 |
 |
Reliable USB CD-RW?
|
|
|
|
|
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jun 2000
Status:
Offline
|
|
About a month ago, I succumbed to the rhetoric and the advertising and bought an Iomega Predator CD-RW for my iBook. I have never been more dissatisfied with a product in my life.
After countless support calls to Iomega, Adaptec, and Apple, and after upgrading to OS 9.1 and the Authoring Support Updates, as well as trying iTunes to burn instead of Toast, I'm at wits end. I've burned a few dozen audio CD coasters--never actually making a single successful audio CD--and even out of the data CD's I've attempted to make, only about 1/2 of them have worked.
This is the second Iomega burner I've had problems with, so I'm going to return it and try another company's product. Can anyone suggest a burner they've had luck with? (And, for my sanity, maybe include examples and stats of successful burns you've done with it...)
wcaw
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: The bottom of Cloud City
Status:
Offline
|
|
Forget iomega burners. They are junk.
USB and " Reliable CD-RW" don't usually belong in the same sentence as USB is slow and burning with it is a risk anytime.
What I can tell you is that LaCie USB burners are reliable when you burn data at 4x and audio CD's at 2x.
I have burnt 50 successful CD's with LaCie with these settings. A word of warning, LaCie's have fans and can be loud.
QPS USB burners are not reliable.
If you have FireWire on your Mac definetly pay the extra to get a FireWire burner. I can recommend some excellent ones.
|
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Senior User
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: san diego
Status:
Offline
|
|
Severed is right
USB and burning should never have be done together...
go firewire...
if you have a laptop get a PCMCIA firewire card (they're $30 @ www.dealnn.com)
if you have a mac with a PCI slot open buy a firewire card (+/- $40)
then get the firewire burner...
I'm actually taking my QUE USB burner apart and putting the CDRW into a firewire case... and puting an old IDE drive in the QUE Case...
anyway... forget USB burners
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: California
Status:
Offline
|
|
|
(Last edited by MadMacs; Oct 4, 2002 at 11:13 PM.
)
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: The bottom of Cloud City
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by MadMacs:
<STRONG>I take it you have an older iBook with no firewire or PCMIA slot? I also assume you don't want to sell yours older iBook and buy a new iBook.</STRONG>
He might also have an older iMac.
|
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Toronto, Canada
Status:
Offline
|
|
I agree with the evaluation of the Lacie drive. I have never had problems with this drive, ever, when burning at 4x data and 2x audio, even from a (powered) hub. The noise from the fan - depending on the model you get - can be acceptable. The noise from my new Lacie FW burner is about twice as loud, though the burner is 3x as fast.
With hacks - or without them eventually - I was able to get it to work in all apps, including Toast 5.0. Even burned VCDs in them reliably.
Get a 4x4x6 mitsumi model - cheap now, I imagine, and quiet.
|
|
|Desktop:|Abit NFS7 Athlon 3200+, 1GIG RAM, DVD-R (A05) CDRW (52x), 1X200GIG, 1X160GIG, 2X120GIG, ATI Radeon 9800Pro, Samsung 172x Win XP Pro SP2
|Laptop:| Powerbook G4 12" 1.33ghz AE BT 768MB 10.3
|Laptop 2:| Compaq 1050CA 1.4ghz Centrino 512MB Win XP Home
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jun 2000
Status:
Offline
|
|
Thanks for the replies Severed Hand of Skywalker, MadMacs, graphics84, and milhaus.
I have an older iBook, so Firewire or SCSI are not options (although I wish they were). I'd upgrade to a new iBook or, of course, a PowerBook, but can't afford it at the moment. Besides, I'd rather not have to upgrade just to use a CD-RW.
I thought about Lacie before I bought the Predator. I guess I didn't think enough.
I tried to burn an audio CD a couple of times since I posted and I keep getting the same error message, about 2 minutes into the verifying stage (with iTunes): "CD burning failed because an unknown error occurred (14337). Any ideas?
Also, the support at Iomega wasn't exactly helpful either. First they told me to "Turn off virtual memory, make sure the device is plugged directly into the USB jack, turn off all other programs, turn off all extensions except the ones necessary to run the burner." When nothing worked I said, "What can I do now?" The 'tech' said, "I don't know." A lot of good that did me...
wcaw
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: The bottom of Cloud City
Status:
Offline
|
|
OK so it seems that everyone agrees that LaCie is the way to go, but Firewire is better and LaCie's have fans. I have the perfect solution then.
Get the LaCie Pocket drive. It doesn't have a fan (as far as I know), it has USB AND firewire (for your next computer or a friends house), it is very portable which is perfect for your iBook and it looks cool.
http://www.lacie.com/products/produc...B60090278D3ED0
The only downside is that you have to pay a bit more for all these nice features.
|
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
|
|
|
Forum Rules
|
|
|
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top
