Your computer should have shipped with one of several CD mastering programs. Roxio’s Easy CD Creator (or Easy CD & DVD Creator if it’s fairly new) is the most common followed by Ahead.de’s Nero Burning ROM, DiscJuggler, and CDR-Win. All of these packages offer CD copying functionality.

If you have not received one of these packages with your eMachine then I would suggest purchasing a copy of Nero Burning ROM 6.0 from your local software retailer. Computer Shopper Magazine recently rated it as the best consumer grade CD mastering program currently on the market.

And if you think you will never copy files from your hard disc drive to a CD-R or CD-RW or create an audio CD from downloaded music files then you would be better off downloading a copy of CloneCD. The only function this program has is creating bit-for-bit copies of CD-ROMs. You can search Google, MSN Search, or Yahoo! Search for a download location.

I won’t be buying a new burner to get faster speeds for regular burning. I would be interested in faster RW speeds though, just like you.

You missed three negative sides to faster speeds:

1. The CD’s that can be burned at faster speeds cost more, although the difference is likely to disappear in the near future.

2. Noise. When they are running at high speeds the noise levels usually increases as well.

3. Heat. Lets say you decide to rip 5 of your CD’s at once to be able to enjoy them on your system without the actual CD making noise in the CD-ROM player, that CD-RW is bound to get very hot, increasing the heat of your overall system. The motors in those systems run fast and need a lot of current to get to that speed. Higher current and higher speed means higher heat dissipation from the motor.

Another reason why I can’t see any reason to buy a faster unit is also because I have still been unable to damage a CD burning process even though I continue working as usual while the burn process takes place. I use (most of the time) XCDRoast to burn CD’s.

/Dave T.