Official CD Doctor (WSES alternative) Thread

[cfitz]

Thanks cd pirate, I'll guess I might try to figure out why its died on me.

kgatwork, did you get it working? I got it working on my Windows 98 machine by installing Adaptec ASPI 4.60. An ASPI layer is required to run the program.

cfitz

[kgatwork]

cfitz:

Thanks for the heads up I have yet to try.

edit: Tried it on my other machine and it works. Thanks again!

[Ian]

Thanks to cfitz's translating skills, here is an English version of CD Doctor.

You can download it here.

Since I'm hosting this program on my personal website, I'd appreciate it if you would link back to this page instead of posting a direct link to the program on other websites.

Update: If one more person PM's me about the password on the zip file, I'm going to scream. The password for the zip file is in the readme.txt. The author did this for a reason. Read ALL of the readme before using the program.

[cfitz]

I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Miyuri (the author of CD Doctor) for making this nice utility available, for allowing me to translate it, and for allowing CDRLabs to distribute it here. Nice work, Miyuri!

A few notes:

1. I have verified that the program runs on Windows 98, Windows 98SE and Windows 2000. Others have reported success on XP and NT 4.0 as well.

2. An ASPI layer is required to run the program. I successfully used Adaptec's ASPI 4.60.

3. The program only works with Sanyo and LiteOn drives (or their rebadged derivatives). See the enclosed readme.txt file for a list of drives known to work with the program.

4. The main zip file contains two readme files, the original Japanese version and my English translation, and a secondary zip file with the actual executable and two support files. The secondary zip file is password protected, but the password is included in the readme.txt file of the main zip file. Miyuri did this because he wants people to read the readme.txt file before installing the actual program.

5. To reduce download size, I only included the English version of the executable in the zip file. Presumably that is not a problem for readers of this forum. Those wishing to obtain the original Japanese version may download it here: http://www.ucatv.ne.jp/~miyuri.sky/

Enjoy!

cfitz

[Kennyshin]

http://forum.1bits.com has some threads about CD Doctor, too.

http://forum.1bits.com/showthread.php?threadid=161908

http://forum.1bits.com/showthread.php?threadid=162491

Kennyshin, I notice that the member called "GaMNiA" in the 1bits forum you referenced stole my translation and posted it as his own.

cfitz

That's funny. I wondered whether it was you!

[rdgrimes]

I just installed the english CD doctor. I had to install ASPI 4.60 to make it work, (win2000), but all appears to be well. and, most importantly, everything else is still working too.
Nice work, thanks to everybody.

[Spazmogen]

rdgrimes:
Welcome to cdrlabs!
I hope you'll find it as pleasant here as you do at the other forum.

If I'm correct, you're a MOD over @ www.cdfreaks.com.

Welcome!

Let the bond between the 2 forums grow.

Of course, there are other posters here that are MODs @ www.cdfreaks.com too.

[Inertia]

Excellent work, cfitz. Thanks for your translation which makes this utility even easier to use.

Thanks also to Miyuri for allowing the translation and for developing this outstanding freeware utility.

CD Doctor is much more convenient and risk-free compared to WSES.

[Kennyshin]

Of course, there are other posters here that are MODs @ www.cdfreaks.com too.

Especially in this thread because there was some confusion initially.

http://forum.cdfreaks.com/showthread.ph ... adid=59045

[dodecahedron]

is the table in the manufacture.txt file a list of ATIP codes of media manufacturer?

[Inertia]

is the table in the manufacture.txt file a list of ATIP codes of media manufacturer?

Yes.

See Disc Identification Method.

[glock20rocks]

Of course, there are other posters here that are MODs @ www.cdfreaks.com too.

Wow! I didn't know there were OTHER CD-R forums!

Guess ya really do learn something new everyday...

[Spazmogen]

There are other forums, but none quite like The Labs' forum.

As Jimmy Buffett once wrote: "I have found me a home".


CD-R Labs has a good working relationship with CD Freaks. You'll see lots of posts and cross referencing back and forth between them.

I'm active in both forums, but this is where I belong.

[Harrier]

When trying to run cd doctor this next error comes up:

"Can't get disc maker data. missing manufacture.txt file or ASPI layer"

anyone?

[cfitz]

When trying to run cd doctor this next error comes up:

"Can't get disc maker data. missing manufacture.txt file or ASPI layer"

anyone?

Do you have ASPI installed? What version? Did you extract all three files from the zip file, including manufacture.txt, into your installation directory? The manufacture.txt and imgctl.dll files must be in the same directory as the doctor.exe file.

cfitz

[Dartman]

Thanks Cfits and Miyuri for this excellent little tool. I had to reinstall the ASPI layer but it's working great on my XP pro box with 512.
Very informative, my 52 appears to have better error correction then my 48, I thought the 48 was better. The new 166s dvd I just got appears to not be supported and I haven't tried my plex 40 wide yet.
The supported drives are probably in the text I haven't looked at yet but it's fun to try anyways just in case

[rdgrimes]

I notice that when "max speed" is selected, the drive sounds like it's spinning at a consistant rate, but the current speed indication periodically goes to "0". Is this because the drive is re-reading a sector?
Also, I seem to get some pretty weird results on discs with high error rates. I see no C2 errors indicated where there should be some.
Images don't seem to be working here for me, so I can't post a screen shot, but it appears thet CDDoctor does not work well on discs with high error rates.

[cfitz]

I notice that when "max speed" is selected, the drive sounds like it's spinning at a consistant rate, but the current speed indication periodically goes to "0". Is this because the drive is re-reading a sector?

That seems like a reasonable hypothesis, since I only see the data speed go down to 0 on bad areas of damaged discs. But I can't say for sure.

Also, I seem to get some pretty weird results on discs with high error rates. I see no C2 errors indicated where there should be some. <snip> it appears thet CDDoctor does not work well on discs with high error rates

That isn't my experience. How high an error rate are you talking about? Every comparison I have made between CD Doctor and WSES has shown very good agreement, with or without C2 errors. Here are some more comparisons between CD Doctor and WSES, this time for damaged discs that show C2 errors:

Sharpie Test (3 increasingly larger dots) - Memorex (CMC) disc, CD Doctor


Sharpie Test (3 increasingly larger dots) - Memorex (CMC) disc, WSES


Scratch Test - TDK (Ritek) disc, CD Doctor


Scratch Test - TDK (Ritek) disc, WSES


Another Scratch Test - TDK (Ritek) disc, CD Doctor


Another Scratch Test - TDK (Ritek) disc, WSES


Correspondence between the results measured with both programs is very good for all three discs.

Images don't seem to be working here for me

Are you putting a URL linking to the image source between the two image tags? It should look like this:

Code: Select all

[img]http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cfitz771/pics/tdk2_wses.png[/img]

I don't use the little "Img" and "URL" buttons, because with the way I type up posts, the buttons usually end up putting the tags in the wrong spot. So I just type the tags in manually.

cfitz

[rdgrimes]

The problems I'm seeing are with discs that have rates well in excess of 100. In particular, CDRW discs. the C2 are not reported and there are gaps in the readout. Also it tends to freak out when there are unreadable sectors. So far, CDR discs seem to be OK, except for the problem with the scale on the graph. wish it was adjustable.
Image code is deffinitely not working for me. BB is enabled.

[cfitz]

The problems I'm seeing are with discs that have rates well in excess of 100. In particular, CDRW discs. the C2 are not reported and there are gaps in the readout.



This disc is full of C2, particularly at the start.

Wow! That is an ugly disc. (and the error rates are so high it is out of spec). I have a really crummy CD-RW. I'll try to see if I can duplicate your results. Did you run the same disc through WSES to see what it reports?

So far, CDR discs seem to be OK, except for the problem with the scale on the graph. wish it was adjustable.

Yes, an adjustable scale would be nice. But it is logarithmic so you can easily read data over wide ranges, and it does almost completely encompass the range of error rates that are within the spec for readable CDs.

Image code is deffinitely not working for me. BB is enabled.

The problem with your image links is the spaces in the URL. You will have to URL encode them to make it work:

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.dangrimes.com/images/CD%20doctor%20test-2.gif[/img]

One more thing. I notice you have posted a screen shot. You can use the "File->Save" menu item in the Results Viewer window to save the graph itself directly as a png file. Convenient and efficient!

cfitz

[rdgrimes]

Needless to say, I erased the disc. so i re-burned it. FYI, this is one of the infamous LiteOn bundled RW discs, (came with my 48x burner). It's made by NanYo. My 52 drive sees it as 16x capable, but burned at 16x it is unreadable. This is at 12x.



CDSpeed sees lots of C2, perhaps it's CDSpeed that has the problem.



CD Doctor doesn't like it much either, looks like a couple C2 indicated at the start. The gaps interest me, also the doctor has several times given me a graph that is blank on one half. I presume that the scale in CD Doctor is such that 1000 would be the same distance up from 100 as 100 is from 10.

Notice the scale on the C1 in WSES.

[cfitz]

I presume that the scale in CD Doctor is such that 1000 would be the same distance up from 100 as 100 is from 10.

Yes. That is the characteristic of a logarithmic scale. Similarly, 0.1 would be that same distance down from 1. Factors of 10 (or any multiplicative factor) are spaced evenly on a logarithmic graph.

It looks like your CD Doctor and WSES graphs match well.

FYI, this is one of the infamous LiteOn bundled RW discs, (came with my 48x burner). It's made by NanYo.

I'll see your junky LiteOn-bundled NanYo and raise you one horrible Memorex/LiteOn-bundled Infodisc CD-RW disc:

CD Doctor


WSES - Note that the C1 scale goes up to 2000, but the graph is still clipped


CD Speed Scan Disc


The peak error rate exceeds 2200 C1 errors per second! What garbage! A file comparison using CDCheck shows over 50 corrupted files. Dodecahedron, if you are reading this, this is the type of terrible performance that soured me on CD-RW discs several years ago, and continues to make me wary of them. It is also why people say CD-RW is less reliable than CD-R.

Anyway, you can see that CD Doctor and WSES again agree very well, and CD Speed's Scan Disc function also agrees qualitatively.

The gaps interest me, also the doctor has several times given me a graph that is blank on one half.

In my tests both programs show, at the beginning of the disc, those gaps that you noticed (in WSES the gaps are bridged by a straight line as the graph skips from one actual data point to the next). I don't know, but suspect that these gaps are caused by the disc being so bad that the laser loses lock and skips over sections of the disc.

I also captured one of those half-blank graphs you saw, in both CD Doctor and WSES:

CD Doctor


WSES


Perhaps this is caused by a corrupted TOC in the lead-in area. The beginning of the disc where it is located has the most errors of all. WSES did report seek errors a couple of times while I was trying to test this disc.

Apparently both the gaps and the truncated graphs are a characteristic of the drive and the bad media, not of CD Doctor, since these effects show up on both CD Doctor and WSES.

In summary, I have been able to duplicate the anomalies you saw. However, these anomalies are not unique to CD Doctor. They show up in both CD Doctor and WSES. Also, these anomalies only show up on discs that have such terrible quality and massive errors that they are well outside the range of allowable CD specifications. By the time these anomalies show up in either program, the disc is already so far gone that files stored on the disc are corrupted and the disc is already circular file fodder. Trying to characterize the error rates would be akin to polishing the silverware on the Titanic - there just isn't much point to it.

cfitz

[rdgrimes]

If CD Doctor had a sliding scale graph that would adjust to the error rate, similar to CDSpeed's, it would great. As it is, it's still a terrific tool for C1 measuring in Windoz, and the price is right.

[cfitz]

If CD Doctor had a sliding scale graph that would adjust to the error rate, similar to CDSpeed's, it would great. As it is, it's still a terrific tool for C1 measuring in Windoz, and the price is right.

Agreed. FYI, at the bottom of Miyuri's web page ( http://www.ucatv.ne.jp/~miyuri.sky/ ) it says:

TO DO:
Allow the user to set the measurement range
Display the error graph while the errors are being measured, like in UM Doctor

He is already planning the enhancements you want. Let's hope he gets some free time sometime soon.

cfitz

[KCK]

Since the current season is good for making wishes and resolutions for the next year, here is another one.

Could Miyuri eventually develop a version of CD Doctor which would not need Adaptec's ASPI layer under XP?

This has already been done not only for Nero, but for some other CD burning utilities as well; see, e.g.,

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php ... adid=60752

I'd love to run CD Doctor on my XP Pro box, but I'd like to avoid messing up my clean OS with Adaptec's ASPI. (Yeah, I know 4.60 is apparently harmless, but I'd like this Adaptec dinosaur to die eventually.) Did anybody consider any fixes, like putting Nero's WNASPI32.DLL in CD Doctor's directory?