Why did it take so long to format a CD-RW ? Please help...

[zaidulon]

I presently use "Roxio DirectCD v5.01" to format CD-RW discs but it takes so long on a CD-RW drive ( Sony Pressa 8x4x32) : almost an hour for one disc !

1) Is this normal to take this long to format just one disc ( 650 MB) ?

2) How can I speed up the process ?

3) Is there such a thing called "formatted CD-RW disc" in the market yet ?

Thank you,

 

[rimper1]

no it should not take taht long. Don't get me wrong but why do you wan't to format a r/w anyway erace it? yes dont get me wrong but get rid of roxio and get a good program to burn cd's with their are alot out their Roxio and adaptic are real bad software that's why most burners are comeing with outher programs then taht now. Nero is ok hot burn cd-mate Clone cd nti cd maker and more that are real good.

 

[zaidulon]

Hello Rimper1,

Before using a CD/RW disc, you got to format it first . Then with Adaptecs system, you can use the CD-RW disc as a drive to read, write files. I got no problem burning CD-R CDs with Roxio.. It's the formatting time of CD-RW that kill me.. Perhaps a Roxio DirectCD user may compare note with me

I appreciate your comments.. Thanks

 

[xscape]

1)No - I think that 1 hour is longer than it takes me, and my drive is a similar speed. However I'll have to check as it's been a while since I did a Direct CD format.

2) Probably not - make sure all progs are closed, and of course make sure you burner is set to run with CDRW discs at it's 4x maximum. It's not unusual to find CDRW's running at half their maximum speed, this could be your problem. There should be an option to select anythign from 1x,2x,4x speed. Make sure it's 4x.

3) Not as far as I'm aware, and I don't think there are any plans for them, but I could be wrong, it has been known!

Sorry for the pessimistic answers, I hope that 2) is of use to you!

 

[zaidulon]

Thanks, Xscape, for your kind explanations.. I'll check them out, especially the writing speed ..But I recall DirectCD offers no writing speed option in formatting.In anycase, that the keypoint I'll pay attention to.

As we have readily formatted HD diskette but no formated CD-RW, I guess it must be the weak market demand then...

Thanks again....

 

[xscape]

Mmm, you could just try this if there's no option in Direct CD. Go to my computer, right click on your CDRW drive and choose properties. Click the settings tab and check the write/read etc speeds are set to their maximum (providing you're not having problems with buffer under-runs etc). Just a thought!

 

[cdogg]

Just for reference, I use 5.0 as well with an Iomega 12x10x32x and it takes me around 30 minutes to format a disk. The CD-RW disk I use, however, is only compatible for write speeds up to 4x. I never realized it before, but Roxio's software is able to detect the maximum write speed on "some" CDR and CD-RW blank cd's that I use. Or pehaps, it is the drive that detects it. In either case, I'm writing at speeds similar to you and it takes half as long...

What kind of hardware configuration are you using?
Here's mine:
- P-III 800MHz
- 256 MB PC133 RAM
- ATA 100 interface for IDE drives
- OS: Win98SE

also, check to see what your percentage of free resources is right after rebooting:
- right-click my computer and click properties
- go to the performance tab and look next to System Resources (should be higher than 75%, mine is always above 90%)