> > 2) You WILL have problems with older CD players reading CD-R/RW disks.
> > A rule of thumb is that anything below 24X is real iffy for reading
> > copies and backups.
>
> Not true. Newer doesn't always mean better. I have Sony, Panasonic,
> and Hitachi drives less than 10x used in shuttles to restore customers'
> pc's from  CD-R discs. Some of the (24x's or >) have such poor
> optics, vibration buffering, etc. such as BTC, and Lite-On that I had
> to reduce the read ahead buffering to get them to read a CD-R disc.

     Very true (I'm glad someone else has realized this, no-one ever
believes me when I say this!) As an example, at a place I recently worked we
had several systems with Toshiba 40X CDROM and 4X DVD drives (Toshiba being
a brand name in my mind). None of them would read any CDR I threw at it,
VERY frustrating. However, they all read CDRWs?!? On the other end of the
spectrum, I have a 2X Mitsumi CDROM which has read every CDR I've thrown at
it (of course not CDRWs). This goes to show that brand, age and speed are
often not enough. The only way I have found to determine if a CDROM will do
what you want it to is to try it, I have seen the same model of drive read a
CDR and another identical drive not (that was I believe a 42X Cyberdrive or
perhaps BTC, can't remember). Of course sticking with the brand names
usually helps. About the only drives you can be sure will almost always work
are CDR or CDRW drives! If they didn't then they wouldn't be much use! :)
TTYL

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