Turning CD-RW into read only

  • Thread starter Thread starter compteach
  • Start date Start date
C

compteach

We are using Nero burning software. We format the disc and the students
save to them fine. Then all of a sudden they turn to read only. Are we
missing a step? We use the InCD. Help! We also cannot format the disc
because it is read only.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
You need a CD-RW drive in order to erase files
from a CD-RW disk. Do you have a CD-RW
drive, or is it just a CD-R drive?

Cannot Delete Individual Files from a CD-RW Disc in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;294883

Description of CD-R and CD-RW recording in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279157

How To Erase Files From a CD-RW Disc in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306641

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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:

| We are using Nero burning software. We format the disc and the students
| save to them fine. Then all of a sudden they turn to read only. Are we
| missing a step? We use the InCD. Help! We also cannot format the disc
| because it is read only.
|
| Any help would be appreciated.
|
|
| --
| compteach
 
Two thoughts, are your CDs CD-RWs as opposed to CD-Rs??
Only CD-RWs are erasable

And are you using a setting called 'Finalise CD' when burning??
If so, you cannot change the contents of the CD after burning
 
We do have CD-RW discs and burners. It is wierd, because the discs wil
be working great and then all of a sudden they will put their disc int
save and it will all of a sudden say that is Read-Only. We are savin
straight from Word to the CD. How can I check to see if somehow it i
finalizing the CD?

Thanks
 
How to troubleshoot issues that occur when you write data to a
CD-R or CD-RW Optical Disc in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324129

An Error Message May Be Displayed When You Delete a File or Folder on a CD-RW Media
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303008

Cannot Delete Individual Files from a CD-RW Disc in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;294883

How To Erase Files From a CD-RW Disc in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306641

Once files are recorded to a CD, they always become "Read Only".
CD-ROM = Compact Disc - Read Only Memory.
In order to modify a file recorded to a CD, you must
copy the file from the CD to the hard drive, make your
desired changes, then record the modified file back to
the CD.

Nero is an example of a third-party recording program
that supports packet writing:
http://ww2.nero.com/enu/Products.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| We do have CD-RW discs and burners. It is wierd, because the discs will
| be working great and then all of a sudden they will put their disc into
| save and it will all of a sudden say that is Read-Only. We are saving
| straight from Word to the CD. How can I check to see if somehow it is
| finalizing the CD?
|
| Thanks
 
We do have CD-RW discs and burners. It is wierd, because the discs will
be working great and then all of a sudden they will put their disc into
save and it will all of a sudden say that is Read-Only. We are saving
straight from Word to the CD. How can I check to see if somehow it is
finalizing the CD?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Given that XP has no ability to save to a CDRW directly from Word, you
are asking in the wrong place. Ask in a group that deals with the
third-party program you use to do packet-writing.
 
On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:15:13 +0100, compteach
We do have CD-RW discs and burners. It is wierd, because the discs will
be working great and then all of a sudden they will put their disc into
save and it will all of a sudden say that is Read-Only. We are saving
straight from Word to the CD. How can I check to see if somehow it is
finalizing the CD?
Click to expand...

If you are saving straight from an app such as Word to the CDRW, then
"finalizing" does not apply - you are not mastering a data CD-ROM
image and writing it to disk, you are using packet writing instead.

Packet writing works only on Re-Writable disks, not on Recordable
disks, because it's orientated around the former's ability to be
erased and re-written. There's no visible packet writing package
involved; it acts as a driver layer that allows you to treat the CDRW
disk as if it was a "big diskette".

That way, you don't have to learn a special authoring process like
Nero to use the disks; you just do what you normally do, and the
packet writing software does the rest in the background.

The trouble is, the way software usually works is to write to disk
quite frequently - and that's something you want to avoid on CDRW
disks, because while they can be erased, they have a limited lifetime
in terms of how often they can be erased and overwritten.

So to protect the disk, the packet writing software doesn't really
write to the disk when you think it does - it keeps pending writes in
memory until they are committed to disk when you formally eject it
through the software (pressing the hardware "eject now!" button is a
bad idea and the button is either locked or trapped in software).

You can see what comes next - if you do eject the disk, or have a bad
exit before it's finally written to, then the disk is very likely to
be left in a corrupted state. Typically it will end up with no data
on it, no free space on it, and "read-only"; your only option is to
wipe (format) the CDRW and start over.

I used to think CDRWs were flaky at the hardware level, until I
started using them formally, via Nero, as if they were normal CDR
disks. In that context, I've found them as reliable as CDR, unless a
PC has an old CD-ROM drive that can't read CDRW disks.

It's the packet writing software that is flaky and sucks!


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Click to expand...
First, the good Customer feedback has
been clear and unambiguous.
 
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