Copyright © 1997-2008 Elizabeth Boston, The Computer Lady

Dear Computer Lady,

 

Today I bought some CD's that have 48X on them in addition to the 80min. 700MB.

 

My CD-RW says 40x10x40x max. speed and the DVD-ROM says max. speed 16x.

 

How can I tell what blank cd's will work? Does the Max difference between the cd's and the writer limit what I can use?

 

Thank you, Mary

Dear Mary,

 

I will try to explain this as clear as I can.

 

Your CD-RW drive will write to CDR disks at any speed up to 40X. Your CD-RW drive will write to CDRW disks at any speed up to 10X. Your CD-RW drive will read CDs at any speed up to 40X. Your DVD-ROM drive will read DVDs or CDs at any speed up to 16X.

If you were to buy blank CDs that have a speed of 8X, you would be able to use them in your CD-RW drive as long as you reduced the speed to 8X or lower when creating the CD.

 

Your new 48X CDs will work great in your CD-RW drive since the CDs support any speed up to 48X.

 

The basic rule is that you want CDs that have a rating the same as your drive or faster. Slower disks will work, you will just have to reduce the speed when burning your CDs. This is usually an option in the burning software you are using.

 

Elizabeth