Neil Slade’s

SUPER SPEED 3-DVD PC BURNING SET UP

© 2005 Neil Slade Books and Music

All rights reserved, all duplication is prohibited without express permission from the publisher, Neil Slade Books neil@neilslade.com

Thanks for your interest in super high speed PC DVD burning.

Below you will find information and instruction on how to set up your desktop computer to burn 3 simultaneous DVDs using 3 burners, and 3 hard drives, properly configured.

I have specified the exact connections and other important factors that impact DVD burning on a PC, also giving my own set.

Any of the hardware on your system can be different, and to a lesser or greater extent, this will have impact on your DVD burning speeds. Some things will have much more impact than other elements, and these are described below.

It is suggested that you use what hardware you have, and modify or replace if greater speed is desired. At present, the set up below allows burning 3 simultaneous full 4.9GB DVD –R in about 7-8 minutes.

MY SET UP:

BASIC PC setup

I have a PC clone,

P4 socket 478, 3.2GHz 

MSI MS-6728 (865Neo) motherboard Hyperthread compatible

2 GB DDR 400 ram memory (4 500MB cards in 4 slots)

Work with the processor and motherboard you have and modify other items, as these are least expensive to modify. If your motherboard is capable of HT, use it and modify in your system. Make sure all your drivers and bios is up to date. Take exceptional care updating the bios and read all bios update instructions and follow to the letter.

Memory will make a difference up to a point, i.e. greater speeds will not be achieved with greater than 2GB memory. You may or may note see a difference with less than 2GB memory or older than DDR 400 ram.

BURNERS:

The burners I use are Plextor 716 A-- these are the most flexible and fastest burners I know of, and I believe this is important in reaching good speeds. Be aware, however, that this is not LAW- other people use Pioneer and Sony and Lite-On burners to good effect as well. I mention my experience here, so you’ll find what works for you.

The Plextors work well with most software, including my Sony DVD architect software. Firmware upgrades are easy, and are BACKWARD capable, i.e.- if a new upgrade presents problems, you can actually reinstall previous older firmware—not possible with Sony and other burners. Finally, Plextor 716A burners have this remarkable ability to burn 8X DVDs at twice this speed- although the software program you are using may not indicate this is happening, and only allow you the 8X choice. Time your burns—you’ll go, oh wow, that’s faster than 8X. I bought my 716s at Best Buy for $109 each, but are likely available online for this price all the time, if not cheaper now.

The pioneer burners I tried recently were not compatible with my popular Sony DVD Architect software, despite firmware upgrades. They are very reliable, but if incompatible with your software, you’re stuck.

Sony burners work well--when they work--- but my experience has been that they have short life and break easily. I've had them, had to send in for replacement MULTIPLE times, and finally got rid of them all, unreliable completely for the long run. Lite-On burners have an excellent reputation, but I don’t use them, so I have no personal data on these.

I have 3 DVD-RW 716As installed in my machine.

HARD DRIVES:

You’ll need 3 hard drives- marked C, D, and H in the chart below.

I use Maxtor and Western Digital liquid bearing drives- commonly available, 7200 RPM. I actually have 5 drives in my machine, but 2 are not involved in this set up. (Drives I and K)

How you hook these up is very crucial, there is only one way I could get this system to work at the speeds and reliability I show. This is shown in the diagram.

Each of the DVD-RWs are set up as MASTER drives.

Each of the hard drives are set up as SLAVE drives.

Both the drives jumper pin and IDE cable must be set this way, i.e. the END of the IDE cables are plugged into the DVD-RWs, the middle plug goes into the hard drives.

You will need to use an ATI Controller Card since your motherboard only has two IDE cable connections. I use a Belkin Ultra ATA PCI Controller card, which allows the connection of 4 additional IDE devices. This is a $40-50 expense.

PUT THE ATA CONTROLLER CARD IN THE TOP or #1 PCI slot position, and if you have to move other cards around to do this- do it. I have had huge problems with it in lower slots below other PCI devices that apparently interfered with the efficient use of the card.

The total MAXIMUM number of IDE/SATA devices that most motherboards will allow is EIGHT. So, using the controller card and the onboard IDE ports, I have used up all of these on my machine. Forget about adding more hard drives or burners beyond this, it’s just not possible with consumer grade motherboards. Don’t waste your time, the motherboard, no matter what, no matter how many ATA cards you add, will not be able to process more than 8 devices.

IDE CABLE CONNECTIONS:

Each IDE cable has a DVD-RW on the end as the master drive, and a hard drive in the middle plug as the slave drive. This MUST be the set up.

Set up the jumper pins on your burners and drives this way.

If your motherboard has SATA, you may be able to substitute for the IDE plugs, but you are on your own regarding such configuration, as using SATA simultaneously with IDE can present problems in the bios and the way that your motherboard recognizes drives.

HARD DRIVE SET UP:

How you configure your hard drive partitions and organize your data and programs is CRUCIAL. How much data you have in the partition from which your data is copied is CRUCIAL.

You need to be VERY careful about reformatting partitions and backup of your data as you properly set up your system. This paper does not go into this process, so GET HELP IF YOU NEED IT. 

Programs like Partition Magic although good program- at times-, can reformat and repartition your drives without destroying data, but this is >>>EXTREMELY RISKY, and UNTHINKABLE if you do not have backups of your data.<<< Do not ever consider using this program on a disk or partition without having backup of ALL DATA on the partitions you are messing with using this program. I have destroyed all data on a partition- even though following instructions to the letter with this program.

HDD CONFIGURATION DETAILS:

You will have AT LEAST two partitions on each hard drive. One partition will be totally devoted to your DVD burning image ALONE, and you will keep NO OTHER DATA on this partition. Any other data present on this partition will slow down your burn speeds. I will not go into the technical reasons for this, but it’s a fact.  Each time you burn a DVD or DVD project you will copy your present project’s image or data to this BURN PARTITION and also remove any old project data.

All computer data and programs will be kept on other partitions.

The size of your own hard drives may vary.

It is recommended that your C partition (called “C:” on My computer) be kept as small as possible, and ONLY CONTAIN YOUR SYSTEM and PROGRAM FILES and NO DATA except what is necessary to run your programs and system.

This is because the efficiency and speed at which you run your programs is dependant upon how much data is in this partition. It also makes RESTORATION of your operating system much much quicker, safer and easier.

BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP--- get the idea??  J  Good.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE SEE http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/NortonGhost.html  for detailed explanation.

If you have a PC, you are crazy if you don’t have a restorable backup image of your Operating system partition – C.   I do not trust nor like the Windows System Restore function. I MUCH prefer Norton Ghost. Read the above page, and DO IT.

 HARD DRIVE CONFIGURATION EXAMPLE:

Physical Hard Drive #1

“C” Partition- System and Program Files ONLY  17 GB

“E”- Burning Data ONLY  9 GB

“K” – various data files backup Remainder of available space

Physical Hard Drive #2

“D” – Data Files  Remainder of available space

“F”- Burning Data ONLY  9 GB

“G” – GHOST IMAGE files ONLY  19 GB (enough for 2 Ghost Backup Images)

Physical Hard Drive #3

“H” – Data Files  Remainder of available space

“I”- Burning Data ONLY  9 GB

You may have additional partitions allocated on any hard drive for things like games, or optional programs. 

Keep only ESSENTIAL PROGRAMS on your C partition. Again, it is important to keep this partition as small as possible. However, make the C partition big enough for room to grow and add essential programs. For example, look at how much space you presently use for all your ESSENTIAL system files and program files. Subtract the amount of space used for data presently on your C Drive. Add 30-40% space to this, and make your C partition this size only. Example, my C partition is a total of 17 GB, and I presently use 11.7 GB which is actually HUGE compared with most computers.

I’m still burning 3 DVDs simultaneously at the highest speeds without trouble- so, there you go. See what happens.

MANTAINANCE OF PARTITIONS:

This is VERY important in regards to the speed at which you burn regarding your C Partition and your Burning Data Partitions.

C must be CLEAN and Defragmented. If your C partition is big, fragmented, has errors, and has UNCLEANED UNUSED SPACE it will dramatically slow down your burning because the program(s) that burn your DVDs are there- if this partition is clumsy, your burns will be too.

Make your C partition and the amount of system and program files as small as you can, do not clutter it up with unnecessary stuff. Put all truly optional, part time, non-essential programs on another partition, such as D or another partition you have made.

Defragment C before every new burn layout.

CLEAN ALL of your partitions, especially C and your Burning Data partitions. Otherwise, your hard drive will still SEARCH over all of this “deleted” data (it really isn’t until you CLEAN the drive) every time you burn, and this can significantly slow down your burns.

To Clean your partitions you can use SHAREWARE such as SURE DELETE. Other cleaning programs may work, but this one is simple, and free. Turn off all running programs when you use. Search on Google to download sure Delete 5.1.1

Sure delete has several functional parts. USE SD_Drive.exe  to clean your partition, not SD_File.exe

DVD MEDIA

I’m now using Meritline DVDs, bought from PC club at under $10 for 25 and they are outstanding and give me the fastest write speeds possible, and are very reliable. I used to use Vanguard, but a really strange thing happened, and I would find 4X mixed in with 8X DVDs- although all marked 8X on the package AND ON THE DISC CODE around the center of the disc itself. They would not burn at 8X either- so switched to Meritline. You can find these on the web very affordably. They all seem to burn at 16X, as opposed to the Vanguard which would not.

Depending on the batch, my Plextor Drives will automatically tell me I can burn these DVDs at 16X, but sometimes it only says 8X in the software, but it still goes ahead and burns them at “16X”—although the actual speed may be significantly faster. I.e., I have 5 hours of audio and video material on my DVD, and I burn this DVD in 7 minutes- that’s 43X- although I’ve been told that’s officially not how you measure X speed- although it makes sense to me!

BURNING PROGRAMS:

You will need to have SOFTWARE that allows you to open 3 SIMULTANEOUS COPIES of the program. I use Sony DVD Architect v2.0b, and it is an extremely fine program.  I can also use v.3.0 . I can open 2 copies of one version, and another copy of the second version, and perhaps this is better as that the same program is not trying to do everything, and the work is divided between two.

Other programs may allow simultaneous opened programs, or you may be forced to use 2 or three different programs at the same time to burn a DVD on each burner at the same time. Simple solution- get DVD Architect. Its your call.  Install your burning program (or multiple programs) on your main C partition.

BURNING PROCEDURE:

Okay- here we are at last….

When you are ready to burn, remove any old images from the Burning Data partition, and copy your new image files to the Burning Data Partition. Make sure you have CLEANED this partition before or after transferring your new project.

Make sure C is defragmented and clean as well. If you have TONS of data on hard drive #1 I have seen this slow down things. Keep the bulk of your data on hard drive #2, and #3.

1)   Reboot your computer

2)   Open 3 copies of your software

3)   Select your burning images, they may be the same or different for each drive and burner, it doesn’t matter.

4)   Load your DVDs and allow a moment for your software to recognize your media

5)   Select the burning data for each drive, and select each proper option DO NOT HIT GO or FINISH YET

6)   Only when you have each software-burning program running, set up and ready, then hit the final GO or FINISH button to begin burning.

7)   YOU’RE OFF!

When you have begun burning, you may then safely use LIMITED other programs on your computer. Be aware, that burning programs use a lot of RAM on your machine, and that operation of other programs simultaneously will be normal or slower depending on the requirements of those programs. Web browsing may show little slow down, while other intense programs may work very slowly.

I have had no problem web surfing, using email, using Word, or other mild programs while burning 3 discs. Using things like Photoshop will definitely not be possible at normal speed, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for things to process. I actually do not recommend using any ram intensive programs while burning discs.

Using other programs should have no impact on your burn speed or reliability.

HOWEVER, first test your set up with

1 disc burning

then

2 discs simultaneously

then

all 3.

Then try using other programs simultaneously, but ONLY AFTER you’ve rebooted, and started the burning process FIRST.

Always REBOOT before starting your burning batch—though you don’t have to reboot just for reloading and starting another round- and always open your burning program first and get it going before you try other work on your computer.

If you find difficulty running non-burning programs simultaneously, then you will have to adjust either your work, or your hardware. Try this with nothing else running first, and see the kinds of burning speeds you get first, and then see the effect of running other work on your own system to see what the impact of simultaneous program running does.

TROUBLESHOOTING and CONCLUSION:

Problems almost always arise from a fragmented partition, extra junk on your Burning Data partitions, un-cleaned partitions, or too much other activity on your computer while burning. Also, although not always the case, if you do not burn from a fresh reboot, you may not burn at optimal speed because of lack of free ram. Note, programs the allegedly free ram almost never work in this regard- I’ve never seen them to be of any help at all.

I’ve also discovered that my RAID controller card works to allow simultaneous burns when it is mounted in the TOP or #1 PCI slot. I had lots of trouble- to say the least- when I put the card in a lower slot. Make it the FIRST POSITION to work best.

DVD architect has proven to be extremely reliable in doing 3 simultaneous burns, and at blazing speeds. Other software may have limitations, and it may not. You will have to do the research if you use other programs for burning.

If you have any issues, feel free to email me at neil@neilslade.com

NOW

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