Help Getting Backups To Play On My PC Engine Duo-R

[marurun]

The Verbatim Azo dye sometimes doesn’t agree with the PCE CD drive, but it won’t hurt it so it’s worth a try.

[Ziggy587]

I know it's not a duo but I've burned a few sega cd games the past few days at 16x on cheap ass memorex without issue. I've used verbatim back in the 360 days with fewer bad burns, but that was few and far between. I'm in the camp that says write speed and media has little effect. But that's just my experience and I used to pirate my ass off lol

I've also had mostly good luck using whatever (usually cheap-o) brands at whatever (usually fastest) speeds. But I definitely ran into a situation once or twice that a certain drive didn't like a certain brand disc. It's more rare, but it does happen. And probably more often as these drives age.

FWIW, I've actually had better luck with burns in game consoles than I have with older (pre-burner age) CD and DVD players.

[VicDeakins]

I cant imagine finding an old 2X/4X burner that will work with a modern PC.

For reference, I have a Asus DRW-24B1ST (the slightly newer DRW-24F1ST is available on Amazon) SATA drive in my computer, and Verbatim CD-R 97458 (also available on Amazon), and I can burn at 4x.

I could be wrong, but I think it might have more to do with the disc than the drive. I believe the disc tells the drive what burning speeds it can tolerate.

I would give the Verbatims a try and see what happens. Trying a different brand might be all you need anyway, and Verbatims are usually top notch quality, and you should be able to burn at 4x with them.

Thanks man. I'll look into the Verbatims. Its just my burner does explicitly say the minimum burn speed my drive supports is 16X, so thats my main concern. I'll check out that Asus drive you mentioned too.

[Ziggy587]

The Verbatim Azo dye sometimes doesn’t agree with the PCE CD drive, but it won’t hurt it so it’s worth a try.

Hmm, I wasn't aware of that. Maybe don't try the Verbatims then (although they are great for general use!). Sony is another favorite brand of mine.

Thanks man. I'll look into the Verbatims. Its just my burner does explicitly say the minimum burn speed my drive supports is 16X, so thats my main concern. I'll check out that Asus drive you mentioned too.

Ah, gotcha. If you have a desktop with an extra bay, I would definitely suggest an Asus SATA drive. I've used a few Asus DVD-RW drives now, and never had any issues with them. You can always find the OEM units for pretty cheap (about $20).

Here's the exact model I have in my main desktop: https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Serial-ATA- ... ref=sr_1_1

[Sarge]

As someone who has fought through burning issues with my Duo, I feel for you.

First thing I'd change is those CD-Rs. I've recently gotten some Verbatim DataLife Plus discs that work well in mine, outside of a few edge cases. It's probably going to be hard to find cheap 650MB discs that will still work well. I've never tried out MAM-A discs, but they still sell them... and the shipping on them is brutal. These are the ones I got and are probably the cheapest place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001 ... UTF8&psc=1

If that doesn't work, you may need a different burner. That being said, depending on the type of disc, you may actually have to speed up the burning. I tried burning these Verbatim discs at 4x, and they didn't work well at all. Bumping up to 8x did the trick. A lot of modern media is optimized for faster burn speeds.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Anyone have feelings about the best external (USB) optical drives??

[Ziggy587]

Anyone have feelings about the best external (USB) optical drives??

You may be able to just use an internal drive with one of these...

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SAT ... ref=sr_1_5

Not sure if that'll supply enough power or not, but there's a variant that incorporates an AC/DC adapter.

[VicDeakins]

As someone who has fought through burning issues with my Duo, I feel for you.

First thing I'd change is those CD-Rs. I've recently gotten some Verbatim DataLife Plus discs that work well in mine, outside of a few edge cases. It's probably going to be hard to find cheap 650MB discs that will still work well. I've never tried out MAM-A discs, but they still sell them... and the shipping on them is brutal. These are the ones I got and are probably the cheapest place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001 ... UTF8&psc=1

If that doesn't work, you may need a different burner. That being said, depending on the type of disc, you may actually have to speed up the burning. I tried burning these Verbatim discs at 4x, and they didn't work well at all. Bumping up to 8x did the trick. A lot of modern media is optimized for faster burn speeds.

Thanks man, I'll try that next. I did find some old Memorex 10X 700MB CDs, which did not work. I;kk try finding some 650s as my last ditch effort. I havent been having a lot of luck with my Sega CD ones either. They load, but take like 5x longer to load than a genuine Sega CD game does, so it makes it pretty brutal. I also worry its damaging the laser.

[marurun]

Burned CDs put a tiny bit of extra wear on units, but it shouldn’t have significant impact unless it really is such a poor burn the system really just drags out on it. The idea that we’re killing our systems with burns isn’t really born out by any evidence and not much logic.

[VicDeakins]

Update: I tried burning with a Verbatim DataLifePlus 650MB CD and it worked like a charm. It still loads a bit slower than the original disc, but at least it actually works. I guess 650MB vs 700MB was the key, more so than the burn speed in this case.