Disco Inferno Thanks to fast burn speeds and smokin' prices, CD-RWs are charring the CD-R competition.

We're bidding a fond farewell to floppy disks. Not everybodyhas a Zip drive, and SuperDiscs can't be read by regular floppydrives; but you'll be hard pressed to find a computer thatdoesn't have a CD-ROM drive. That flat tray that looks an awfullot like a cup holder is the key to widely compatible removablestorage. So, in today's CD-R-friendly climate, with pricesdropping and speeds acceler-ating, it's time to either replaceyour old 2x CD-R or buy a brand-new CD-RW of your own.

While the music applications are obvious, the business potentialis something to really tap your toes to. Backing up files is anoften-neglected task, but CD-RWs at least offer a convenient formatand 650MB of space for your important data. No mere floppy canclaim that. Fast burn speeds and cheap media make it less of aheadache to create several backup copies for safekeeping.

With CD-ROMs being a fairly universal medium, they can also bequite effective as communication tools. Put a PowerPointpresentation onto a CD, and you've got a customer handout. HTMLdocuments, company information, PDF files, forms and references canbe passed around in CD format. If your computers aren'tnetworked, CD-ROMs can be a handy way to transfer large chunks ofdata and files from machine to machine.

Are You RW Or Not?

There used to be one choice for burning your own CDs: CD-R. ThenCD-RW drives came on the scene, but you had to pay big bucks to getone. Now CD-RWs are the norm, and prices have fallen well below$300 for many models. With even the cost of the medium dropping,CD-R-only drives are becoming an endangered species. While CD-RWdrives can write to CD-R discs, CD-R drives can't write toCD-RW discs. Buying a CD-RW increases your options.

The Toshiba SD-R1002 is in a class all its own. It can 4x write,4x rewrite, play 24x CD-ROMs and play DVDs at 4x. At $289 (street)for the Toshiba, it's clear that DVD capability doesn't addtoo much to prices. You can get faster write and rewrite speeds innon-DVD drives for about the same amount of money, but, well, youcan't access DVDs with them.

Speed Demons

One of the fastest CD-RWs in our table is the Plextor PlexWriter12/10/32A. It records at 12x, rewrites at 10x and plays back at32x. Although the Plextor has a top write speed of 12x, it can alsowrite at 8x, 4x and 1x (handy when using discs that can'thandle fast burn speeds). Using the example of a music CD, if youare burning 60 minutes of audio onto a CD-R disc, the Plextor drivewould record it at 12x, taking about 5 minutes to write the disc. Adrive that recorded at 4x would take about 15 minutes to burn thesame disc. Speeds are always given assuming optimum systemperformance; actual speeds will vary with the configuration of yourcomputer and the type of interface you're currently using.

A drive's buffer memory size can affect how smoothly theburning goes, with 2MB of memory standard. The Hewlett-Packard HPCD-Writer 9200i/e and Ricoh MediaMaster MP7080A both come with 4MBbuffers. The larger size should help cut down on the errors arisingfrom buffer problems.

Besides speed, you'll also have to decide whether you wantan external or an internal drive. If you don't want to pry openthe lid of your computer or pay somebody else to pry open the lidof your computer, you'll want to buy an external drive. If youlike to work on your computer's innards, an internal driveoffers the advantages of being less expensive and more out of theway. But you'll be able to take an external drive from machineto machine. The HP CD-Writer Plus 92100i/e comes in both internaland external versions. At $275 (street), the internal version is$124 less ex-pensive than the external version.

Check the "Shopping List" on page 75 and you'llsee that most internal CD-RWs connect through EIDE, the same asmost hard drives and CD-ROM drives. Usually you can pull out ordisconnect your old plain CD-ROM drive if you have spaceconsiderations or compatibility problems. There's always Velcroif you're short an open drive bay but still have EIDE room.

Probably the simplest hookup is through USB. In our chart, the$250 APS USB Pro2 offers 4x write, 4x rewrite and 24x read speedsthrough computers' already existing USB ports. This type ofdrive is an option to consider, especially for iMacs or PCs withoutlegacy slots. For faster external drives, SCSI is the preference.Setting it up takes longer than USB and might require that youinstall a SCSI card. The HP CD-Writer 9200i/e is an example of anexternal SCSI CD-RW.

A special class of CD-RW drives has been developed for pureport-ability. These external drives are built to work with laptopcomputers and maintain lightweight profiles. The PanasonicKXL-RW10A is a good example. It weighs in at just under 13 ounces,and it measures 5.12 inches by 6.41 inches by .96 inches.Connection is through an open PCMCIA slot on your laptop. It'sa good idea for road warriors that need to back up data on thego.

Disc-Overy

If you tried to buy CD-RW discs a year and a half ago, youprobably shelled out $5 per disc. But media prices have dipped, andCD-Rs can now be bought in bulk for as low as 50 cents apiece.CD-RWs can be found for less than $1 each. Large quantities arewhere you'll find the best prices. Spindles of 50 or 100 discswithout cases are sold everywhere from CompUSA to any number ofstores online. Prices for these generally range from $25 to $100per spindle.

However, not all discs are created equal. When trying out a newbrand or disc type, test a few before you invest in a largespindle. If you get lots of burn errors or problems withreadability, try another brand. Higher prices don't necessarilyequate to higher quality. Unless rewriting is a must, cheaper CD-Rdiscs are suitable for most jobs. CD-RWs are handy for daily backupchores.

OK, now that you've burned a CD, what next? First off, neveruse ballpoint pens to mark on CDs-the pens' sharp points candamage them. Use felt-tip permanent markers or markers manufacturedjust for that purpose. But if you're handing a CD-ROM to aprospective client, your illegible chicken scratches won't makethe best impression anyway. For a more professional look, you cantry a program like Stomp Inc.'s (www.stompsoft.com) CD Stomper Pro, ado-it-yourself labeling kit that includes labels for inkjetprinting, software to design those labels and a device to put thesticky labels on CDs. The street price is $40. Neato (www.neato.com) offers a similar kitcalled the Neato 2000 CD Labeler Kit for $30 (street).

For those of you with exotic tastes in business cards, a CD-RWdrive lets you take advantage of BizNetCard's (www.biznetcard.com) Do-It-YourselfCD Business Card Kit for $79.95. The CD-Rs included with the kitlook like CDs that have been trimmed down to near business cardsize (CDs don't have to be round). What you burn on the discsis up to you. With 50MB of data capacity, you could include yourWeb page, references or presentations as well as contactinfor-mation. Labels, software and 12 mini-CDs are included.

Suite Talk

Chances are, when you buy a CD-RW drive it will come with asuite of software for handling everything from copying CDs toarranging data for burning. Adaptec's Easy CD Creator (for PCs)and Adaptec's Toast (for Macs) are two of the most commonlybundled programs. The TDK veloCD ReWriter comes with one of themost compre-hensive sets of software. Included in the package areAdaptec Easy CD Creator, Adaptec Direct CD for drag-and-dropwriting, TDK Pure-Dupe for copying, TDK Digital MixMaster fororganizing audio, MusicMatch Jukebox for creating MP3s and AdobeActiveShare for arranging digital photos.

Other programs are available to make your CD-burning experiencemore productive. CD-R Diagnostic from CD-ROM Productions (www.cdrom-prod.com) lets you testCDs and recover data. This can be helpful for tracking downmysterious problems and sources of error messages. While theoccasional coaster is inevitable, you can at least cut down ontheir numbers.

Glossary

Buffer: a temporary holdingarea for data as it's being transferred to CD media during thewriting or rewriting process

CD-R: CompactDisc-Recordable; describes a CD that can be written on all at onceor in sessions, but cannot be overwritten or reused. Most of thesehold 650MB of data.

CD-RW: CompactDisc-Rewritable; describes a CD that can be used again andagain

EIDE: Enhanced IntegratedDrive Electronics, the standard internal desktop connection foradding a drive

Shopping List