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HELP! I am soooo confused ... I am hoping that someone can rescue me. I purchased my Iomega Predator ... and I seemed not to have an issue with installing it (I am actually between a Beginner and an Intermediate ... because of health reasons my memory and confusion is affected which is why I believe I should be thought of as a Beginner more than Intermediate when answering my question. I don't know if you need this information but here goes anyway ... I am on a Compaq Presario 1273 ... with 6 gigs, and 64 mgs of RAM ... I believe I have plenty of memory ... I never seem to have a problem with adding any software of files or anything else to my laptop. Nevertheless, here is my problem ... I am trying to transfer some photo (.jpeg,.art,.pdf,.gif) files over to my external CD-RW from my hard drive. I am using the Data CD of my Easy CD Creator... to create my CD (correct?), then I go into create CD, do the steps of the installation ... renamed the "empty CD" to "Paperpiecings" and copied over the files from my hard drive ((C:) to my External CD-RW disk drive F:) to this CD ... (okay?) ... then it goes through all the steps until it shows that it has written to the CD ... I then can check and see that the files which were supposed to me copied over are there which they are. So far so good or so I thought.
Okay now here is the 2 issues I am confused over ... 1) If I take the CD-RW out and put it back in the CD-RW Drive (F:) to add more files to it ... it shows that it is an empty CD (again ... grrr) ... however, if I go and put it into my E:Drive (regular "CD read only" drive) and I can see that the files are on the actual CD, however, I cannot get them to show up on my F: Drive External Iomega Predator CD-RW Drive so that I can add to another subfolder to that folder or add additional files to that particular folder. Okay so that is the first blasted issue.
Now the 2) is that when I go to shut down my computer, I am asked by my CD Creator if I want to save my files ... if I say "Yes" ... it saves it to ... C:\ ... My Documents\etc., etc., etc., etc. ... directory ... Could you tell me if this is correct and WHY it is saving it to my hard drive when I am trying to put it on a removably CD-RW Disk ... HELP!!!! Obviously I am in over my head ... I do want to be able to use this more like a large floppy disk, manly to hold a large amount of photo files, along with other information ... which I have been told I could... and no I don't want to purchase another Zip drive or a Jazz drive. I had a Zipdrive that died a sudden death right after the warranty was over and I had no wish to go through that again ... and now I have 3 ... 250 Zip Disks that have information on them and Iomega wants about $500 to take them off and transfer them over to a CD-RW (so I could actually access what I had thought I had saved for me should I want to use it). I have decided even though it was an Iomega Zip Drive that died and I repurchased Iomega ... that I most likely will not purchase Iomega once again ... as they are NOT very customer oriented ...they never seem interested in trying to help me with their support tech. Fortunately, I have had so much better luck with so many other software and hardware support systems I have had to use.
Please try to explain fairly clearly ... which is another reason I put down "Beginner" as I have so much trouble understanding directions anymore (before my health issues this was simple) ...so I need much more clearer detailed instructions than an "Intermediate" should need.
I sure hope that you can help me ... I have been going around and around and around on this blasted issue for over a month and getting no where ... Did I mention that my Iomega is External ... just wanted to be sure that was stated and yes it is hooked up via the USB port ... I just purchased it and installed it ... it is a new Brand New Disk Drive. I think I have given you all of the information that you should need however, if you should need anything clarified or more information that would help you to understand the issue so that you could get me onto the right track I would be more than willing to try and provide it.
and I just don't get it ... I don't see these types of issues being addressed ... I possibly missed it ... but I just can't figure it out ... I sure hope you can help me ...I tried presenting my problem to ROXIO's board and most of what I received was way, way over my head ... I am hoping to get an answer more in layman terms that I can understand. Please, Please ... Please can someone help me.Oh yes, one other thing ... are the CD-RW disks formatted when they are purchased and if not ... how does one go about formatting them? Any other assistance or any link to another website for any additional information would be much appreciated ... Thank you so very much ... Susie
I can't believe it ... I thought I had given all the important information ... but I see I forgot to mention ... I am running WindowsME ...
Once again ... I thank anyone who might be willing to try and help me get my CD-RW up and going ... Susie
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That is one helluva lot of info to try and digest but I think that basically the answer to your problem is this:
If you want to use CD-R disks as "floppies then they must be initialised using the Direct CD Wizard. If you plan on doing this all the time then "Direct CD" must be in your msconfig. This will allow you to drag and drop to the CD using Explorer or you will be able to save documents, files and graphics etc straight to the CD from whatever programme you are using. This initialisation uses about 15meg of your CD. If you close the CD (not finalise) so that you can read it in another PC and then re-initialise it when you use it on your own PC it will use another 15meg for that process and so on. However if you decide to use CDRW disks as "big floppies" then they must also be initialised and this process takes a massive 192meg. Considering the price of CD-R disks today you are far better to use them in prference to the CDRW disks. Even though they are eraseable they still deteriorete with use. If I have misunderstood you and you would like to pursue this you are welcome to e-mail me by clicking on my name up top.
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I agree with Ewen:
To use for data you don't need Easy CD Creator. Just use Direct CD. Planning helps if you want to use CD like floppy since it will only be accessible to native burner till its finalised.
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dont use CDRW it is easy to lose data on them, CDR are so inexpensive that there is no need to use CDRW...never add data to a CDR that already has some..(it can be done, but if done incorectly you will lose the old data and thats not worth for a 35cent CDR)... this advice is not the most efficient use of CDRs, but if you follow it you will never loose anything....and use Easy CD creator with your CDR....Direct CD is needed for CDRW and it is pain
Regards Miro
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You're wrong again Miro! Direct CD is for "Packet Writing" and is designed for use with CD-R disks. Trust me on this because I write everything to CD-R using Direct CD. To date I have about 13 disks with every important document, zip file, graphic, update drivers, etc. that I use. There is no way I am going to get caught without a backup of my information and this is just how I keep it. By using the drag and drop interface in Direct CD I keep my system "Ghost" images on CD-RW and I would'nt have it any other way.
Regards,
Ewen
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Ewen, i was not saying that your post was wrong... was just trying to give simple advice to Susie... the packet writing is more pain and if she gets buffer underrun during adding new data, she might lose the previous data also. What i wanted to say is that the simplest and safest way is to burn the whole CDR at once and close it, even if not full.
When the CDR did cost a dollar i was trying to fill them up to the rim... but now i dont care, the data is more important than some wasted CDR space. I agree that the daily backup of data is a MUST. I back up all data imediately to an external HD and then burn them about once a week to CDRs.. i stopped buying CDRW because i realized that i did never rewrite those that i had. Also much of the data loss is caused by accidental rewriting of the old data (on any rewritable media, not just CDRW). Have a friend that lost hundreds of mp3 by moving them to a zip drive and then back to the computer instead of buying couple more zip discs and being sure that the data are always on two independent locations (or at least using "copy" instead of "move" and erase the zip disk after making sure that her mp3 are on the HD)
Regards Miro
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Fair enough Miro... there is some truth in your last post but happily if she uses Packet Writing then each new section is added on the end of the last write. Even if she erases a file she can't write over the same section again that is why she would be better using CD-R disks. As it is I only use CD-RW a maximum of 3 maybe 4 times and I replace them. A bit expensive maybe but the information they hold is worth a lot more.
I enjoy talking with you... Regards,
Ewen
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Don't forget to read the help files for Easy CD Creator. There is a lot of information in there. Take notes, paying special attention to the sections about storing data. Using CDR's is the best way to avoid inadvertently losing your data. It can be easier to use the wizard the first couple of times. When you figure out the right steps to follow, write then on a 3by5 card and keep it by your computer. I do this myself because it's so easy to forget which step to follow first. There are 2 help files, one for Easy CD and one for Direct CD. Read them both and decide which one you like best. Both will work for what you want to do.
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