tobias.kochs-online.net » Hardware http://tobias.kochs-online.net Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:07:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 CD-RW Speeds http://tobias.kochs-online.net/2008/07/cd-rw_speeds/ http://tobias.kochs-online.net/2008/07/cd-rw_speeds/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:11:04 +0000 Tobias http://tobias.kochs-online.net/?p=8 Continue reading →]]> Looking for some CD-RWs I could use with my parents’ aged computer, I stumbled across a little-known detail of CD-RWs: The discs available on the market are separated into different speed classes. So far, so boring, but the important thing to know is, higher class CD-RWs are not backwards compatible to lower class discs. This means you cannot burn a 12x-ultra-speed disc using a 4x-normal-speed recorder!

Speed classes are:

  • “Normal Speed”/”Low Speed”/”Multi Speed”: 1-4x
  • “High Speed”: 4-10x or 4-12x
  • “Ultra Speed”: 10-24x
  • “Ultra Speed+”: 16-32x

My parents’ Plextor PlexWriter 8/4/32A (PX-W8432T) is a 4x CD-RW recorder and is classified as a “normal speed” device. The attempt to write a “high speed” (or faster) disc only produces ATAPI error code 052700 (“write protected”) and fails.

So, if you plan to use that old CD-RW recorder of yours again, start looking for the correct discs. These aren’t in production for quite some time now and begin to get rare. I managed to find some at eBay.

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