CD-R disks

[Kristi]

I had bought some Philips CD-R disks and I was able to back up on them a few times. Now it takes 3-4 tries. Yesterday I got the note that the CD I was using was not writeable. I backed up on floppies.

My mother remembered a salesman had told us that our CR-R's speed had to be compatible to our computer.

I just brought a Verbatim CD-R disk from home with a speed of 1x-48x. It backed up.

The Philips is a 52x.

Do you think this was really the issue or is my computer just moody?
Kristi

[NeilZ]

I had bought some Philips CD-R disks and I was able to back up on them a few times. Now it takes 3-4 tries. Yesterday I got the note that the CD I was using was not writeable. I backed up on floppies.

My mother remembered a salesman had told us that our CR-R's speed had to be compatible to our computer.

I just brought a Verbatim CD-R disk from home with a speed of 1x-48x. It backed up.

The Philips is a 52x.

Do you think this was really the issue or is my computer just moody?
Kristi

It depends, the listed speed on the disk is the MAX speed that a CD writer can write to the disk. A slower writer should write fine to that disk. The issue was more with older CD-Rs and newer CD writers. Some of the older disks had a limit of 24x, yet the newer writers were able to do 36x, 48x, etc.

FWIW ... I don't use CD-Rs to do the backup, I just use CD-RWs, as they are less likely to have multiple write problems.

Since PC+ always appends the latest time/datestamp to the backup name, you'll not have to worry about duplicates and overwritten files.

[Zaphod]

I think the PowerChurch CD backup writes at 1x regardless of the speed of the drive. Backup files are generally so small (relative to the available space on a CD), that you don't notice that much of a difference.

It could be your drive is being fussy, or it just doesn't like the different media. Reboot and try again. If you find CDs that your burner likes, stick with those.