Witch speed should i burn the ISO image on?

[the-matrix]

My friend toll me to burn it on a much high speed, because last time i try install it hours on the way, but it never finish the installation?

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

Generally speaking, the lower the speed the better the chance the cd will burn without errors.

[LordWarlock]

Not exactly true for DVDs, media rated for higher speeds don't like being burned at too low speeds, also you can't burn at 1x as that is not supported by any current drive, the lowest speed for DVD is 4x. You shouldn't be so concerned about speed, more important is the brand of the media you are burning on.

[Mt.Dew]

Not exactly true for DVDs, media rated for higher speeds don't like being burned at too low speeds, also you can't burn at 1x as that is not supported by any current drive, the lowest speed for DVD is 4x. You shouldn't be so concerned about speed, more important is the brand of the media you are burning on.

Actually, that is very true.

OS disks should ALWAYS be burned at the slowest speed to ensure the critical data is not corrupted from disk wobble (causes from high speed revolutions)

I burn CD-ISO's at 4x and DVD-ISO's at 1x

And about 1x not being supported by any current drive.. well.. you need to go back in history and look. The first DVD-burners were 1x, then 2x came along, and then 4x etc etc.

[Keris]

Well, my own anecdotal evidence shows that burning at max speed on good media yields error-less burns. How do I know they don't have errors? Because when I first open a cake, I leave data verification on for a few burns. It's been a long, long time since I've seen new media in modern drives that fail to burn correctly at max speed.

[submix8c]

Ok, my 2-cents...

Higher speeds may seem fine when reading back (e.g. booting) on a relatively good reader/burner, but for older ones you may/will have problems. Try reading a CD burned at high speed back on an old 8x/16x reader, for example. Don't fly! Has something to to with gapping (the space between the blocks), I think...

I never burn greater than 16x for insurance. Got an "older" "decent" burner that allows for 8x and CD's burned with it will even read on an old 4x...

[Zenskas]

I created an nlited win xp install and burned the ISO at 52x. Did not install. Went back and burnt at 12x I think. Worked fine. I have a good DVD burner but the CD's are only cheap. To get the ultimate error-free burn, get a good burner, good media, and burn at lower speeds like 16x.

[Access Denied]

I have 2 different Windows 7 DVD's burned here. One was burned at Max(8x) for the media I have and the other was burned at default(4x). The 8x takes nearly 10 minutes longer(minimum, feels like 30) to clean install. I think scaling back to the next lowest speed or half the max is the best option with DVDs. I have always burned music cd's at max because I never use them in here. All data is burned at half the media speed these days. I burned the max 7 dvd just to see what happened.

hope this helps

[jaclaz]

For the record, both theory and evidence of reports lead to these conclusions:

• for CD's (and EARLY DVD burners) the LOWER the speed it is burned the more it is likely the burned CD won't have problems on any machine (this was expecially true on older PC's and burners where processor speed and cache made a difference)
  
• for recent DVD's the "best" settings is around mid-range, i.e. in the "ideal" speed of the device
  

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21043

Basically, old CD and DVD burners were "slow" units "supercharged" to reach high speeds, newish ones are "average speed" units that are both "supercharged" to obtain max speed and "dumbed down" to work at lower ones.

The "half the max speed" is a good rule of thumb.

There are however several factors involved, including the actual brand of the media and also some "coupling" between a particular media and a particular burner:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20755

There is also an intermediate situation between "total failure" and "everything allright" which is what Access Denied reported, i.e. the data is "all there" and can be read "allright", but when reading in bursts, the reading is not 100% effective and another (or more than one) "reading passes" is needed, thus actually slowing down the booting/install.

jaclaz

Edited March 22, 2009 by jaclaz

[the-matrix]

The media is Verbatim 4x DVD+RW DVD Rewritable 120min - and the burner is a Nec DVD-CD RW ND2100AD and other one is a LITE-ON DVD-CD RW SH-16A7S.

Edited March 30, 2009 by the-matrix

[knowitall_wannabe]

I'll use slow speed for laptops and medium on desktops.

[the-matrix]

All my pc are desktop - so witch speed would you recommed i burn at? I don`t use nlited.

[jaclaz]

All my pc are desktop - so witch speed would you recommed i burn at? I don`t use nlited.

As said:

I think scaling back to the next lowest speed or half the max is the best option with DVDs.

The "half the max speed" is a good rule of thumb.

jaclaz

[Andromeda43]

I go way back...... my first CD burner was an external unit, 2X I think that weighed in at about five pounds and required a special driver card to be installed inside the PC. What a dinosaur!

Needless to say, that old burner is GONE but not forgotten.

Today I try to stay up to date on the best burners, but in NO WAY would I ever try to burn a CD or DVD at full speed.

I think that the "Half Max" rule sounds good and about what I do.

I may even go down a notch. I've always felt that a "Slower Burn is a Better Burn".

Just make sure that the cache on the drive stays full during the burn.

If it's running close to empty at any time, you're probably burning too fast.

But aside from the speed and media, there is one more thing that no one has mentioned yet......

and that would be "System Resources".

Programs running in the background, like Anti-Virus programs can really slow down the data transfer between the HD and the Burner.

I used to get lots of 'Coasters' before I learned to Shut Down all running programs before opening my CD/DVD burning software.

In reality, what sounds really simple can be really complicated. (shutting down all running programs)

Well as good luck would have it, years ago I found a neat little utility to do that shutdown.

It's called "End It All 2".

(Want it? Can't find it?) Get it here:

http://www.box.net/shared/zx9m4r0rj4

It takes only a few seconds to run it, and it shuts down all running programs that you select in the initial setup.

I find that things like cd burning and HD maintenance work a lot better without interference from other running programs.

Needless to say, I use "End It All 2" a lot.

And, I've not had a 'coaster' in years!

Cheers Mates!

Edited April 3, 2009 by Andromeda43