Blank Media CD-R / CD-RW

[party_pete]

I'm completely confused regarding which Blank Media to purchase to back up my Actinic Sites on, and this seemed as good a place as any to get opinion/advice.

I'm using some basic CD-R's that I just picked off the shelf in an office suppliers and get some strange errors occur bow and again.

I've just tried to purchase some more online but am faced with options such as disk speed, etc

1. How do I find out what disk speed, etc I should be purchasing to suit my disk drive?

2. Any recommendations for which disk I should purchase?

I know this is a 'basic' question but sometimes it's the easy things in life.................

[Duncan Rounding]

I think it's best is to buy known brand name products. The speed will need to be as fast or faster than your writer.
For example Sony 52X CD's should be fine in almost all writers. Buy a couple as a test first if your still unsure.

I never buy no-name cheap CDs for backups.

[party_pete]

How can I find out the speed of my writer?

[Mike Hughes]

You could try using dvdinfopro http://www.dvdinfopro.com/

This is a great little program for controlling drives and disc formats. It should identify your drive (not sure if it's only a cd drive) and will also tell you the speed your media is suitable for (and can do a speed check too).

Mike

[Duncan Rounding]

I would doubt very much that your writer is faster than 52X, and they are backwards compatible so will work at a lower speed. So if your writer is only 24X for example (dvdinfopro should confirm this) they will still work. You should be safe with 52X discs.

[party_pete]

Thanks guys.

Now off to find a good deal..............

[chris ashdown]

A good deal is always good, but remember why you need the backups and get them from one of the leading makes. you might also consider buying the cd-r as the price is low and you may have problems in the future if you use cd-rw a lot of times. This should not be the case but sods law as always around the corner

[party_pete]

Sound advice Chris, and many thanks for our order which arrived yesterday - superb service!

[jont]

I would never use a CD-RW for back-ups .... with the cost of CD-R being literally pennies (even for the brand names) it is just not worth the risk a Chris says.

I have used Tesco own brand (along with leading brand names, Sony, Imation etc) and never had a failure yet (tempting fate) on their CD-R's.

It is always worth testing the import of a snapshot from time-to-time just to ensure you are not backing up blindly! Always set your burning software to verify after the burn - it takes a while longer but will throw up any errors. I now never use the inbuilt windows burning facility as experienced too many dead disks

[Froogle]

You will get a good deal here

Thanks guys.

Now off to find a good deal..............