Hi all,
I have just bought and fitted an internal cdrw in my PC. The unit is a Mitsumi cr485,the software is Nero 5.5. Can anyone tell me why I get about 20 icons on my desktop each time I burn a CD? They have names like, CA58.IDX, CA59.IDX,CA60.IDX etc etc. Are they important or can I send them to the bin?

Also, I already had EasyCDcreator 5.5 platinum installed for my external CDRW but it does not recognise my new internal CDRW. What do I need to do?
Thanx in anticipation.
Brendan

What can be counted might not count, what counts may not be countable.

Brendan
What is countable might not count, what counts may not be countable.

Hi Brendan
Well the first thing to do is open Nero and go to the top pull-down Menu Recorder/Choose Recorder and you should find out that the Image Recorder is Selected so if it shows Your New Writer select that instead. That will get rid of the Icons as you were using your Hard-drive and not the Writer and that is why you were getting the Icons on your Desktop ! As for Easy CD Coaster Creator upgrade to the latest version! But the first thing to check is to make sure if you have 2 internal CD's on the same cable make sure you have them set as Master and Slave or if you have your new Writer on the same cable as your hard-drive make sure it is set to Slave !
(By the way the other post you made was identical to this one so I deleted it !)
I hope this Helps !!!

Laffin Assassin

If you need the ASPI FIX you can Download it from HERE

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Thanx LA, That's very helpful,I'll check it all out.
I actually posted my message in 3 forums as I am new to this and wasn't sure which was the best one to use. Hope I didn't break any rules?
The manual on the Nero disc doesn't contain any information on how to operate the program, it just tells you to use the wizard.
I'm not even sure if this is the proper way to reply to you.
I'll get back to you if I have any further problems,
Thanx again,


Brendan
What can be counted might not count, what counts may not be countable.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi Brendan
You say "I actually posted my message in 3 forums as I am new to this and wasn't sure which was the best one to use. Hope I didn't break any rules?
The manual on the Nero disc doesn't contain any information on how to operate the program, it just tells you to use the wizard.
I'm not even sure if this is the proper way to reply to you.
I'll get back to you if I have any further problems,
Thanx again"

It's no problem Mate we all had to start somewhere and all new users are very Welcome!!!
No you never broke any Rules and you You can reply anyway you wish mate (As long as it is not 3 times the same way !!!

Yes the Nero Manual is very hard to get round at first but once you have had a play around with Nero it gets to be very easy after a while !!!
And if you still have a problem just let me know on this Thread and I am sure we can get it sorted out one way or the other !!!
And once again Brendan Welcome and feel free to ask any Questions !!!

I hope this Helps !!!

Laffin Assassin

If you need the ASPI FIX you can Download it from HERE

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

AAAR what a nice bloke you are Mr Assasin,im filling up!!!sniff sniff

There's alway's someone cleverer than yourself.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Yeah Right!!!

Laffin Assassin

Always remember to Pillage BEFORE you Burn

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi again LA,
Thanx for your encouragement.
I've been trying to sort out the problems but they seem to be getting worse. I've lost countless hours over the past 2 days and it's doin my head in!
Here's the whole story.
I have used EZCD 5 with my external Lacie CDRW for many happy months of trouble-free burning (mainly saving photographs and data files, with the odd audio thrown in.
Last week I decided to fit a faster CDRW and installed a Mitsumi CR485 internal drive. It's on the same ribbon cable as my hard drive and is set to slave.
I loaded the Nero software and then my troubles began! I successfully copied an audio CD to test the system and it worked but I got all these icons on my desktop. I followed your advice and made sure that the Mitsumi was the chosen recorder, but I still get a load of icons everytime I use the Mitsumi (or is it the Nero software that causes this?)
I then tried to use Soundstream in EZCD 5 to copy music files that I had created in it to a blank disk in the Mitsmi drive. No joy! If I put a pre-recorded disk in the Mitsumi drive, Soundstream would recognise it and tell me "cd is finalised, please insert a blank disk in the drive". When I did this Soundstream would not recognise it and would say "there is no disk in the recorder".
If I tried to use any of the other elements of EZCD5 such as CD copier, or Make a data CD, the program would not recognise the Mitsumi at all! It will only recognise the Lacie external CDRW.
Then the problems really mounted.
Each time I switched off the PC, when I switched on again it would only start in safe mode! I spent hours trying to get to the bottom of this. I used restore, fix, Norton Utilities and everything I could to try to fix this - believe me it was hell.
The eventual solution which worked was to tell device manager to remove the Mitsumi, uninstall EZCD5 completely and reinstall Nero. Now I dare not even switch on the Lacie external CDRW or the conflicts begin all over again and the PC will only start in safe mode!
All I want to be able to do is:
1. Have the option of using either the Lacie external OR the internal Mitsumi(I'd be happy enough with the MItsumi on it's own if the Nero media player and software could access all the music etc files that I created in EZCD and Soundstream.
The PC won't let me install InCD, because it says that it cannot be loaded with Direct CD already installed on the machine, even though I have (I thought) removed EZCD, including Direct CD!
2. Use EZCD5 with the Mitsmi. I downloaded the latest version of EZCD which is supposed to support the Mitsumi but the software still wouldn't read the Mitsumi.
LA, I hope you're not totally turned off by now but I wanted you to know the full story, in the hope that you can help.
What I need is straightforward step-by-step advice, even if it means going back to square 1 and starting all over.
Thanx for listening, hope you understand my situation.




Brendan

What can be counted might not count, what counts may not be countable.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi Again Brendan
You Say "1. Have the option of using either the Lacie external OR the internal Mitsumi(I'd be happy enough with the MItsumi on it's own if the Nero media player and software could access all the music etc files that I created in EZCD and Soundstream.
The PC won't let me install InCD, because it says that it cannot be loaded with Direct CD already installed on the machine, even though I have (I thought) removed EZCD, including Direct CD!

Well I suggest you copy all the files you have written with Direct CD into separate folders onto your hard-drive. Then when you have done that uninstall Easy CD Coaster Creator and Direct CD.

With you saying "I used restore " I presume you are using Windows XP and if you are I will tell you how to install the Built in cd writing program because that has caused loads of problems when you try to use other writing programs!!!

Right just press the start button on your desktop and goto run and type in " services.msc " without the comma's then goto IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service and just Disable it and reboot your computer and hey presto it has gone but make sure you do this after you have uninstalled Ezcd and Direct CD also Before you install Nero and INCD and there is no need to do this if you have Windows 2000 or Windows ME installed it is only for Windows XP!!!

Then when you have done that make sure you only have your Mitsumi connected then install Nero and INCD and make sure they both are the latest versions and then open Nero and insert on of your CDRW disks and goto the Recorder and Erase RE-Writeable and repeat this untill you have done them all. Then put CDRW in your drive and one by one Fully format them and when you have done that copy all your files from your hard-drive one by one onto the CDRW and repeat this untill you have got all your files on the CDRW's then delete them from your Hard-drive and hopefully this will cure your problem I know it is a big job but if you want to be able to use your old files this is the safest way!!!

And if you are going to Back-up any protected CD's I suggest that you download Clone CD and that will take care of most of them ! And once you have done this we will sort it out so you can use both Writers !!!
Let me know how you go on or if you need anymore Help !!!

Laffin Assassin

Always remember to Pillage BEFORE you Burn

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi LA,
Good to hear from you again. Went to bed last night depressed after another evening of fighting with my PC.
Here's the story.
At the moment I've only got the Mitsumi connected and things seem to be OK with it. I've just managed to successfully install InCD. Therefore I must have Direct CD uninstalled successfully.(I'll still be keeping my fingers crossed when I next reboot._

The story with the LaCie(Yamaha)external CDRW is: if I switch on my PC with the LaCie connected. I get an error message which tells me that I need to restart my computer. When I do so it only comes on in Safe mode. I then use scanregw /restore to go back to the last time it started successfully and reboot -making sure that I have the LaCie disconnected.This gets me out of the situation.(took me hours to find out how to do this relatively simple exercise!)
My knowledge is very limited, but it seems to me that the LaCie is causing some sort of conflict? I run a Norton System Check every time I do some of these actions and on one occasion it found 246 problems!
So I'm now not even risking switching on the LaCie anymore.

Now, to your advice of this morning.
I'm using Windows ME, so I assume that I skip the first part of your advice?
I have only the Mitsumi connected now and I have Nero and InCd installed. (I downloaded the latest Nero which included Nero Express so I assume I'm up to date there?)
Next step is a little confusing.
You say to put CDRW disks into the recorder and erase rewritable. Do you mean BLANK disks or ones with stuff on them? or both types?
You then say to Fully format them - is this a necessary step with Nero and how do i do it? (no manual for Nero available)
Finally, you suggest downloading Clone CD to back up 'protected' disks.
I'm not sure what a 'protected' disk is and where do I get CloneCD? I assume it's another CD copying program?
Hope I've made everything clear LA.
You've been a great help so far and my knowledge of computers and their quirks is growing daily (or should I say nightly!)
Looking forward to hearing from you,



Brendan

What can be counted might not count, what counts may not be countable.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi Again
You Say " I'm using Windows ME, so I assume that I skip the first part of your advice?"

Yes it was only if you had Windows XP installed !

You Say " The story with the LaCie(Yamaha)external CDRW is: if I switch on my PC with the LaCie connected. I get an error message which tells me that I need to restart my computer. When I do so it only comes on in Safe mode. I then use scanregw /restore to go back to the last time it started successfully and reboot -making sure that I have the LaCie disconnected.This gets me out of the situation.(took me hours to find out how to do this relatively simple exercise!)"

Well reading between the lines it looks like it is a driver problem so the first thing to try is to go to the LaCie Website at :-
http://www.lacie.com/support/drivers/index.cfm#32D563F2-149A-11D5-97B60090278D3ED0
and download the latest Drivers for Windows ME for your drive !!!

You Say " You say to put CDRW disks into the recorder and erase rewritable. Do you mean BLANK disks or ones with stuff on them? or both types?"

The ones with stuff on them but I hope you read my instructions on copying them to your hard-drive before you erase them !!!

You Say " You then say to Fully format them - is this a necessary step with Nero and how do i do it? (no manual for Nero available)

Once your have them Erased just put them into the Drive and open INCD from the Icon in the Bottom Right hand Tray if it dosn't open automaticaly then just click format and do a Full format with all your Media !!!

You Say " Finally, you suggest downloading Clone CD to back up 'protected' disks. I'm not sure what a 'protected' disk is and where do I get CloneCD? I assume it's another CD copying program?"

Yes it is another CD Writer program and you are going to need this if you are going to back-up the Latest Games and some Music CD's as the publishers have started to put little programs on their CD's to stop you making a back-up of a program you have Legally Purchessed and Clone CD will help you to get round this. But I will say again that I am dead against Piracy but I will help anyone make a Backup of a Program which they have legally Purchessed !!! You can get Clone CD from their Website but the demo version is limited to what it can do , It easily turned into a full version by Registering it at the site and take it from me it is well worth the price they charge !!!
You can get it and read more about it at :-
http://elby.ch/english/products/clone_cd/index.html

You Say "You've been a great help so far and my knowledge of computers and their quirks is growing daily (or should I say nightly!)"

Thanks for the comments and I am also still learning things Daily !!!

I hope this helps !!!





Laffin Assassin

Always remember to Pillage BEFORE you Burn

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Thanx yet again LA. I went to the Lacie drivers site. All the drivers they offer for downloading are USB (there is one labelled U&I). My CDRW is not USB, it is run from a SCSI card. Is this a problem?
I downloaded the one labelled U&I but i don't want to install it until I know what it means, I've had enough trouble with the CDRW over the past few days to do me, without risking creating any more conflicts/problems!
I managed to download a manual for the Nero burn, so I'm happy enough to stick with the new Mitsumi now and write off (no pun intended!) the LaCie. I'll keep it for using at my work.

I'll investigate the CloneCD next.(I agree with your statement on piracy etc.)

One more problem (hopefully the last!)

I still get all those icons on my desktop every time I access the Nero program. They all end in IDX and I'm saving them all in a folder until I'm sure that I can safely dump them. I checked that the Mitsumi is the chosen recorder, like you advised earlier, but they still keep appearing!
Also, I have created shortcuts on my desktop for Nero and Nero Media Player etc, but they keep DISappearing, after I have accessed Nero! What's happening there?


Brendan

What can be counted might not count, what counts may not be countable.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi Again Brendan
You Say "Thanx yet again LA. I went to the Lacie drivers site. All the drivers they offer for downloading are USB (there is one labelled U&I). My CDRW is not USB, it is run from a SCSI card. Is this a problem?
I downloaded the one labelled U&I but i don't want to install it until I know what it means, I've had enough trouble with the CDRW over the past few days to do me, without risking creating any more conflicts/problems!2

Whatever you do don't install any driver you are not sure about or you could end up back at square one !
If you tell me the exact model number of your Lacie Writer I will see if I can find you a driver for Windows ME ! Is it in a Lacie External case or is it another Manufacturers Case ?

You Say " I managed to download a manual for the Nero burn, so I'm happy enough to stick with the new Mitsumi now and write off (no pun intended!) the LaCie. I'll keep it for using at my work."

Yeah I think it may be a good Idea to stick with the Internal one.

You Say " I still get all those icons on my desktop every time I access the Nero program. They all end in IDX and I'm saving them all in a folder until I'm sure that I can safely dump them. I checked that the Mitsumi is the chosen recorder, like you advised earlier, but they still keep appearing!"

You will have to tell me what method you are using to copy your CD's are you doing them CD to CD (On the Fly) or are you doing them to an Image on your hard-drive and then to a CD ! And what drive are you using as a reader

You Say " Also, I have created shortcuts on my desktop for Nero and Nero Media Player etc, but they keep DISappearing, after I have accessed Nero! What's happening there?"

The first thing to do is to make sure that you don't have Active Desktop enabled on your Desktop and if you have disable it ! But this shouldn't be happening even with it enabled but it is just a thought as in the past I do know that Active Desktop did cause some big nightmares !
I hope this Helps !!!


Laffin Assassin

The Definition of an Upgrade: Take old bugs out, put new ones in.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi yet again, LA,
You have got to be the most patient man/woman out here in the Blue Nowhere!
The external case on my CDRW is LaCie. Dialogue boxes in EZCD read it as Yamaha 4260W, and the bottom of the case has STOL-HH-CD-CRW4260 printed on it. It is about 4 years old and was allegedly top-of-the-range way back then.

The icons problem!!!
I've only copied one cd, which I bought last week, and I used the wizard.
I now have over 500 of these 'IDX' files in the folder that I'm saving them in! Each time I remove them to the folder. Then when I next load Nero and play about with it -to get to know it - I don't actually copy anything but I do move things about on the file browser etc. Then when I cancel the burn and switch off Nero, the next time I load it the icons are back and the Nero shortcuts have gone!! There always seems to be 32 of the icons.
I then create new shortcuts and they are numbered Nero(4) etc! Where did nos 3, 2 and 1 go?
I'm not sure what Active Desktop is and I don't know how to access it!
Please bear with me as I think we're close to a final solution.
I notice that almost 100 people have been reading our conversations so hopefully others are learning from my mistakes!
Thanx again,
TTYL,

Brendan

What can be counted might not count, what counts may not be countable.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi Brendan
You Say "You have got to be the most patient man/woman out here in the Blue Nowhere!"
Thanks for the comment Mate I am Male have you ever met a patient woman There is an old Saying " In the beginning, God created earth and rested. Then God created man and rested. Then God created woman. Since then, neither God nor man has ever rested."
This is where I get some stick from our Lady Members for posting this but I don't care my Mate's Tron and Clint can sort them out !

Right back to work !!!
You Say "The external case on my CDRW is LaCie. Dialogue boxes in EZCD read it as Yamaha 4260W, and the bottom of the case has STOL-HH-CD-CRW4260 printed on it. It is about 4 years old and was allegedly top-of-the-range way back then."

Right now I have got this information the first thing you will need to do is tell me what SCSI Adaptor you have got installed and I will tell you where the Windows ME drivers are for it. So to find out what it is just right click on My Computer Incon on the Desktop and select Properties then go the the device manager and look at SCSI Adaptor and tell me what is there that is if you have it installed if it is not installed just look at the card and I need to know the make and Model number !! The one usually used for the Yamaha is the Adaptec AHA-2940U2W and we can also check if you are using the Latest Bios on your Adaptor which usually sorts quite a few problems out and you can do this exactly the same way as you have just done to find out what model it is, it will also tell you what version of Bios it is using !!!

You Say "I'm not sure what Active Desktop is and I don't know how to access it!Please bear with me as I think we're close to a final solution.I notice that almost 100 people have been reading our conversations so hopefully others are learning from my mistakes!"

Right to disable Active Desktop just right Click anywhere on your desk top that there isn't a Icon and then a popup menu will appear and make sure that Use Active Desktop is not ticked if it is ticked untick it and that will disable Active Desktop !
Most of the Hundred will be waiting for my usual Witty Replies but they are only used on People that annoy me so there won't be any here Mate and they will be dissapointed !!!

You Say " The icons problem!!!
I've only copied one cd, which I bought last week, and I used the wizard.I now have over 500 of these 'IDX' files in the folder that I'm saving them in! Each time I remove them to the folder. Then when I next load Nero and play about with it -to get to know it - I don't actually copy anything but I do move things about on the file browser etc. Then when I cancel the burn and switch off Nero, the next time I load it the icons are back and the Nero shortcuts have gone!! There always seems to be 32 of the icons.
I then create new shortcuts and they are numbered Nero(4) etc! Where did nos 3, 2 and 1 go?
What I need you to do is to copy a different cd not a re-writeable just a straight forward Original but not one with protection on it use some thing like the Windows ME CD and then tell me what is happening. Because the usual .IDX files are because the names of the files are not compatiable with the version of windows you are using like the files name are to long or include a charactor that is not allowed or something simular. But try the ME CD and let me know what happens but delete all the old .IDX messages first they are nothing to worry about.


Laffin Assassin

The Definition of an Upgrade: Take old bugs out, put new ones in.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Right LA, here we go.
I've done what you advised and it says that the SCSI controller is a Tekram DC-315/U PCI SCSI Adapter. (I bought and fitted this myself a long time ago, the Adaptec SCSI, which came with the CDRW originally is in my computer at work.)

I don't know what it is, or how to find, the 'latest Bios' information? Here's the info I got;
Under 'General' it says:
Manufacturer - Tekram Technology:
Hardware version - 001.
Under the 'Driver 'Tab it says:
Provider -Tekram Technology:
Driver Date - 7-28-1999:
Digital Signer - not signed.
In 'Driver File Details' it says that version 3.02 is being used.
Hope this helps with the 'Bios' you want?

Active Desktop!
Cannot find this? When I right click on the desktop all I get is Arrange Icons, Line up icons, Refresh, Undo Move , New and Properties. I cannot see Active Desktop anywhere?

LA, as I've been going through these problems I've been picking up snippets of information, so I'm going to risk a question (hope it's not a silly one!)
There is a little settings box on the back of my LaCie CDRW, which can be set from number 0 to number 6. It's always been set to number 6, otherwise it won't work. My question is: might the number now need to be changed, since there is another CDRW in the PC?
I know that the Mitsumi is attached to a ribbon cable, which is separate from the LaCie's SCSI card, but Ijust thought that I'd ask anyway!

I'll go now and copy a straightforward CD and log what happens.
Back to you later,
Thanx again,




Brendan

What can be counted might not count, what counts may not be countable.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)

Hi Again Brendan
Just Copy and Paste the Link below into your address bar and press enter:-

ftp://ftp.tekram.com/scsi/3X5/DC3X5U.ZIP

And you should start to Downloaded the file (It is only 227k)Just unzip it into a folder and read the txt file in the folder and it is the latest Bios for your SCSI Adaptor and the latest drivers for Windows ME. And as for the Control box leave it at 6 and install the drivers but don't connect to Writer yet. Now I need you to tell me what drives and CD Drives you have connected to your IDE cables ie:-
Primary Master---? This is usually Your main Hard-drive !
Primary Slave----?
Secondary Master-----?
Secondary Slave-----?
This can all be found in Device manager ! they will also have Drive Letters ie:- c:,d:,e: etc

In Windows ME you can disable Active Desktop (If it is enabled) by right clicking on your desktop and selecting Properties. In the Display Properties dialog select the Web tab and then uncheck View my Active Desktop as a web page.

I hope this Helps !!!



Laffin Assassin

The Definition of an Upgrade: Take old bugs out, put new ones in.

(in reply to Brendan Harron)