Announcement

**wkulecz** · 9 December 2001, 08:31

Be careful

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Nero seems to be going the way of Adaptec/Roxio where they can't fix one thing without breaking something else.

5.5.5.1 was supposed to have fixed the need to be administrator to burn CDs on W2K. So I updated 5.5.4.0 to 5.5.6.4 and still won't burn if not logged as administrator. The help file is still no help talking about the File->Preferences->Securty Tab which is not there.

OK, so I didn't get the fix I was looking for, but now after a CD is burned and Nero exits all CDROM drives are dead until a reboot :-(
Hopefully un-installing InCD or a "downgrade" will get me back to where I was.

InCD 2.32 is still buggy as all get out. Blue screening about half the w2k systems I've tried with the second or third UDF disk it tries to mount :-( I guess if you are willing to reboot everytime you change CD-RW UDF1.5 disks it "works".

--wally.

**Brian Ellis** · 9 December 2001, 09:14

You're right Wally. Nero ain't all it's cracked up to be. InCD is a pain. I originally had the Roxio version (DirectCD) for packet recording and Nero for burning, but I haven't been able to re-find out how I did it since I did a clean Win re-install

And, of course, there is no compatibility between the Ahead and the Roxio packet disks

.

Roxio has an advantage over InCD, as well: you can use it with ordinary cheap CD-Rs. Of course, you cannot rewrite, but you can erase and continue to use the disc until full. With InCD, you must use CD-RWs, which I find more delicate (often, InCD will not recognise a partially recorded disk and you have to reformat it, if you can

.

Another Ahead problem is with the cover designer. It will not work with many popular printers. A very small detail, but not insignificant when it comes to the authors' lack of attention to detail. (If you wish to know the wherefores of this, the app writes humengously large printer files for a single CD label, typically > 250 Mb and no laser printer can handle such files.)

I must admit, I hate Ahead's upgrade policy, as well. It should not be necessary to have to download the full 10++ Mb proggy (no broadband here) to upgrade, as I'm sure there are many files which have not been changed. Have they never heard of patches for those that have?

**wkulecz** · 9 December 2001, 14:19

InCD 2.32 seemed to have RW compatability with a couple of my old DirectCD3 UDF1.5 disks. Other than the blue screens.....

I do miss the use of DirectCD with CD-R for situations where burning data from slow network drives made it very useful to me from time to time.

My problem with CD-RW UDF1.5 has been drive write interchangability. "Works fine" with only a single burner writing a disk. A few writes in different burners leads to corrupt disk and lost data. InCD so far has not corruped a disk writing in multiple burners, but again the blue screens.... kinda make it useless :-(

Despite its problems, Nero works for me on systems where Adaptec/Roxio was either a coaster factory or a system breaker.

--wally.

**wkulecz** · 9 December 2001, 16:06

Followup

Uninstalling InCD 2.32 seems to have fixed the 5.5.6.4 problem pf CDROM drives not working after burning a disk and exiting Nero.

--wally.

DJ · 9 December 2001, 19:18

This may seem to be a dumb question but what does InCD do? Also are you saying that you can use it to erase CDRs and reuse them? I think I better look at that long online manual again.

DJ

**paulw** · 9 December 2001, 20:21

I think that would be rather difficult. However I re-use old CDRs until they are full by starting a new disk which leaves only the new session on the disk. You can see the old sessions in the disk properties but not read the data. Very handy feature.

Regarding InCD. I have never gotten this feature to work with Nero. My CD writer a HP 8100 is not list in their compatibility list.

**Brian Ellis** · 10 December 2001, 04:08

DJ

InCD and DirectCD allow CD-RWs to be used like a floppy disk. You just drag files onto them/erase them etc., without the palaver of using a specific app like Nero or EasyCD. You can add files without rendering earlier ones unreadable. In the case of DirectCD, it is also possible to use ordinary CD-Rs and even erase files from them (but you do not liberate the space, as you do with CD-RWs). I have never managed to do this with InCD.

My personal view is that Nero is better than EasyCD, despite its obvious shortfalls, but DirectCD is better than InCD. Unfortunately, although it is possible for Nero and DirectCD to cohabit (I had them working together for many months), it is not easy to install them: it requires a specific order of installation/disinstallation/installation and I forgot to note how I did it before

DJ · 10 December 2001, 05:43

So is it similar to making a multi-session CD? And can it be read by another CD-ROM? Thanks.

DJ

**wkulecz** · 10 December 2001, 06:32

No, InCD and DirectCD are nothing like multisession. These are "packet writing" UDF1.5 disk format programs. Since each packet fits in the drive's buffer underruns can't happen. Like Brian says you have the illusion of a giant floppy. Too bad it just doesn't work reliably -- especially if you write in multiple burners.

"Normal" CDROM drives may or may not read CD-RW depending on their age and make. But you have to install the "free" UDF1.5 reader software from Adaptec/Roxio or Ahead to find out. This part does seem to work well if you have only "modern" CDROM drives to deal with (I don't which made DirectCD's use of packet writing on CD-R worthwhile fo me) and haven't corruped you CD-RW disk with the last write.

Using DirectCD with CD-R is much like multisession, you have to close the session to read in normal burners and don't need special software on the reader. The main advantage of no buffer underruns with packet writing is largely made moot by "Burn Proof" technology on modern burners.

My advice is forget about CD-RW packet writing software, the reliablity is just not good enough. Maybe someday, but certainly not now. Until the CD-RW drive makers and packet writing software vendors own up to the write interchange problem there is little hope for a solution.

I'm sure there are people out there using DirectCD or InCD "just fine" because they only have a single burner. Eventually they will get a new burner, update a disk a few times and learn the hard way what I am talking about. Hope it wasn't their only copy.

--wally.

**LvR** · 10 December 2001, 07:14

Wally

Yeah - well I am one of the "lucky" ones using Direct CD (5.02b currently).

I am sure there are a lot more people like yourself that did not have as good a time as I did with it - maybe you can try the latest UDF reader (version 5.xxxx) from http://www.roxio.com/en/support/udfw...inupdates.html - perhaps that can help with some of the funnies you guys are experiencing.

Until now, even W2K machines without any Roxio sw/burner installed were more than happy to read any disk that I produced with DirectCD (W2K comes with a useless UDF reader built in - in my experience anyway!

)

As far as making any DirectCD disk usable in Nero (as well as the reverse) - thats a no-no for me too.

**Snake-Eyes** · 10 December 2001, 13:30

I don't know for certain whether the OS has anything to do with my success, but I've had (still do, FWIW) Nero and Roxio EZCD Creator Platinum both installed and operating fine under Windows XP. My EZCD install includes DirectCD, which is working perfectly. InCD doesn't work (won't even start without generating an error message), but that's fine, since I rely on DCD for all my packet writing anyway.

All I did to get them both working together (nothing special either, at least as far as I can tell) was install Roxio (following the instructions on the Roxio site for WinXP, including applying XP patches) on my otherwise newly installed XP, then installed Nero (5.5.5.1), and upgraded it too (5.5.6.4).

So if there is a specific order to install them and get them to work, I must've stumbled onto it accidently.

BTW, I didn't uninstall any part of either during this process.

Announcement

Nero 5564 released.

Nero 5564 released.

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