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Is the Burning Time Up directly
or usually related to too much stuff
on hard drive partitions and/or OS (Win98se, Win2k, WinXP) used ???

I have 2 PCs, Both have 52x CDRW Liteons, one WinXP, the other Win98se.

Copy and burn the same(size) VCD.
Time it. (Note, Both VCD was riped into a empty Hard Drive Partition)

The (Hard Drive Partitions pretty filled-up) Win98se PC took 4~5 minutes "longer" to burn.

While the freshly installed WinXP
PC was 4~5 mintues "faster" in burning that same VCD.

Why ???

I assume you are using the same type of CD-R each time set for the same speed, and using the same software on each system. If so, then check the DMA settings on the slower system, and make sure the hard drive is defragged. Is there alot of programs that could be running in the backround disrupting the burn process?

Hmm...ok, out of ideas...

Maybe cfitz could chime in with some ideas too

Yes, Same Burning SW (Latest NERO), Same Media used, NO BG SW running...

Same everything except, OS (Wi98se vs. WinXP), HD (Pretty filled up partitions vs. Freshly barely filled partitions)

(Note: both CD read image are read into a clean partition with just the image!)

4-5 minutes more on a Win 98 machine is not normal. It shouldn't be that slow if you are using the same media and DMA is turned on. I would defrag the hard drive and see if that makes a difference. As per the fact that there is less space on the drive, I don't think it will affect burn speeds so much that it would make it twice as slow. Maybe, because the drive is so full, you have a lot of fragmented files. Are you having any problems in reading CDs at fast speeds in that drive too?

You mean Defrag the "Whole" drive
(Every Partition) the partition where the image is read to before burning ???

What do you guys use to Defrag
your HD partitions anyway ???

(The Regular Defragger under the MS OS ???)

Thanks...!

you still didn't answer the question:
did you make sure DMA is enabled (on the slower system)?

Yes I have a DMA problem,
now that you guys mention did!!!

In the slower Win98se PC,
I CAN'T seem to turn on the DMA
for the 52x CDRW and the DVD
drives.

Every time I turn them on in Device Manager, Win98se says to restart, but when I come back,
DMA is still OFF!!!

I mess with the Motherboard (Abit KT7A-RAID) Bios
and it just has a auto/disable selection for DMA...

What should I do ?!?!

Try using Alcohol 120% to burn a CD-R. I had problems with Nero being WAY too slow, and switched to Alcohol 120% and it burned great!