Please review your CD Burners for me.

ArtLady

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
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Lawrenceville, Georgia
Hi Folks,

I need a CD burner that will run under EZ CD Creator 5.0 and be able to span multiple CDs. Can anyone suggest a good one with all that new technology out there?

Anyone have experience with the new firewires?
What is involved with the new firewires? Any hardware restrictions with a firewire?

How do you tell if you have USB 2?
 
I am thinking that most any CD burner will work with EZ CD Creator 5.0. Now I was NOT aware that EZ CD Creator would even compile more than 1 CD at a time. I use it for all my burning and have never seen the option to do interlacing or to burn more than a single CD will hold. If you drag 'n drop more megs onto the burn list than what the compact disc is set up to hold, you usually get a warning about having too much for the allotted disc space and have to dump something off before the program would begin burning.

How do you access this option?

BTW, I am using a Yamaha CD-RW an older model, 4-4-16.

Many of the newer CDRW external burners will have USB ports in the rear of the burner. It is a newer faster more accurate type of plug n play technology. I have a USB card in my business computer so I could use an optical mouse and I am really pleased with it.

How do you know if you have USB ports on your computer? You will see a flat slot port either on the back of your CDRW or on the back of your computer tower (if you have a USB card installed on the computer). A USB connector has no visible pins like a PS-2 or Serial port.

I don't know alot about Firewire other than it is an IEEE interface. It also provides a faster interface with peripherals on your computer.

Framerguy
 
Framerguy,

The term "Spanning Multiple Cds" that you referenced means that during a Data backup when one CD is full it automatically starts where it left off on the next cd.

EZ CD Writer 5.0 has a limited number of burners it will work on. The Philips PCRW464K I picked up at UBID does not work with 5.0. Although 4.0 was shipped with the unit.
 
Originally posted by ArtLady:
Framerguy,

The term "Spanning Multiple Cds" that you referenced means that during a Data backup when one CD is full it automatically starts where it left off on the next cd.

EZ CD Writer 5.0 has a limited number of burners it will work on. The Philips PCRW464K I picked up at UBID does not work with 5.0. Although 4.0 was shipped with the unit.
Artlady,

Please accept my apology. I decided to actually LOOK at my CD program and it is, indeed, 4.0 and not 5.0. I am sorry for not doing that to start. I added some more to the above post about USB and how to tell if you have a USB card on your computer. I use an optical mouse and, although it came with a PS-2 adapter, it will only work WELL on a USB connection so I installed a USB card.

(Once you try an optical mouse or track ball you will NEVER want to touch a regular mouse again!)

Framerguy
 
Hi Again Framerguy,

I am aware of what a USB port is. However, is USB
shrug.gif
"2"
shrug.gif
something different from USB in general?

shrug.gif
 
ArtLady,

USB2, or High Speed USB, transfers data at about 40 times the speed of the regular USB. It was slow in coming and not yet widely supported by PC manufacturers, peripheral manufacturers or Microsoft. (Windows XP, for example, does not come with drivers for USB2. The standards for USB2 were not finalized when XP went "to press.")It is <U>very</U> unlikely that you have a USB2 port on even a new PC. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that. I haven't been computer shopping for about 8 months.)

Firewire is more widely supported and offers transfer rates similar to USB2. I believe Firewire is standard on new Macs and some PCs and available on most others. There may be a shoot-out at some point between these two standards.

If you want to read more, try:
This one

Or this one

Or maybe this one

I have several HP burners installed internally and, for the most part, they work fine with 5.0. I also have a USB Iomega 650 on the notebook I'm using right now and it is quirky, at best. It also seems particular about the brand of blank CDs it will use - a problem I haven't encountered with the HP burners.

That's the extent of my experience with particular brands. Those links I gave you have a search function that will help you find product reviews from PC World.

Good luck.

Ron
 
Originally posted by ArtLady:
Hi Again Framerguy,

I am aware of what a USB port is. However, is USB
shrug.gif
"2"
shrug.gif
something different from USB in general?
Yes.

USB 1.1 ("normal" USB) is 12 MB/Sec

USB 2.0 is 480 MB/Sec (actually faster than firewire)

However, USB 2.0 is "bleeding edge" - there are very few cards or peripherals using it yet.

In summary, to answer your original question, if your computer is more than a few months old (and even if it is brandy new) it is extremely unlikely you have 2.0.

To check for sure you should be able to look in the Device Manager under USB Ports. You may have to select the device and then click "Properties" and look through there (assuming you're on Win9x -I don't remember how XP deals with it, and of course NT doesn't support USB).

Good Luck!
 
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