khat17
12-04-2007, 08:39 PM
This is a warning of sorts about different disks and media. As most people know, Taiyo Yuden is the brand to use if you're using media. I'm speaking more in terms of DVD disks, since CD media is somewhat reliable across the board regardless of manufacturer. There are a few bad ones, but with the DVDs it's a lot more critical for the backup of your data.
Here I have two drives in use. An LG - GSA-H10A (http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/taxid;6432;pid;2428;pt;1) and a Liteon LH-20A1H (http://reviews.cnet.com/dvd-drives/lite-on-lh-20a1h/4505-3212_7-32152980.html). Clicking on the drives will give you some additional info on them, and a quick search with your search engine will turn up specs and performance and such.
Anyways, here's the scoop. I used the LG previously, and burned a crap load of stuff. I decided to get a new LG, as the drive had never let me down - and I wanted to give the old one to my brother. I ended up getting the LG GSA-H55N (http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/storage/0,1000000998,39288213,00.htm). It was a bit of a disappointment. Reason? I had some LG branded disks that I normally use - which are rated at 4X-8X. The GSA-H55N would not burn on these disks over 4X. Under no circumstance. The older drive, the GSA-H10A would burn the same disks at 4X-8X. At first I thought it was firmware, and updated to the latest one, with no luck. I went back to the store and returned the drive and stated my problem. I got another of the same model LG (GSA-H55N) to test on the spot (with laptop and enclosure). It gave the same results. At this point I got frustrated and took the LiteOn instead. I figured that LiteOn was getting better and better over the years, and when I checked it on getting home all worked fine.
Recently, I went back for an old archive I had on DVD (burned with GSA-G10A) and tried it in the LiteOn drive. Everytime I tried to read the data it came back with errors. What was the problem? I raped out the old LG from my bro's machine and rammed it into mine to test. Lo and behold - it worked. No problems, no hitches whatsoever. What was the problem? Well first of all, the disk was not one that I regularly used. Second is the drive. My theory is that the different drives burn/read the disks differently (quality of parts and quality of disks). So far, all the disks burned with the LG previously are read back in the LiteOn no problem, except a few that I don't normally use.
The moral? Always use good media, and if you're changing your drives (if you use a lot of different brand media) try to get back one from the same manufacturer to lessen any problems. This also shows that there are times when media is the problem, or the person's drive if you take stuff from one machine to another. Burn speed wasn't a factor (I doubt) as it was originally burned at 4X.
Hopefully the info provided will be helpful to someone. Have fun, take care, and watch what you buy.
PeAcE.
Here I have two drives in use. An LG - GSA-H10A (http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/taxid;6432;pid;2428;pt;1) and a Liteon LH-20A1H (http://reviews.cnet.com/dvd-drives/lite-on-lh-20a1h/4505-3212_7-32152980.html). Clicking on the drives will give you some additional info on them, and a quick search with your search engine will turn up specs and performance and such.
Anyways, here's the scoop. I used the LG previously, and burned a crap load of stuff. I decided to get a new LG, as the drive had never let me down - and I wanted to give the old one to my brother. I ended up getting the LG GSA-H55N (http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/storage/0,1000000998,39288213,00.htm). It was a bit of a disappointment. Reason? I had some LG branded disks that I normally use - which are rated at 4X-8X. The GSA-H55N would not burn on these disks over 4X. Under no circumstance. The older drive, the GSA-H10A would burn the same disks at 4X-8X. At first I thought it was firmware, and updated to the latest one, with no luck. I went back to the store and returned the drive and stated my problem. I got another of the same model LG (GSA-H55N) to test on the spot (with laptop and enclosure). It gave the same results. At this point I got frustrated and took the LiteOn instead. I figured that LiteOn was getting better and better over the years, and when I checked it on getting home all worked fine.
Recently, I went back for an old archive I had on DVD (burned with GSA-G10A) and tried it in the LiteOn drive. Everytime I tried to read the data it came back with errors. What was the problem? I raped out the old LG from my bro's machine and rammed it into mine to test. Lo and behold - it worked. No problems, no hitches whatsoever. What was the problem? Well first of all, the disk was not one that I regularly used. Second is the drive. My theory is that the different drives burn/read the disks differently (quality of parts and quality of disks). So far, all the disks burned with the LG previously are read back in the LiteOn no problem, except a few that I don't normally use.
The moral? Always use good media, and if you're changing your drives (if you use a lot of different brand media) try to get back one from the same manufacturer to lessen any problems. This also shows that there are times when media is the problem, or the person's drive if you take stuff from one machine to another. Burn speed wasn't a factor (I doubt) as it was originally burned at 4X.
Hopefully the info provided will be helpful to someone. Have fun, take care, and watch what you buy.
PeAcE.