New PC, Burner problems help me, I want to burn back up copy of CM

[Shatter]

Yes in another thread, I said I just purchased a back up copy of CM, 2 days ago.

Now I have decided to give my Dad the copy of CM I purchased,as a Backup, for his B-Day (on May 15) since my new PC has a burner.

My new PC just arrived today and I can't get CM to Burn on a CD. The Back up copy has not arrived yet, I am trying to burn my original copy, it has a couple tiny scratches,but it loaded onto my new PC with no problem.

I have tried to Burn original copy of CM, and get errors:

1.check connects from Burner to CD-ROM,clean CD's,restart computer, when I try to burn on 1 type of CD, type(Imation 4x-10x Compatible 650mb CD-RW).

2.Information was not sent fast enough to CD-burner, close some programs, or defrag system, with another type of CD, type(Sony Recordable 650mb CDQ).

I just finished the defrag on my new PC, so I am gonna go try again. Also I will close some programs.

One final note, I noticed record Data option, So since CM installed on the new PC, with no problem, I am gonna try to copy the Data, instead of Copying CD to CD.

I write back when I find out if I was succesful.

ANY RECOMMENDATIONS ON HOW TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM, SURE WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

PLEASE HELP ME I HAVE BEEN TRYING FOR HOURS.

[Shatter]

Also, since the Sony CDs are recordable only and the Burner showed 95% complete, before the error occured.

Does this mean the CD is garbage now???

[Gen-x87]

Um you are probably going to get majorly flamed for this kind of question.

BTS has obviously implemented a copy protection scheme. It is there for 1 reason. To prevent people from copying the game and distributing it to thier friends.

Anyways since his B-Day is not until May 15th I think the new copy should arrive in time

Gen

[Gyrene]

Gen-X, I made a back up cody of my CM cd and it works fine. (On the mac)

I have 6 year olds assaulting my Mac all day, so I have to hide my original cds.

Shatter, I don't know what to say about your problem. Wait for the new CD to arrive, I guess.

Gyrene

[ 05-01-2001: Message edited by: Gyrene ]

[Shatter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gen-x87:

Um you are probably going to get majorly flamed for this kind of question.

BTS has obviously implemented a copy protection scheme. It is there for 1 reason. To prevent people from copying the game and distributing it to thier friends.

Anyways since his B-Day is not until May 15th I think the new copy should arrive in time

Gen<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

---------------------------------------------

No No No, I promise, I am not making and distributing CM, and nor do I have any intention of this. I swear am a very loyal fan and would never take the profits out of BTS's mouth.

What I said was I bought an second (additional)copy of CM for myself,as a back up, but now I am gonna give it to my Dad.

Because now I have a burner and I can make my own copy of my original CM,as a back up copy.

I have purchased 4 copies of CM now. 2 for friends, 1 for myself, and now 1 for my DAD.

If I would cheat them, why would I have bought 4 copies now.

The burned copy is going to be MY OWN Back up copy. Again, I love BTS and all their hard work, I would never ever take money from them, thats is so rightly deserved.

I was afraid someone might think

Anways I still need help on figuring out how to burn a BACK UP COPY FOR MYSELF. There is another post now for me to read, but I wanted to clear this up before going on.

[ 05-01-2001: Message edited by: Shatter ]

[ 05-01-2001: Message edited by: Shatter ]

[Shatter]

Are you guys with burners, copying CD-ROM to CD-ROM or are you saving CD-ROM to hard drive then adding files to Burned CD, through the burner program???

[André]

Hi Shatter

I have made a backup copy of CM too, so I dont have a problem with that. God knows what I would do if the original CD became damaged!

When you copy the cd, copy to the harddrive first. This is more stable than copying direct to the CD.

Heinz

[Shatter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Heinz 25th PzReg:

Hi Shatter

I have made a backup copy of CM too, so I dont have a problem with that. God knows what I would do if the original CD became damaged!

When you copy the cd, copy to the harddrive first. This is more stable than copying direct to the CD.

Heinz<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

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Heinz 25th PzReg

Your a life saver man: I just noticed this option, and I am gonna go get on the new PC and Try it out.

Man my legs are gonna be tired tomorrow from going up and down the stairs, from new PC to this one.

THANKYOU VERY VERY MUCH.

If there is anything you ever need don't hesitate to ask.

Woohoo I am so excited!!!

One last thing does it matter which speed you copy(burn)at???

I can copy (burn) at 2x,4x,6x,8x and 10x

[Gyrene]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>One last thing does it matter which speed you copy(burn)at???

I can copy (burn) at 2x,4x,6x,8x and 10x <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The slower the speed, the better the reliability. Make sure your CD blanks match your burning speed.

4x works great for me.

Gyrene

[Shatter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gyrene:

The slower the speed, the better the reliability. Make sure your CD blanks match your burning speed.

4x works great for me.

Gyrene<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

---------------------------------------------

I gave up last night,was way to tires to try again. Hopfully, between the post above and yours, I can get it.

Gonna go try now.

Thanks for all the help guys.

[Shatter]

Well I edited this posted, because I was wrong, it still did not work.

[ 05-01-2001: Message edited by: Shatter ]

[Shatter]

OK guys more questions:

You guys who have burned copies of CM as Backups, have you tried to install with them or do you just play your already installed CM with them???

Because I burned CM and the CD showed COMBAT MISSION, but I unitstalled CM on my new PC and then tried to install with my Burnt Copy, and it froze on me installing the Wav files.

So I thought maybe you guys just use the CD with your already installed CM.

I am sorry for all the questions, but I am beginning to think this burner is not all its crack up to be.

I have tried CD to CD Burn

Tried drag CM files in the CD wizard creator propgram.

I am simply at a loss, I am about ready to smash the damn thing.

So if again you might have any suggestions, please help me. Starting to sound like a broken record.

[kmead]

On my Mac I use Toast which gives you the option of doing a "disc copy" which copies if all track for track and creates the same dual use CD. Worked for me.

[Ellros]

I have found out that once you get an error when trying to burn a copy to a CD, then that CD is toast. You should use a new blank.

Sometimes it's the blank that is the problem. Try to use good brand name cd-r's. Don't use generic labels. They tend to get errors more often in my experience.

[Mom]

[ 05-02-2001: Message edited by: Mom ]

[Shatter]

Thanks to all for the help, I am too tired tonight to mess with the Burner.

I am going straight to bed.

Any other ideas, I will surely check out, so if have a suggestion leave it for me.

I talked to my instructor at school, he thinks maybe the software need to be updated.

Yes I am a Computer Tech student, and I have never had problems such as these. I usually can get problems solved the same day.

I am beginning to wonder if the software is crap, or maybe even a Bad burner.

I'll check for more posts tomorrow.

Thanks guys

[Shatter]

Bumb

Just woke up for few, figured, I would check.

[André]

What burner software do you use?

Heinz

[Shatter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by :Heinz 25th PzReg

What burner software do you use?

Heinz<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

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Easy Creator version 4.02, Direct CD 3, Adaptec

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Thanks for the help guys.

Well I have got to the root of the problem, after speaking with my Instructor at school, as well as several other Technicians.

After hours and hours of Tech talk, I found that all the other Technicians have updated their PCs. All of them have recommended, I get another controller card. A controller for the CD-ROM & another controller card for the CD-Burner, maybe also updating my software to Neos, or Easy Creator ver 5 Plantinum. Or maybe even a SCSI-3 BUS (Ultra SCSI). My new PC has both the CD-ROM &

CD-Burner configured on the same controler card. JEEZ after spending $1900 on this thing, you would at least think, the Burner would be configured on it own Controller Card.

Ya I know to most who may read this it is probably GIBERISH. But I thought maybe a few of you may understand it.

This weekend I am going to an Electronics store and getting all the Hardware and software above. I will be spending the weekend installing it all.

Luckily, I recently won some money in the lottery, (No not in the Millions). This is how I got this new PC and can afford all this hardware and software.

I am not trying to brag at all. I just got lucky.

So I will report back after I install it all, and tell you how it goes.

---------------------------------------------

Heinz 25th PzReg:

If you think you can get the burner to work with just a better software version,then let me know. Just because I won some money, does not mean I wanna spend the money on all this stuff, if I can just get a better software.

Thanks again

[bodman]

Don't spend anymore money until you try a shareware copy program called CloneCD. The URL is http://www.elby.de/CloneCD/english/welcome.htm. After looking at their webpage use this link to see if your cd burner is supported by their software. http://www.elby.de/CloneCD/english/cdr_a.htm

If it is then you shouldn't have a problem

backing up the software.

Please note that I own a legitimate copy of the game and in no way condone piracy either.

I just don't want to see you waste your money.

Good Luck

Bodman

[André]

Shatter

Try the CDclone software, its easy to use and it works.

Maybe the latest shipping versions of CM come with some kind of copy protection? I ordered from the first batch, and it did not have any copy protection at all.

Heinz

[Shatter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Heinz 25th PzReg:

Shatter

Try the CDclone software, its easy to use and it works.

Maybe the latest shipping versions of CM come with some kind of copy protection? I ordered from the first batch, and it did not have any copy protection at all.

Heinz<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

---------------------------------------------

Thanks guys

I will try it first thing in the morning. I had another hard day at school, so I am going to bed early again, well early for me at least.

My Dads copy of Combat Mission, that I ordered for his B-Day arrived today. So I will try burning his CM as well as mine, once I get the new software.

Thanks again guys.

Man you guys are great, I really owe you one.

[JMcGuire]

Everything you wanted to know about CD burning but were afraid to ask:

CDRWin from GoldenHawk Technology will copy just about anything if your hardware configuration is right. It's not terribly expensive and pretty easy to use once you figure out which of the many options you can usually ignore. You can download a 1X trial copy here:

http://www.goldenhawk.com

You definitely want your burner on a separate bus from everything else. If your burner is IDE (probably), it should be the master, and if there is a slave it should not be involved in the burning operation (e.g. a Zip drive or an unrelated second HDD or something like that).

The reason is that the burner requires a VERY steady constant stream of data, and if you have another device on the same bus, reading from that other device will interrupt the data stream. A CD is a 3.5 mile long single spiral -- once you know that it's pretty obvious why a steady data stream is important for correct burning. This can be done with just about any machine available today -- I was using 12X SCSI burners back when Pentium 75's with 2GB HDDs were the hot new technology, and they rarely had problems feeding the data out fast enough.

The best suggestion I've seen here is to copy the CD to the hard drive (this is called making an ISO image), then burn that image to your blank CD. If the burn fails, you can just try again from the same image (no need to gen the ISO a second time).

The stuff about specific brands being better at certain (slower) speeds is generally considered a myth, albiet a popular one. The truth is some CDRs are just better quality, period -- the speed doesn't play into it, it's a manufacturing question. I used to work for a large multimedia company, we burned thousands of CDs each week for various tests and betas, and we literally had people in-house whose whole jobs were nothing but CD burning technology (and I don't mean they were just burner-jockeys; we had those, too). However there are definitely differences in brand qualities -- manufacturing processes and specific materials can vary widely. Generally Richoh CDs are the best quality. Sony, Verbatim, and most of the "big" names are pretty cheaply made. TDK is one significant exception, they're very good, and happily they're also usually cheap, too. Avoid buying the bulk-style CDs on spools, and don't waste money on 80-minute discs unless you really need them.

If you have significant burning problems, make sure EVERYTHING else on your machine is shut down. This includes little doodads in your system tray, crap installed by the vendor (AIM, COmpaq support software) etc. If you're on NT or Win2K, you might even kill some services if your troubles are severe. On my Win2K machines I actually create a very minimal user profile specifically for burning CDs. I don't have a particularly fast machine and I think I've only thrown away maybe three or four bad-burns in five or six years.

SCSI burners are more reliable because SCSI has a higher data rate, but in reality this is mostly negated under Win9X -- SCSI is dramatically better-exploited under NT or Win2K. However they are much, much more expensive, and are still subject to the shared-bus problem, as well as other obscure problems (such as electrical noise on long SCSI cables).

Yes, if the burn operation fails the CD is garbage. The slang term is "coaster" because holding your beer off the table is just about all it's good for. In the old days we could give them to women to hang from their rear-view mirrors, too, but I'm guessing those days are over...

I'm pretty sure the CM CD didn't have any protection when I made my backup. You should always make backups of every CD you care about. Manufactured CDs are made by using a glass plate to stamp nearly-microscopic holes into a very, very thin sheet of aluminum which is then pressed between two sheets of plastic. If that plastic separates even a little, the aluminum platter will instantly oxidize and become useless (the aluminum looks like it has little holes and tracks burned it -- and that's essentially exactly what happens). Discs from Sony plants are really bad about this since they cheap-out and use a very thin plastic sandwich, and their bonding process seems to be weaker, too (every CD I've ever lost was Sony-made). Protect burned CDs from UV light (sunlight), cheaper CDRs will only last about 20 minutes in direct sunlight -- the really good ones can last up to 200 hours (anything with a bluish tinge; that's a high cyanide content -- Richoh and TDK are significantly better here). Also, CDRs work by allowing the laser to literally smudge the polished gold platter; this requires a softer plastic, so burned CDs are much easier to scratch.

Finally, here are two links that you might find useful. They'll give you even more info about burning and copying. I absolutely do not condone piracy, I have been a developer for 23 years and this is how I make my living, but I also absolutely don't appreciate the "default guilty verdict" implied by copy protection, so I've found it useful to know how to circumvent this stuff when it does appear. And these links do provide quite a bit more info than just avoiding copy protection, by the way.

Good luck!

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd.shtml

http://www.makeitdvd.com/support/cdrfaq/cdrfaq_index.htm

[ 05-03-2001: Message edited by: JMcGuire ]

[engy]

Wow, what a wealth of information!

However, using IE 5.0 neither one of the links given seems to work for me, unfortunately. Anyone else having a problem?

[Gyrene]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> I was using 12X SCSI burners back when Pentium 75's with 2GB HDDs were the hot new technology, and they rarely had problems feeding the data out fast enough. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Man, that must have been a $700 burner back in the day, not to mention the rare SCSI card for a PC back then.

Gyrene