Are there any CD media which are re-writable?

[stephen ford]

I bought some CD R/WR drives thinking I would be able to re-write the media - add and delete files. Now I find that I can add to a CD but not change/delete any files already there.

Is there a media which allows this? Mine are "CD R" and after reviewing my suppliers offerings, there only seem to be "CD R" available.

[Statica]

CD R's can be written only once. You need to look for CD RW's .. they allow multiple writes.

[FrozenDragoon]

I'm not quite sure what your asking but...

CD-R/RW's are rewritable, but not as easily as seem to think... such as floppy or zip disk.
In order to add new files, you have to completely erase what is on the disk. Unlike with a floppy, where you can add or delete files easily.

CD media hasnt yet reached that level of... simplicity? (im not sure what word I'm looking for) If you want/need something that is rewritable like you are talking about, I would suggest a flash drive, as they are pretty cheap at the moment.

[sdkfz]

All the writer software I have used has allowed for the disk not to be 'closed' at the end of the burn meaning that it can not be read by a normal CD drive, but that you can add to the exisiting files. Add meaning that you place more and different files on the disk. If you want to edit a file on the disk then you have to go throug the process of emptying it and re rewriting (assuming of course the disk id a RW disk.)

You should be able to find RW disks, they have been around for a long while. They are not as fast as write once disks so set your expectaitions back a bit, in retail here in the US I think I have only found/seen up to 12X speed while R's come up to 52x.

Maybe some one in the UK can point you to a source...

[stephen ford]

Have bitten the bullet and ordered some CD-RWs. I will see how they go and post back.

Interestingly I have found that files can be added and replaced on a CD-R. But only found this by accident, so the "rules" are not too clear. I'll post any further discoveries.

Thanks for comments so far.

[bailey]

if you do a full format of the cd-rw disk first, then you can use it as if it was a big floppy, there will be no differances in the writeing, deleteing and rewriting of files at all, you can move files and folders and cut and past them and anything else you can do with a hard drive or floppy, they work great when a full format in done first.

just remembered that a dvd-rw will work the same way too, that would be like having a 4.7 gig floppy disk.

just to give you a example, I have scanned thousands of photos from my many family alubms and copyied them to a dvd-rw disk and then rearranged them into differant folders by relationships and indivual family members, I am still working on that one to set the indivuals by age also.

[stephen ford]

Originally Posted by bailey if you do a full format of the cd-rw disk ..

Sounds good. I don't know if XP Pro's facilities uses the concept of "formatting". I'll check.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by stephen ford Sounds good. I don't know if XP Pro's facilities uses the concept of "formatting". I'll check.

it does, I have been useing xp for several years.