Sonic RecordNow Software

Bundles change, it is called Lowest Bidder…

I haven’t used that particular title but did use their My DVD. Minor problems along the lines of Learning Curve otherwise it seemed good for low end editor.

Funny thing, Sonic Record Now is an "Adaptec" product.  They spun off the old Easy CD Creator software division and made that Roxio.  It looks like they are back in the CD burning software business (maybe they bought the company that originally developed Record now??). 

As far as Roxio.the current version is V6 and the V5 may no longer be available and another reason for the switch.

Hi Fireberd, I have been caught unaware  relating to Sonic with the delivery of my new dell notebook yesterday, it too is loaded with this not so user friendly software. I am used to Adeptec and Roxio, even Nero, but this program has me lost.  I have all my backup data on cd rw created with Roxio easy cd creator, but the notebook with Sonic is not reading them.  Have checked them on alternative machines, so I know the cd rw's are ok, hence I am in a pickle trying to work out a solution.  Thank you for answering Andrew's question, as it was mine when I logged on.

Cyberdance: It would appear that RecordNow is similar to EasyCD Basic in functionality and features. Copy, Data, Music, and Mp3 Music.

The Backup feature requires another piece of software called Simple Backup or Backup MyPC.

Packet writing comes from yet another program called DLA. This is not part of RecordNow 6 but is offered in the Deluxe version.

This is not unusual since no single program seems to offer all within the same interface.

Not having a “new” Dell, I do not know what all is bundled with it. With OEM bundles, you may or may not get everything that is shown on the manufactures web site or you may get more???

You mentioned not being able to read backups made with your older software. Without any details, I would suspect they are from DirectCD? In that case they should be fully readable on any XP machine as XP includes a UDF reader in the OS. Problems occur when compression is used as it is always a proprietary scheme. Give us details and we might be able to help.

The fun part by Dell switching bundles means us old timers here are in the dark because they have gone with another Roxio wannabe.

Hi Jim, thank you for the reply. Sonic software is proving to be an adventure to say the least. You are right in that it does not appear to come with a backup feature of its own.  My main problem with this new program is its inability to read my cd backups from other machines that, as you said, were running mostly Direct CD, I too am accustomed to them being readable on any machine, (never use compression) this is the first machine I have had problems reading them with.  Murphys Law I guess :-)

I thought perhaps the software change was due to my new notebook having a combo CD RW and DVD RW drive in it, I have realized that the other machines I have read my backup cd's on are only loaded with CD RW units of various speeds.  Perhaps therein lies the difference.  I will have to learn to live with it Jim, in fairness the software seems to work okay with itself, the down side is when I back up on the new machine using Sonic it will not read on my desktop machine running Easy Cd Creator which is also pain.  Thank you again for the response, appreciate your kind thoughts........

 

Cyberdance,

Did you ever resolve your CD-RW problems with Sonic? I too am having problems on two new Dell's. Because Sonic formatted CD's would only work on the pc that formatted them, I removed Sonic and instaled Nero6. I use Nero6 on all my other pc's and want compatibility. Now these new Dell's won't format. I get a pop up that reads the disc can't be fromatted because it is scratched or not compatible with drive. Still looking for a solution, Dell Tech has none. Any ideas?

rjon

Hi, I ended up uninstalling Sonic and installing Roxio easy cd creator to resolve the problem, sadly I could not get Sonic to play happily with anything other than itself.   This has fixed the problem but it was disappointing to receive software with a brand new computer that would not do the job.  Hope you have better luck. 

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Hello all,

I'm also having trouble with Sonic. Although I have now installed an earlier version of Roxio's Easy CD Creator (v. 5.3), Sonic jumps in whenever I try to access my USB CD-RW or use a previously formatted CD-RW disc with the drive from Dell.  I'm thinking of just uninstalling Sonic and seeing if that will help.  Any other ideas?  What does Dell have to say about this problem?

Thanks,

Keith

Keith: This board is peer-to-peer conference, offered as a courtesy by Dell. Do not expect to see anyone from Dell here as it is not a substitute for Customer Support.

The problem you are seeing is self inflicted. You failed to remove DLA when you installed Roxio's DirectCD.

You can only have one packet writing software on any PC.

Jim,

Thanks for the advice.  I'll try the uninstall of Sonic.

The Roxio was a self-inflicted installation indeed, but only after Sonic failed to do its job in the first place.  It would recognise previously-recorded CD's only as CD-R's, rather than the CD-rewritables they are.

Keith

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@KSHarris wrote:

Jim,

Thanks for the advice.  I'll try the uninstall of Sonic.

The Roxio was a self-inflicted installation indeed, but only after Sonic failed to do its job in the first place.  It would recognise previously-recorded CD's only as CD-R's, rather than the CD-rewritables they are.

Keith

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Well if DLA closes them or you wrote them using Sonic's authoring tool, they are CD-Rs by nature.

How you write a CD determines its' behavior. The type of media means nothing!

These aren't closed CD-RW's.  I use multiple CD-RW discs to store and transfer large database files, which are moved back and forth among five computers (two are Dells, by the way) for various stages of statistical analysis. 

All my other systems came with Roxio Easy CD Creator and continue even today to recognise, read and write to these same discs, while this new Dell came not with Roxio but with Sonic, which I've not heard of before.  I bought another Dell notebook at the same time, but haven't checked to see if it has Roxio or Sonic.  Likely Sonic, is my guess, so I need to decide whether to uninstall the Sonic and buy another copy of Roxio for it.

Best Regards,

Keith

It seems that the "Burn Image" feature that Sonic's web site claims is present in both the regular and deluxe version of RecordNow is missing from the OEM version.

This almost seems like an intentional breaking of the software.  It still lets you copy a disc exactly, so presumably it's capable of making a disc image and then burning a CD from that.  But, they won't let you take an existing image and burn a CD...

Does Dell provide documentation or support of the OEM version somewhere?  Nothing jumps out at me on their page.  The OEM version seems to clearly be different from Sonic's normal versions, and Sonic just directs you to the company that supplied the OEM version (Dell in this case).

Dell seems to have some support at Dell Hints & Tips >  Software >  Entertainment >  Using CD Recording Software, but only for the Adaptec packages.

It seems that this switch to Sonic was an obvious downgrade.

Any insight appreciated!

Adam Gibson

Message Edited by apgibson on 12-31-2003 12:15 PM

I have Dimension XPS -- and am having trouble with RecordNow and +RW DVD -- I can record and re-record, but not append? Each time ADD FILES -- it tells me there is data on the disk and wants to know if I want to erase it?

I could use some help.

Michael M

We just got a new Dimension 4600 with a CD-RW drive and Sonic RecordNow; our old computer is a HP with a CD-R drive and DirectCD.

CD-R's that have been formatted by DirectCD's option "Leave the disc as it is so that it can be read and written through drive letter access in the future" cannot be read on the Dell. However, if the CD was formatted by DirectCD with the option "Organize the disc so that it can be read in most standard CD-ROM drives.." then it *CAN* be read on the Dell. Interestingly, if the CD had once been formatted "CD-ROM" but then was made writeable again by DirectCD, the Dell will see the files that were on the disk when it was formatted CD-ROM, but *not* the data added after it had been made writeable again.

I'm relatively new to CD-burning software and was very glad to find this thread.

-- Memcinto in Tucson