After installing EasyWriteReader under Windows 98 SE, the InCD check box "Format disc to CD-MRW" disappears. Further, CD-MRW formatted disks are not readable on a standard DVD-ROM drive.

Configuration:
Nero 5.5.8.0 bundled, updated to 5.5.9.0, then 5.5.9.9
InCD 3.27 bundled, updated to 3.31, then 3.371
Lite-On LTR-48125W VS04 flashed to VS06
a FireWire (IEEE 1394) enclosure with an EagleTec FireWire PC Card
notebook Twinhead GX with a Toshiba DVD-ROM
Windows 98 SE, fresh installation with IEEE 1394 storage supplement

Windows 98 SE was installed on a new HD with all critical updates, then Nero and InCD and their upgrades. Initially everything worked fine, except that InCD formatted disks were not readable on the second DVD-ROM drive. Hence I installed EasyWriteReader (from www.ahead.de, since I had previous bad experiences with versions included on InCD formatted disks). Then the InCD check box "Format disc to CD-MRW" disappeared, and my DVD-ROM drive couldn't read disks previously formatted to CD-MRW (yet it can read
standard InCD CD-RW disks). In effect, CD-MRW is gone in InCD, although Nero Info Tool still says that my Lite-On supports Mount Rainier!

I tried removing/reinstalling Nero, InCD and EasyWriteReader to no avail; same for the latest updates to Nero 5.5.9.9 and InCD 3.371.

Another frustrating aspect is that a few days ago my older CD-MRW disks were read correctly. Not much has changed in the meantime; I can't be sure because my daughter uses the notebook, but, e.g., I checked that WinAmp 2.81 was installed without the CD-Recording plugin, and the Adaptec plugin for WMP 7.1 was removed earlier.

On my second notebook with Windows XP Pro everything works fine, so this looks like Win98SE pecularity. In particular, it shouldn't matter that my Lite-On is "external".

Could anybody confirm whether this a known defficiency of InCD under Win98SE?

Thanks in advance,

KCK

I had the same situation. The MRW disk I created on my Lite-on
was transported to my system with the non-Mt. Rainier Sony drive
and the MRW-reader was auto-installed onto that system.
Consequently, the MRW disk was readable on the Sony. However,
when I took the disk back onto the system with the Lite-on,
it was not readable there. I took the disk back to the Sony
and it was still readable. It's as if the process of using
the MRW-reader modified the disk somehow, such that even the
original MRW-capable drive can't read it any more.

Some software (Nero) or hardware (Lite-on) vendor(s) is screwing
up royally. Interesting that your situation used another
MRW-reader, which leads one to think if it is the specifications
for this Mt. Rainier stuff that's messed up in the first place.

(in reply to KCK)

Oh, looks like we may have been using the same MRW-reader,
so it's probably all Ahead's fault. I wonder if the reader
sets up some sort of software-accessible directory structures
on the disk, such that the Lite-on MRW-capable drive can't
deal with the disk any more. Depending on how Mt. Rainier is
spec'ed, it may also be that the Lite-on is using regions
that were allocated to MRW-software-reader functionality and
getting stuck (my symptom).

(in reply to KCK)

Do you mean you put a CD-MRW into a non-Mt. Rainier CD-RW drive on a system with InCD and EasyWrite Reader? Then InCD shouldn't have mounted the disk for writing, but if it did, it must have overwritten MRW with the classical format (no warnings?). Your wishes probably exceed Ahead's capability for now, since apparently Ahead doesn't even support MRW readability on systems with both CD-MRW and CD-ROM drives...

Which versions of Windows and InCD are you running on your systems?

As mentioned originally, some time ago my older notebook with Win98 SE + InCD + EasyWrite Reader could read CD-MRW disks on its DVD-ROM drive. Hence this is doable in principle, and if somebody confirmed that this combination works, we could compare our C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS.

(in reply to KCK)

No. The system with the Sony non-Mt.Rainier drive didn't
have Nero/InCD on it. But, when one puts a MRW disk (made
by InCD on a Mt.Rainier drive) in the non-Mt.Rainier drive,
the disk has a built-in MRW-reader which the autorun
procedure offers to install. I believe that somehow in
the process of installing/using this MRW-reader, the disk
gets modified (purposely or inadvertently) such that it
can no longer be read on the system with the Lite-on
Mt.Rainier drive.

The CDR/CDRW hardware/software configuration world is in
chaos. Considering how long this stuff has been in
existence, it's really a shame.

(in reply to KCK)

I agree that packet writing is still in chaos. Yet so far I can't complain about my WinXP system, using Lite-On and InCD for both CD-RW and CD-MRW; I just can't get CD-MRW readability on a second Win98 SE system...

I doubt that installing/using EasyWrite Reader on your non-Mt. Rainier
system could damage the MRW disk; aren't you running some other packet
writing software on that system? If you have a regular CD/DVD-ROM drive on that system, try to read another CD-MRW disk on it. And tell us which OS and burning software you are using.

(in reply to KCK)

KCK wrote:

> I doubt that installing/using EasyWrite Reader on your non-Mt.
> Rainier
> system could damage the MRW disk; aren't you running some other
> packet
> writing software on that system? If you have a regular CD/DVD-ROM
> drive on that system, try to read another CD-MRW disk on it. And
> tell us which OS and burning software you are using.

The system with the legacy non-MRW Sony drive had DirectCD on it,
but DirectCD should not have been active. Supposedly, the
only active software would have been the reader installed from
the MRW disk.

On the Lite-on MRW-capable system, I use Nero/InCD. On the Sony
non-MRW system, I use EasyCDCreator/DirectCD. It's pathethic
how the CDRW software packages tie the hardware to the application
layer software, requiring one to change the look-and-feel whenever
the drive is changed. The CDRW arena uses the same software
distribution scheme as video or sound cards, but in video/sound,
the application look+feel is pretty much irrelevant, since it's
just stuff for control panel settings. Further, video has the
device-independent Video BIOS and video/sound now has DirectX/ DirectSound which further decouple applications and hardware.

Can you imagine how chaotic it would be if every time you bought
a floppy drive, you were required to install special software to
the OS and to write to a floppy disk, you needed to have
different application programs with different look+feel?

Most of the CDRW applications keep changing their look+feel on
every release as if this is value-added. (Well, so does things
like the OS, ala Win9x, Win2k, WinXP, etc.) I don't know about
you, but I find this more value-minus in most cases since to me
changing conventions for no particular reason is just pure
annoyance.

(in reply to KCK)

Sorry for asking but since I am new on recording (don't laugh) can you please explain to me what is MRW? I use winXP with Nero and InCD latest versions and have an LG8400b (400x12x40) recorder using TDK 700mb CDRW. When formating my first disk it gets to about 98% and then crashes with an error number saying error xxx-xxxxxx-xxxxx (forgot the number) and says to restard the PC or insert a new disk. This error is not from windows but from inCD. Also sometimes when I use nero express to record audio cd (from mp3 filez) the recorder does not flash as normal and nero hangs and I have to restart the PC. But if I record normaly using full nero it records fine as long as dont check the cd text burning option. I disabled auto-insert notification (is it a good thing?) so I don't know what else to do.

I have a P3 Intel, 500mhz on a 440BX board from Gigabyte (with 2 IDE + 2ATA IDE slots. My cd recorder and dvd drive are using the normal IDE ports, with recorder as master and DVD as slave if it makes any sence. Please help

(in reply to KCK)

quote:

---

Originally posted by zeus68

Sorry for asking but since I am new on recording (don't laugh) can you please explain to me what is MRW?

---

Mt. Ranier Group has developed technology for better CD-RW format. The technology uses a different CD media than standard CD-RW-s. Rather than me stumbling along here trying to explain it, why don't you do a GOOGLE on MT. RANIER CD-MRW for more details.

(in reply to KCK)

First, giving credit to Ahead, I should say that with the latest LTR-48125 VS08, Nero 5.5.9.17, InCD 3.51.61 and EasyWriteReader 3.3.2.0, the original title of this thread became false. That is, now everything is working fine on both 98SE and XP. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

To zeus68:

Can you see the "Format disc to CD-MRW" option on InCD Page Settings? If not, either your burner doesn't support CD-MRW, or InCD isn't installed properly. If yes, leave it unchecked for now to facilitate troubleshooting (you may switch it on once CD-MR works).

Did you use other packet-writing software before InCD? If yes, remove InCD, then try to remove any traces of previous softwares (including the registry), and reinstall InCD again. Similarly if you ever used WMP 9.0, then uninstall the Adaptec/Roxio burning plugin.

As always in such cases, try different media, e.g., 4x-10x or 4x-12x discs. If you wish to reformat a disc, for safety first do Nero|Recorder|EraseReWritable|Full Erase.

There is no Auto-insert notification in XP. What does Nero InfoTool|Configuration say about Autorun for your burner? My burner has Autorun on. Fighting with earlier versions of InCD and EasyWriteReader, I discovered different behaviors for on/off on my CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives, so I'm now using Autorun on for both. BTW, I'm on XP Pro, and there are tons of confusing info on the web about Autorun/Autoplay; if you ever used any registry hacks or group policies, you may have trouble in getting it to work as desired.

(in reply to KCK)