Free coasters anybody? : O I'm passing it up ... I've got too many AOL giveaways and failed CDRWs. Give me your addy and I'll gladly ship them to you :-) i_XpUser

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@keltikgent I am quite surprised you can do that, normally after a CD-RW has been burned, even though there is empty space left, it would still show up full. To stay on the safe side and avoid losing existing data or corrupting them, I burn it all again. @XPUser LOL...same here I can't get rid of them there's too many, I guess AOL have a lot of money to keep bombarding consumers with their free CDs. They should use CD-RW that way they won't go to waste. : S Θ ER4S3R Θ Beware of computer programmers that carry screwdrivers.

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Hi Guys, Thanks for your quick response and I'll try to answer to each post.However, I think that I may have confused you all with my original post,My point is, By what method do I add data to CD-R, CD-RW Disks which already have Data on them? XpUser, The library seems a good idea. I cannot append files to the CD-R media which already has files stored on it. Rich Mentzel, Rember Rich I'm a NOVICE...XP Software?..Drag and drop, you guys must be clever!, I think the library is a must! Kiltikgent, Like yourself I've used nero for burning music and had the same problem, at the moment I'm trying to add some more photos onto the CD-R media without sucess, it maybe a good idea to give nero a go. Thanks Again for all of your HELP. johnna j

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XpUser, The library seems a good idea. I cannot append files to the CD-R media which already has files stored on it. In that case I think copying the CDRW content to the folder containing the appendxing files is the first thing you need to do before overwriting the CDRW. Or like I said I know nothing, I could be totally wrong here. i_XpUser

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hi, with the cdrw's i have a folder called programs and on my desktop i also have a folder called programs.when i insert the cdrw and launch nero, it searchs the program folder on my desktop and it will say files to be added 2 files deleted 0 files copied 0.. diffrent on the files added sometimes.once it has searched i just burn the new 2 new files ..i will try and find mine cdrw to see if i can still do it ,havent used it in awhile dunno where the disk is but ill go a lookin...i always make disks multisession and never had troubles. johnna i dont know why its not adding pictures i add pictures to my disks all the time.im not sure if it has to do with the brand of disk you are using,i always use the cheap generic disks 50 for 9 bucks never had troubles.i generally use nero express for all my burining hasnt failed me yet. keltik

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Johnna's quote Like yourself I've used nero for burning music and had the same problem, at the moment I'm trying to add some more photos onto the CD-R media without sucess, it maybe a good idea to give nero a go. I think your problem is, you are trying to add more files to CD-R instead of CD-RW. That's just not possible. Θ ER4S3R Θ Beware of computer programmers that carry screwdrivers.

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Some of the confusion here comes from burning music or data. Bear in mind that if you burn music to a CDR or CDRW the disk is finalized and you CANNOT add more to the disk. If you burn data to a disk it goes on the disk as a multisession burn and yes you can add more data to the disk. You can keep adding data to the disk until you run out of room. The difference is multisession burn as opposed to a closed session burn.

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"Bear in mind that if you burn music to a CDR or CDRW the disk is finalized and you CANNOT add more to the disk." This is totally untrue of a cdrw....please think of a cdrw as a little round hard drive with all the same properties. It cannot be closed from burning, and you don't "burn" anything to it. You "drag'n'drop" to it without the need of any software, once you have formatted the disk. Johanna, Please dragging and dropping is like saying "Windows" it is the essence of Windows not some slick trick for a "guru". You need to take a course and find out what Windows Explorer is and how to use it or you will never be able to save anything on your computer. That is where you right click and copy something in the right pae of Windows Exploere and then right click and save it where you want it to be on the left or right pane of Explorer. You also need to learn about Windows XP. It has native "burning" software for cdr's. Cdrw's are different because they can be erased and added to at any time, again usually in Windows Explorer. Rich M www.kickenhardware.net

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"Bear in mind that if you burn music to a CDR or CDRW the disk is finalized and you CANNOT add more to the disk." This is totally untrue of a cdrw....please think of a cdrw as a little round hard drive with all the same properties. It cannot be closed from burning, and you don't "burn" anything to it. You "drag'n'drop" to it without the need of any software, once you have formatted the disk. This is not a true statement. The disk does not need to be formatted. As for comparing it to a little round hard drive, just burn several files to a CDRW and then try and delete a single file. It cannot be done (according to Microsoft) and you will end up deleting everything from the disk to get rid of one file. If you had to do the same with your hard drive you would be in big trouble very quickly. As for not burning anything to a CDRW, maybe some research would be in order here. You in fact do burn to a CDRW, with the option of clearing the disk so you can burn to it again. The Drag and Drop you mention is only the first step to get the files into position to burn to the disk. Hope this clarifies some misleading points. For further info about erasing files from a CDRW go here and look at the Microsoft bulletin on this topic.

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johnna j If you want step by step instructions about this, email me. My addy is above. It will take up too much time and space here.

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hi terii, i know what you have to offer will take up your time and space on computing.net ..but the information you can share is valuable to all concerned.. present and future seekers on a soloution to the same problem as in this thread. thanx, keltik

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I appreciate what you say but I have to find out first where we start with this. It may be short but then maybe not. I will post here if it is going to be short. I would like to clear up some of the misinformation I read above if possible but firstly I would like to answer the original posters question.

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Terii, True you do not have to format a cdrw, and then I guess you could burn to it, but what would the purpose of that be? That would be a very expensive cdr frankly and a waste. Cdrw formatted, you can delete anything you want, not just the whole disk, it is no different than a floppy disk when formatted. You can reformat it or delete a single file...

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Did you read the MS bulletin about deleting a file from a CDRW?

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hi terii, no probs,hope you help johnna out and post back with the instructions for future refrence. keltik

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I believe this thread need to be straighten out. 1. By default, Windows XP CDRW features do not allow you to delete individual files from the media. 2. The only way you can delete individual files is if you have installed a third party that uses packet-writing software. One example of this is Roxio's DirectCD. In the above case I side with terii. i_XpUser

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XpUser Thank you. I rest my case. I was doing a little research to check what I thought I already knew and it turned out to be right. If Rich Mentzel has the solution for removing one file only and making a CDRW act like a floppy or a hard drive maybe he should share this knowledge with Microsoft as they do not agree. As for Johnnaj, I have not heard from her so can only assume she has it all straightened out.

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Rich Mentzel InCD and DirectCD both "format" the disk to make it writeable/deleteable at will. Perhaps this is what your programme does under another name. I have not heard of any other programme that will do this other than the two already mentioned. I use both of them frequently and exclusively and believe me it is impossible (except in your case) to add to a CD-RW without them. Once I thought I was wrong, now I'm not so sure!

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Yes you can add to a CDRW using the built in Windows burning software. You can keep adding data until you run out of space on the disk. Again if the software you are using closes the disk then it is impossible to add to the disk. The builtin burning software in XP always does multisession burn so you can add to the disk. As a point to remember, be very careful using CDRW as backup disks. Use CDR instead. They are cheap enough. A CDRW disk sometimes cannot be read in another drive. Sometimes a CDRW will tell you it is blank when you know there is supposed to be data on the disk. Just a point to remember. Don't get caught short.

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I guess I was unclear on the use of third party software. I use Recordmaxnow, which uses DLA to format cdrw's and that is what is allowing single file deletion. Sorry about my confusing answers as I failed to make that clear.

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He's a big man who owns up to his mistakes Rich... Regards Once I thought I was wrong, now I'm not so sure!

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http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/transcripts/cdburning.mspx The link above is a chat transcript relavent to this topic. I would like to point out to everyone here that native cd burning is new to winxp. For those users who have moved to xp from win95 and win98 it was always possible to treat CD-RW media like a floppy (that in fact was a major selling point). And it always required a 3rd-party program. As you'll gather from reading this transcript, native burning in winxp is *intended* to be a very "bare bones" feature. Microsoft posted this info back in 2003. What they didn't explain with clarity is the reason they felt that it was more expidient to go with multi-session writing instead of packet writing (which allows you to treat the CD-RW as a floppy or hard drive). johnna j, while this doesn't answer your question precisely, the jist of it is: the native winxp software doesn't have the flexibility you're looking for. Look into getting the Nero or Roxio products.

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> What they didn't explain with clarity is the reason they felt that it was more expidient to go with multi-session writing instead of packet writing. --------- My best guess on this decision is that 1. multi-session CD-Rs and CD-RWs are easy to port from one computer to another regardless of the OS; 2. Packet writing is known to have some issues with data integrity. (I've experienced this myself.) So the general rule is: Use packet writing software (such as InCD) for quick n' dirty storage needs, use multi-session CD-RWs for data that you need to store indefinitely but not permanently, and use CD-R for permanent archival. I realize that all this is probably a lot to keep track of, but most things *do* seem difficult *until* you learn how to work them. =) Go here for some insight and comic relief: http://www.comparative-religion.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-887.html http://www.taobackup.com/index.html

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