CD Writing issues

[lancefiles]

I have made several disk with my Writer. I have always just used them on my system so I never noticed that when I place these disk in other Computers with different operating systems the disk appears blank. It says the disk has the same amount of used space that whatever is on the disk is suppose to use but it appears blank. Im running XP Pro on my computers I've actually only had this problem with Windows 98. What can I do to remedy this?

[RJ]

It all depends on the file system you used on the CD and the reading capabilities of the OS.
ISO can be read everywhere, and Joliet from Win95 on I believe. For UDF you need a special UDF reader on older systems (WinXP has it built in) and for Mount Rainier you need a reader on every Windows PC as there isn't native support yet.

Which file system did you choose for your CDs ? If you don't know, then how did you burn the CDs (which burning program did you use ?) ?

RJ

[Panama Red]

If you are using CD-R disks and close them, they should be readable/playable on any computer or CD player. If you used CD-RW however, you need the same Packet Writing software from the writing computer (your XP Pro machine) on the reading computer. XP has it's own native software, Nero uses InCD and Roxio uses DirectCD. The Nero and Roxio are not compatible. If you are using Nero (I am) the Nero disk has a program for Easy Reader/Packet Writing reader. I think you can install the reader on another comp.

[RJ]

No, that's wrong. Look here: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=72733

Also even with packet written CDs you wouldn't need the same software on the other PC, just a UDF reader, that's it. And InCD and DirectCD are compatible.

No matter whether you use CD-R or CD-RW, they're the same except that CD-RW can be rewritten.

RJ

[Panama Red]

Hmm, I may have to research this further , RJ. I'll grant you more years of experience, but I have experienced exactly what I wrote within the last year. I had some CD-RW disks that had been formatted by DirectCD and used in my 1999 vintage Phillips burner. When I built my current system in April, I installed a Liteon burner that came with Nero Software. With InCD installed, I could not write to the old CD's, even if they were blank (but previously formatted by Direct CD). I had to first reformat the new disks with InCD in order to use them. Those disks that had data installed by Direct CD are readable on the Liteon drive, but I can not add any thing else to the disks. Now that I reread my earlier post, my conclusions appear incorrect. I had done some experimenting with reading on different systems, but not all were XP based. Possibly the ME and 98se systems I tried had no packet writing/reading software on them, hence the inablility to read from my CD-RW's. Therefore, I'd be better saying that to read CD-RW's on another machine, it either needs to have XP or some form of packet writing/reader.
What-da-ya think, RJ, did I clean it up?

[RJ]

I had some CD-RW disks that had been formatted by DirectCD

Yeah, that's correct when you formatted them with DirectCD. But they aren't formatted automatically, it's up to you if you do that or not. If you don't format them but burn them normally then they aren't different to CD-R.

You're talking about packet writing in general, and you can use DirectCD to format a CD-R too.
What I was trying to say is that a CD-RW is not automatically packet written, and if you don't packet write it you don't need a UDF reader. To read a CD-RW all you need is a multiread capable CD-ROM drive, even in Win3.11 you will be able to read a CD-RW.

Your statement is correct for packet writing in general, not specifically CD-RW.

RJ

[Dan]

udf is free and while not necessary, can solve a multitude of issues:
http://download.com.com/3000-2100-9497911.html