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| CD-R and CD-RW Drives - A Versatile UpgradeWith lower prices on drives and media, CD burners have become almost as common as floppy drives. If you wish to make copies of hard to find drivers for your computer, backup your hard drive economically, or share movies and pictures with your friends, this technology was made for you! CD-R is short for compact disc-recordable. CD-Rs are WORM (Write Once, Read Multiple) media that work like standard CDs. The advantage of CD-R over other types of optical media is that the discs work in standard audio CD players. The disadvantage is that you cannot reuse a disc. Consider using a CD-R disc if you want to archive photographs, scanned documents or other large files. You can create new audio CDs from any WAV or AIFF sound files, or make a duplicate of any disc you own. It is even possible to create audio CDs that are compilations of other audio CDs (such as a “best of” disc). The CD-ROMs you produce will work in most CD-ROM drives, and the audio CDs you create will work in your home or car CD player. However, keep in mind that copyright laws protect most CDs so I do not recommend it except where permissible Are CD-Rs the same as “normal” CDs? Commercially made CDs are pressed from a mold, whereas CD-Rs are burned with a laser using a special drive. Sorry, you cannot just make one on your CD-ROM unit. CD-Rs are usually green, gold, or blue instead of silver, and they are more susceptible to physical damage including that caused by extreme temperatures and sunlight. CD-Rs hold about 74-80 minutes of audio, or about 650-700MB of data in most cases. Most companies have stopped manufacturing CD-R drives in favor of the next step in this technology, CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) drives. It used to be called CD-Erasable (CD-E), but the name was changed so it wouldn't sound like your important data is about to be erased without warning. Like the name implies, CD-RW discs can be erased and reused, but the media doesn't work in all drives so you can’t make audio CDs on this type of disc. All recorders however can also read manufactured audio and data CDs. CD-RW drives can write both CD-R and CD-RW discs. CD-RW discs now have speed ratings on them. For example, you will only be able to write to a 2x disc at that speed, no faster, no slower. How long does it take to make a disc? It depends on how much data you are going to burn, and how fast your drive is. Burning 650MB of data takes about 74 minutes at 1x (150KB/sec), 37 minutes at 2x (300KB/sec), and 19 minutes at 4x (600KB/sec). If you only have half the data, it will finish in approximately half the time. You might as well throw out all those AOL CD-ROMs you've been accumulating. You cannot rewrite them; you must buy blank media of the type you wish to use. While burning a disc, do not interrupt the drive or you will make a “coaster” (just sit your cola on it, the data will be useless). For hard drive backups, a CD-RW disc is the best choice. You can keep a few on hand and rotate them, overwriting the oldest copy. CD-RW drives are manufactured for internal use in IDE or SCSI type interfaces. External units are available with parallel, SCSI, PC Card, or USB hookups. Your system almost undoubtedly will have one of these types of interfaces. As long as you meet the other requirements on the box, you should have no trouble locating a drive to fit your system if it was manufactured within the past 3-4 years. Any way you look at it, a CD-RW drive is a versatile piece of equipment. |
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