CD Color Bind?

I just bought a new CD-RW drive, and I've found that my original CD-ROM drive won't read some of the CD-R and all of the CD-RW discs I've burned. (It seems to read gold- and black-colored CD-R discs, but not silver-colored ones.) Do you know of any hardware or software settings that can correct this?

Ian Moore, Pensacola, Florida

This isn't a problem with your settings; it's a result of the design of CD-R and CD-RW media. CD-RW discs reflect only a fraction of the light that standard CD-ROM or CD-R discs reflect, and all but the latest CD-ROM drives lack the sensitivity to accurately read them. Chances are, your current CD-ROM drive isn't up to the task. And unfortunately, neither are most people's CD-ROM drives, so don't count on using CD-RW discs as a means of passing data to others unless they too have a CD-RW drive.

CD-R discs are easier to read than CD-RW discs, and many CD-ROM drives can read them easily. But not always. CD-R discs are still far more delicate than your garden-variety CD-ROM disc. Rough handling and excessive exposure to heat or sunlight can quickly render a CD-R disc useless, whether blank or filled with data.

Some CD-ROM drives work better with certain brands of CD-R media. It used to be that discs made with a gold reflective coating (but not necessarily with a gold color) were of higher quality than discs using other reflective coatings, but this is no longer the case. There's no surefire way to determine what brand of CD-R will work with a given CD-ROM drive.

You'll usually have fewer problems reading recorded optical media with a CD-ROM drive made by a first-tier vendor such as Plextor or Hitachi. Check with the manufacturer of your CD-ROM drive or system for a recommended brand of CD-R media. In the end, however, finding what works best with your CD-ROM drive is a matter of trial and error, so don't buy a giant spindle of blank media until you've run a few test burns.

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