CD-RW: The Big Lie
Feb 23 '01
The Bottom Line Simple: I DON'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, I'll admit it: I've been duped like everyone else into believing that CD-RWs are some great second coming of the Computer Age. And so, with that in mind, I took my trusty P-III 400mhz, 6.2gb HD with I don't know how much RAM, last Tuesday, into the place I bought it from a year ago, and plunked down over $300 for a brand new TEAC 12x10x32 drive. I was assured this was the hottest drive on the market, next to the Plextors.
Since then, my computer has become possessed. Oh, it works alright on normal functions...but let me try to burn a CD. Oh boy! The cyber-demons come calling!!
Here is the litany of things gone wrong:
1. Unable to convert to recognizable media: I started out using Windows Media Player 7. This grabs .MP3s from the internet and converts them automatically (didn't bother to ask me, by the way) into .asx files. Nice...except the Adaptec programs (DirectCD, Easy CD Creator 4) which came bundled with the drive strictly don't recognize anything except .wav or .mp3 files! I futzed around with this for a day, and popped some nitro pills to get my heart rate/blood pressure back down.
2. Unable to recognize a disc: The abovementioned programs do this. Try to put in a blank disc. Then try to burn on it---ECDC4 says you don't have a disc in the drive!
Go to DCD. Format the doggone thing. Go back to ECDC4. Now it says it can't use the drive because it's in use by DCD! At least, it says that half of the time. The other half of the time, it tells me the disc is full when the display clearly reads that about 95% of the disc is empty.
And you can't close DCD to free up the drive...it just sits in the system tray, laughing at you.
3. Lack of interface: Earlier today, I called up the computer place looking for tech help. They recommended that I go with MusicMatch, a freeware ripper that does better at recognizing .mp3s. It does, and for all of about five minutes, I rejoiced as I thought I had the problem licked.
And then the roof fell in. Tried to use MusicMatch to actually burn a CD. It came back with the now-familiar message "You have no disc in the drive!" Even though there was a freshly formatted brand-new CDR sitting in the tray.
This after I'd spent $49.95 to get the lifetime upgrades for the program too. It wrote to an unformatted disc, but when I tried to erase the disc (because it double-wrote one of my song selections), it said that it was read-only and didn't do it.
4. Lockup: This is the scariest. Unlike a ZIP drive or the old faithful 3.5 drive, there's no way to manually eject a CD. I thought the little hole in the front might free up my disc. What I got was a nasty high-pitched growling sound. So we won't try that anymore. Apparently Adaptec's software won't let you simply push the eject button---once that disc is in there, it's sayanara. Unless you reboot the system and punch it out while the drive is still trying to figure out where it is. I'm not going to do that every time.
I've tried the usual approaches: Use another CDR/RW. This thing's eaten three of the four I have. Uninstall/reinstall the software. Problems just come back. Even tried kicking it once. Caused a instant reboot of the system.
The topper came when I tried to take it in for repairs today. The technician smiled and said, "We'll have it back for you on Monday."
MONDAY?!?!?!?! I'm a grad student, working on my final research project. I'm not giving up my ability to finish the paperwork over a [blank] CD-RW drive that doesn't work anywhere near as advertised!!!!!
I'm taking it back to that shop on Wednesday---it's the first day they said they would be available. They will be giving me a refund---because I'm going to ask them. And not too nicely.
The simple fact is: CDRs are a corporate lie perpetrated upon a gullible public, who throw away their hard-earned cash on the idea that they won't have to spend hundreds on buying whole albums just to get that one single. I will never, ever do this again, and I don't recommend it for anyone else either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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skylane
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