Imation

Are you creating CDs at the right speed? Understanding how the speed of your media impacts the speed of your burner will help you save time, media, and money when making CDs. Those numbers on your drive and media let you know the capabilities and limitations of your burner. The first number is always the record speed, and the last number represents how fast the drive is able to read pre-recorded optical media. For CD-RW drives, the middle number is the speed at which you can rewrite to the media. For example:

CD-Recorder 48x40:

CD-R recording speed if 48X
Reads recorded media at 40X
Drive will work best with CD-R media rated at 48X

CD-ReWriter listed at 52x24x52:

CD-R recording speed of 52X
CD-RW write and rewrite speed of 24X
Reads recorded media at 52X
Drive will work best with CD-R media rated at 52X and CD-RW media rated at 24X or less

As you'd expect, bigger numbers are better when you want speed. Thanks to improvements in today's technologies, the newest DVD burners, which usually include CD writing abilities, offer increased read and write speeds (52X for CD-R media and 24X for CD-RW).

To avoid unwanted errors and ensure high quality, use media that is certified to the fastest speed of the drive. For example, if you own a 52x24x52 CD-RW drive, use CD-R media certified for 1-52x media. If you get a great deal on a spindle of 48x media, slow the recording speed down to 48x or less using your CD-burning software control panel. Take a look at the time you save with faster drives and media:

CD-R 1X records 700MB in 74 minutes
CD-R 8X records 700MB in 9 minutes
CD-R 24X records 700MB in 3 minutes
CD-R 52X records 700MB in less than 90 seconds

In general, CD 1X is equal to approximately 150KB per second, or close to 9MB per minute. Still, if you've got an older CD drive and can only find the faster new media in stores, don't worry. You can still get great results by recording CD-R media at a slower speed than its maximum certified speed. For example, recording 1-52X media at 16X. The reverse is not true and trying to record old 4X media at the fastest speed of a 32X CD-Recorder may result in unwanted errors.

A Note about CD-RW Speeds

While you can use a 52x CD-R in a 48x CD burner, CD-RW speeds are a bit more complex. CD-RW offers three speed groupings:

CD-RW 1-4x
CD-RW High-Speed 4-10X
CD-RW Ultra-Speed 10-24X

If you have a 4x CD-RW burner, you cannot use the CD-RW Ultra-Speed discs and simply burn at a lower speed. To use an Ultra-Speed disc, you must have a CD-RW burner with the Ultra-Speed logo, compatible with the discs. Similarly, to use a CD-RW High-Speed, your drive must be certified with either the High-Speed logo or the Ultra-Speed logo. If you have an older drive, 1-4x CD-RW media offers the most compatibility with all CD-RW drives.