What is a “Buffer Underrun”, and how can I avoid them?
CD writing is a real-time process which must run constantly at the selected recording speed, without interruptions. Most of the time your computer actually passes data to the CD recorder faster than it is needed. The CD recorder’s buffer is constantly filled with a reserve of data waiting to be written, so that small slowdowns or interruptions in the flow of data from the computer do not interrupt writing. The CD recorder’s buffer memory stores some of this extra data as it arrives, to help maintain a steady flow of data to the writing laser. The size of the buffer is critical to trouble-free writing: a slow-down or interruption in the transfer of data from the computer will not stop writing so long as the buffer is not completely emptied. The larger the buffer, the more safety margin you have in case of interruptions. A buffer underrun error means that for some reason the flow of data from hard disk to CD recorder was interrupted long enough for the CD recorder’s buffer to be emptied,
