Buffer underruns with CloneCD, no probs with BurnDrive

Burning Software
#1

Hi,

A short while ago I bought my first CD writer (a Yamaha
CRW8424E 8x4x24 ATAPI unit).

I just installed CloneCD 4.0.0.0 beta 30 and tried to back
up a CD (standard data CD, not protected). Creating the
image file worked fine.

However, on writing, regardless of whether I choose 1x, 2x
or 4x write speed, there’s a buffer underrun error a few
minutes into the write. (Actual message displayed is
something like long write in progress.) This happens both
when actually writing and in simulated write.

I downloaded BurnDrive 1.0.1.2, and that works fine for
writing at 1x and 2x. Its buffer status indicator remains
full until the end of the write.

Now, my system is really old and lame by modern standards:
Pentium 75, 40MB RAM, Win 95. CD image file is on a Sony MO
drive connected via an ISA SCSI card.

Given that BurnDrive writes the image file to CD with no
problems (at 2x even), does that imply that CloneCD’s
buffering system could be improved, since it fails even
writing at 1x? Does CloneCD use double-buffering?

Or have I just missed a setting/option in CloneCD that will
solve the problem?

– Mark

#2

how are you trying to burn …an image from a HDD or on the fly…I will assume with your system you are not trying to burn on the fly…

You have very limited resources based on cpu speed and ram…I am amzes burner works at all…I thought most cdburners required a faster cpu…

Make sure nothing is running in the background(no anitivirus software, firewalls etc) and read the image to the HDD and try to burn at 1 or 2x…

also you may want to try increasing your virtual memory and make sure the HDD is defrag as well…

Good luck I just think the system is too old…

#3

Thanks for replying.

It’s easy to underestimate the capabilities of older systems. Remember, there were (really expensive) CD writers back in 1992, and a 486 PC was more than capable of driving them at single speed.

Anyway, enabling DMA to the CD writer really improved things. (I also formatted my HD and reinstalled W95.)

Now I can just about write a CD image to disc at 6x speed in CloneCD. At least, it works in simulated write mode, probably okay when really writing too.

I might be able to go to 8x, if I store the image file on HD instead of an MO disk, or get a PCI SCSI card. (The MO drive is connected via an ISA SCSI controller which uses PIO, not DMA. The max transfer rate of that controller on my system seems to be about 1.5MB/sec.)

Perhaps the reason that I could write with BurnDrive and not CloneCD before is that BurnDrive has better buffering routines? Or maybe it does less processing on the data than CloneCD?

– Mark

#4

i had the same problem with CloneCD 4 beta 30 only i have a somewhat newer system but copying on the fly didnt work for me

i have a:
Pentium 3 500
128 Mb RAM
windows 98 SE
HP 8200 Cd writer

i havent tried writing from cd image file yet but i used to have Clone CD version 3 something and i used copy on the fly frequently without difficulty

#5

Originally posted by Mark_K
Anyway, enabling DMA to the CD writer really improved things. (I also formatted my HD and reinstalled W95.)
Depending on your version of Win95 you will not be able to bus-master. If you have later versions of '95 you can use the IDE drivers to increase the channel input from 1.5 MB/s to more PIO 4 like figures of 16.6 burst.