[Paranoia] Progressively worse ripping.

[cdparanoia at donny.plus.com]

Bill Davidsen wrote:
> cdparanoia at donny.plus.com wrote:
> 
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I've recently started to use cdparanoia but have come across a problem 
>> that I _think_ might be down to having a crap cd-rom drive.
>>
>> My machine was originally built as a fileserver with a very cheap 
>> cd-rom really just to put the gentoo installer CD in to. I've now 
>> decided to rip all my CDs, and have had some success.
>>
>> The problem is that the later tracks on most CDs get a lot of pluses 
>> in the progress bar and some Vs. In fact, with the -z option, one CD 
>> was left overnight and never finished. I've had to resort to using -Z 
>> for problem tracks, which are usually the last few on most disks.
>>
>> Originally I had problems which, when I read the troubleshooting 
>> guide, alerted me to the fact that /var/log/messages was 3.5Gb! I 
>> recompiled the kernel with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR=y, which got rid of those 
>> messages, but the problem did not improve.
>>
>> Is there anything I can do with cdparanoia or the kernel to improve 
>> this, or would I be better off buying a new CD drive?
> 
> 
> Staples, OfficeMax, NewEgg.Com, etc all have CD drives on sale for <$30 
> if you wait for a sale. That's CD writers, not just readers. Actually, 
> that's DVD burners, just checked newegg... Oh, those are Dual-Layer DVD 
> burners, checked the specs. Very hard to justify not upgrading, 
> particularly if the lack of a proper burner is keeping you from doing 
> backups :-(
> 

Thanks for the input there Bill, but I suppose what I am really asking is 
whether buying a new drive will solve the problem.

I have to admit I know nothing about cd-rom drives, and they are all so cheap 
these days; how does one distinguish the good quality ones from the bad?

A couple of other points:
1) I'm in the UK, so these good deals you mention are probably not worth the 
shipping fee :)
2) I don't have a cd burner, I backup to tape.

Cheers,
Duncan