Can a CD-ROM drive read a CD-R disc?

admiral_danielsben · Post by **admiral_danielsben** » 2004-08-09 12:29pm

I just wrote onto CD-R's ISO images of Mandrake Linux for my old computer. They work on the new computer's DVD/CD-RW combo, but won't work on the old computer's CD-ROM drive (5 years old, 40x). I was under the impression CD-R's worked on CD-ROM drives, at least better than CD-RW's. Was I mistaken?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-08-09 12:39pm

cd-rws will work fine on most cd drives, however older ones might not be able to recognize them so well due to the format involved. much like how older cd players won't recognize a burned music disc.

GoldenFalcon · Post by **GoldenFalcon** » 2004-08-09 12:42pm

They should...once you write onto a CD-R it basically becomes a CD-ROM. What filesystem did you use? ISO9336 (forgot the number)? Joliet? UDF?

DaveJB · Post by **DaveJB** » 2004-08-09 01:14pm

Clean the lens - CD-Rs aren't that much harder to read than CD-ROMs, but a dirty lens can often be enough to mess things up.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-08-09 01:45pm

Strange, even a five-year-old CD-ROM should be able to read it. See if you have a spare drive you can swap out, at least for the install, for now.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-08-09 02:11pm

It's actually a problem of reflectivity. CD-Rs have a lower reflectivity than CD-ROMs, so older CD-ROM drives, can't handle them.

admiral_danielsben · Post by **admiral_danielsben** » 2004-08-09 02:38pm

GoldenFalcon wrote:They should...once you write onto a CD-R it basically becomes a CD-ROM. What filesystem did you use? ISO9336 (forgot the number)? Joliet? UDF?

Must be ISO. I copied an ISO image file, so it is presumably ISO.

I'll try cleaning the lens, but they're fresh-from-the-box CD-R's.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2004-08-09 02:48pm

99% of the CD-ROMs out there can read CD-Rs. However, most CD-ROMs can not read CD-RWs, at least as of 2 years ago. It usualy takes a CD-R/RW drive to read a CD-RW.

admiral_danielsben · Post by **admiral_danielsben** » 2004-08-09 02:56pm

I tried cleaning it a bit and it still seems to not work. I'll describe the symptoms:

I put the CD-R into the drive. It sounds like it spins around in there, but no light comes on (the light normally comes on). I click on 'My Computer' to open. The computer pauses as if its reading the CD-ROM.... and never un-pauses, unless i ctrl-alt-del or remove the CD-R. Note that if I try to boot from the CD-R, the computer freezes at the 'booting from CD-ROM...' prompt and only unfreezes if I remove it.

I have had this symptom with only one CD-ROM: that of the game SimTower, a very old game, which the new computer can read the CD at only an achingly slow speed (and installation fails, prb. because WinXP doesn't work with Win16 games so well). Other CD-ROMs (like the Red Hat Install Discs or my games, Starfleet Command among them) work perfectly fine.

I don't have any spare drives. There are only 3 drives I have, the old computer's and two in the new computer (a DVD-ROM and a CD/DVD writer combo). And I can't swap those out because the new computer is my parent's. And don't tell me to buy a new drive; for the cost, i may as well get a shrink-wrapped copy of Mandrake for $49.95.

Incidentally, i had to use 10 blank CD-R's to make the 3 install discs, the image copy kept fouling up (Despite the fact i was running no other programs at the time and didn't so much as move the mouse during the writing). Did i get cruddy CD-R's? is there anything i should really be doing? Or should i accept that 2/3rds of the time, attempting to make a CD-R results in frisbees?

admiral_danielsben · Post by **admiral_danielsben** » 2004-08-09 02:58pm

Alyeska wrote:99% of the CD-ROMs out there can read CD-Rs. However, most CD-ROMs can not read CD-RWs, at least as of 2 years ago. It usualy takes a CD-R/RW drive to read a CD-RW.

Yes, they're CD-R's. I'm too cheap for CD-RW's, and the 50-packs of CD-R's were buy-one-get-one-free at Radio Shack.

Terr Fangbite · Post by **Terr Fangbite** » 2004-08-09 03:34pm

When you say copy, did you copy the iso file to the cd rom or did you use like Nero to burn an ISO file. There is a difference, and if it wasn't the latter then your cd drive probably has no clue what it is.

admiral_danielsben · Post by **admiral_danielsben** » 2004-08-09 05:25pm

Terr Fangbite wrote:When you say copy, did you copy the iso file to the cd rom or did you use like Nero to burn an ISO file. There is a difference, and if it wasn't the latter then your cd drive probably has no clue what it is.

I used RecordNow, which recognized it as an ISO image file and asked if i wanted to do the latter, I said yes. As i said, the new computer recognzied it perfectly, the Mandrake Installation menu even came up (i xed it out, don't want my parents to find out i just installed lnux on their computer).

Either the CD-ROM doesn't like the CD-R's, or i got damn poor CD-R's that only -RW drives work with, or something of that sort. Maybe there's a knack for getting it to work, i don't know.

Terr Fangbite · Post by **Terr Fangbite** » 2004-08-09 05:36pm

What model cdrom drive is it? I've had very good success with linux burned cds and older cd-rom drives. Something I did have to do with one of them was restart it repeatedly till it recognized it (usually after 5 times). Another thing to make sure of is that the computer is looking at the cd-rom as the primary boot drive. Other than that cleaning or switching out seems the best idea.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2004-08-09 06:52pm

admiral_danielsben wrote:I tried cleaning it a bit and it still seems to not work. I'll describe the symptoms:

I put the CD-R into the drive. It sounds like it spins around in there, but no light comes on (the light normally comes on). I click on 'My Computer' to open. .

Have you tried just setting it to boot off cdr in the bios? You have to do that to install linux and maybe windows just doesn't like your disc...

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-08-09 07:04pm

Alyeska wrote:99% of the CD-ROMs out there can read CD-Rs. However, most CD-ROMs can not read CD-RWs, at least as of 2 years ago. It usualy takes a CD-R/RW drive to read a CD-RW.

Uh, I have 5+ year old drives that can read CD-RWs .

admiral_danielsben · Post by **admiral_danielsben** » 2004-08-09 08:24pm

darthdavid wrote:
admiral_danielsben wrote:I tried cleaning it a bit and it still seems to not work. I'll describe the symptoms:

I put the CD-R into the drive. It sounds like it spins around in there, but no light comes on (the light normally comes on). I click on 'My Computer' to open. .
Have you tried just setting it to boot off cdr in the bios? You have to do that to install linux and maybe windows just doesn't like your disc...

I did that back when i installed Red Hat (for Dummies). Therefore, it can boot from CD-ROM, i've used it to boot both Red Hat and Windows 98.

I set the BIOS to boot in this order:
1. Floppy drive
2. CD-ROM
3. Hard drive

If it were a Windows issue, i could boot from the CD-ROM. Ergo, it's probably not.

My CD-ROM drive is a 'BCD 40XH'. Other than it's 40x, i can't really determine anything else from that. The computer is, after all, brand X (M-2 systems, to be exact).

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2004-08-09 10:51pm

Pu-239 wrote:
Alyeska wrote:99% of the CD-ROMs out there can read CD-Rs. However, most CD-ROMs can not read CD-RWs, at least as of 2 years ago. It usualy takes a CD-R/RW drive to read a CD-RW.
Uh, I have 5+ year old drives that can read CD-RWs .

Well thats unusual. Most CD-Rom drives can't even read CDRWs. Out of 7 drives in my house only my CD Writer can read RWs.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-08-09 11:43pm

Many can, but the cheap ones often won't.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-08-10 12:33am

The ones in my computer are a Plextor (SCSI), Toshiba (SCSI), Sanyo (ATAPI), and a Creative (ATAPI), the Plextor and the Creative being burners. All the drives I have in the house (9) can read CD-RWs, except maybe the really old 6x reader, and maybe the SCSI jukebox (which I have never used). Interestingly, I have never bought a drive that has lasted more than two years- all the ones working were given to me as 2nd hand castoffs.

admiral_danielsben · Post by **admiral_danielsben** » 2004-08-10 03:09pm

Like I said, my CD-ROM drive is brand-X. Is there any special way to get a CD-ROM drive to accept CD-R's? cleaning products, the right way to spin it, clean the drive, etc?