Optical drive test [CD] |

A read test of CD, DVD and Blu-ray drives; write test of CD and DVD drives; and a sound card test when used with a music CD. This test can be used with many different types of CD / DVD / Blu-ray media, including the following types.

- | Music CD, Data CD-ROM, Data CD-R, Data CD-RW, Specialized test CD (see below for details)

- | Data DVD-ROM, Data DVD-R, Data DVD-RW, Data DVD+RW, Data DVD RAM, Specialized test DVD (see below for details)

- | BD-R, BD-RE

The type of disc being used must be suitable for the test mode set in the Optical drive preferences window however. If multiple optical drives are installed in your system, you can select all or some of them from the Preferences window. Up to 20 drives can be selected for simultaneous testing.

Test modes

NO TEST

Don’t test the drive selected.

Music CD playback

For a music CD, the test verifies the operation of the CD ROM and the PC’s sound system by repeatedly playing a music CD. The number of cycles corresponds to the total number of times the entire CD has been played. The number of ‘ops’ corresponds to the number of bytes read from the CD in order to generate the sound. The duty cycle affects the time spent waiting between tracks. Choose a band you like and turn the volume up loud.

Data disk read and verify

For optical data disks, the disk is scanned with each file being read in turn. A 32bit checksum is created for each file as it is read from the disk. The disk is then re-read and the checksums verified to complete the cycle. The best data disks’s to use are those, which are full and contain a good variety of files. Some large ones and some small ones. If the CD has more than 10,000 files only the 1st 10,000 will be scanned.

PassMark Test CD / DVD

This test method is the most advanced CD-ROM test mode and provides a level of in depth testing not available with the other two methods. When possible this method should be selected in preference to the other two. It allows a complete read and verify of the data on the CD, and optionally random seek testing (see Additional seeking and Seek count below).

There is the possibility to create CDs and DVDs especially for use with BurnInTest. These specialized CDs and DVDs contain a set of files that have been specifically created to thoroughly check your drive. With these CDs and DVDs, BurnInTest is able to know the layout and exact content for each file on the CD/DVD. This allows BurnInTest to read back each file and test every bit for accuracy.

PassMark sells these specialized CDs and DVDs but you can also make your own file set using a utility called CD-Maker. You will still need 3rd party CD or DVD burner software to actually create the disc however.

CD-Maker creates a set of files that can be burned to CD or DVD. More information about this tool can be found on the PassMark Software web site. (http://www.passmark.com/products/cdmaker.htm )

No media in Drive

This test method only attempts to detect the presence of an optical drive. No attempt is made to read from the drive. This can be a useful option when there are no discs available for testing but a basic check is still required to ensure that the drive was detected and enumerated by Windows. This test option is not as thorough as the other options and, if possible, one of the other options should be used.

Burn CD-RW

This test method provides testing of a CD burner through continuously erasing, burning, verifying then randomly seeking across a CD-RW. It is recommended that this test be run with a set number of test cycles rather than a set duration.

PassMark 650MB or 700MB (user specified) Test CD data (see PassMark Test CD / DVD above) is created temporarily on the hard disk. For the period of the test, the following testing is then repeated:

- | Erase the CD-RW media (User specified Quick or Full format). The quick option erases content type information in typically less than two minutes. The Full option additionally erases all user data on the disc, however this can take a considerable amount of time (over 1 hour) and the test cannot be canceled during this stage.

- | Burn the PassMark Test CD data to the CD.

- | A complete read and verify of the data on the CD.

- | And optionally random seek testing (see Additional seeking and Seek count below).

Burn CD-RW requires Windows Vista (and later), IMAPI v2 patched XP or IMAPI v2 patched 2003 Server. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932716.

Burn CD-RW requires a CD-RW only drive. Combo drives with DVD burners are not currently supported - in this case test with writable DVD media.

Burn DVD-RW

This test method provides testing of a DVD burner through continuously erasing, burning, verifying then randomly seeking across a DVD-RW or DVD+RW.

PassMark DVD-5, DVD-9, DVD-10 or DVD-18 Test CD data (see PassMark Test CD / DVD above) is created temporarily on the hard disk. For the period of the test, the following testing is then repeated:

- | Erase the DVD-RW or DVD+RW media (User specified Quick or Full format). The quick option erases content type information in typically less than two minutes. The Full option additionally erases all user data on the disc, however this can take a considerable amount of time (over 1 hour) and the test cannot be canceled during this stage.

- | Burn the PassMark Test DVD data to the DVD.

- | A complete read and verify of the data on the DVD.

- | And optionally random seek testing (see Additional seeking and Seek count below).

Burn DVD-RW requires Windows Vista (and later), IMAPI v2 patched XP or IMAPI v2 patched 2003 Server. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932716.

Note:

- DVD-5 is Single sided, single layer. A 12cm DVD is 4.7GB (actually approx. 4,700,000,000 bytes)

- DVD-9 is Single sided, dual layer. A 12cm DVD is 8.5GB.

- DVD-10 is Double sided, single layer. A 12cm DVD is 9.4GB.

- DVD-18 is Double sided, dual layer on both sides. A 12cm DVD is 17.1GB.

When referring to DVD capacity the industry uses 1GB approximately 10 9 Bytes.

Auto Test CD & Burn DVD

This option is only available after "Select all optical drives" is selected.

This option is useful for systems with a DVD burner and one or more other optical drives. When selected, BurnInTest will allow a global set of test parameters to be applied to all of the CD and DVD drives detected on each system at test run time. However, the Test Modes that will be used will be set by BurnInTest. If a DVD recorder is detected on the system, then the first (lowest drive letter) DVD burner will be allocated a Test mode of Burn DVD. All other CD and DVD drives will be allocated the "PassMark Test CD / DVD" Test mode.

Additional seeking and Seek count

When Additional seeking is selected (for PassMark CD/DVD’s and Burn CD-RW only), seeking to different positions on the CD/DVD or CD-RW and verifying the data at this position will occur Seek Count number of times for each cycle of a file read and verify.

Display

Depending on the test the following information is displayed in the test window.

Progress bar

Displays the progress graphically for the longer CD burn phases.

Phase

Data CD and specialized CDs :

• | Starting

• | Checksum creation

• | Searching for files

• | Opening file

• | Reading Test CD

• | Verifying checksums

• | Seeking

CD burn:

• | Starting

• | Creating test data files

• | Setting active CD burner

• | Erasing CD-RW media

• | Erasing CD-RW media retry

• | Preparing to Burn CD

• | Adding staged image data

• | Burning image to CD

• | Closing the CD

• | Finished CD Burn

• | Checksum creation

• | Searching for files

• | Opening file

• | Reading Test CD

• | Verifying checksums

• | Seeking

Files scanned

This is the number of files that have been scanned during the current cycle

Current file

This is the name of the file that is currently being scanned. If this is in the seek phase, this will display the file and block within the file that the drive has seeked to.

Bytes read

This is the total number of bytes read from the CD

CD burn:

This is the total number of bytes written or read from the CD (depending on the phase).

Throughput (Current and Average)

This is read speed from the CD in Megabytes per second and a conversion to standard CD Drive speed (e.g. 4x). It should be noted that this measurement includes the seek and rotational latency time, so that the speed reported will always be lower than the maximum drive speed. This is especially the case for a CD with many small files. Also most drive manufacturers quote the maximum speed for their drives, the actual transfer rate is usually significantly lower than the quoted maximum. E.g. It is not unusual for a 32x speed drive to only reach a speed of 2MB/Sec, 13x.

CD burn:

This is the write or read speed (depending on the phase).

Errors

Data CD and specialized CDs :

The number of errors detected. See Common Errors for a description of the errors that may be encountered.