[chasg]

Hi All,

I'm in the midst of an archiving blitz, and am burning a series of data DVDs to clear out my hard drives for more work (whee!)

I'm getting a whole bunch of verification errors, and I've even had two kernel panics. The second panic happened when I was re-burning the same data as I was burning when the first panic happend (unfortunately, Toast was in the background both times, and I couldn't see if the panics happened at the same point in the burn).

After some testing, I _am_ getting verification errors at the same point in duplicate burns.

My question is: how far should I look to solve this problem? Can I hope for relief after I run my drives through DiskWarrior, or can someone say definitively that this looks like some sort of system level problem that will mean a complete re-install?

System info:
Dual 2.0GHz G5, burning Titanium 16x DVD-R discs with upgraded DVD burner (Pioneer DVR-108), Toast 7, OSX 10.4.2, plenty of RAM & HD space. fyi: I've had the upgraded DVD burner for many many months of flaw-free service (so I'm reasonably sure that it's not the source of the problems), and I've sucessfully burned over 250 of these Titanium DVD-Rs, so I'm hoping that they're not the source of the problem either (if they are, I have another 200 blank ones I will no longer be able to trust).

Thanks in advance for any help,

Chas

[Eug Wanker]

What are "Titanium" DVD-Rs?

I find that the QA on off-brands is not always the greatest. Some will work for 10 burns in a row, and then suddenly the next 3 won't work. Have you tried Apple media?

Dunno what's with the kernel panics though. Is your memory OK? Wayward driver or software?

[chasg]

Sorry, I should have written "Datawrite Titanium". They're pretty well respected, and test out nicely:

http://www.dvd-recordable.org/Review...t-id-131.phtml

(I have been burned, so to speak, by low quality discs in the past, so I chose my brand and type carefully this time).

As for Apple media, the cost/disc is far too high (I buy these Datawrite Titanium in 50 disc cakeboxes for a very decent per disc price).

Memory hasn't been altered since I bought it (it's a second generation 2GHz machine), and I'm pretty sure that _I_ haven't installed anything major for a while. It's a good place to start looking though, thanks.

Chas

[Eug Wanker]

I don't suggest buying 200 Apple discs, but it may be useful to buy 5 discs strictly for testing purposes. I find that Apple media to be amongst the most consistent for burn quality, and that's not just on Macs. (Apple media isn't perfect either though.) Or you could try Taiyo Yuden media too. (Just make sure it isn't bootleg Taiyo Yuden media.) Taiyo Yuden media is much cheaper than Apple's but is very good quality.

BTW, a brief search tells me that Datawrite Titanium 8X media is just OK at best. It certainly doesn't look like it is top tier quality.

Also, I see that Princo made some of Datawrite's 4X media. In my experience, Princo media often sucks royally.

[chasg]

Hmm, I hate being taken in by market-speak, I had thought that these discs were worthwhile (not top top, but better than "just OK". Grr!)

Back in the day (first DVD burner) I was using Apple media, but the cost really put me off. I wonder who's making their discs now? (not that it matters, if it's good). Your suggestion of using Apple media for testing hasn't fallen on deaf ears, thanks.

I'll look around for a cheap source of Taiyo Yuden media (non-bootleg!), I really appreciate the pointer.

As for Princo, I don't know how they've stayed in business, their media really _does_ suck royally! (1 out of three discs were coasters when I was first sourcing bulk media).

Thanks again!

Chas

[chasg]

It looks like my burning problems have been a symptom of something more serious, as I'm now getting kernel panics within a minute of starting up, even if I don't do anything.

I'm going to ask about this in the OSX forum, here's hoping that, once I fix my "new" problem, that my burning issues will magically go away!

<grr> I hate multi-variable problems...

Chas

[tooki]

Well, it's probably not multi-variable: the burn problems are probably a symptom of the real problem, not part of it!

tooki