AdminXP.com: Basic terms and some tips for recording

Basic terms and some tips for recording

sections created on CD when recording

Lead-in - Contains basic information about the data on the disk (TOC - Table of Contents)
Data - Data track
Lead-out - Finalizing the disk and announcing the end of the CD.

Types of recording

Disc-At-Once (DAO) - Recording of all the data and tracks without an interruption between recording (Recommended for recording of audio CDs - it eliminates pauses between particular tracks). After having recorded the disk you cannot add any data.
Track-At-Once (TAO) - Recording of particular tracks with an interruption between them; in case you do not confirm the disk as finished you can add the data. Each adding of a track till the disk is finished means a lot of space for information about particular tracks. This way is also being called Multisession. So, it is possible to record data and sound tracks concurrently.
Session-At-Once (SAO) - Combinates advantages of the both methods of recording - TAO and DAO. For creating CD Extra it contains two parts (sessions) - there are sound tracks in the first one and data in the other one.
Packet Writing - Packet recording and possibility of working with the CD-RW as with a common diskette. For the packet writing you have to format the disk and to use it in the system with special programs, e. g. Adaptec Direct, Cequadrat Packet CD. In case you have the controller in your system you can also work with the CD in Explorer or in a file manager (under Windows only). When formatting, the UDF (Universal Disk Format) file system is used.

Image or On the Fly?

Image - Before the process of creating CD itself an image of the CD is created onto the disk.. More secure recording, reduces the risk of insufficient speed of data delivery when recording. These images of CDs are often being created as files with *.iso ending. They often serve to Internet pirates who download this file with the copy of the CD and have it recorded. But also reliable data are being distributed this way, e. g. images for installation CD of the Linux system.
On the fly - Direct CD creating form files on the disk. In case of a large number of files this way is the most sensitive to insufficient data delivery for recording.

Windows 9x or Windows NT?

Windows 9x - Usually easy installation and functionality without problems.
Windows NT - Not all the programs support NT, frequent problem comes with installation or when seeking drivers and supporting files.

Tips

Switch off the screen saver - (Control panels - Display - Screen saver)
Switch off all diagnostics and antiviral software
Take care of cooling! A lot of errors appearing, when recording, especially on older types of recording drives are caused by overheating. Now, it is also possible to get in this trouble, therefore an additional cooler is recommended.
Turn off the automatic CD start (Control Panels - System - Device manager - CDROM)

Switching-on of synchronous data transmittion (Control panels - System - Device manager - CDROM)
To train recording of CD use a rewritable medium (CD-RW).
When you have problems with recording use always the latest drivers and software. E. g. it was not able to create a Video CD copy by help of the older version of Easy CD Creator, the more recent one solved this problem.
Try to use another software. The properties of e. g. Easy CD Creator differs from the properties of e. g. CDRWin.
In case you want to record several dozens of files and you have a slower computer it is recommended first to create CD image or to choose a slower recording speed.
Be careful! You can have some problems in case you use Czech diacritic in files and directories; according to the type of software and choosed file format (ISO or Joliet) you can have troubles with reading of these files.
Check-up and possible turning-on of DMA for disk.
To the less experienced users I recommend to buy the drive only in a package marked as retail - it contains a manual, recording software with some supporting programs and a recordable or a rewritable medium. Saved money does not balance coming problems. Firms producing more expensive quality drives sell the recording software for a symbolic price.

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