Are CD-Rs bad for the DC?

rmila75 · Post by **rmila75** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 9:23 pm

I heard from several folks today that using CD-R discs on the DC can damage or wear out the disc drive prematurely. It seems the drive has to work harder to access data on a CD-R as opposed to the GD-ROM. (??)
How true is this? Or is it just paranoia?

-Azathoth- · Post by **-Azathoth-** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 9:26 pm

In my opinion they are. I only say that because after I started using undummied emulation disks, my DC started having disk read errors. I cannot say for sure whether it's because it just an old system, but there was never a problem before I was using NesterDC. Just my opinion though. No doubt someone will say "STFU n00b! CD-R Dont mess up teh dreamcast!".

DoomDan · Post by **DoomDan** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 9:27 pm

i dont think they damage it. ive been usin them on my dc for like half a year n my dc's fine

NegativeSheep · Post by **NegativeSheep** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 9:58 pm

Ive been using them for 3 years (since this site started) and my DC is still working like it did on 9-9-99.

Tangent · Post by **Tangent** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 10:11 pm

This is a very interesting issue. IMO, it all depends on what revision dreamcast you have. I've got two, one built very recently and one built May 1999. The May 1999 one has had no problems, but the more recent one has had to have numerous potentiometer adjustments. I think Sega probably skimped on hardware as the months went by.

Just my two cents

fatheadpi · Post by **fatheadpi** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 10:52 pm

As long as you dummy your discs, everything will be fine. My Dreamcast is the testament to that. The more I used undummied discs, the worse it got. WHen I started dummying my discs, it quit getting worse.

Warmachine · Post by **Warmachine** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 11:56 pm

fatheadpi wrote:As long as you dummy your discs, everything will be fine. My Dreamcast is the testament to that. The more I used undummied discs, the worse it got. WHen I started dummying my discs, it quit getting worse.

How do you dummy disc your cd??

Wasgo · Post by **Wasgo** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 1:35 am

The whole issue is speculation. Essentially, all it comes down to is seek time. Homebrew where most of the loading is done up front, it shouldn't be a problem. Other cd-r magic may be less helpful to your system's health.

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 7:12 am

The DC doesn't have to work any harder to access parts of a CD than it does from a GD. Essentially, it still does the same things.

However, it depends on how you're using the drive. Commercial games read a lot of small bits of data off the disc, and the data is specially arranged to minimise movement. If you copy that onto a CD-R, you've moved the data around a lot, you could be moving all around the disc, which might stress the mechanisms more. So copied commercial games might damage the drive, like XDP might.

Emulators read a few files at startup, and then just read on file every so often. No problems there. Dummy it if you want.

Homebrew games don't use the disc much either. Not a problem either, but you can dummy it if you want.

DivX does a lot of fairly intense disc reading, so might stuff the drive up to, but there's nothing you can do about it.

Theoretically, it shouldn't be a problem, because the drives were designed for this kind of stuff. Unless the drive is poor-quality, there shouldn't be anything wrong with it.

Captain Skyhawk · Post by **Captain Skyhawk** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 7:24 am

If you selfboot your stuff and you use a dummyfile, how can you be sure it will be burned at the beginning of the disc? Sure you must name the file 00000.dum or something, but when I use Nero for example I can set the priority of the files making sure it comes at the beginning of the disc. Is there a mkisof switch for it?

mkjones · Post by **mkjones** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 7:25 am

I hope they are ok! Or my DC is gonna die soon

rmila75 · Post by **rmila75** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 8:19 am

Well, the disc that I tried causes a fair amount of disc activity from the point of start-up to just before the title screen appears. The rest of the time the activity seems to be about the same as the original disc.
Does that sound like a "dummied" disc?

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 8:32 am

Actually, it sounds like a backup, which we aren't supposed to talk about here, except possibly in a theoretical sense.

rmila75 · Post by **rmila75** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 8:39 am

BlackAura,
Understood....
I'm just trying to experiment and see what's possible before I finally get around to buying a CD burner and figuring out how the heck all this stuff works.
Thanks

Chaniyth · Post by **Chaniyth** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 9:13 am

Backups = Intense CD drive and laser movement... it can ruin yur Dreamcasts drive. (Of course certain warez monkeys on this site will say it's all a lie.)
Homebrew = Less intense CD drive and laser movement... dummy them "just in case".

Cless · Post by **Cless** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 9:24 am

I for one can say if you use back ups all the time on a later end system it will break it. Like the early 2000 one's only lasted a year while the early 99 one's are still tikking.

rmila75 · Post by **rmila75** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 10:17 am

Can someone point me towards a web site that explains what it means to "dummy" a disc?

Nyarlathotep · Post by **Nyarlathotep** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 12:31 pm

rmila75 wrote:Can someone point me towards a web site that explains what it means to "dummy" a disc?

it just means adding a file that is a 'dummy' (ie does nothing) to your disk so that the actual data the DC reads will be closer to the 'edge' of the CD and therefore quicker / easier to read by the laser.

Anything works as a dummy file, just make sure its named something 'early' so it gets burnt first (0000000 for example).

An easy way to make one is just to open up windows sound recorder and record a few minutes of silence as a high quality wav - this will give you a dummy file thats easily compressed to almost nothing for future use

WaCk0 · Post by **WaCk0** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 12:56 pm

hehe, everyday we learn something cool here

rmila75 · Post by **rmila75** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 2:40 pm

So, as I understand it, all the disc activity at start-up is not the real concern. A lot of jumping around of the drive after the disc has loaded is unacceptable, however. Correct?

I'm wondering why none of this can be done with the Sega Saturn. It has always seemed more reliable than the DC to me. Is it just not capable of doing any of the things needed for emulation? Surely, most of the games being emulated don't require the power of the DC.