Hopefully this is a DUH!, just look at ... , but I'm not sure what to even begin searching for. I've been using Nero V5.5 under Win98se with a Plextor CD-RW drive for several years. Everything is satisfactory aside from the 12X maximum writing speed and the drive's inability to run any CD-R error checking software.
I installed a Lite-On CD-RW SOHR-5239V and KProbe2. After spending some time testing various CD-Rs created over the past several years, I was ready to write the first audio CD-R on the drive.
Nero will only recognize the Lite-On as a CD-ROM drive. Blank disks put into the drive are declared read-only (Nero's ‘Display CD-information'). There seems to be no way to tell the program otherwise. I have no memory of getting the Plextor set-up.
I realize the Lite-On is a much newer drive and probably requires some different commands, but surely the software can't have been sold under the expectation that it already contained all information on all drives that it would ever need.
EAC recognized the drive as a writer once I ran the long winded ‘Detect Write Features.' I wrote a CD-R which seems to play back fine. EAC is not satisfactory for long term use, however. I often add a second session of data files to audio CDs and I create a fair number of non-audio CDs.
I realize there are newer versions of Nero and that other CD writing software exists. I've used Nero 6 on other systems. I dislike the new interface. This version does everything I want, at least until today, and I strongly prefer to keep using it if possible. Is it intrinsically unable to utilize the Lite-On drive or have I just missed something?
Full Version: Nero drive use
It is very likely that your old Nero version doesn't know how to handle your new burner. Unhapply I don't see any update package for Nero 5.5 on Ahead's site. They seems to support version 6 and 7 only right now... Sorry 'bout that... 
Sergio
Sergio
The Lite-On drive came with Nero Express. Installing it required that the older version first be removed. This one, version 6.3.1.26, has several problems. Some are merely annoyances that can be overcome with extra time and effort, some are definite deficiencies that prevent me from accomplishing what I want, from doing what I have been doing for quite some while with version 5.5.
If anyone knows whether the full Nero 6, or Nero 7, has returned to sanity in regard to these several particular points, or if I am simply missing how to make this Express version work properly, I would really appreciate the information. Mainly I need to know if there is any value in upgrading.
So far it looks like I have to choose between
(a) not being able to do the work I regularly do (keep this version of Nero, or get a still newer version that acts as poorly)
(b) not being able to use the new Lite-On drive (go back to the earlier version of Nero). I downloaded the Nero Express and Nero 6 manuals from the web site but found no relief.
problem 1
Almost all audio CDs I write are LP transfers. In the process of cleaning up the audio and preparing it for CD, I create individual files for each track. I use the LP track title for the file name. V5.5 correctly uses the file name for the track title on the CD it writes.
This version insists on assigning that file name to both the track and the artist. Sometimes it screws up and puts only part of the file name in one, or the other, or both, slots. Neither of these behaviors ever occurred in V5.5. I now have to edit each track to repair the mess Nero makes before I advance to writing. I want the prior version's behavior: make the file name the track name (without screw-ups), leave the track's artist name field blank until, and unless, I decide to fill it in.
problem 2
Very often I create the equivalent of a CD-Extra (audio + data files) when I write audio CDs. I don't use the "official" CD-Extra option because it doesn't allow CD text: I cannot enter the album name and performer to be written to the CD. Also, CD-Extra does not allow verifying the data portion.
The "equivalent" is an audio CD session 1, followed by a data CD session 2. I accomplish this by not finalizing the audio CD, which allows me to afterwards write a second session where I add the data files (which can then be verified after writing). This also has the advantage of not insisting on that predefined nonsense in the data portion that goes along with CD-Extra.
This version does not allow a non-finalized audio CD to be written, which means I am forced to use the inferior official CD-Extra format. (By the way, contrary to what I've read in a number of places, unfinalized audio CDs (prior to adding the data and finalizing) play without problem in the several CD players I've tried.).
I can, in frustration, easily imagine this version refusing to write a data session2 because the CD is not blank -- should I figure out how to prevent it from finalizing the audio session. I want to be able to write audio CDs that are unfinalized so I can add data files to the CD when I'm ready.
problem 3
I also write a lot of data-only multi-session CDs. The default for version 5.5 was ‘refresh files in compilation' by which
(i) Nero busied itself to find anything on my hard drives that was already on the CD in a prior session
(ii) wrote those files to the CD again in this session, along with the files I actually wanted
(iii) made those files in the prior session no longer available.
This destroyed what was a good backup and it wasted a lot of CD space.
Fortunately I could turn off that extremely stupid behavior in V5.5 and it stayed off evermore. In this version there does not appear to be an option; there seems to be no way to turn it off. I can delete the automatically re-added files from the set-up of the new session but that still results in the program altering the CD's TOC (or whatever is the control mechanism) so that the files cannot be accessed from the prior session. This is extremely limiting. I want to be able to write multi-session CDs and put exactly what I want into each session, without effecting any prior session (I never want to add any files that exist in a prior session, so there is never a file name conflict).
If anyone knows whether the full Nero 6, or Nero 7, has returned to sanity in regard to these several particular points, or if I am simply missing how to make this Express version work properly, I would really appreciate the information. Mainly I need to know if there is any value in upgrading.
So far it looks like I have to choose between
(a) not being able to do the work I regularly do (keep this version of Nero, or get a still newer version that acts as poorly)
(b) not being able to use the new Lite-On drive (go back to the earlier version of Nero). I downloaded the Nero Express and Nero 6 manuals from the web site but found no relief.
problem 1
Almost all audio CDs I write are LP transfers. In the process of cleaning up the audio and preparing it for CD, I create individual files for each track. I use the LP track title for the file name. V5.5 correctly uses the file name for the track title on the CD it writes.
This version insists on assigning that file name to both the track and the artist. Sometimes it screws up and puts only part of the file name in one, or the other, or both, slots. Neither of these behaviors ever occurred in V5.5. I now have to edit each track to repair the mess Nero makes before I advance to writing. I want the prior version's behavior: make the file name the track name (without screw-ups), leave the track's artist name field blank until, and unless, I decide to fill it in.
problem 2
Very often I create the equivalent of a CD-Extra (audio + data files) when I write audio CDs. I don't use the "official" CD-Extra option because it doesn't allow CD text: I cannot enter the album name and performer to be written to the CD. Also, CD-Extra does not allow verifying the data portion.
The "equivalent" is an audio CD session 1, followed by a data CD session 2. I accomplish this by not finalizing the audio CD, which allows me to afterwards write a second session where I add the data files (which can then be verified after writing). This also has the advantage of not insisting on that predefined nonsense in the data portion that goes along with CD-Extra.
This version does not allow a non-finalized audio CD to be written, which means I am forced to use the inferior official CD-Extra format. (By the way, contrary to what I've read in a number of places, unfinalized audio CDs (prior to adding the data and finalizing) play without problem in the several CD players I've tried.).
I can, in frustration, easily imagine this version refusing to write a data session2 because the CD is not blank -- should I figure out how to prevent it from finalizing the audio session. I want to be able to write audio CDs that are unfinalized so I can add data files to the CD when I'm ready.
problem 3
I also write a lot of data-only multi-session CDs. The default for version 5.5 was ‘refresh files in compilation' by which
(i) Nero busied itself to find anything on my hard drives that was already on the CD in a prior session
(ii) wrote those files to the CD again in this session, along with the files I actually wanted
(iii) made those files in the prior session no longer available.
This destroyed what was a good backup and it wasted a lot of CD space.
Fortunately I could turn off that extremely stupid behavior in V5.5 and it stayed off evermore. In this version there does not appear to be an option; there seems to be no way to turn it off. I can delete the automatically re-added files from the set-up of the new session but that still results in the program altering the CD's TOC (or whatever is the control mechanism) so that the files cannot be accessed from the prior session. This is extremely limiting. I want to be able to write multi-session CDs and put exactly what I want into each session, without effecting any prior session (I never want to add any files that exist in a prior session, so there is never a file name conflict).
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