Mini (3.5") CDs

FWIW, for many years now, I've had a habit of always cutting the proposed writing speed in half. Haste make waste -- and coffee coasters.

You did not state whether the CD device physically does not accept the

Jonesy

Varying the burn speed may help... in some cases slower-is-better, in a few cases faster-is better.

Some newer drives (e.g. combo DVD/CD) don't do as well with CD-R burning as older drives... some new drives have an uncomfortably-high _lower_ limit on burn speed (e.g. 4x or even 8x) and won't give a good burn with some older media that requires a long burn exposure.

It's possible that the discs you've gotten are simply poor-quality or defective, or have deteriorated in storage. If I recall correctly, some of the CD-R dyes can deteriorate over a period of a few years and won't burn well... especially if the CDs have been stored in poor conditions (too much heat, direct sunlight exposure, etc.). And, some off-label CD-R manufacturers make products that are best used as Christmas-tree decorations.

Some CD-R software (e.g. cdrecord/wodim on Linux) can read the blank-disc information that's encoded in the pre-groove wobble (the "ATIP" data) and print out a description of what it finds... actual manufacturer, recommended and acceptable burning speeds, and so forth.

A good drive will read the ATIP data, and then adjust its burning parameters (laser exposure time, burning speed) to what it finds there. A good drive will also do a real-time burning-power test before it starts recording the real data, and optimize the "burn" accordingly.

Also, check the center hub of the disc blanks to see if there's any plastic "flashing" or burring around the hole. If the opening isn't smooth, the debris can prevent the disc from sitting flat on the drive spindle, and it will "wobble" as it spins. This will make it harder for the laser focus electronics to keep the laser spot tightly focused on the dye layer, and can increase the bit-error rate.

The drives I have used are always drawer-like.

I've considered the discs may have deteriorated because they are shrink wrapped and both the discs and wrap might emit fumes.

In some machines that weren't mine, it helped to keep trying. Also to open the disc in explorer like I am reading it and then go into writing.

I may just have to give up. It just seems like a waste to write a big CD for small amounts of data. Thanks.

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus blog: panix.com/~vjp2/ruminatn.htm - = - web: panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm facebook.com/vasjpan2 - linkedin.com/in/vasjpan02 - biostrategist.com ---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---

That's possible, I suppose. From what I recall, the cyanine dyes have a shorter shelf live, in general, than the phthalocyanine dyes. Manufacturing quality and quality control also make a big difference.

A maxim I learned many years ago - "cheap is often very expensive".

I don't burn all that many CDs these days, but I decided quite a while back that buying lower-tier CD-R blanks was a false economy... waste of time, waste of discs, and the risk that I would be unable to read the discs reliably if I needed them.

Also, I think the "mini" CD-R blanks were treated more as a novelty than as a serious data-storage solution. I don't recall seeing any which were made by manufacturers I was confident of.

When I was buying CD-R blanks frequently, I tried to stick with the Taiyo Yuden discs from Japan. They sold their business and production to JVC, who ran it for a few years. Eventually JVC decided to get out of the business, and they sold the technology to CMC.

CMC now makes a line of "Powered by TY" CD-R blanks using the Taiyo Yuden process. You might want to try picking up a pack (I've dealt successfully with Media Supply) and see how their compatibility and readability turns out to be with your equipment.