CD Writer Traumas!

I bought a writer a couple of weeks back, and it wont copy any dreamcast games, and some of the software (eg. CDRWin) wont even detect it.

Is it then true that not all writers can copy rthe games, or am i simply doing something wrong??

Anyway, im going to sell this writer and get another one. The one I have now is and IDE writer, do only SCSI ones work, or is an IDE fine?

Can anyone recommend a writer that they can garantee will work, for around 150quid or less.

[i2mental]

IDE's will work. It just depends on the quality of the burner itself works. I know that plextors are excellent and they have software that guarantees no buffer underruns. Also Yamaha's are good. Sony SCSI 10x has worked for me also.

[Norton]

I hear SCSI Writers are well expensive, does this mean they are better for this type of stuff?

The writer I bought was a Samsung SW-208F.
Anyone used this drive to make dc backups? or has anyone heard anything about this drive being shite? Should I buy a new writer and hope it works?

[i2mental]

Well SCSI drives and IDE drives are basically just different now. SCSI drives require the use of a SCSI card to be install on your system. They are generally more difficult to install than IDE card. SCSI also uses less of your CPU's clock cycle, but if you've got a decent system that's pretty irrelevant. I believe that SCSI's still have an advantage in speed of data transfer. Although with the the new Ultra ATA 66 and Ultra ATA 100, they are pretty dang close. Another reason to consider a SCSI would be if you don't want to use up another IDE controller. If you still have a PCI slot available then you can use SCSI and save room for another hard drive later or something. It seems to just be a personal preference nowadays.

[i2mental]

Continuing... I've heard neither good nor bad about this Samsung that you have. I have just ordered a Plextor 12/10/32 about an hour ago. These are primo drives that offer Burn Proof technology. That will let the burner actually stop writing if the buffer gets too low and pick up where it left off once there is more to write. And apparently this actually works good. So I'm hoping I can say goodbye to buffer underruns forever.

[Norton]

How much is this plextor drive you are going to buy? I bought my samsung for 120 pounds, im selling it for 100, so i will have about 150quid to spend if i put some more cash towards it.Will i be able to get one good enough to copy dc games for this much?

[i2mental]

Well I bought my plextor for about 230 American Dollars. I think that's about 170 pounds? Anyways, that was for the 12 speed, you can get the 8 speed starting at around 150 american dollars I believe.

[Norton]

Thanx for the help guys. I think i will invest in the mitsumi one, as ive seen it for about £80. But I am worried that the problem may go deeper than my cd writer.
When im making image files of a dc game using discjuggler, that wont work either.This is even before i get to the writing stage. Ive tried reading the game from the writer drive and from my cd rom drive. My cd rom drive is a brand new LG Goldstar 52x, is it just that both these drives cannot read the data properly? Or i was thinking that my old hard disk is to blame, it is slow, only 33mhz i think, could this be a problem??

[i2mental]

ummmm..... You're not trying to copy ORIGINAL Dreamcast games are you? If so, it doesn't matter what burner you get. It will never work.

[Norton]

No mate, I am trying already working copies. Discjuggler just gives me errors, so does psx copy, and all the other dont even detect my cd writer. Could this be bad hardware setup or sumthing?

My mate tell me that Sony CDExtreme is a program that will copy any dreamcast games, and when i ru it it wont even select my writer.
Ive never heard this software mentioned on here before, maybe some of you guys should try it, but its hard to find if you aint got it on cd.

[igottashit666]

NORTON,

please see my posts about the settings for DJ that will help bypass the errors in DJ.

it works for me and others.

[Norton]

I can successfully do a game when i use copy and burn from same recorder on DJ. then when i use the game on my dc, it goes mental, and makes a noise nice a machine gun. It sounds like its gonna blow, so that aint right either. Help!

[Norton]

THIS IS IT THEN I NEED AN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION:

CAN ANY OF YOU TELL ME A WRITER THAT YOU GARANTEE WILL BURN DC SELF BOOTING GAMES FOR UNDER £150?

Thanx In advance.

[cm955]

Norton,

try using cdi2nero first and converting to a nero image file. then just double click the nero image and burn it (no settings to screw with). I've found that this method works great for self-booting games with only 2 tracks.