Going nuts with my CD

[Jeff Needle]

So many of you were so helpful last time, I'm hoping I can past this
latest problem.

I have a box of brand new CD/R platters from Office Depot. I place a
blank CD in the drive, format it using Microsoft's format option when I
right click on the drive icon in my computer. Everything goes just fine..
I back up my files to the CD, remove it, and replace the CD I generally
have in the drive, a colletion of reference works.

When I go to do another backup, the system freezes. I go to My Computer,
click on the d: icon, and I get the hourglass/wait thing, and it never
goes away. I have to manually shut down, use a paper clip to open the
drive, etc.

This has happened with three of the CD's in the pack. Every other CD I
have works fine (although I've never tried to write to any of them, since
they are pre-packaged reference CD's).

Is it possible I have a bad pack of CD's??? It's just maddening. I've
never heard of this happening consistently from one CD to another.

Thanks.

 

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

So many of you were so helpful last time, I'm hoping I can past this
latest problem.

I have a box of brand new CD/R platters from Office Depot. I place a
blank CD in the drive, format it using Microsoft's format option when
I right click on the drive icon in my computer. Everything goes just
fine. I back up my files to the CD, remove it, and replace the CD I
generally have in the drive, a colletion of reference works.

When I go to do another backup, the system freezes. I go to My
Computer, click on the d: icon, and I get the hourglass/wait thing,
and it never goes away. I have to manually shut down, use a paper
clip to open the drive, etc.

This has happened with three of the CD's in the pack. Every other CD
I have works fine (although I've never tried to write to any of them,
since they are pre-packaged reference CD's).

Is it possible I have a bad pack of CD's??? It's just maddening. I've
never heard of this happening consistently from one CD to
another.
Thanks.

Sounds like you're attempting to packet-write, which the native applet does
not support. If you wish to use the CD for more than one session, you're
going to require third-party software, e.g. Easy CD Creator or Nero.

 

[Malke]

Sounds like you're attempting to packet-write, which the native applet
does not support. If you wish to use the CD for more than one session,
you're going to require third-party software, e.g. Easy CD Creator or
Nero.

Just to add to Miss Tick's good advice, if you want to packet-write you
need CD-RW blanks, not CD-R's. However, IMO it is not wise to use
packet-writing software anyway since CD-R's are so inexpensive. You can
easily run into compatibility problems with packet-writing software and
the whole point of backups is to make them transferrable to any system.

Malke

 

[Jeff Needle]

Sounds like you're attempting to packet-write, which the native applet
does
not support. If you wish to use the CD for more than one session, you're
going to require third-party software, e.g. Easy CD Creator or Nero.

Good grief, I had no idea.

However, this doesn't explain why I can't look at the contents of the CD..
When the system hangs, I'm not at that point trying to write to it a
second time, I'm just trying to list the contents.

 

[Jeff Needle]

Just to add to Miss Tick's good advice, if you want to packet-write you

need CD-RW blanks, not CD-R's. However, IMO it is not wise to use
packet-writing software anyway since CD-R's are so inexpensive. You can
easily run into compatibility problems with packet-writing software and
the whole point of backups is to make them transferrable to any system..

Malke

So what are my options? I can go get some CD-RW platters pretty easily.
And please forgive me for my ignorance.

1. Do I need further special software if I get the CD-RW platters?

2. I notice that Microsoft has something called "make compatible" in one
of the menus. If, let's say, my system fails completely, can I make my
CD-RW platter "compatible" and restore the files to another computer?

Gosh, I miss the days of backing up to floppy disk...NOT!!!! <grin>

 

[Malke]

Good grief, I had no idea.

However, this doesn't explain why I can't look at the contents of the
CD. When the system hangs, I'm not at that point trying to write to it
a second time, I'm just trying to list the contents.

1. In order to use your cd-rw drive (with a cd-rw blank) as a "big
floppy drive" you need to use packet-writing software. Example are
Nero's InCD (vague memory that they changed the name, don't remember to
what) and Roxio's DirectCD (again, I may be mis-remembering the exact
names).

2. The problem with doing the above is that the same packet-writing
software with which you created the cd-rw (or a udp reader) needs to be
installed on whatever computer on which you are trying to read the
cd-rw. Without that software installed on the foreign computer, the
cd-rw you made will appear blank.

It made sense to use rewritable cd's back in the day when cd blanks were
so expensive. With cd-r's now costing only pennies, this strategy no
longer makes sense, particularly since the point of backups is to make
them usable on any system.

3. I don't know why your computer is hanging. It may have nothing to do
with the software end of things. Your cd drive might be failing. There
isn't any way for me to tell from here. Try using a blank from a
different pack. If the same issue occurs, you know the problem doesn't
lie with the physical media you bought from Office Dept. Just reading a
cd-rom isn't going to do the job of troubleshooting; you need to
actually try and read a cd-rw that was created the same way as the one
that is giving you problems.

4. If troubleshooting this is difficult and/or you don't have spare
parts, etc. then take the machine to a professional computer repair
shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA) and have them figure it
out for you. Do not feel bad about doing this.

Malke

 

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

Just to add to Miss Tick's good advice, if you want to packet-write
you need CD-RW blanks, not CD-R's. However, IMO it is not wise to use
packet-writing software anyway since CD-R's are so inexpensive. You
can easily run into compatibility problems with packet-writing
software and the whole point of backups is to make them transferrable
to any system.

Malke

Sorry, Malke, but you're wrong. You can just as easily packet-write to a
CD-R as to a CD-RW; I've been doing it for years. CD-Rs aren't
single-session, y'know... ;o)

 

[Judy]

I'm having similar problems. Using WXP to back up some wav files on a
monthly basis, usually at 2 different times. It always writes to the CD,
but I can't always read them -- sometimes until days later, and when it
won't read what's on the file it also won't eject the CD! Maddening.
Judy

So many of you were so helpful last time, I'm hoping I can past this
latest problem.

I have a box of brand new CD/R platters from Office Depot. I place a
blank CD in the drive, format it using Microsoft's format option when I
right click on the drive icon in my computer. Everything goes just fine.
I back up my files to the CD, remove it, and replace the CD I generally
have in the drive, a colletion of reference works.

When I go to do another backup, the system freezes. I go to My Computer,
click on the d: icon, and I get the hourglass/wait thing, and it never
goes away. I have to manually shut down, use a paper clip to open the
drive, etc.

This has happened with three of the CD's in the pack. Every other CD I
have works fine (although I've never tried to write to any of them, since
they are pre-packaged reference CD's).

Is it possible I have a bad pack of CD's??? It's just maddening. I've
never heard of this happening consistently from one CD to another.

Thanks.

 

[Jeff Needle]

Thanks for all the good advice. The machine is a Dell Dimension 3000, only
about six months old. I'd be very upset if the CD were beginning to fail
already <grin>.

I will follow up on all of it.

Thanks again to you, and all, for your help.

 

[Jeff Needle]

Sheesh. Yeah, sounds like you have the same problems I'm having.

Very frustrating.

 

[MikeTheMushroom]

Jeff Needle professed:

I have a box of brand new CD/R platters from Office Depot. I place a
blank CD in the drive, format it using Microsoft's format option when I
right click on the drive icon in my computer. Everything goes just fine.
I back up my files to the CD, remove it, and replace the CD I generally
have in the drive, a colletion of reference works.

Are you sure you want to format a CD-R?

-mm

 

[D.Currie]

So many of you were so helpful last time, I'm hoping I can past this
latest problem.

I have a box of brand new CD/R platters from Office Depot. I place a
blank CD in the drive, format it using Microsoft's format option when I
right click on the drive icon in my computer. Everything goes just fine.
I back up my files to the CD, remove it, and replace the CD I generally
have in the drive, a colletion of reference works.

When I go to do another backup, the system freezes. I go to My Computer,
click on the d: icon, and I get the hourglass/wait thing, and it never
goes away. I have to manually shut down, use a paper clip to open the
drive, etc.

This has happened with three of the CD's in the pack. Every other CD I
have works fine (although I've never tried to write to any of them, since
they are pre-packaged reference CD's).

Is it possible I have a bad pack of CD's??? It's just maddening. I've
never heard of this happening consistently from one CD to another.

Thanks.


--
------------------------------
Jeffrey Needle
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

Try this: don't format the disk. You shouldn't need to format a cdr. When
you want to write to the cd, just use the "send to" in windows to send the
files to the CD, then write the files.

 

[Malke]

Thanks for all the good advice. The machine is a Dell Dimension 3000,
only
about six months old. I'd be very upset if the CD were beginning to
fail already <grin>.

I will follow up on all of it.

Thanks again to you, and all, for your help.

The fact that the hardware is new is irrelevant. Normally if hardware is
going to fail, it does so within the first few months of use. If it
doesn't fail, then usually hardware will last for years. So the Dell
being new is no guarantee of good hardware. I like Dell machines, but
like any other machines you can get one that has a dodgy component.

As I said in my previous post, I'm not telling you definitively that
your hardware is bad; however, that is a possibility. Consider having a
local professional look at the machine on-site. It will be easier to
get an accurate diagnosis from someone who can actually see the machine
than from newsgroup posts.

Malke