The laser disc has undergone significant changes since its inception, evolving from a CD with a data capacity of 650 megabytes to a capacious Blu-ray capable of storing up to 50 gigabytes and more. However, despite such obvious progress, optical media has not gotten rid of many of the problems and shortcomings that have plagued it from the very beginning. For example, after recording another disc (even if the recording drive that was used was completely new), it is impossible to say with one hundred percent certainty that all the data was correctly copied to the disk. Another inconvenience of working with optical media is associated with the growing volume of information. It has become many times more difficult to navigate which drive to look for a particular program or document on. And finally, the most important “cons” laser disc- data loss due to mechanical damage (scratched disk surface) or as a result of a recording error. However, so far there is no serious alternative to optical media, so it is necessary to look for ways to solve these problems, at least partially. Utilities with which you can evaluate the condition of disks and recover data from them will be discussed in today’s review.
CDCheck 3.1
Developer: Mitja PerkoDistribution size: 1.5 MB
Spreading: shareware
Interface: Russian It is possible to draw a conclusion about the condition of the disk “by eye” only if obvious mechanical damage is visible on its surface, indicating careless handling of the media. The more scratched and dirty the working side of the disk is, the higher the likelihood of failures when reading data from the media. But even if, after the most thorough inspection, no cracks or scratches are found, this does not indicate that the data from the CDDVD will be read correctly by the device. Recording errors can also occur as a result of a software glitch or due to the failure of the recording device. Many people use a simple way to determine the recording quality - the media being tested is inserted into the DVD drive, after which the data from it is copied to hard drive. The logic of this “test” is simple - if the data is copied, then the optical disk is in perfect order. In fact, this is not entirely true. The fact that the data was copied to the hard drive only means that some information was read by the drive, but the very fact that the copying process is completed does not guarantee that the data on the hard drive is completely identical to the data that was written to the media. You should also not rely entirely on comparing the sizes of the original and copied files - even if they match, the data may differ. Comparing data manually is inconvenient, especially when there are a lot of files on the media, so it is best to control the quality of recorded discs using a special utility such as CDCheck. One of the main functions of this utility is to determine the integrity of data on the media. For this purpose, the program generates a checksum for files and folders, a unique code for a particular case, by which one can judge the reliability of a copy of the data.
CDCheck works with different types checksums - MD2, MD4, MD5, Adler32, CRC32, SHA (1, 256, 348, 512), Tiger (128, 160, 192), etc. Before burning a disc, the program can analyze the contents of the future media for compatibility of what is being written to the CD /DVD of data with ISO image standards. Data verification can be performed either by checksum, and according to the “source-copy” principle. At the end of the scan, the program can launch an external anti-virus scanner, checking the content for viruses. CDCheck allows you to set the priority of a job, and also has a data recovery function by repeatedly reading disk sectors. When a certain percentage of reliability is reached, which can be set in the program settings, the data can be considered recovered.
By processing data with CDCheck, you can monitor detailed statistics process: average data reading speed, estimated data processing time, number of scanned files and folders. The utility supports working with command line and provides detailed information about the CD/DVD/BD media used.
DiskInternals CD & DVD Recovery 3.5
Developer: DiskInternals ResearchDistribution size: 3.5 MB
Spreading: shareware
Interface: English A utility for recovering lost information from optical media is one tool from a whole set various means to recover lost data, which is offered by the developers of DiskInternals Research. This program can work with any optical media: from CD-R and DVR-R, to dual-layer discs and DVD-RAM. CD & DVD Recovery detects "missing" files recorded in ISO9660, UDF and Joliet systems. This data can also be recovered if the data was written to the disk in multi-session mode.
The operation of restoring damaged or deleted data is greatly simplified thanks to the step-by-step wizard that is available in the program. Following his instructions, you need to select the media whose contents are inaccessible, and then specify the parameters of the files to be restored. So, for example, for a more accurate data search result, you should determine the approximate size of the files to be resuscitated, as well as indicate the approximate time of their creation. These criteria are of particular importance when analyzing a disc that has been written over and over again, on which there are many "traces" of the old information, once recorded on this medium. CD & DVD Recovery identifies the location of lost data on a disk and can work with long names files. The program provides access to files from any track, even if the session on the disk was not closed correctly.
CDRoller 8.0
Developer: Digital Atlantic CorpDistribution size: 6 MB
Spreading: shareware
Interface: English The problem of unreadable disks has given rise to a mass of utilities created to solve it. Some programs are designed to test the quality of recording media, others are designed to read surviving information. Typically, this uses a multiple read method, where the program tries to copy the data from the damaged disk as accurately as possible. However, in practice, these utilities cannot always save the situation. For example, if the copied file is large and contains one or more unreadable fragments, then such data may not be suitable for further use.
The simplest example of such a situation is a damaged DVD with a movie recorded on it. As you know, the contents of the DVD-video format usually look like a Video_ts folder, where menu and navigation files are located, as well as large files with the .vob extension, which contain video and sound. If the unreadable area of the disk is in the place where the vob file was recorded, this file will be partially damaged, resulting in a large fragment of the video being lost. It is possible to partially restore the remaining video. Firstly, you can use additional tools, which can correct errors in the video file code. However, if the damaged area is large, then such utilities will not be able to cope with the recovery. Other programs that can fix a video file will use re-compression, which will inevitably lead to a loss of original quality. The CDRoller utility can solve this problem faster and more efficiently than many other programs. Having copied readable data from such a disk to the hard drive, CDRoller will analyze the vob file and divide it into separate fragments (movie scenes), saving them in the MPEG format familiar to the DVD video standard, without loss of quality. In this case, you can simply exclude the scene with the fragment where the defect is present, and record new disk with the surviving data.
Thanks to the built-in recording module, the disc burning procedure can be performed directly in CDRoller. The program allows you to burn recovered files and folders, videos, as well as ISO image files.
The disk cataloging tool built into the program uses so-called short images (Short CD/DVD Image). In fact, these are not real images, but only data about the contents of the indexed disk - a list of all files and directories on the disk, with a preserved structure. Each time a new disc is read, the program can automatically create such a short image and write it to a specific folder, thus compiling a library of all discs. In the future, if you need to quickly find a specific file, you can use CDRoller to search the entire library of images. The data search tool is implemented very flexibly, search query can be refined using various search criteria. For example, you can set the minimum and maximum size the file being searched, specify the subject of the search (for example, only folders, files, or both), indicate the creation date, etc. Another feature of CDRoller is the ability to work with audio discs. Despite the relative durability of audio discs, sometimes it only takes one tiny scratch for a CD player to refuse to play a particular track or even recognize the disc. In order to save the recording, the program uses digital data extraction (Digital Audio Extraction). During the audio reading process, CDRoller can use jitter correction and also use sector re-reading to detect errors or loss of synchronization. The read tracks can be immediately converted to various formats digital audio- WAV, MP3, MP2, OGG, etc. The program can encode audio CDs on the fly, without creating an intermediate WAV file. To evaluate the quality of optical media, CDRoller runs a series of tests (the test can be started by selecting the drive from the list of available devices and using a keyboard shortcut), selecting a test method depending on the type of data recorded. The program checks the ISO 9660 file system and also checks the disk surface, after which it displays a detailed generated report on various media properties - the number of detected sessions, the program in which the recording was made, the size of the file allocation table, the list of unreadable folders, etc.
Please note that this check cannot be applied to disks with the UDF file system. Errors on optical media with such a file system are detected automatically. This data recording format is actively used various models camcorders with DVD recording, DVD recorders, and batch recording applications such as Roxio Drag-To-Disc and Nero InCD. Users who have to deal with such discs often encounter a situation where the captured and recorded video is not played back. Typically, data recording errors occur at the session closing stage. They can be found when working with devices of the most different manufacturers- Lite-On, Thomson RCA, Philips, Panasonic, etc. In most cases, CDRoller allows you to partially or even completely recover this data.
IsoBuster 2.5
Developer: Smart ProjectsDistribution size: 4.8 MB
Spreading: shareware
Interface: Russian This program is a universal data recovery tool. Many users consider this utility the best remedy to “repair” unreadable data from optical disks and, it must be said, for good reason. The program is regularly updated, and the long list of its features grows from version to version. On at the moment IsoBuster can recover data from almost any media, including BD and HD DVDs.
The secret of IsoBuster's popularity is, first of all, that this program understands all existing file systems that are used today to record data. The utility works with the contents of images; it can be used to mount images and extract data from them, as well as directly run files. The program supports all formats popular programs for burning discs such as CDRWin, CloneCD, DiscJuggler, BlindWrite, WinOnCD, NTI, Plextools and many others. IsoBuster can also be used to create an exact image of the source disk, and the image can be written in .iso, .bin, .tao formats, created with cue markings and a .md5 checksum to determine data integrity.
The program makes it possible to check the status of the media (you don’t even have to extract data to the hard drive) and can create a list of files containing read errors. If the program detects bad sectors when reading a disk image, IsoBuster can collect statistics of bad disk areas and save it to a separate file. If restrictions are imposed on the file system (for example, FAT), the created image files can be divided into parts, the size of which is specified in the IsoBuster settings.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, there is no such method that would guarantee 100% protection of data on optical media. Therefore, there is nothing left but to handle the disk more carefully and always keep a backup copy of it “in reserve.” Well, if, despite the precautions taken, trouble still occurs, files from the disk are not copied or are not visible at all - it’s time to try one of the described utilities for recovering information from the media. We wish you to use these programs only out of curiosity, and not out of necessity.Nero CD DVD Speed - test cd dvd disks and drives
In this article I will describe test program Nero CD DVD Speed, which was developed by Nero Softwsre AG. Using the CD-DVD Speed program, you can test not only CD drives DVD discs , but also perform the test yourself disk, view information about disks and more. CD DVD Speed test program is included in the Nero software package, but the CD-DVD Speed utility can be downloaded separately and is free.
You can select tests by clicking the "File - Options" menu and selecting "Standard tests", in addition to selecting tests in the window that opens, you can set the read speed, write speed, as well as the disk spin-up time in seconds before reading data from the device being tested CD DVD disc .
In the Nero CD-DVD Speed program menu, click Run Test and consider the tests individually:
Baud rate
The baud rate test displays the results in a graph. The graph displays two lines of green and yellow.
The green line shows the data transfer rate in fractions of 150 KB/s.
The yellow line shows the disk rotation speed in rpm multiplied by 1000.
The CD-DVD Speed program determines the type of disc at the beginning of testing and, depending on the type, various tests will be performed:
- Data CD or DVD - the speed of reading data from a CD or DVD will be measured.
- Audio CD - the speed of reading digital audio data (DAE) will be determined. DAE stands for Digital Audio Extraction. This test parameter determines the drive's ability to reproduce audio data in digital format, bypassing the sound card.
- CD-R or CD-RW - the speed of writing data to the disk will be calculated, but the recording itself will not be performed on the disk.
Setting up the Baud Rate test
To set up the Transfer Speed test, you need to select “File - Options” in the Nero CD-DVD Speed utility menu and highlight Transfer Speed in the left window, and use the parameters from the right side to set up the Transfer Speed test:
- Test length - this slider adjusts the balance between the quality of the test (Accuracy) and its speed (Speed). The more accurate the test, the lower the speed of its execution.
- Show rotation speed - will display a line on the graph showing the rotation speed of the CD-DVD disc in the drive.
- Maximum CD Speed, Maximum DVD Speed - shows the maximum speed that can be displayed on the graph when testing a CD or DVD disc.
- High-resolution graph - for clearer display of data on the graph and increased testing quality.
- Recording mode - indicates the recording method, TAO (Track At Once) or SAO (Session At Once). SAO allows you to select a CD (DVD) with more than. capacity and write to disk until an error occurs. If you use SAO with a CD (DVD) with more than. capacity, then you can increase the capacity of a CD (DVD) disk by 100-150 MB, but not all drives support this function. In the window opposite CD (DVD) with exceeding. capacity indicates the maximum capacity of a CD (DVD) disc in minutes, seconds and frames, exceeding the standard capacity (79:59.74), for example, you can enter 90:00.00.
- Disc type (imitation only) - indicates the type of data on the disc, that is, data or sound.
- Buffer underrun protection - this option allows you to enable or disable buffer underrun protection. To test CD-R, DVD-R(RW), it is recommended to enable this option.
DAE quality
The DAE Quality Test determines how good the CD DVD drive extracts audio data from a CD-DVD disc.
The test score can range from 0 to 10.
Access times/positions
This test determines the time spent searching and accessing data on This test determines how much the processor is loaded when testing the drive at one of four speeds - 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x. It is not recommended to use resource-intensive applications during testing, since then the received data will be incorrect.
Peak. flow This test checks the speed of data transfer from the controller to CD DVD drive.
Spin up/stop
This test measures the time it takes to spin up the disk and stop.
Now click on the Nero CD-DVD Speed Advanced program menu and consider additional tests:
Advanced DAE Quality Test
To perform this test you need special disk, created by Nero CD-DVD Speed.
To create a special test disk, click Advanced - Advanced DAE quality test - Create test. CD.
Uncheck the box next to Imitate; if the box is checked, an image will be created and no recording will occur.
Now we insert it into the burner drive blank disk and click Start, after which a test CD will be written.
To start the test, click Advanced - Advanced DAE quality test - Run test... After testing, its results will be shown.
Test overflow records
This test determines whether a CD-RW drive supports recording discs using Overburn technology and how much the capacity of a CD can increase when using Overburn technology.
To run the test, click Advanced - Test overflow. recording, we see a window like in the figure, select the CD recording speed, and in the Capacity Test window you must enter a data volume greater than the standard size of 700 MB (79:57.74), but should not exceed 90:00.00, since recording data with more than 90:00.00 data volume may damage the drive or the CD itself.
During the test, no data is written to the CD.
After the test is completed, the result is displayed in the information window, which is located in the Record position group (Fig.).
- The position shows the amount of data previously written to the disk.
- Relates. shows the disk capacity relative to the standard disk capacity.
Disc quality
This test can check the quality of CD-R(RW) discs.
In the Disc Quality tab, you can make the necessary Settings for this test.
The graph displays two curves, one shows the data reading speed and the other shows the errors while reading the data.
After completing this test, the Statistics window will open with the main summary data.
Scan disk
In this tab you can make the necessary Settings for this test and run this type of testing.
This test determines the quality of the disk and assesses the safety of the information stored on it.
Inf. about the disk
In the Info tab. about the disk is displayed:
Disc type, Capacity, Tracks (number of tracks), Sessions (number of sessions).
ScanCD is designed to scan CD-ROM discs. During the inspection there is control file system, correct opening of files and search for “damaged” sectors. The process of testing a recorded disc is started by clicking on the button in the main program window that shows a traffic light. During scanning, the name of the file being scanned, its path, as well as the disk read error (if the disk is faulty) will be displayed.
Advantages of the program: Russian-language interface, free. Disadvantages - the check takes quite a long time, a print report or a file on disk is not output. In order to speed up the time it takes to check a disk for errors, click on the button with a screwdriver and select the option for accelerated disk checking in the settings. But remember that a quick scan will reduce the time it takes to scan files by about half, but you will lose in the quality of the scan.
CD-ROM Drive Analyzer
This program is more powerful than the previous one. Using the CDROM Drive Analyzer utility, you can analyze the speed at which the drive reads data from the disk surface. The results are displayed in the form of a graph. It also displays the values of the maximum and minimum speed, as well as the number of errors in the read blocks. Working with this program is very simple. Select the CD to check and click on the "start" button. As a result of the disk test, a graph will be obtained showing the surface condition and data reading speed. Those areas from which data, although it was successfully read, but at a noticeably lower speed, may also cause problems in the near future.
For the user, stable reading at 8x speed is often more preferable than faulty and unstable reading at 40x. The graph shows a stable reading at high speed, without “blockages”, “dips” and splashes, is displayed as a straight line.
As you can see, the program interface is only in English (despite the fact that the author of the program is a Ukrainian from Kyiv, Alexander Filippov). Another drawback of the program is the inability to check Audio. Among the advantages of the program are its free nature and the ability to save test results into a *.bmp file. As for other program parameters, they are as follows:
- program author: Filippof Alex;
- OS: Win9x,WinNT,Win2k;
- latest version: 2.30;
- distribution size: 243 KB;
- program type: FreeWare.
Programs used during testing:
CD-ROM Drive Analyzer version 2.1.1 (Download: )
Nero DiscSpeed Software
Nero DiscSpeed (called CD/DVD Speed in earlier versions) is a set of tests for checking the quality of both CD/DVD drives and the CD/DVD discs themselves. The program checks the speed of the drive, checks the disk for reading and its surface for errors. Nero DiscSpeed allows you to check the speed of reading data from the media, determine the spindle rotation speed and type of disk access, the data transfer speed through the drive interface, random access speed indicators, the time of spinning up and stopping the disk in the device, the time of opening/closing the tray, the duration of disk recognition, CPU load at different reading speeds. Due to the fact that the program has extensive capabilities that require a lot of space to describe, we will consider only one of its tabs - Disk Scanning
By checking the Read Test checkbox, you will check the files written to the disk, and by checking the C1/C2-PI/PO Test checkbox, you will check the entire disk surface. For full check disk, it is recommended to check both boxes at the same time. If there are no errors, then the checked section of the disk will be painted over green, damaged areas with errors will be marked in yellow, and unreadable (faulty) areas will be marked in red.
As a drawback of the program, it can be noted that Nero CD-DVD Speed does not test very bad discs, since if there are serious errors, the program interrupts testing. Among the advantages of the program are the ability to export results and a multilingual (including Russian) interface. So:
- the author of the program is Ahead Software;
- interface - multilingual;
- license - Freeware;
- size 46.9 KB.
You can download the program here: or on the manufacturer’s website: .
Resume
Increasing drive speeds, as a rule, increases noise and vibration, and their reliability and durability decreases. As the proverb says: “The slower you go, the further you will go.” For stable operation, it is recommended to use tools that forcibly limit the disk reading speed, for example the CDSlow program. By using software control (reduction) of the drive speed, you can increase the reliability of writing and reading CDs, and more detailed information about the quality of the recorded disc can be found using utilities: ScanCD, CD-ROM Drive Analyzer, Nero CD Speed, CDCheck or similar.
Video editors, converters, DVD recording.
Program overview
CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disc testing programs (part 1)
When we hear the phrase “counterfeit products,” the first associations that arise are DVDs and films. Unfortunately, when buying a DVD disc, we almost never can guarantee its quality. In this regard, the question of testing this blank arises. There are many paid ones, for example Nero, and free utilities to check the quality of DVD discs. One of them is VSO Inspector Vso-Software allows you to determine the characteristics of a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drive, obtain information about the inserted disc (both blank and recorded) and perform surface analysis for read errors.
Free program VSO Inspector fully Russified, has a volume of about 3 MB, works with all OS Windows to 7 inclusive. Download latest version programs can be found on the download page of the developer’s website by following the link Download Latest version.
Installing the program VSO Inspector passes into normal mode, and before completing you will be asked to familiarize yourself with the basic capabilities of disk testing. The main program window is shown in Fig. 1:
Fig.1. The main window of the VSO Inspector disk testing program
On the bookmark Device The main parameters of the disk drive (disk drive) are displayed: general information, options, capabilities for reading and writing various disks, etc. (Fig. 1).
Next bookmark, Carrier, will provide information about the CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc inserted into the drive: media type, manufacturer, number of layers, maximum speed read/write, etc. - Fig. 2:
Fig.2. Bookmark disk parameters (blanks)
On the bookmark Scanning You can check the quality of discs: scan the surface and test files if the disc contains recordings. The testing process is reflected in the diagram and numbers in the corresponding colored cells: Good, Bad and Errors. To select a test, check the box next to the desired item and press the button Start. If there are errors and bad sectors, testing the disk surface can take a long time - see Fig. 3.
Fig.3.
At the end of the scan, a summary of the test results is displayed, which can be saved as a file - button Save. Unlike similar programs, VSO Inspector allows you to check not only the quality of the surface, but also errors in the information already recorded on the disk - point File testing. In addition, you can view detailed information on each sector of the disk - tab View sectors(Fig. 4).
Fig.4. Tab "View disk sectors"
So the program VSO Inspector- a good tool for testing disks. It should be kept in mind that the presence of errors on rewritable CDs/DVDs does not mean that they should be thrown away. Sometimes after performing a full (not quick) erase, for example using a program Nero, the errors disappear and the disk can be used again.
IntroductionIt is extremely rare these days to find a computer without a drive with optical disks. CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives have become a part of our lives. It is almost impossible to do without them. Packet volume software has long since become many times greater than the capacity of a standard 3.5" floppy disk, not to mention the extremely low speed of 3.5" floppy drives. Several years ago, devices also appeared on the market that allow recording on DVD and, at the same time, on the more familiar CD-R and CD-RW media. In principle technical specifications any representative of the class of optical drives can be read in the documentation or found on the manufacturers’ Internet sites. It seems that everything is simple. I looked for a model with the required speed and the list of desired features, then bought it and enjoy life. This is where you can encounter “nuances” that can ruin your mood. As the famous folk wisdom says, “It was smooth on paper, but they forgot about the ravines.” The problem is that not all drives in real work behave as expected of them.
Many drives can show in practice data reading speeds that differ significantly from those declared by the manufacturer. Not all of them work equally well on all types of media, let alone situations where they have to deal with damaged disks. Not all drives can copy audio CDs and burn them, when you want to get a perfect copy that is completely identical to the original. In addition, most manufacturers do not indicate a number of specific drive capabilities, which can in some cases play a decisive role in the production of exact duplicates of disks.
You can find out how good or bad a particular optical drive really is only during testing. Programs that allow you to do this can be divided into two groups. The first includes specialized utilities specifically designed for testing optical drives. The second includes programs designed to work with drives, whose functions can be used to evaluate the operation of devices in practice.
Specialized programs
The most popular among specialized utilities designed for testing optical drives is a package of products under the Nero brand. Their advantage is a set of wide capabilities, combined with free and small volume, which allows you to download them without problems from the site www.cdspeed2000.com. In addition to them, there are a number of special programs, which can also be used for these purposes - they will be discussed below. One of the most best programs Today, Nero CD Speed is the best choice for testing CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives. In addition to the performance characteristics of drives, it allows you to obtain information about a number of their additional capabilities.The set of main (basic) tests consists of:
Transfer Rate (speed of reading data from the media)
DAE Quality (quality of audio tracks extracted)
Seek/Access Times
CPU Usage
Burst Rate (data transfer rate to the drive)
Spin Up/Down Times (drive acceleration/deceleration time)
Load/Eject Times (tray loading/ejecting time)
Let's look at each of these tests in turn.
Transfer Rate Test allows you to measure the speed of reading data from the surface of the media. During the test, the program builds a graph on which two lines are displayed. One of them, green, shows the data transfer speed. The second, yellow, shows the spindle rotation speed. The resulting graphs are a reflection of the technology used in the drive being tested. The horizontal line of data transfer speed indicates the use of the CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) method - constant linear speed. A straight line on the graph slanting upward indicates the use of CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) technology - constant angular velocity. Most modern CD-ROM drives are based on this method. The graph with the transfer line sloping upward and then horizontally reflects the use of P-CAV (Partial-CAV) technology. Finally, the final image from individual horizontal sections indicates the Z-CLV (zoned-CLV) method used in the drive.
In order to fully reveal the speed potential of the media, for testing it is necessary to take a disk with a volume approaching the maximum value. The media must be of high quality and not have any scratches or other artifacts on the working surface.
DAE Quality Test- shows how well the drive is able to extract audio tracks. The first few audio sectors are recorded on the hard drive. The same sectors are then read again and compared with what was written to the hard drive. Depending on the presence of discrepancies, a score from 0 to 10 is given. Last value indicates ideal quality.
Seek/Access Times- This test determines search or access times in three categories. Random - the drive accesses randomly selected locations on the disk. 1/3 - the drive moves along one third of the disk length, starting from the beginning. Full - circulation occurs along the entire length of the disk from its beginning to the end.
The user can choose what time will be determined during the test: Seek or Access. The difference is that in the latter case, not only does the beam move to the required position, but one sector is also read. This requires a few extra milliseconds.
CPU Usage Test- allows you to determine how much a particular drive consumes CPU resources during operation. Measurements are taken at speeds of 1X, 2X, 4X and 8X. The result is given as a percentage.
Burst Rate Test determines the data transfer rate to the drive. The result is correct only if the drive caches the data. It is not recommended to use this test with audio discs.
Spin Up/Down Times- this test allows you to determine one of the dynamic characteristics of drives associated with their ability to spin and stop disks. The less time required for these actions, the better the drive performs. Spin Down measures the time it takes for the media to stop, and Spin Up measures the time required for the drive to read data.
Load/Eject Times- during this test, in addition to the time required to extend and retract the tray, one more indicator is determined. This is the time required to recognize the disc. The smaller it is, the faster you can start actually working with the new media.
In addition to a set of standard tests, Nero CD Speed has a set of advanced features that can be successfully used for more detailed tests. Among them, first of all, we can note the ability to record a special test disc (CD-R or CD-RW). It provides in-depth testing of drives' ability to correctly extract audio tracks from digital audio discs.
Advanced Quality DAE Test This is precisely what allows you to identify the slightest errors when testing this special disk.
Data Errors- indicates the number of incorrectly read audio samples. They are usually caused by poor media quality. In order to get rid of errors of this kind, you need to use high-quality disks or reduce the drive speed. If the number of errors is not too large, then drives are usually able to correct them using an internal correction procedure.
Sync Errors- synchronization errors occur in cases where the drive is not able to read the audio sector requested by the application, but retrieves information from the neighboring one. As a result, some samples are lost or duplicated.
The maximum quality score for extracting audio tracks can be 100. It is based on measuring the number of errors during testing. The latter is held in two categories. The sequential reading test emulates the operation of the drive under ideal conditions, which most models pass without problems. The second test, reading harmonics, is more difficult for drives, and this is where many of them make mistakes.
After checking the drives for DAE quality, the program determines their ability to create copies of an audio disc on the fly in the speed range 1X-16X.
In addition to checking devices for the quality of extracting audio tracks, the test also checks the advanced capabilities of drives.
Offset- all drives begin to read audio sectors not from the real starting position, but from a place slightly different from it. This offset is usually less than 100 samples. Write drives are also unable to start recording exactly from the starting position. The result of the test is the offset value when reading or writing.
Read Leadin- the indicator indicates the ability of the drive to read information before the start position from the input zone. This is necessary to receive exact copies disks.
Read Leadout- a positive result indicates that the drive can extract information from the output zone located at the very end of the disk, after the working area. Thanks to this, it becomes possible to obtain absolutely identical copies.
CD Text- indicates the drive's ability to retrieve CD Text information.
Read Subchannel Data- the indicator indicates the drive’s ability to read data from the Subchannel. The latter contains information about index markers, number of tracks, etc. If the result is positive, it is possible to obtain perfect copies.
One more interesting opportunity The Nero program is used in the case of burner drives to test the Overburning Test. What is it and what is it needed for?
The vast majority of modern recording drives can operate in Overburning mode. This means the ability to record on media a volume of information exceeding its official capacity. This quality of drives can be very valuable in certain situations. For example, when you start writing something to a disk, and several megabytes of data do not fit on it, forcing you to use additional media. Using the Overburning mode can often solve this problem and save you money and time.
The very possibility of recording an additional amount of information is obtained due to the fact that all modern drives are capable of working with CD-DA. All digital audio discs are produced in accordance with the Red Book standard. Its requirements stipulate that after the program area, which allows you to place up to 99 tracks, there is a Lead Out - a zone of digital silence consisting of empty sectors. This gives at least 90 seconds of time. It is this area that can be used to record additional information.
Overburning Test allows you to determine the fundamental ability of drives to operate in the mode of recording additional volumes of information and determine how much of it can be written to a specific medium. The maximum amount of data that can be written to it depends on the drive itself and on the properties of the disk itself.
During the test, media is inserted into the burner drive and the writing speed with the maximum capacity is selected. During the test, nothing is physically written to the disk. If the test is successfully completed, information appears on the screen about the maximum possible amount of recorded information for a given medium and the amount of data that can be recorded in excess of the official capacity. In practice, these values will be slightly lower due to the fact that when writing to the last position during the test, the drive still stores data in the buffer.
We have described the main features of the Nero CD Speed program directly related to drive testing. In fact, they are somewhat wider. Among these features there are a number of additional ones that are quite useful in some cases. For example, the ability to create a Data CD, where files will completely occupy the entire disk capacity. It can be used later to check the data reading speed. In addition, when testing write drives, it can also be used to determine the writing speed.
The program is basically similar in its basic capabilities to another Nero utility - CD Speed. The difference is that it is designed specifically for testing drives specifically when working with DVDs. When using DVD drives with other media, you can use Nero CD Speed. List of basic tests DVD programs Speed is as follows:
Transfer Rate
Access/Seek Times
CPU Usage
Burst Rate
Spin Up/Down Times
Load/Eject Times
Layer Change
Only the last one needs explanation. It determines the time required to refocus the laser from one layer to another. The meaning of all other tests coincides with those described in the Nero CD Speed program.
Using the CD-DAE program, you can evaluate the quality of the drive by extracting audio tracks and converting them into Wav files on your hard drive. To do this, take a digital audio disc, mark all the tracks on it for greater reliability, and press the Start button. In the process of extracting tracks and creating sound files on the hard drive, the program checks their contents, and if errors are detected on the acoustic soundtrack, the color changes from green to red. The total time spent on this procedure and the operating speed of the drive are a reflection of the drive's performance in such operations. The number of errors that occurred when extracting audio tracks reflects the quality characteristics of the drive. CPU utilization can be valuable information if your computer is running multiple tasks at the same time.
CDVD Benchmark
One of the universal programs that allows you to test drives with CD and DVD media is the CDVD Benchmark program (www.cd-bremse.de). Its main advantages are efficiency, information content and the provision of only the most important resulting information. In addition, the program provides the ability to use special reference disks. The only inconvenience for most English-speaking users may be that the interface is only in German. The small size of the program allows you to easily download it via the Internet and use it at home.The first item in the main menu of the Datei program gives access to general commands. The greatest practical interest of them is Laufwerkinfo generieren, which allows you to obtain information about the system, including the optical disk drive used.
The second item of the main menu allows you to run all possible tests in a row Alle Tests Starten, or select only one of them. Even lower, the Fehlerkorrektur-Test option allows you to build a graph of reading speed from the surface of the media, including from standard ABEX line drives, which are not sold in Russia. The last Einstellungen item of this menu subgroup allows you to specify the operating parameters of this procedure to your liking before testing.
When you click on the third Ansicht item of the main menu, you get the opportunity to clarify the final appearance of the final graph. It's about about the absence or presence of any characteristic lines or conventional symbols.
The fourth Fenster item of the main menu allows you to set the size of the graph area on the screen, thereby optimally adjusting it to your monitor.
Finally, the last Hilfe option of the top menu traditionally provides user assistance. In this version of the program, this is interpreted as collecting system information and obtaining information about the version of the utility.
Now let's look at the final screenshot obtained as a result of testing the drive along with an audio disc. The screen is divided into two halves. In the left one, the green line shows the spindle rotation speed, and the white line shows the reading speed from the disk surface. The red horizontal line shows the average reading speed. On the right half of the screen, symbols of different colors indicate the values of random search, random access and random access along the entire length of the line, obtained during testing. The red horizontal lines indicate the average values of these parameters. At the very bottom of the screenshot on two horizontal stripes from left to right the program displays the average reading speed in “X” and then the minimum and maximum value, below these three values are given expressed in Kb/s. Following them is the operating range of reading speeds of the drive on the tested media (as it is positioned by the program itself). Below the familiar word CPU is the CPU load at the 1X speed selected before starting the test. Next are the average search, access and access times along the entire length of the string, which do not require detailed explanation. Next comes confirmation of the drive's ability to handle "precise flux" and C2 errors. The last characteristic expresses the data transfer speed over the interface.
Exact Audio Copy (EAC)
The EAC program, designed to extract audio tracks, can be successfully used to test optical drives. Naturally, we are talking about studying the characteristics of drives when working with audio discs.
Of course, this program can be used in a similar way to the Nero DAE utility to determine the total time for extracting audio tracks and the number of errors made during this procedure. But besides this, the EAC program has another interesting feature.
We are talking about the ability of the program in the “Drive Parameters” option to determine whether the drives support three important hardware characteristics, which can later be used to fine-tune the audio track extraction mode. In this case, we are talking about such drive properties as the ability to work with C2 errors, support for the “Precise Stream” function and data caching. The presence of the first two is highly desirable for obtaining accurate audio copies. Caching support, on the contrary, can hinder this goal.
EAC version 0.95 Beta 3, available at the time of writing, has a very small size - 1.24 MB and is available for free download. The word Beta in its name should not cause confusion. The utility works quite reliably and is constantly being refined.
It would probably be wrong on our part if, among the programs released under the Nero brand, we did not mention one more. We are talking about the Info Tool. Strictly speaking, it is not a test tool - it is a diagnostic utility. The information it extracts from drives is very useful in some cases. In particular, the Info tool allows you to obtain information about the firmware version, buffer size, hardware-supported reading and writing capabilities, and operating modes. For DVD drives, you can find out whether the region lock code is present (RPC2) or not (RPC1).
CDROM Drive Analyzer
Using the CDROM Drive Analyzer utility, you can analyze the speed at which the drive reads data from the disk surface. The results are displayed in the form of a graph. It also displays the values of the maximum and minimum speed, as well as the number of errors in the read blocks.
One of the many features of the Sandra Professional program is the ability to evaluate drive performance - CD-ROM/DVD Benchmark. The final performance index is calculated based on the read test (buffer/random/sequential) and the search time test. Using CD-ROM/DVD Benchmark, you can evaluate the performance of drives when working with media of two categories: Data CD or VideoCD/DVD.
General purpose programs
In addition to special programs for testing optical drives, you can use programs that can be used to record and copy discs. There are quite a lot of them, but we will focus only on the two most popular of them.
The CloneCD utility is very often used by users because of its ability to create exact duplicates of copied discs, including protected ones. With its help you can control real time necessary for the drive to copy a disc or record its “double”. The program can also serve as a criterion for assessing the drive's capabilities for working with protected disks.
