I am a n00b when it comes to Linux, but I have done this before. Now I'm about to get really mad. I am currently running XP, trying to get these CD's burned so I can build a music server/possible caching DNS server/play around with Linux box. I am using Nero to burn these discs.

I have downloaded CD1 and CD2 and matched MD5 checksums. I run Nero and tell it to burn an image, write and finalize CD. It does this. It claims the CD is successful. I take that CD and put it in my "to be" Linux box and the drive will not read the CD. I throw the CD in my reader on the XP box and it reads. I throw the CD in my writer on the XP box and it will not read. It will hang the system until it finally gives up. I would think my writer would read a disc it wrote.

I know it is not the drive in the box that will be Linux (it reads an old MDK8.2 CD). I know it is not the brand of CD's. I've used both Memorex and TY CD's. Both fail. I have burned 6 TY's so far and every one of them has failed. I have tried Nero in Track-At-Once and Disc-At-Once mode. I have done everything I can think of and am baffled at this point.

I don't want to make anymore coasters even though I just got another 50 TY's at a great price. I'm almost ready to try another distro to see if that makes a difference. Does anyone have any suggestions out there as to how I can get these CD's to be read in the other box? I would try a network install but do not have an NFS server or a FTP server program. Any advice is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.

What mode and block size are you selecting when Nero brings up the write dialog? I was able to burn CD1 without incident, and the writer read it fine, but I'm having trouble getting ISOs for 2 and 3 that pass the checksum and will burn. Based on what you said, I tried the burn of 1 in a few different drives (not the Linux to be box as it's not powered up just yet) and all read it.

# How do I burn a bootable CD with Nero?
Information and Links For Nero CD Burning Software

Thanks for the replies. A little more info. I have followed the instructions in the link that Fancypiper posted. Also, in Nero I have it set to Data Mode 1, 2048 block size, 0 Header, 0 Trailer, and neither swapped nor scrambled. In fact, these options are greyed out. I set it to write and finalize. This should be exactly right according to the link and according to Moebius. I think I have that all right.

I will probably try again with a different type of CD but I don't think this is the problem. I may even redownload the iso's just to be sure.

The one really puzzling thing I come across is my reader will read the disc but the writer will not. When I hit medium info in Nero with it in the reader, it states the size of the data and that it is bootable, but when I click on medium info with it in the writer (if it even wants to go there) it has a ? for the size and type. At first I thought it was the drive in the soon to be Linux box because it is an old SCSI drive. Then after I saw that drive read other CDs and my drive(s) choke, I had to rule that out.

Any other thoughts out there? I'm really puzzled at this. About the only other thing I can think of is burn speed. What speed did you burn the ones that were successful, Moebius? I have tried 48x and 24x. I was going to go down to 4x like with music to see if that makes a difference but wanted to see if anyone else out there has seen anything like this. Does burn speed matter on an iso like it does with music?

Personally, I'm still using an old 4x burner on this box. I usually burn at 2. General rule of thumb for me, I burn image style writes (ISOs, vcds, music) at slower speeds and leave the fast speeds for bulk data transfers and the like.

At this point, I'd just be happy if I could get clean downloads of the CDs 2&3. Every FTP download has failed checksum, and BitTorrent is stuck needing two packets, but now I can't connect to the tracker, and I only get 1 peer in leech mode. Trying round 4 on the ftp site (think it's the Texas mirror this time), hoping I have better luck.

# Cheap CDs
AlmostFreeLinux
Discount Linux CDs
Linux Central
Cheapbytes
TuxCDs
ComputerHelperGuy
CheapISO
Os Heaven

Thanks for all the help guys. I appreciate it. I just burned disc one at 4x and lo and behold, it worked. I guess I should have tried that before asking but at the time I was frustrated. Thanks again.