Copy two CD's at the same time?

[Kevin]

I have two optical drives in my system. Can Windows Explorer copy from both
drives at the same time? I just tried it and while the drive I started
copying from first continued without incident, the drive I started with the
second CD would not copy. The drive did not see the disk. Is this a
function of both drives being on the same cable or a function of Windows
Explorer?

 

[MAP]

I have two optical drives in my system. Can Windows Explorer copy
from both drives at the same time? I just tried it and while the
drive I started copying from first continued without incident, the
drive I started with the second CD would not copy. The drive did not
see the disk. Is this a function of both drives being on the same
cable or a function of Windows Explorer?

Using the windows cd copy program only 1 drive can be "enabled" for burning
at a time. To copy both drives at the same time you need to use a second
copy program.

If you go to my computer and look at the drives properties you will see the
recording box can only be checked for a single drive at any time.

 

[P. Johnson]

I have two optical drives in my system. Can Windows Explorer copy from
both drives at the same time? I just tried it and while the drive I
started copying from first continued without incident, the drive I started
with the second CD would not copy. The drive did not see the disk. Is
this a function of both drives being on the same cable or a function of
Windows Explorer?

A limitation of IDE is that you can only read or write to one drive at a
time on a particular channel, and maximum two devices per channel. The
other tradeoff is that you sacrifice speed to be able to use two devices on
a channel as well. If you want to use both optical drives at once, try to
make sure there is only one optical drive on a channel (by making sure
there is only one optical drive per IDE cable).

You hit the nail on the head. Optimally, you will want one drive per IDE
cable, but sometimes that's just not possible. If it's a major problem for
you, you might consider getting another EIDE controller for your optical
drives so everything gets their own channel.

 

[Kevin]

A limitation of IDE is that you can only read or write to one drive at a
time on a particular channel, and maximum two devices per channel. The
other tradeoff is that you sacrifice speed to be able to use two devices
on
a channel as well. If you want to use both optical drives at once, try to
make sure there is only one optical drive on a channel (by making sure
there is only one optical drive per IDE cable).

You hit the nail on the head. Optimally, you will want one drive per IDE
cable, but sometimes that's just not possible. If it's a major problem
for
you, you might consider getting another EIDE controller for your optical
drives so everything gets their own channel.

Thanks! That's about what I figured. I just wanted to make sure I was
figuring correctly. I'm copying a stack (88 to be precise) of CD's to my
hard drive so I can burn them to DVD's. This will turn those 88 CD's into
about 12 or 13 DVD's. Much more manageable. I was just looking for a way
to copy 2 CD's at the same time to save me a little bit of time. Using my
laptop on my wireless network is just too slow to be much of a time saver.
Thanks again for the information!

 

[P. Johnson]

Thanks! That's about what I figured. I just wanted to make sure I was
figuring correctly. I'm copying a stack (88 to be precise) of CD's to my
hard drive so I can burn them to DVD's. This will turn those 88 CD's into
about 12 or 13 DVD's. Much more manageable.

Ouch! Environmental hazard!

Those CDs don't break down for a few hundred years, and curbside recycling
(where available/compulsory) often won't take CDs, so it's good to try to
avoid wasting those. A much better solution would be a high-volume CD
organizer. Good ones will store CDs bare and will let you select a
specific CD from an index and a small catch mechanism to pull just one CD
out of the stack (and high-end ones will let you use software to search by
keyword and do all the CD flipping for you).

Discgear makes excellent manual ones.
http://www.discgear.com/templates/solutions.asp?GroupGuid=11107

And if five seconds and doing it yourself is too much trouble, CD Carousel
makes the machine do all the searching.
http://www.cdcarousel.com/index.htm

 

[Phil Weldon]

'Kevin' wrote:
| Thanks! That's about what I figured. I just wanted to make sure I was
| figuring correctly. I'm copying a stack (88 to be precise) of CD's to my
| hard drive so I can burn them to DVD's. This will turn those 88 CD's into
| about 12 or 13 DVD's. Much more manageable. I was just looking for a way
| to copy 2 CD's at the same time to save me a little bit of time. Using my
| laptop on my wireless network is just too slow to be much of a time saver.
| Thanks again for the information!

Windows Explorer by itself can not be used to copy a CD. You will need an
application like Roxio or Nero.

Copy the CDs, alternating drives, to your hard drive, then burn the DVDs
from the hard drive. That should prevent burning coasters and reduce disk
shuffling. Copy eighty-eight CDs ~ = 450 MBytes X 88 ~ = 40 GBytes in ~ 4
hours (depending on the read speed of the DVD and CD drives and how good you
are at swapping discs). Time to burn files to DVDs from the hard drive ~ =
2 hours (depending on the write speed of the DVD drive and the DVD media).

As far as I know, there are no applications available for copying FROM two
CDs at the same time (Roxio Easy Media Creator will copy TO two CDs at a
time). To copy FROM two CDs at the same time probably will require two
applications as well as two CD/DVD drives.

Current IDE data transfer rates are far higher than any DVD or CD drive can
produce or use, so using two or more optical drives at once faces no limit.
Your hard drive is internally buffered, so the three devices will not strain
the capacity of two IDE channels when copying two and from the CD/DVD
drives. There is absolutely no need to think about extra IDE channels. Two
DVD/CD drives can produce at most 10 to 15 MBytes per second; adding the
transfer time to the hard drive brings the necessary bandwidth to only 30
MBytes per second; current IDE channels can handle 60 to 130 MBytes per
second.

If you are like me, the real problem you will face is keeping track of the
disks you copy from and labeling the resulting DVDs.
It is always safer to burn from a hard drive than to make a direct copy from
a DVD/CD drive because an error reading in a direct copy can turn
non-rewriteable media into coasters (not to mention the extra wasted time).

Phil Weldon

|
| | > Kevin wrote:
| >
| >> I have two optical drives in my system. Can Windows Explorer copy from
| >> both drives at the same time? I just tried it and while the drive I
| >> started copying from first continued without incident, the drive I
| >> started
| >> with the second CD would not copy. The drive did not see the disk. Is
| >> this a function of both drives being on the same cable or a function of
| >> Windows Explorer?
| >
| > A limitation of IDE is that you can only read or write to one drive at a
| > time on a particular channel, and maximum two devices per channel. The
| > other tradeoff is that you sacrifice speed to be able to use two devices
| > on
| > a channel as well. If you want to use both optical drives at once, try
to
| > make sure there is only one optical drive on a channel (by making sure
| > there is only one optical drive per IDE cable).
| >
| > You hit the nail on the head. Optimally, you will want one drive per
IDE
| > cable, but sometimes that's just not possible. If it's a major problem
| > for
| > you, you might consider getting another EIDE controller for your optical
| > drives so everything gets their own channel.
|
| Thanks! That's about what I figured. I just wanted to make sure I was
| figuring correctly. I'm copying a stack (88 to be precise) of CD's to my
| hard drive so I can burn them to DVD's. This will turn those 88 CD's into
| about 12 or 13 DVD's. Much more manageable. I was just looking for a way
| to copy 2 CD's at the same time to save me a little bit of time. Using my
| laptop on my wireless network is just too slow to be much of a time saver.
| Thanks again for the information!
|
|

 

[miss-information]

Ouch! Environmental hazard!

Those CDs don't break down for a few hundred years, and curbside recycling
(where available/compulsory) often won't take CDs, so it's good to try to
avoid wasting those.

I bet you live in Sand FranCisco.

mi

 

[Kevin]

Ouch! Environmental hazard!

Those CDs don't break down for a few hundred years, and curbside recycling
(where available/compulsory) often won't take CDs, so it's good to try to
avoid wasting those. A much better solution would be a high-volume CD
organizer. Good ones will store CDs bare and will let you select a
specific CD from an index and a small catch mechanism to pull just one CD
out of the stack (and high-end ones will let you use software to search by
keyword and do all the CD flipping for you).

Discgear makes excellent manual ones.
http://www.discgear.com/templates/solutions.asp?GroupGuid=11107

And if five seconds and doing it yourself is too much trouble, CD Carousel
makes the machine do all the searching.
http://www.cdcarousel.com/index.htm

The disks will be properly disposed of, not just tossed out the window of my
car as I go to work.

 

[Kevin]

I am indeed copying the CD's to my hard drive. After I have that chore
done, I will begin to burn my DVD's. As for keeping the contents straight,
I use a little utility called "Tree Print" to print out the contents of the
folder I am copying all those CD's to. Works like a charm!

 

[Phil Weldon]

'Kevin' wrote:
| I am indeed copying the CD's to my hard drive. After I have that chore
| done, I will begin to burn my DVD's. As for keeping the contents
straight,
| I use a little utility called "Tree Print" to print out the contents of
the
| folder I am copying all those CD's to. Works like a charm!
_____

Thanks for the info about 'Tree Print', I will try it out.

Phil Weldon

|
| |
| I am indeed copying the CD's to my hard drive. After I have that chore
| done, I will begin to burn my DVD's. As for keeping the contents
straight,
| I use a little utility called "Tree Print" to print out the contents of
the
| folder I am copying all those CD's to. Works like a charm!
|
|

 

[P. Johnson]

I bet you live in Sand FranCisco.

Hell no. Portland wishes they'd go back where they came from and stop
moving here.

 

[Kevin]

'Kevin' wrote:
| I am indeed copying the CD's to my hard drive. After I have that chore
| done, I will begin to burn my DVD's. As for keeping the contents
straight,
| I use a little utility called "Tree Print" to print out the contents of
the
| folder I am copying all those CD's to. Works like a charm!
_____

Thanks for the info about 'Tree Print', I will try it out.

No problem. It's a great little utility.