Product Questions and Answers
This section is intended to provide product usage information and
suggestions, beyond those contained in the program manuals. If you have a
question on our products, please email
us, and if it's of general interest, we'll answer it here (if it's not, we
promise to answer it anyway :-)).
Connecting an IDE CD or DVD recorder to a Falcon
Q. I want to use a CD/DVD recorder on my Falcon, but they all seem to
be IDE and I don't want to recase my system. Can I connect a second device to
the IDE bus and, if so, how?
A. Yes you can, although it needs a little work. Please see here
for a full description of how one of us (Claude) did it.
CD Recorder Speed Selection
Q. In the programs in CD Writer Suite, the popup speed box shows a
different set of speeds available at different times for the same recorder. Why?
A. The list of valid speeds depends on both the recorder AND the type
of disk inserted. For example, some CD-RW disks can only support 2X recording.
If such a disk is inserted in a drive that supports CD-RW recording at both 2X
and 4X, it will only report 2X available. Also, drives often offer different
speeds depending on whether the disk is CD-R or CD-RW. For example, the Yamaha
6416 can write to CD-R disks at 1X, 4X, or 6X and to CD-RW disks at 2X or 4X.
Maximising CD Writing Speed
Q. I can't write a CD successfully at 4X on my TT/Falcon. Why?
A. There are several possibilities, depending on your hardware and on
ExtenDOS option settings. Here's a list of things to check:
 | General
 | Run INSTALL.APP, select Global options, and make sure that Force
use of intermediate I/O buffer is set to NO. |
| Make sure that the partition you are writing from can transfer data
quickly enough to support 4X writes. You can use the XFERRATE.TTP
program (available from our web site, or from the FREEWARE\XFERRATE
folder of the CD Writer Suite distribution CD) to determine the transfer
rate. For 4X writing, the transfer rate should typically be above 1200
kB/sec. |
| Avoid using OUTSIDE (or any other virtual memory system). If virtual
memory is active, ExtenDOS uses an intermediate I/O buffer which slows
down processing. |
| If you have a Falcon with TT RAM (via Centurbo etc), or if the CD
recorder is connected to the ACSI port of a TT (via a host adapter of
course :-)), check the Allocate memory in TT-RAM flag in the
program headers for CDBACKUP.PRG / CDISO.PRG / CDWRITER.PRG. For best
performance, this should be OFF. If the CD recorder is connected
via the SCSI port of a TT, this setting doesn't matter. |
| Check the Load program into TT-RAM flag in the program headers
for CDBACKUP.PRG / CDISO.PRG / CDWRITER.PRG. For best performance this
should be ON. |
| If you are currently using the SCSIDRV interface for I/O to your CD
recorder, you may get a slight performance improvement from the
following: run INSTALL.APP, and for each drive, select Advanced
options, then set Use SCSIDRV routines to NO and Use
fast I/O to YES. This only applies to standard
Atari-compatible SCSI and ACSI ports. |
|
| CD InScriptOr
| Remember that the partition where IMAGE.ISO is located must be fast
enough to support 4X writes (see General above). |
| For best performance, make sure that the partition where the IMAGE.ISO
file is located is not highly fragmented. |
| On a Falcon, especially if it is accelerated, the IDE drive can
transfer data much faster than a SCSI drive, due to the limitations of
the SCSI chip. You can check this with XFERRATE.TTP and, if the IDE
drive is faster, it may be beneficial to write the IMAGE.ISO file to a
partition on the IDE drive. |
|
| CDwriter
| Make sure that the input files are in the 'preferred' format for your
CD recorder (click on the Info button in the General options
dialog to find the preferred format for your drive). If you use a
'non-preferred' format, extra processing is required. For most current
CD recorders, the WAV format is 'preferred'. |
| If you are using buffering, remember that the buffering partition must
be fast enough to support 4X writes (see General above). |
| For best performance, make sure that the partition you are writing
from is not highly fragmented. |
| On a Falcon, especially if it is accelerated, the IDE drive can
transfer data much faster than a SCSI drive, due to the limitations of
the SCSI chip. You can check this with XFERRATE.TTP and, if the IDE
drive is faster, it may be beneficial to use the IDE drive as a
buffering drive. |
|
Incremental Backups
Q. I'd like to backup folders that are located on several partitions,
but I don't need to backup the entire partitions, since not much changes. I know
I can use CD InScriptOr to create a CD with specific files, but it doesn't
support the Archive bit, and I only want to backup the files that have changed.
How can I backup only those files that have changed?
A. If you use the multi-session features of CD InScriptOr, this is
quite easy. Here's how:
- Creating the initial backup:
| insert a blank CD-R(W) in your recorder |
| specify the folders you want to backup in the session window, and save
the session |
| in the Advanced options dialog, make sure that the following
options are NOT set:
 | Don't include previous session |
| Mode 1 CD-ROM |
| Write protect |
|
| write the CD |
Performing incremental backups
| insert the CD-R(W) you used before in your recorder |
| load the session definition you saved before |
| make sure the Advanced options are set as before |
| write the CD |
This works because CD InScriptOr will not actually write a file if exactly
the same file already exists in an earlier session on the CD. When it creates
the file system for the second or subsequent session on a CD, it just points
back to the existing copy of the file in an earlier session of the CD. (This is
explained under Calculating the session size in the CD InScriptOr
manual.)
Notes:
- when the CD is full, you'll need to repeat step 1 again on the next blank
CD you wish to use (multi-session does not extend across CDs ...)
- for extra security, you may wish to switch between several CDs for your
backups. Just do step 1 above for each CD that you're going to use, then
each time you backup, choose a different one of the set.
- using SESSION.CPX, you can easily switch to any session on a multi-session
CD. This allows you to easily access earlier versions of any file!
Last updated 27 September 2006 by Roger Burrows