What is the best durable CD-RW drive ?

[Mambo King]

Thanks

[Guzo]

TEAC is known for its quality.

I have 32×reader and I know several people that also have
It still rocks after 4yrs of use.

Next drive is CD-W540E.

[duffy]

Teac & Plextor are known for their durability, but Plextor drives are more expensive. If you don't wanna spend a lot of money, then go for the Teac.

[Gooberslot]

But not if you're running Win98.

[jase]

huh?

[Han]

Gooberslot is pissed because Teac doesn't provide a firmware updater and speed utility for their CD-W540E for pure Windows 98; only for Windows 98 Second Edition and better.

[dodecahedron]

not only that but also, according to Gooberslot the Teac is not supported under win98 (first edition).

[jase]

Odd, why wouldn't a drive be supported by 98? Would be a first on me -- my TEAC CD-W524E works just fine on Windows 98 First Edition.... and I've been able to update the firmware.

[dodecahedron]

check out this thread, according to articulte the minimum requirements or the Teac 540 is win98SE !!!
and also the flash utility apparently does not work under win98 first edition.

[beowulf]

:o
What is the best durable CD-RW drive ?
Thanks

I'd have to recommend PlexWriters, as I have used several over several years, for hundreds of burns and have yet to see one fail.
I have not had many Teacs, but I remember how I was unpleased with their lack of support back then (firmware upgrades/tech support quality), and I'd definitely include that factor in the "durability" formula.

[eliminator]

So why not just update to 98se...what's the prob all

[Gooberslot]

Actually according to articulate the Teac works just fine under Win98 but you can't update the firmware so what's the point. Like a lot of other people here I must update as soon as it becomes available. And the reason I'm pissed is because I think it would work if Teac would just let it. I wouldn't be nearly as upset if Teac would give me a reason why I'm wrong.

As to why I've never upgraded to SE (or ME for that matter) it's because I've never really seen the need. AFAIK you don't really get anything usefull. Just ICS, IE5, and a bunch of updates. Two of those you can get off of Windows Update and ICS is useless. Who wants to share a modem connection and if you're one of the lucky ones with broadband then just buy a router. SE might have limited WDM support (not sure) which could increase it's usefullness I suppose. Plus I really don't like giving any more money than is absolutely necessary to M$ and SE would be way too big to download with only a modem.

And jase, the 24x works fine right now but if you look on their web site it says the minimum requirements are Win98SE so the next firmware update may not work just like the 40x. You know, the firmware that everyone has been waiting for, the one that's supposed to enable Mt. Rainier support.

I still think they should have a dos updater for various reasons that I won't go into again.

[jase]

> And jase, the 24x works fine right now but if you look on their web site it says the minimum requirements are Win98SE so the next firmware update may not work just like the 40x.

S'OK, the drive is in an XP box now but I agree that this is a bit bad -- I've never come across a piece of software that'll work in SE but not 98, that's very odd.

Phone TEAC up and demand an answer!

[articulate]

It does seem like an unnecessary restriction on Teac's part...!

Can anyone see any logical sense in it? It wouldn't seem to add to Teac's expense technically, if all their previous drives have supported (and continue to support) Win 98.

A plot to get rid of old OSs!

[Gooberslot]

A plot to get rid of old OSs!

Possibly but what would be the incentive? Unless they just don't want to provide support for 98 users but since SE is so much like 98 that doesn't make much sense. I can't imagine there being any differences in providing support for SE users vs. 98 users. Maybe M$ is paying them.

[eiki]

You really should get Win2000. Its far superior to Win'98 and especially for tasks such as CD writing.

Back in the day I had Win98 I could do nothing and was afraid to touch the computer while it was writing. Now I run multiple processes while writing, at a much greater speed BTW.

Come to think of it, TEAC may be cancelling support for Win'98 so that their drives dont get a bad rep because of OS related trouble.

Oh and I say TEAC.

[Ankerson]

I would say Plextor first and I have also had good luck with LG drives.

My LG 16x10x40 has burned well over 500 CD's and is still going.


My main burner these days is a Plextor 24x10x40.

[Gooberslot]

You really should get Win2000. Its far superior to Win'98 and especially for tasks such as CD writing.

That's an idea but won't there be less support for Win2k now that that evil XP is out? Plus, I know I'd have hell trying to get my Vortex2 to work.

Come to think of it, TEAC may be cancelling support for Win'98 so that their drives dont get a bad rep because of OS related trouble.

Then shouldn't they cancel all win9x based OS's? In fact, I know someone with a ME machine that crashes a lot more than mine and in a lot more spectacular ways. Then again it is a Comcrap and mine is homebrewed from the most stable parts ever made(BX chipset, Voodoo3, Vortex2) so that could have something to do with it.

[Han]

Sure there'll be less support for Win2K, but it will be supported for at least three more years. Currently this is the most stable version of Windows. Two Service Packs have been already released, while third is on its way. I've been using NT kernel Windows since NT4, switched to Win2k immediately when it was available. Win9x really suxx in comparison to NT family.

Btw, what's Vortex2 ?

[Scour]

Hello!

Real-Longlife-Drives:

Plextor
Teac

cu
Scour

[Gooberslot]

I've actually been considering a Plextor but their web site says they only have a MTBF of 60k hours which is less than the Lite-ON. Are they really more durable or are you paying for the name.

[eliminator]

TEAC...again

[Scour]

Hello!

Í know, that a Plextor have a much better durability that LiteOn-drives, don´t believe the things are written by the manufacturers.

cu
Scour

[Gooberslot]

I did email Teac tech support about this firmware issue and they responded with something about IE that made no sense then said that the firmware updater worked fine under 98.

Here's the exact message I received from them.

You can go ahead and use it with Windows 98, but if the program does not install due to missing components in your system, then you wil have to update your windows. An easy way to update your Windows 98 is to update the Internet Explorer. As you may know, IE is not only an Internet browser, but some sort of update for the operating system.

The firmware updater program works perfectly in Windows 98/Se/ME.

And here was my original message.

How come you're not supporting Windows98? The drive works fine under 98 but you can't update the bios. This makes no sense! This is the first time I've seen a software program that will work on some but not all of the Win9x based OS's. Could you please explain why you are doing this? Is there a technical reason I'm just not aware of?

I know I'm a bad writer but I didn't think I was so bad as to cause this kind of confusing answer. But who knows, maybe I am.

[articulate]

I know I'm a bad writer but I didn't think I was so bad as to cause this kind of confusing answer. But who knows, maybe I am.

You're not.

You just had the bad luck to have your question "answered" by some airhead in Support.

It seems obvious from the guy's answer that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

I knew this wouldn't work, but since I would also like to flash my 540E within Win98, I took the "advice" and installed IE 6 (I had 5.5), on the off-chance....

But no, of course it didn't work. The firmware updater wasn't impressed, and still refused to flash.

It might be worth sending Teac support your questions a second time in hopes of reaching someone competent this time....