I'm using Nero (but still 5.5) frequently now for DVD burning, my problem is with how Windows works with IDE drives and burner.

Windows is really put to it's knees when copying a huge file or burning a CD/DVD.

I have to manually (by the task manager) set Nero the the lowest priority when burning to have a little more responsiveness from Windows.

Because since I have one PC, I want to do something else while burning. Mainly surf the net or get e-mails. (be reasured I won't play )

It would be great if Nero, now that all the burners I think handle SafeBurn / Seamless Link etc... had a preference setting in which we could set the priority at which we want to launch it.

The alternative is Linux, Mac OS X or going SCSI, but I'm not rich. I wonder also if putting my burner in an external FireWire case would help without resorting to change priority?

Sounds to me like you need to enable Ultra DMA.

Copying files shouldn't take more than a few percent of CPU time.

HA even has a guide for it: here.

You know what? You were partially right.

I always made a point (since Windows 95) of having all my drives in Ultra DMA mode. (checked and rechecked).

But today I discovered that my second hard disk was well set DMA but was recognised PIO. (Apparently 2 Seagates on the same cable doesn't seem to be tolerated.

I had to swap HD with DVD Burner and now they're all recognised as DMA.

Me the computer technician, this time I had been had (as I like to say in french "J'ai été eu").

Thanks for making me recheck my system.

But anyway a priority setting in Nero could become handy in some situations, who knows?

you're asking too much to a mainstream program like Nero.

you need a serious burning program for such options, like Feurio! (it only burns CD-DA)