New T60... this isn't a good sign

[Muse]

I wrote a DVD-RW from my desktop (because I don't have the network running yet) and inserted it in the T60. I selected one of the four directories on the DVD-RW and copied it to a location on the T60 HD. After around 30 seconds I selected the other 3 directories and copied them to the clipboard and pasted to the T60 HD. A second dialog opened. In pretty short order noises I hadn't heard (I've been using this a couple days, lightly) started up. Sounded like a sewing machine. After a while, the sound sped up and was completely repetitive. I started getting a bit alarmed and when I checked it out, I found that XP Pro had the two copy processes flagged as Not Responding. Task Manager was unable to stop them and there was no response to the system and I had to do a Shutdown, which did at least happen. I've never had a problem on my desktops (running Windows 2000) when doing this sort of thing. I had to wonder if the HD wasn't going belly up.

[GomJabbar]

I don't think I would be overly concerned. Optical drives often make noise when spinning up. If the disk you are using is out-of-balance, any noise will be more pronounced.

I do not have any experience with DVD-RW disks, but I know that CD-RW disks can be a little fickle. Sometimes an optical drive will have trouble reading them. Make sure you use quality media - preferably media that has been approved by the optical drive manufacturer.

If you are using DLA, or other packet writing software, that can sometimes be problematic as well. Personally I have gotten away from using packet writing software in favor of using multisession disk recording. And for just transferring files from one machine to another, a USB key can't be beat.

These are just my personal opinions and experiences. Others here may have different experiences or ideas on this.

[Muse]

Interesting you say that, because I just ordered a 2 GB USB 2.0 flash drive an hour or so ago! I have only a couple of 128 MB flash drives, and am using the USB 2.0 one now.

Yep, I figure the 2 GB will come in handy, but I presume my ethernet network will be pretty decent for file transfers. I would have gotten that up and running but I'm flying OOT tomorrow and decided to simply do stuff I know will work rather than wrestle with the network right now.

I have pretty much given up on packet writing. I don't know what caused the problem. You may be right that it's the optical drive, but I'd presumed it was the HD. I like your idea better, actually.

After the reboot, I haven't had more problems, so I'm not worried.

Thanks for the comments.

[Ken Fox]

If you are using DLA, or other packet writing software, that can sometimes be problematic as well. Personally I have gotten away from using packet writing software in favor of using multisession disk recording. And for just transferring files from one machine to another, a USB key can't be beat.

These are just my personal opinions and experiences. Others here may have different experiences or ideas on this.

It's more than that. Packet writing software is known for being extremely problematic. I've had systems rendered unstable because of it, and blue screens directly traceable to installing it. For the last several years I've avoided it like the plague. I would never install it on any of my systems, regardless of which company provided it.

[dr_st]

Yeah, packet writing sucks. DVD-RAM is the only real way to go if you want to treat optical disks like floppies. However, it's rather slow, compared to the fast USB 2.0 flash drives, and you still need a driver to be able to use it for random access.

[Muse]

It's more than that. Packet writing software is known for being extremely problematic. I've had systems rendered unstable because of it, and blue screens directly traceable to installing it. For the last several years I've avoided it like the plague. I would never install it on any of my systems, regardless of which company provided it.

I haven't been using it, but figured it's as good a time as any to uninstall InCD. Just did it.

[claudeo]

If you think about the physics of a DVD drive, with its single head on a relatively slow moving arm and a relatively slowly spinning disk, and reading and writing to a spiral track rather than on circular track, you should not be surprised if the system starts making weird noises and getting into very long wait states if you are trying to do several copy operations at once to or from such a drive. You are asking for something that is physically extremely stressful, if possible at all.

[Ken Fox]

Yeah, packet writing sucks. DVD-RAM is the only real way to go if you want to treat optical disks like floppies. However, it's rather slow, compared to the fast USB 2.0 flash drives, and you still need a driver to be able to use it for random access.

I think that there might have been a time for packet writing software, if they ever could have gotten it to work. But now, there are so many better storage solutions, such as flash drives, USB2 or FW hard drives, etc. that there is no need for it in any event.

[gearguy]

Not only that, but you often find the optical drives in Laptops are considerably crapper than 'good' Desktop ones.

For Example - CDs burned on my laptop dont play in my DVD player, yet when burned on my Dektop they play in it fine - and both drives are LG Super Multis.


you should Forget about RW though,

RAM is the way to go for back ups.

[christopher_wolf]

For backups, R media is perhaps the best as RW and RAM media are more prone to degrading over time to a significantly corrupted state.

[DavidR]

You guys seem to advocate removing InCD from a new T60p. What about the DLS stuff, and the other software that comes pre-installed? Better yet, what do you keep? All I want to do with my DVD writer is make backups.

[claudeo]

When InCD works, it can be quite convenient. I would not remove InCD unless it interferes with some other software you find more useful, like some 3rd party DVD authoring tools.

[Muse]

For backups, R media is perhaps the best as RW and RAM media are more prone to degrading over time to a significantly corrupted state.

I use Nero for backups and often use RW media, both CD and DVD. Lately I have Nero configured to Verify the burns. I don't know it for a fact, but I suspect that if Nero discovered bad areas on an RW disk, it would flag those as bad such as is done for hard drives. So far I've done pretty well with my CD and DVD RW media. I have some pretty well used and several years old CDRW disks that are still serving me well (4x media). The only serious problems I've had with the CDRW media is when I was using packet writing (InCD) to write MP3's. Too many hiccups, so I stopped using InCD for those but still write to (and rewrite) CDRW's. All this is with my desktop. Just got my T60.

BTW, what is RAM media?

T60 1953CTO T5500 GMA950 60 GB 5400 XP Pro Fingerprint Sensor CDRW/DVDR 6 Cell Li-ion

[dr_st]

For backups, R media is perhaps the best as RW and RAM media are more prone to degrading over time to a significantly corrupted state.

I agree about RW media, but I believe that DVD-RAM is supposed to last even longer than most R media. However, for periodical backups, R media is probably preferred, since it's cheaper, faster and more compatible.