What hard drive type can fit into your Systor duplicator?

A lot of clients are facing this question. They buy a duplicator, and then they want to add a hard drive. Well, starting this year, we've dropped IDE Duplicators production, and we manufacture only SATA duplicators (all of them are SATA, even the LightScribe and Blu Ray duplicators). So basically, any hard drive that connects on SATA or SATA 2, can be installed into your duplicator. You just need to follow a few steps :

• Open your duplicator's case by unscrewing the screws on the back case
• Search for the free blue SATA port on the back of controller
• Connect a SATA cable to that port
• Then, put a hard drive in the top bay of the duplicator (it's made for that, it has the size of a hard disk drive) and fix it with screws
• Connect the SATA cable you've just connected to controller to the hard disk drive, and also connect a SATA power source cable, you'll find at least one free inside the tower
• Put back the case, mount the screws, and start your duplicator

Now, after the booting part, your duplicator will recognize the hard disk drive, and will ask you about the partition size, because it will split the hard drive into partitions (CD, DVD or Auto size). We recommend chosing Auto size, because it will create a partition of your master disc size, each time you chose to load a disc image into the duplicator.

After loading images to your hard drive, simply select the hard drive as source, and fill the burning drives with blanks, select Copy and select the image you want to burn.

 

It's as simple as that.

Update your duplicator’s firmware safely

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Well, let’s start with the definition, what is a firmware update? According to Wikipedia,” firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices.”

To describe it better in this case, for duplicators, firmware updates are released for three reasons :

1. A new burning drive model has become compatible with the duplicator’s controller, or a higher hard disk drive capacity is supported in the newer software version, and that requires an update for the device firmware.
2. A bug was discovered, and the firmware’s purpose is to fix it.

Our dvd duplicators are delivered with the latest firmware updates, but sometimes they are released often. Anyway, before performing any update to your duplicator, we suggest consulting our technical support first, because if something goes wrong, a defective firmware update can destroy the controller.

In our duplicators, we use 2 controller types : one is for regular SATA Duplicators, the other for the LightScribe SATA Duplicators, and I will describe in short lines about getting to Advanced Settings menu, where the Update Firmware option is, along with other useful options for professionals :

For type 1 (SATA Duplicators) : Press, and hold pressed for about 3 seconds the ESC key, then release it, and the Advanced Settings menu will show up

For type 2 (LightScribe SATA Duplicators) : Press, and hold pressed for about 3 seconds the ESC key, release it, then press and hold pressed for another 3 seconds the ENT key. Once released, the Advanced settings menu will show up on your duplicator’s display.

The update procedure is quite simple. You ask for the latest file from our tech support, then burn it to a disc, put it in your duplicator’s source drive and go to the options mentioned above. From there, you find the “Update Firmware” option which once selected will search for the update file on the master disc, and you need only to confirm It by pressing ENT. After the update has been applied, the duplicator needs to restart. A BIG WARNING HERE !!! DO NOT restart the duplicator by yourself, unless the tower requires that. Otherwise, the software re-writing of the controller master chip will not be complete and you won’t be able to use your duplicator. That is why, we recommend you to contact our tech support first, before performing any updates :

-          E-mail : techsupport@duplicator4all.com

-          Phone : 0800.066.4559 (UK TollFree number)

-          Online : simply go to www.duplicator4all.com and click on “Live Support” on the left side

 

Issues with the burned discs / discs failure rate

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Some people encountered high failure rates while duplicating discs, but I can assure you in 99% of the cases, it is not a duplicator fault. So here are a few tips and tricks that you can use while duplicating :

-          Check your burning speed for the disc type you want to copy. Our recommendations are 24x for CD’s (16x if you copy an audio CD), and 8x for DVD (if media is 16x, if not, 4x)

-          Check your media type (low cost unbranded media have a high failure rate directly from the factory, because they don’t comply to any quality standards, so many discs can come damaged from the factory)

-          If you encountered a high failure rate on a brand of discs, lower the burning speed and do a tryout. You will notice the disc burning jobs won’t fail.

-          If you did that and still got fails, you can open your duplicator’s case and check the cables from all the drives, plus controller (sometimes, due to transportation, the cable plugs might move a bit from their initial place, and the result is an imperfect contact, which can drop from time to time, causing data loss when you burn with those drives) . Simply push them firmly and then try again.

However, if these advices didn’t help, please contact our tech support at any time, by e-mail, Online or phone :

-          E-mail : techsupport@duplicator4all.com

-          Phone : 0800.066.4559 (UK TollFree number)

-          Online : simply go to www.duplicator4all.com and click on “Live Support” on the left side

What is Lightscribe ?

What is LightScribe?

Here's a question that many people can't answer.

LightScribe is an innovative technology that uses a special disc drive, special media, and label-making software to burn labels directly onto CDs and DVDs.

Because the labels are laser-etched—not printed—there's no ink, no smudging, and no peeling.

Your labels can be whatever you want them to be. Create one-of-a-kind designs with your own photos, text, and artwork using your label-making software.

 

How it works ?

The laser inside a CD/DVD disc drive with LightScribe technology focuses light energy onto a thin dye coating on the label side of the disc. Only LightScribe media has this special coating.

The light from the laser causes a chemical change in the dye coating that shows up on the disc. With laser precision, the drive renders the text and images that you created for the label.

There are three different layout modes for burning labels:

• Full mode. Although it takes longer, this is the mode to use for a full-disc image.

• Content mode. Perfect for creating artful borders around the center of the disc.

• Title mode. Great for a small amount of text or graphics. This is the quickest mode.

LightScribe labels burn in concentric circles, moving outward from the center of the disc. Images with the largest diameters will take longest to burn.

 

What do you need ?

LightScribe Enabled Drive

You must have a LightScribe-enabled disc drive (either built into your desktop or notebook PC or an external drive).

LightScribe System Software

Now that you have the LightScribe enabled drive you will need the LightScribe System Software (LSS), which is similar to a driver.

Labeling Application The type of LightScribe software you use will depend on what's bundled with your hardware. Media LightScribe CDs and DVDs have a special coating that interacts with the laser in your LightScribe-enabled disc drive. You must use LightScribe CDs and DVDs in order to burn a label onto your discs. A few things to remember about LightScribe media: LightScribe label designs appear grayscale (like a black-and-white photograph). LightScribe CDs come in gold, yellow, orange, green, red, and blue. LightScribe DVDs available in multi-color packs including red, green, blue, yellow, and orange backgrounds!   And to make everything easier, we made a tutorial for all the users facing problems with the LightScribe system :

USB duplicator 7 target Systor

We made a new test with a 7 target USB Duplicator :

USB Active issue

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You received your duplicator but your bottom burning drive is not working? Well, this might be a common settings issue. Because our towers are tested before shipping them to the warehouse, the USB setting might be active. So, in order to use your bottom burning drive, you must de-activate it.

There’s a thing you should understand. A drive cannot be connected to 2 control devices at a time, in this case can’t be connected and visible to the PC, and controllable by the duplicator at the same time.

So, in order to fix that, in the main menu of your duplicator, depending on the version, you have one of two ways :

1.Navigate  using the arrow keys to the “USB Option” or “USB Connection”, which is usually the last option and switch it to OFF, and wait for the duplicator to restart

 

OR

 

2.Navigate using the arrow keys to the “Setup” option and inside this option search for “USB Option” or “External Connection” and switch it to OFF. Again, wait for the duplicator to restart

 

Now your duplicator’s bottom burner is NOT connected anymore to the PC, it’s controlled by the duplicator’s controller, and you can use it for it’s main purpose, duplicating discs.

Untitled

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USB Active issue

You received your duplicator but your bottom burning drive is not working? Well, this might be a common settings issue. Because our towers are tested before shipping them to the warehouse, the USB setting might be active. So, in order to use your bottom burning drive, you must de-activate it.

There’s a thing you should understand. A drive cannot be connected to 2 control devices at a time, in this case can’t be connected and visible to the PC, and controllable by the duplicator at the same time.

So, in order to fix that, in the main menu of your duplicator, depending on the version, you have one of two ways :

1.Navigate  using the arrow keys to the “USB Option” or “USB Connection”, which is usually the last option and switch it to OFF, and wait for the duplicator to restart

 

OR

 

2.Navigate using the arrow keys to the “Setup” option and inside this option search for “USB Option” or “External Connection” and switch it to OFF. Again, wait for the duplicator to restart

 

Now your duplicator’s bottom burner is NOT connected anymore to the PC, it’s controlled by the duplicator’s controller, and you can use it for it’s main purpose, duplicating discs.