Write protect a CD-RW

[Bill Ridgeway]

Is it possible to write protect a CD-RW?

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway

 

[philo]

Is it possible to write protect a CD-RW?

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway

Yes

When you burn your data take the option to close the session.

No further writing would be possible unless of course the entire disk
is erased.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Is it possible to write protect a CD-RW?

When you are done - use a CD-R.

Yes - you could close the session - but a CD-RW is made so it can be
'erased'. Even though you may have closed that session, anyone could erase
the CD without a problem and thus - write over it.

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

When you are done - use a CD-R.

Yes - you could close the session - but a CD-RW is made so it can be
'erased'. Even though you may have closed that session, anyone could
erase the CD without a problem and thus - write over it.

Thanks. I was really looking to be able to protect / unprotect as we did
for floppy disks. Can that be done?

Bill Ridgeway

 

[smlunatick]

Thanks.  I was really looking to be able to protect / unprotect as we did
for floppy disks.  Can that be done?

Bill Ridgeway

You can not do a write protect method like floppies. You only why is
to yuse the CD-RW like a CD-R. Do not use any "packet-writing" tools
like InCD or Roxio's Drag to Disk.

Once you "finalise" a disk, you can not write to disk.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Is it possible to write protect a CD-RW?

Not in the way I think you are wanting to. Use a CD-R instead which is
write protected once it has been finalised.

 

[Bob I]

Thanks. I was really looking to be able to protect / unprotect as we did
for floppy disks. Can that be done?

Bill Ridgeway

No, if you look closely you can see that there is no little mechanical
interlock tab on the CD disc as there is on a floppy disk.

 

[JohnO]

No, if you look closely you can see that there is no little mechanical
interlock tab on the CD disc as there is on a floppy disk.

I read that if you draw a green circle around the outside of the disk with a
Sharpie...

just kidding.

I used CD-RWs for a while, and in the end I decided they were a pain and
took too long. Re-use of disks is nice, but the time spent initializing and
writing well offset the cost of disposable CD-Rs. Then again, we buy the CDs
in cases.

-John O

 

[Anteaus]

I used CD-RWs for a while, and in the end I decided they were a pain and
took too long. Re-use of disks is nice, but the time spent initializing and
writing well offset the cost of disposable CD-Rs.

That, and the reliability issues. Add a session to CD/DVD RW and there is a
significant chance you will lose the existing data if it goes wrong.

As for the lack of write-protect I've always thought this was an
unsatisfactory situation where bootable CD's were concerned. Floppies used
to be a major virus-transmission vector, and they HAD write-protection, it
was just that people were too lazy to use it.

A further issue when booting froma CD is that if the CD fails to initsalise
in time the computer will (stupidly) 'fall through' to booting from the HD,
whereas the boot process would halt when it encountered a nonbootable floppy.
If the reason you are booting from CD is that the HD is malware-infected,
then this is the one thing you DON'T want to happen. This is especially true
when the media lacks a write-protect. Not a good design, IMHO.

 

[M.I.5¾]

That, and the reliability issues. Add a session to CD/DVD RW and there is
a
significant chance you will lose the existing data if it goes wrong.

As for the lack of write-protect I've always thought this was an
unsatisfactory situation where bootable CD's were concerned. Floppies
used
to be a major virus-transmission vector, and they HAD write-protection, it
was just that people were too lazy to use it.

Malware can easily override the write protection on a floppy disc. Since
the write protect tab was read by a photocell on the drive which input to a
bit on an I/O port, it was child's play to reprogram the port to always read
as writable.

 

[Ian D]

Malware can easily override the write protection on a floppy disc. Since
the write protect tab was read by a photocell on the drive which input to
a bit on an I/O port, it was child's play to reprogram the port to always
read as writable.

The write protection on a floppy disk is implemented through
hardware in the disk. It's a hard wired function. The write amplifier
is turned OFF. This cannot be defeated by software any more
than a virus can infect a computer that's switched off. When
write protection is on, the host OS is so advised so that it doesn't
try to write to the disk. It may be possible to override the OS write
prevention by software, and send data to the floppy drive, but it
cannot be written to the disk.

 

[M.I.5¾]

The write protection on a floppy disk is implemented through
hardware in the disk. It's a hard wired function. The write amplifier
is turned OFF. This cannot be defeated by software any more
than a virus can infect a computer that's switched off. When
write protection is on, the host OS is so advised so that it doesn't
try to write to the disk. It may be possible to override the OS write
prevention by software, and send data to the floppy drive, but it
cannot be written to the disk.

Unfortunately for your theory, I have succeeded in doing it. There may be
different designs of floppy that impliment the write protect in different
ways.