Hi,

I'm new to this forum and have some questions about a new CD/DVD-Writer.

Currently I'm using an old Teac CDR58S to write CD-R's. Now I want to replace it with an actual CD/DVD-Writer. Primary usage ist to backup weather data to CD-R's. After verry bad experiences about the lifetime of CD-R's (some are unreadably after only one year!) I'am seaching for a drive which can perform a quality-scan. The software must run unter Linux (k.o. criterion). Currently I've found qpxtools for plextor drives (but not the BenQ-types) and a few NEC. So I'm preffering the Plextor 716a.
Questions:
- How is the quality of CD-R's burned in DVD-Writers ? Should I buy a pure CD-Writer instead of a DVD-Writer?
- Is there another quality checking software supporting other drives ? The BenQ1640 seems to be good, but I don't know about a quality checking software running under Linux.

Jürgen
www.wetterstation-porta.info

Guten Tag Jürgen!

For burning CD-Rs I have made best experiences with LiteOn-CD-burners (my LiteOn DVD-burner was a catastrophe, regarding quality!).

BenQ DW1640 is SUPERIOR for burning DVDs. I never had any problems burning CDs with it (although I don't know if there is a burner out there, outpassing the DW1640 in this category). My quality checks were always pretty perfect, but as I never experienced any trouble, I check CD-Rs only once in a while. I use Aldi's CD-R-Media ("Lifetec"). This combo definitely seems to be a winner.

Hope I could help a little,
Eruendil

Here a scan of a recently burned Lifetec-CD-R 52x (burned @24x).

I think this result should guarantee long-time data safety...