The Pitfall of using NERO image

In our article titled Using disc image for disc replication we encouraged the use of disc image as the content master when one needs to have discs duplicated or replicated. The advantages are time saving, cost saving, and less susceptible to physical damages. The assumption was one should be able to re-create the original disc using the disc image.

Since the publishing of our article we have received many disc images for our CD duplication and CD replication orders. By and large these disc images are error free and if there are errors due to transmission we are able to correct them using the suggestions we have provided in our previous article.

One scenario, however, deserves to be alarmed that this process is not 100% foolproof.

Recently we received a NERO image for an audio CD. We re-created the disc using NERO 7. Once we had shipped the order to our client we received a complaint that the CD was supposed to have 20 tracks but only 15 tracks were found on the CDs we had sent to him. After a little trouble shooting we found that:

  1. The NERO image was not created by NERO but by Magic ISO.
  2. NERO ImageDrive could not mount the image, neither could DAEMON tools.
  3. NERO will burn the image file without any complaint, but the resultant disc had only 15 tracks.
  4. Magic ISO, Ultra ISO were able to mount the image and will show 20 tracks.

From these facts we have concluded that there must be incompatibility between NERO images created by non-NERO products. We suggest the following solutions to by-pass this defect on the workflow.

  1. Try to create your NERO image using NERO instead of third party software such as MagicISO, UltraISO, WinISO, etc.
  2. If you don’t have NERO and must use third party software then try to mount the image using free tools such as the DAEMON tool to verify that the image is good.
  3. Communicate with your vendor on the nature of your content and ask them to double check on that.

With these steps in place it will be fair to say that using disc image is still a very safe way to send your content for duplication or replication.