Portable CD Tattoos with Yamaha's CRW-F1UX USB 2.0 Burner

Read Performance, Part III: Scratched Media

For this test, we use a pressed CD that we prepared with a V-shaped scratch (in a radial direction).

Many a drive would tear its hair out over this scratch.

We carry out a surface scan with Nero CD-Speed in order to find out the number of unreadable or damaged sectors. As the screen shot shows, the drive reports 4.16 % of the sectors as being unreadable.

At first glance, this result seems really good in view of the massive damage to the data carrier. In comparison with the two other drives, however, it becomes clear that the CRW-F1UX makes hard work of the damaged CD.

This is also shown by the graph in the final CD quality check.

The red horizontal lines denote areas with unreadable sectors. Even after the spot with the scratch (approximately from the 11th minute on), the transfer rate hovers around at just under 5x. A drive with "smart" error correction would pick up speed again at this point.