Your writer isn't the best. I suggest getting a Lite-On or Plextor.

Just for info it shouldn't take longer than 10mins maximum to read a game to an image.

Luke,
do you think it's the writer thats slowing me down?. All the drive has to do is clone the image; the burn time is almost inconsequential at the end, it's the read time I'm concerned about. I'm not sure why the burn speed at the Clone copy part is important; I would think that at the initial part, it would only involve the reading capability of the drive.
Steer me if I'm wrong in my thinking.

Phil