7.5 and drive compatibility

[jhg]

My Pioneer DVR-112D seems to be defective. It writes without errors, but a later Media Verify gets numerous errors such as:

 

Trouble reading: "3-Backup001" (17756), error -206 (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.)

Trouble reading: "3-Backup001" (17756), error -206 (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.)

Trouble positioning: "3-Backup001" (17756), error -206 (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.)

Additional error information for device "Pioneer DVD DL" [0:0],

Sense > f0 00 03 00 21 57 50 0e 00 00 00 00 11 05 00 00 00 00

(PIONEER |DVD-RW DVR-112D|1.24)

 

When re-verifying the same media on an older DVR-110D I get no errors, so I'm guessing the 112 is flaky.

 

Checking the Retrospect update history I see the DVR-112D is the most recent optical drive tested. It is already "old", having been first announced in early 2007.

 

I did a quick search for all the optical drive models listed in the update history for 7.5, and most listed models are no longer available. Even the DVR-112D is a little hard to find, being listed at many retailers but marked "out of stock" or "discontinued".

 

Some questions:

 

1) Are my problems representative of this drive type or just my particular drive? I'd rather not buy another one only to have the same problems?

 

2) When will Windows Retrospect add support for more recent, readily available drives, preferably SATA-based?

 

3) Has anybody had any positive results configuring more recent versions of drives, especially SATA drives?