PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Installing and Configuring a CD Writer

In general, installing and configuring a CD writer requires the same steps detailed in the preceding chapter for CD-ROM drives. There are, however, some considerations peculiar to CD writers:

• For ATAPI writers, it is good practice to put the CD writer on a different channel from the source device(s). On a typical PC with a hard drive, a CD-ROM drive, and the CD writer, make the hard drive Primary Master (PM), the CD-ROM drive Primary Slave (PS), and the CD writer Secondary Master (SM). This allows you to record CDs directly from CD-ROM or from an image stored on your hard drive. If the PC has a second hard drive, set that drive to Secondary Slave (SS), and do not attempt to record CDs from it. If the PC has an ATAPI tape drive, set it to SS. Attempting to record from a source located on the same IDE channel as the writer generally works properly with recent systems and high-quality CD writers, but often leads to problems on older, slower systems and with inexpensive or older-model CD writers.

• If you have IDE bus mastering (DMA) drivers installed, remove them from the channel to which the writer connects, unless the drive manufacturer specifically recommends using DMA for its drive. We have frequently encountered problems with ATAPI writers on DMA-enabled channels, even when the writer was recognized by Windows as a DMA-capable device. Conversely, make sure DMA is enabled if your CD writer manual recommends doing so. Many CD writers faster ...