0

Are there any particular types or brands of CD-R's that are more likely to work on very old 1-4x CD-ROM drives?

I have a very old Pentium 233mhz laptop that has a fully functioning CD drive, but it just cant seem to read the CD's I am burning.

For those of you who might be younger, older CD drives had a tendency to not be able to read burned CDs. I have heard that using a different type/bring of CD-R media can work better.

Keltari
  • 71,875
  • 26
  • 179
  • 229
  • 3
    I am guessing that this is a 25+ year-old laptop. What is the operating system? Have you considered asking on [retrocomputing](https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com)? – doneal24 Nov 02 '22 at 21:16
  • Even though it may sound paradox, consider also trying a CD-RW. There was something back then, but I can't quite remember. – Daniel B Nov 02 '22 at 21:17
  • 4
    Does the CD drive work at all e.g. with regular data or audio CDs? The laser diadem is often the part the is getting week over time and thus the ability to read CDs can get lost. – Robert Nov 02 '22 at 21:27
  • 2
    Is the drive able to read pressed CD's? I do wonder if one or both heads are out of alignment. – davidgo Nov 02 '22 at 21:29
  • As stated in the post, the CD drive is fully functional – Keltari Nov 02 '22 at 21:47
  • Why ask, answer is to try different cd's – Moab Nov 02 '22 at 21:51
  • 2
    I recall that CDs can be created without closing the filesystem. Can you determine that these problematic disks have been closed? Older drives would refuse to read an un-closed disk. – fred_dot_u Nov 02 '22 at 22:07
  • @Moab becaue I only have one type. So if I am going to buy some, I would like to know its going to work, or at least more likely. – Keltari Nov 02 '22 at 22:23
  • It's of course possible that the CD drive itself is broken so that it now can only read CDs, but it cannot achieve the higher intensity needed for writing because of the age of the laser etc. – dirkt Nov 03 '22 at 08:58
  • @Keltari unless you can read the firmware of that drive (it will list compatible media) and also read the cd identification to compare, then all you have left is trial and error. I use to have some older sony laptop drives that I would add newer media id's to the firmware back in the day. Not a trivial process and I only found software for sony optical drives, no other brands, – Moab Nov 04 '22 at 13:03
  • There was always the received wisdom that burning at 1x speed, or maximum 4x rather than the 52x these structures eventually reached, would result in a more compatible disc for less-capable systems. As mentioned, don't burn a session, burn a disc, so it closes properly at the end. – Tetsujin Nov 06 '22 at 13:17

1 Answers1

2

My preferred German computer journal "c't - Magazin für Computertechnik" tested both DVD and CD burning devices in the past.

The summary is that there is high quality media around but the total success in terms of a low error rate depends on the combination of burning device and media. Devices have burning recipes in memory for different media that can be identified by their media code. If there is no specific recipe they use a standard one.

Most tested devices were full height but it seems to be reasonable to assume that half-height burners show similarly burning behaviour as their big brothers.

Taiyo Yuden is known for producing high quality media but that is no guaranty for low-error writes on your burning device. I personally still have Sony CD-R in stock for me. They were less stable over time but yielded low error rates when writing on my devices according to c't. Erik Deppe's CD/DVD/Speed, later renamed Opti Drive Control or Plextor's Plextool can deliver quality analysis that is similar to professional measurement devices.

Can other CD-Rom drives read your CD-Rs? Otherwise change burning device and media hoping to find something that can be read on your laptop.

After reading the comment of fred_dot_u I remember there were different write modes such as "disc at once" which is probably the safest...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_recording_modes

Edit 3.11.2022 8:13 MEZ

Lowering burning speed also helped to reduce the error rate.

r2d3
  • 3,298
  • 1
  • 8
  • 24