CD Burner Program

[Guest]

OS = XP-SP2 -I have recently installed a CD-RW to use primarily for backup
purposes. This morning I copied 2 files on a blank, 702 MB CD. Total size of
the files is 2.07 MB, but the program shows there is only 678 MB of free
space on the disc.

Another disc which shows 0 free space has only 428 MB of files on it. Is
there an explanation?

 

[Vagabond Software]

OS = XP-SP2 -I have recently installed a CD-RW to use primarily for backup
purposes. This morning I copied 2 files on a blank, 702 MB CD. Total size of
the files is 2.07 MB, but the program shows there is only 678 MB of free
space on the disc.

Another disc which shows 0 free space has only 428 MB of files on it. Is
there an explanation?

I'm only guessing, but I think this suggests that the disc with 0 free space is a standard CD-R disc rather than a CD-RW disc.

carl

 

[Linda B]

If the one with 428MB of files on it has already been burned and finalized
(which I suspect it has), the OS shows there is 0MB free space on it because
you can't write any more files to it. If you had written 10MB to the disc
and burned it, it would still show 0MB free afterwards. If you put any
other CD into the drive and look at the free space, it'll say 0MB too.

I can't really speculate as to why the first thing happens, but I know it's
pretty common behavior...

 

[Fred S]

Marty,

There is "overhead" for the index or directory structure - see Alex
Nichol's excellent write up at AUMHA.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm

Fred

 

[Guest]

The disc came in a pack of CD-RW's so I must assume that's what it is.
Reading http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm as suggested by Fred answered all my
questions. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Guest]

Reading http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm as suggested by Fred answered all my
questions. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Guest]

Excellent article. Answered all my questions. Thanks, Fred!

 

[Fred S]

Marty,

You're welcome, glad I could assist.

Fred

 

[Yves Leclerc]

You would then also know that XP built-in CD burning software would:

1) Treat CD-RW like any CD-R
2) Closes the session after burning -- can not normally do multi-seesion.

 

[Stan Brown]

OS = XP-SP2 -I have recently installed a CD-RW to use primarily for backup
purposes. This morning I copied 2 files on a blank, 702 MB CD. Total size of
the files is 2.07 MB, but the program shows there is only 678 MB of free
space on the disc.

CD-RWs take quite a lot of space for header-type informtion to
support the rewriting capability. IIRC it's a one-time thing. Once
the disk is set up, if you add 10 MB of data you should see free
space diminish by 10 MB.

Another disc which shows 0 free space has only 428 MB of files on it. Is
there an explanation?

Every CD will show 0 free space in "properties". It has to do with
closing the session at burn time so that the disk can be read. Your
CD burning program will tell you the actual amount of availabl
space.

 

[Alex Nichol]

OS = XP-SP2 -I have recently installed a CD-RW to use primarily for backup
purposes. This morning I copied 2 files on a blank, 702 MB CD. Total size of
the files is 2.07 MB, but the program shows there is only 678 MB of free
space on the disc.

It is not practicable for explorer to scan down a whole CD through
possible multiple sessions, to find how much has really been used. So
it normally shows free space on any CD as zero