Hello,

We've been having lots of problems with burning CD-Rs on our Dell PowerEdge and T300 servers. We've had the CD recorders replaced frequently, and that often fixes the problem, but then we'll start having problems again. Usually it is the CD refuses to write, or it gets written but can't be read. Often, if I re-run the burn with the same blank CD, it will be fine.

I'd like to test some CD-Rs and compare error rates so I can recommend what CD-R media we should be using. Currently we are using Memorex and Verbatim CD-Rs.

Is there a good cd recording/testing suite for Linux that I could use to do this?

Thanks!

No, but it is quite easy to create, here is a possible way

use the "dd" command to create a 690mb (not 700, it probably wont write) with input from /dev/urandom .

They burn the image on the disk while keeping a copy. Now, use "dd" again, but to create an image from /dev/cdrom (replace with your device). Now, with the diff command, compare both. In theory, it with. I can confirm that it work with HDD, but never tried on a CD. It may have some kind of header that will create a 100% failure result, but if you can go around it and compare actual data, it will work. It's not really a test suite, but it's a test precise down to the binary level.