                         --- Program Purpose ---

 CD-ROM Drive Analyzer Program was developed to test drive performance. Such testing is available in Windows 95/98 and Windows NT. In addition, this program will be useful for testing CD-ROM disk quality. 


 If you want to test your CD-ROM drive performance - 
 
 1. Choose from your store the most full of data CD-ROM disks (volume of data should be 660 MB or more). The more the data volume on the disk is, the more complete performance chart you will get. This disk should not be custom CD-R disk.

 2. Chosen disk must not to be damaged. Testing can be performed then.  Better, do this under Windows 95/98. (We do not enter in some specific details of testing under Windows NT here.) Received chart must not contain gaps (if disk errors not encountered, of course). 4x-8x speed drives chart should be flat, speedier drives will have not ideal line of chart. The reliability of performance test badly depends on the quality of chosen for that purpose disk.

 3. All subsequent runs must be performed with the help of that very disk. Thus, you can compare the data received on various models of drives and to compare performance of the same drive under different operating systems and with various configuration settings.

 4. Received data can be stored as pictures or data files. Later you can crate charts from these data files. There is AutoSave option, which stores results automatically after each run.


 If you want to check new or questionable disk -

 1. If you want to check new or questionable disk then it is more suitable to do on slow drives up to 8x speed. However, results will be received with any drive. If there is unrecoverable error then your drive must to recognize them (see Notes).

 2. Some disk can show errors on certain drives and be faultless on the others models. Such disks cannot be found welcomed. 


 Program Options -

 1. AutoSave - saves results automatically after each run. Name of file will be label of 
volume tested.

 2. Sequencer group settings. It sets Data/Gap ratio in tested data block. Default option of 800-200 Value does not require any changes as a rule. Value 1000 results in probability of not restoring speed after encountering with error on the disk though with such settings data blocks are read with no intervals.


 Notes -

 1. Please do not test audio CD.

 2. Please do not test SCSI drives. We do not investigate such capacity though the program can run SCSI drives under Windows NT. 

 3. This program does not change anything in OS as a whole and in registry in particular. It does not require any installation. Simply place it in folder and run it.

 4. Not all drives can recognize unrecoverable errors on disks (unreadable sector). As I can see this is especially true for 24x speed drives. Drive tries to read the fault sector repeatedly. If this happens the only solution is to press Eject button provided on your CD-ROM. (There is no chance to go out from this situation by program own decision). You must consider changing such CD-ROM drive in such a case - it is good for ideal quality disks only.

 5. In Windows NT, sometimes IDE system driver can hang up when bad sector encountered. It is not hardware problem of course. I suppose it is due to system drivers problems. 

 6. There is CD-ROM drives, which do not see bad sectors at all. To verify this you should create such faulty disc by yourself with the help of knife (on the data side). 

 7. My observation shows that CD-ROM drives of some manufacturers are not very reliable. Also it should be mentioned that high speed drives are good for special applications, but more stable are 8x speed drives which are not produced now. It is a pity because that generation was better in some aspects than the newest one.

                 --- Program Status & Distribution ---

 This program is freeware and remains copyright of Filippof Alex, Kiev, 1998. This program is provided "as is", without any support. While I cannot promise to answer queries relating to the use of this program, I'd welcome your comments or suggestions for improvement. Requests for distribution must be referred to the author, but will usually be granted if no commercial gain is involved. 