200 series recorders we've been testing recently. This product, for unknown reasons, gave us TrackWriter Error - Operation continues" messages whenever we tried to create a CD-Extra disc. These errors persisted even after uninstalling, reinstalling, and upgrading to Easy CD Creator 4.0. We uninstalled it, installed Nero 4.0, encountered and solved the problem listed below, and then tested Nero's CD-Extra capabilities.

All seemed to go well, but the Mode 2/XA disc Nero created had two problems:

1. The data section of the disc showed up as track 1, making the disc unsuitable for playback in standard audio players.
2. The disc could not be read on five of the six CD-ROM drives we tested it on at PC Buyer's Guide's Labs. It could, for some reason, be read on a recently purchased AOpen 40x CD-ROM, but not on the HP 820e, 8200 or 9200 series drives, nor a recent LaCie CD-R or Creative Labs DVD-ROM model.

We then installed CeQuadrat's WinOnCD 3.6 Power Edition. This software was schizophrenic in nature. On standard IS09660 discs and basic CD Extra titles, it performed like a champ, producing a CD Extra disc that worked in all the drives. But, when we added the finishing touches to our CD Extra title, such as track names, embedded images and copyright notices, WinOnCD 3.6 began writing discs that didn't play properly in any drive. Worse, some of the files on the discs were empty, even though the program said the disc had been burned successfully. The program also crashed periodically, particularly when double-clicking on the CD Extra category in the Track List.

Even when it was working, it must be said that we weren't particularly fond of its interface, which we'd rate below that of Nero, which, in turn, is far less intuitive than Adaptec's offerings. But friendly or not, any software that doesn't play well with others or, worse, fails without alerting you is, in an already too-complicated world, a cardinal sin.

Problem Solving
Paraphrased from: http://come.to/satcp
If you encounter problems (not booting into windows, blue screens,...) after installing one of these (CD-R) programs, rename the Scsi1hlp.vxd file in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS map to Scsi1hlp.old .

If you have or had installed Adaptec Easy CD Creator (and especially Adaptec DirectCD) you must do the the above prior to installing any other CD-R software. Otherwise, Easy CD Creator will nuke your day... Somehow Easy CD Creator interferes with other CD-R software (even if you uninstalled Easy CD Creator), but by renaming the vxd file you can avoid problems and will Easy CD Creator live in peace with other software....

For Further Reading

• The Computer News - May 2 info on the CD-R Levy
• Recording Tax Delayed... (1/26/98)
• TCP's CDR report.
• TCP's report on CD-Rewritable Drives
• Andy McFadden's CD-R FAQ (http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/) lists the top models of CD-R and CD-RW.
• For more info on CD-R technology, see http://www.cd-info.com.
• See our review of the HP 7110e
• DVD Status Report
• Recording CD ROMs
• Deal-Mac tracks the best prices on CD-R drives and shows how you can get blank CD-R media for free.
• See CD-R FAQ for more info on CD-R, DVD and related technologies, plus buying tips and other info.
• A technical description from Sony of how CD-R, CD-RW and other writable media work: http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/rmeg/mediatech/overview.html
• (May 30, 2000) CD Facts - useful info on CDs and how you should handle them