Lite-On 40/12/48 writer, directcd and copying times

[xenole]

[1] Does directcd work with this drive under XP, as I'm using ME at present and it doesn't recognize the drive........

[2] I have a cdr full of mp3s, say about 80. I decide to copy all of these from the closed cdr (ie no further writing at all possible) and it takes around 70-80mins to copy the 650MB +/- 5meg to the hd. (Tried a Plextor 24x writer and much the same).
My old HP 4x writing drive used to do the same thing in 12-13mins tops.

Therefore:
Lite-On: Copy 650MB - 75mins (had nearly 85 once with a Plextor)
HP 24/4/4: Copy 650MB - 13mins

Lite-On: Burn 650MB - 4mins (say)
HP: Burn 650MB 30-40mins

Total for Lite-On: About 79mins
Total for HP: About 53mins

Therefore, why on earth does a drive that can wipe the floor with older drives (apparently) take 20-30 mins longer overall to do the same thing as a drive that's about 3 years older?
70-80mins for copying means barely 1x read speed! Slower than actual real time!