Hi there,

Been browsing your forum and website for a while and have learned alot from your posts. I finally came across a problem I haven't been able to figure out though. I recently upgraded to a TDK 48x24x48x (4800B) VeloCD burner. Every review I have read said it was great for backing up CD's.

My question is.. when I use it to read an image of an old Safedisc (alt) CD (Need for Speed 4: High Stakes) it reads terribly slow to start (around .20x) and at 50% of read its at 3.94X read speed. Is this normal for a Safedisc read? My cousin has an old CD burner that smoked through reading the same disk (read it in under 5 minutes) and mine is only at 65% after 16 minuntes. The funny part was, his couldn't write it, but my drive wrote it from his image perfectly.

Sorry for the long post, but it always seems people post too few details. ;) Thanks!

Specs:
P4 using standard microsoft IDE drivers on Windows XP SP1
Tried using Clony XXL 2.0.0.6 settings, as well as the Safedisc (No AWS) profile with same results. The last sector CloneCD log reported had trouble reading was 10173. Thanks again!

Well reading Safedisc does take some time but did you select the Fast Error Skip option? This should speed the process up greatly. Some drives read it slower than others too. My Pioneer DVD reader take a lot longer to read it than my Liteon Drive.

(in reply to Zinger)

Lol the next batch of questions...

Yeah.. I was just looking at the profile I used (Safedisc No AWS) and it was set to on. I ended up using the built in Game Profile to try things out and once it got past the 10000 bad sectors, it really started to fly, reading int he 20x's, finishing the read in 10 minutes vs the 20 minutes of before. I haven't tried the image made from it yet. Is that bad or good? From what I have picked up, most people recommend reading no faster than 4x. Also, I read that certain drives don't pay attention to the software Fast Error skip, but have to support it in hardware. Is that true? And if so, does my TDK (lite-On) support it? Thanks again so much!

(in reply to Zinger)

Fast error skip is a function of the drive. If your drive supports it then you are set. Sounds to me like the imaging went ok. You will have to either burn it, or mount it into a virtual drive with Alcohol or daemon tools, to test it. I would burn it to a CDRW to test it, just make sure you do not checkmark the option to delete image after successful burn, or you will have to read it again to burn it to a CD if the CDRW works.

(in reply to Zinger)

It works great! Used the Safedisc (No AWS) profile and let it go. It does the first 3% at the slow (0.20x) speed then goes right up to 16x speed to read the rest. Worked perfectly on Ghost Recon and Need for Speed 4. Is it good helpful for me to report my successes backing up various cd's?

(in reply to Zinger)

Just glad it worked for you....... Thanks....

(in reply to Zinger)