INCD4, dual layer drives and Windows XP SP 2

[chilli]

From PC World Magazine
Problem with dual layer drives and INCD4 on SP2 Systems.

The PC World Test Center staff has discovered two bugs involving Windows XP's Service Pack 2. One can reduce the write speed of many dual-layer DVD drives. The other can decrease the battery life on some Acer laptops by an hour.

Staffers were testing dual-layer DVD drives when they found that InCD4 DVD-burning software, by Nero AG (formerly Ahead Software AG), performed up to 40 percent slower than competing applications (such as Roxio's Drag-to-Disc) on systems running SP2. InCD4 ships with many drives, including those from Lite-On, Plextor, and Sony.

Nero developers say that the glitch is due to a cache problem in SP2 and affects InCD prior to release 4.3.7.3. To check your version, open the program and select About. If your app is affected, get the InCD Update-Package 3. The fix bypasses SP2's cache management problem.

Microsoft is working on a hotfix that wasn't yet available at press time.

[Gurm]

InCD is shit. Why do we care about how crappy packet-writing software is? It's all garbage that kills machines... so it's no shock that it's extra buggy under XP SP2 with dual-layer discs!

[JohnnyCNote]

I've been using it for years with zero problems. Just goes to show the #1 rule still prevails:

Individual results may vary....

[Gurm]

You're lucky. For most people, packet writing software is a recipe for disaster. Of course ANY software can be used successfully if you're careful about how the machine is set up. Most people who install InCD or DirectCD aren't - they just assume it will work, and don't care how, and have 8 million other programs cluttering up their hard disk and causing conflicts.

Packet writing drivers are horrid. They are, by nature, temperamental and unstable. They should be avoided at ALL costs.

[JohnnyCNote]

I guess I have been lucky. I use a CDRW to back up data every night and it's been very relable for years. I've used both InCD and DirectCD....

[Gurm]

Yes, you're lucky. There was a class action at one point against Adaptec, that's how bad DirectCD was.

[JohnnyCNote]

I stopped using DirectCD a long time ago, after I found I liked Nero better. What alternative to packet-writing sw do you use?