[athun]

I can't seem to find similar questions elsewhere so:

1. Is it necessary to have around 700MB free space on your STARTUP disk in order to initialize a CD-R/CD-RW? I have burned several audio disks in itunes (on my 533 Dual G4) with no problem (except some skipping songs that probably occurred when I was doing other things on the computer during the burning process) but when I tried to back up some files to a CD-RW disk (Hi-val Brand) I get the message that it could not be initialized because my startup disk if full. I followed suggestions when I first got the 40 GB HD and made the first (fastest) partition the smallest, just big enough to fit the System files and any spool files that may need room (666MB) and I put applications, files, scratch disk space, etc. on larger partitions. As a result, the startup drive has around 250MB free space.

WHY does the disk need so much space on my startup drive just to initialize? WHY didn't I have this problem in itunes? (My MP3/audio files and software are on a larger partition) IS there a way to assign another partition/drive to be the default place to put burning info/temp files? DO I have to throw everything away and reinitialize my drive now just to get some more room on the startup partition? Does Toast 4.1.2 have these same limitations?

2. Does anyone else have their computer set to come on in the morning and notice their CD tray is in the ejected position every morning when they come in? Any idea what is causing that?

Thanks for any responses to any of the above questions.

[Cipher13]

Ditch Disc Burner, its garbge. Use Toast Deluxe - real burning software.

Disc Burner makes a temporary file the size of the disc you're burning, so yes, you need that much room free... rather dumb.

Ditch it.

Cipher13

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AIM: Cipher1387
ICQ: 48111606
mail: cipher13@mac.com

[Jsnuff1]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Ditch Disc Burner, its garbge. Use Toast Deluxe - real burning software.

Disc Burner makes a temporary file the size of the disc you're burning, so yes, you need that much room free... rather dumb.

Ditch it.

Cipher13

actually it not rather dumb...its pretty smart, by doing so there is a less chance of something going wrong during the bruning, but i have to agree with cipher on this one, discburner has many shortcomings, go wiht toast

[athun]

Okay, good enough, I will use Toast.

BUT

When I try to use the version (4.1.2) I have on system 9.1, on this internal drive that came with the 533 dual G4, I get an error that says:

"INTERFACE ERRORS-9356
The connection is not stable.
Please check the cables and termination if SCSI."

Then I got: "The drive reported an error: Sense Key=illegal request, sense code=0x24. Invalid key in CDB."

Great little gibberish that tells me nothing. When I do the recorder self test in Toast, it says the drive reports GOOD STATUS.

Any suggestions (besides buying Toast 5 Platinum)?

[t6hawk]

Ok, here is my experience:

Disc Burner needs the space on the startup disk to make an "image" of the cd before you burn it. So far I managed to burn a number of CDs with no problems.

Toast 4.1.2 works just fine on my G4-466. Toast 5 I had problems burning full speed with. About 10% thru burning a CD, Toast would say "Can't send drive data fast enough" when at 8x and then it makes you a nice coaster to put your drink on. Put it down to 4x and it works fine for me. Not sure why it does this.

I've used 700MB CDRs and the normal 650MB ones too on both methods.

Hope this offers some insight.

==========
G4-466
CD-RW
384MB
2x30GB
==========

I've used Toast since one had to go to the Astarte (pre-Symantec owners) web site and figure out the German language icons to download software updates and upgrades that versiontracker, etc. didn't have yet...that said, Disk Burner is what I've used since BTO'ing my DP 533; I've burned hundreds of CDs with it-ISO 9660 data CDs (the default data CD-R format Disk Burner uses), MP3 CDs, and straight audio CDs. Not one coaster. 650+700MB CDs, three different brands of CD-R media, no problems.

Cipher- as much as you know about things binary and Mac, it doesn't make your first thought the pearl 'o wisdom you seem to believe it to be. You have your facts straight much of the time, but not here. Disk Burner reserves a virtual partition of similar size to the CD-R media's capacity to reliably read from during a burn, much as Toast Deluxe from 2.x on has done and still does, albeit now as an option.

It is a reliability issue that gets addressed by default in DB, optionally in TD. In seven years of burning many thousands of CDs, I've found the 'virtual volume' method delivers a far higher percentage of useable media than any other, free disk space requirements notwithstanding. Sure-it's a pain to juggle disk space at times; kind of a Catch-22 situation if you're trying to free up disk space and don't have the free space available until you burn the darn CD-R, but a little forethought goes a long way with regard to free disk space.

Tell me why Toast, at whatever (admittedly reasonable) cost it's up to now, is better than a cleanly-coded, magnificently simple and easy-to-use piece of freeware like Disk Burner, and that DB is "garbage".

BTW, trusting anything beyond already backed up files to any CD-RW media is asking for data loss. CD-RW media is notorious for its fallibility, second only to Jaz cartridges! With good CD-R media getting cheaper all the time, CD-RW media is looking more and more unnecessary all the time. Expensive and unreliable CD-RW media looks like the REAL garbage, actually.

Cipher, you manage to squeeze off a lot of rounds on this forum; it's just the odds that you'll miss your target occasionally. Flame away if you wish, but facts is facts, and I came by them the hard way.

-chumley

Sorry, "virtual partition" and "virtual volume" aren't the same things; I meant to type
"virtual volume" everywhere I refer to what Cipher calls a "temporary file". In truth, it is both.
It's 'temporary' because Disk Burner tosses it after the burn.

-chumley

[murbot]

Toast has been much faster for burning audio CD's for me. I have Toast 5 running on my 466 G4, and haven't made one coaster yet.

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[Removed at the request of Apple Legal]

Never said Toast was naything other than more expensive than Apple freeware .

I've run Toast 5 too, on my DP 533- I get about the same burn times from DB and Toast 5, I don't know why. Using 16x media so I can burn to a new Plextor FW that I use with clients' machines...

Toast rocks, but DB garbage? Nahhh.

-chumley

Yes, for audio CDs too. I've given DB about 10 megs more RAM than default, but iIve no idea if that's helping or not...

-chumley

[murbot]

Doesn't DB convert the files to AIFF or whatever before burning them? This extends the total time of the burn time, whereas Toast just starts burning.

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[Removed at the request of Apple Legal]

If you are burning a straight audio CD, you need to convert from mp3 to AIFF or some other audio 'CD player friendly' sound file format before burning.

I've never asked Toast to convert mp3 files 'on the fly' to suitable (re: AIFF, etc.) audio files before, as I just drop every mp3 I like onto mPecker after downloading and create a matching AIFF for future audio CD burning, rather than converting to AIFF, etc. at 'burn time'.a

Perhaps if I did not do this (and I only do because of 200+ gigs of local storage and another 450+gigs on FW EIDE and F/W Ultra SCSI RAID level 0 at my disposal), I'd see a big difference in burn times...does Toast 5 convert mp3's "on the fly", as it's burning a straight audio CD? Or not?

Now you've got me curious...

-chumley

athun, it looks like you have several options:

Juggle partitions via first backing up disk (uh-oh...probably with your CD-RW, right?) and using Alsoft's PlusMaker to revise your disk's partition structure without reformatting (I know, and that's why I mentioned backing up first, because it only works 98% of the time ) OR:

download the Roxio Toast 4.1.3 update, and see if that v. works with your G4's drive (a Sony 8/4/32, I think).

...if #1 and #2 don't look so good, pony up the coin for Toast 5, and still get to use the more reliable "virtual volume" (Toast calls it a "Temporary Partition", which is I guess exactly what it is) technique of CD-R burning from another, bigger, non-startup partition.

I hope option #2 works

[athun]

Thanks for the helpful replies, I also thought of some other options I would like to know about:

1) I realy enjoy iTunes one button audio CD creation process and I suppose I am able to avoid this issue of drive space because I have my designated music folder on a very large partition. Is there a way to trick DiskBurner into using a different partition (since there are no preferences to choose any other in the application) via an alias or somthing similar?

2) I suppose I could also make a more spacious partition of the hard drive a System Folder enabled startup disk with some kind of minimal install and extension set that may also alleviate any extension conflicts that could cause a failed burn. This would be a pain but i don't burn disks that often anyway.

Thanks again,

ATH

[cube-dude]

Transfering into the appropriate forum, Multimedia & DV. Find thread there.

I would copy your sys folder over to another, larger partition- THEN, "un-bless" your original sys folder (by hiding the Finder in the "Favorites" folder, for example), and restart. You have a backup/startup partition/sys. folder, and your problem with iTunes/DiskBurner's solved, with what is admittedly a kludgy but effective workaround to the entire "700MB" thing...I wouldn't worry too much about the difference in access time; it's not going to be easily noticeable as far as the concentric write/read paths for different partitions go..you can always return to that HD config later, if you wish.

-chumley

Oh, yeah...copy over any apps you'd like to have with the new, bigger startup partition, including, of course, DiskBurner...

[athun]

Okay, I installed a new System folder on my larger "Temp Files" partition but left Disc Burner on the "Applications" partition and restarted with the new larger system partition. It burned a CD flawlessly. Thanks.

Also, I found out that if I moved my Griffin iMate adapter (connected to my Wacom ArtzII tablet) from the USB hub back to the keyboard input, it solved my problem of the CD tray coming out every startup.