Use CD as disk drive

[Won Dampchin]

Is there a freeware program which will permit me to use a RW CD as an
additional disk drive (appearing in explorer and permitting the making of
folders and saving files in them)?

TIA
Regards...

 

[Kamikazee]

Won Dampchin napisa³(a):

Is there a freeware program which will permit me to use a RW CD as an
additional disk drive (appearing in explorer and permitting the making of
folders and saving files in them)?

Only program I know is InCD but it isn't freeware.

 

[hummingbird]

Is there a freeware program which will permit me to use a RW CD as an
additional disk drive (appearing in explorer and permitting the making of
folders and saving files in them)?

'Direct CD' allows reading/writing to CD-RWs.
It's a free utility from the Roxio website and elsewhere.
There are other utils which also do this.

 

[John Corliss]

'Direct CD' allows reading/writing to CD-RWs.
It's a free utility from the Roxio website and elsewhere.
There are other utils which also do this.

You'll regret using it however, inthat UDF formatted CDRWs are very
problematic and unreliable. Not only that, but if you install DirectCD,
forget about ever being able to install Nero InCD unless you format your
hard drive and reinstall all your programs (exluding anything from
Roxio) from scratch. Failure to do this can actually render your
computer inoperable. Unless something has changed, this is a common
experience for many.

I, unfortunately, know this from personal experience.

--
Regards from John Corliss
My current killfile: aafuss, Chrissy Cruiser, Slowhand Hussein, BEN
RITCHEY and others.
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware,
PROmotionware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware,
viruses or warez please.

 

[hummingbird]

You'll regret using it however, inthat UDF formatted CDRWs are very
problematic and unreliable. Not only that, but if you install DirectCD,
forget about ever being able to install Nero InCD unless you format your
hard drive and reinstall all your programs (exluding anything from
Roxio) from scratch. Failure to do this can actually render your
computer inoperable. Unless something has changed, this is a common
experience for many.

I, unfortunately, know this from personal experience.

Interesting. I need to get CD-RW support up and running myself.

I had Roxio Easy CD Creator and DirectCD installed on two past
machines (98SE and XP-Sp1) and had few problems. No Nero.
I haven't installed Roxio s/w on my current machine (XP-Sp2) and
have been planning to do so but....is there another CD-RW prog
you'd recommend instead of DirectCD?

 

[Margrave of Brandenburg]

Interesting. I need to get CD-RW support up and running myself.

I had Roxio Easy CD Creator and DirectCD installed on two past
machines (98SE and XP-Sp1) and had few problems. No Nero.
I haven't installed Roxio s/w on my current machine (XP-Sp2) and
have been planning to do so but....is there another CD-RW prog
you'd recommend instead of DirectCD?

I had Roxio/DirectCD problems on Win98 years ago, and abandoned it for Nero.
That was EZ CD versions 4 and 5. Problems with DirectCD were rife back then.

The newer versions might not have that problem. But with so many
alternatives out there (I like Nero), why tempt fate?

 

[Kittie Spit]

A couple of freeware UDF apps that I'd recommend adding to your
toolbox:

ISOBuster [freeware/shareware -- sw vers has added functionality].
ISOBuster is the best recovery software I've ever used for
UDF-formatted CD's/DVD's. It's quite fast, and does an excellent job.
Also filenames are restored in much larger percentage than with other
similar apps, in my experience. Whatever UDF prog you use, you really
need a copy of this, as UDF formats can be quite unstable and it's not
like you can simply share CD's with others via typical CD formatting,
since by definition UDF is unique. Now, you can install readers, InCD
or DirectCD, or sw apps like Jet Storage UDF. You will need such apps
to read UDF discs. [And also, InCD and DirectCD are incompatible, so
you can't have both installed/in use at the same time. As I recall,
Nero makes a little freeware app to temporarily disable DirectCD if it
finds it on your system - don't know if reverse is true with DirectCD.]

Anyway, ISOBuster is designed as a data recovery tool, so I don't
recommend it just to copy data off a perfectly good UDF-formatted disk
just to use the files. It's just another excellent recovery tool when
your UDF software fails [and believe me, it will].
www.isobuster.com
----------

For UDF formatting/burning, an excellent freeware app is "Easy
Burning." It's a great CD-DVD burner that adds UDF.

Direct link to this app:
http://dpaehl.dd6338.kasserver.com/cdr/easyburning.php

General info page on all Dirk's apps:
http://cdr.dpaehl.de/
[click on 'My Burning Programs']
While you're there, you may find several other excellent freeware
CD-DVD burning tools.

Shareware-wise, the above-mentioned Jet Storage UDF is supposedly one
of the best UDF burners, though I haven't tried it. It does NOT run
under Win98SE & before.

 

[DelawareDave]

You'll regret using it however, inthat UDF formatted CDRWs are very
problematic and unreliable. Not only that, but if you install DirectCD,
forget about ever being able to install Nero InCD unless you format your
hard drive and reinstall all your programs (exluding anything from
Roxio) from scratch. Failure to do this can actually render your
computer inoperable. Unless something has changed, this is a common
experience for many.

I, unfortunately, know this from personal experience.

Same here - the Roxio Direct CD is garbage - I had lots of problems and
unrecoverable files - had to use ISObuster to do partial recovery.

 

[David]

Interesting. I need to get CD-RW support up and running myself.

I had Roxio Easy CD Creator and DirectCD installed on two past
machines (98SE and XP-Sp1) and had few problems. No Nero.
I haven't installed Roxio s/w on my current machine (XP-Sp2) and
have been planning to do so but....is there another CD-RW prog
you'd recommend instead of DirectCD?

I have had no problems with either DirectCD or InCD. Personally I
prefer DirectCD. I do not agree that UDF is problematic and
unreliable. You do have to remember that RW media does have a limited
number of writes but that number is in the thousands last I heard

--
David
Remove "farook" to reply
At the bottom of the application where it says
"sign here". I put "Sagittarius"
E-mail: justdas at iinet dot net dot au

 

[John Corliss]

I have had no problems with either DirectCD or InCD. Personally I
prefer DirectCD. I do not agree that UDF is problematic and
unreliable. You do have to remember that RW media does have a limited
number of writes but that number is in the thousands last I heard

My experience was that I was only able to rewrite a CDRW a maximum of 15
times. And yes, I actually counted them. As a result, I simply abandoned
UDF formatting CDRWs.

But of course, YMMV.

--
Regards from John Corliss
My current killfile: aafuss, Chrissy Cruiser, Slowhand Hussein, BEN
RITCHEY and others.
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware,
PROmotionware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware,
viruses or warez please.

 

[John Corliss]

Shareware-wise, the above-mentioned etc.

Why are you recommending shareware in this freeware newsgroup?

--
Regards from John Corliss
My current killfile: aafuss, Chrissy Cruiser, Slowhand Hussein, BEN
RITCHEY and others.
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware,
PROmotionware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware,
viruses or warez please.

 

[hummingbird]

A couple of freeware UDF apps that I'd recommend adding to your
toolbox:

ISOBuster [freeware/shareware -- sw vers has added functionality].
ISOBuster is the best recovery software I've ever used for
UDF-formatted CD's/DVD's. It's quite fast, and does an excellent job.
Also filenames are restored in much larger percentage than with other
similar apps, in my experience. Whatever UDF prog you use, you really
need a copy of this, as UDF formats can be quite unstable and it's not
like you can simply share CD's with others via typical CD formatting,
since by definition UDF is unique. Now, you can install readers, InCD
or DirectCD, or sw apps like Jet Storage UDF. You will need such apps
to read UDF discs. [And also, InCD and DirectCD are incompatible, so
you can't have both installed/in use at the same time. As I recall,
Nero makes a little freeware app to temporarily disable DirectCD if it
finds it on your system - don't know if reverse is true with DirectCD.]

Anyway, ISOBuster is designed as a data recovery tool, so I don't
recommend it just to copy data off a perfectly good UDF-formatted disk
just to use the files. It's just another excellent recovery tool when
your UDF software fails [and believe me, it will].
www.isobuster.com
----------

For UDF formatting/burning, an excellent freeware app is "Easy
Burning." It's a great CD-DVD burner that adds UDF.

Direct link to this app:
http://dpaehl.dd6338.kasserver.com/cdr/easyburning.php

General info page on all Dirk's apps:
http://cdr.dpaehl.de/
[click on 'My Burning Programs']
While you're there, you may find several other excellent freeware
CD-DVD burning tools.

Shareware-wise, the above-mentioned Jet Storage UDF is supposedly one
of the best UDF burners, though I haven't tried it. It does NOT run
under Win98SE & before.

Thanks Kittie. There's enough to keep me busy over Xmas ;-)

 

[Terry Russell]

I have had no problems with either DirectCD or InCD. Personally I
prefer DirectCD. I do not agree that UDF is problematic and
unreliable. You do have to remember that RW media does have a limited
number of writes but that number is in the thousands last I heard

buy a lottery ticket.

It will fail, at the worst time and in the worst way, fine for low value
storage and short term
backups , you still have the original, but potentially costly for anything
remotely valuable.

(by xp I mean pro sp2 , it is safe to assume I am not universally right
)
XP has dragand drop to cdr which writes standard mode cds not udf, still
some problems
with writing sessions on different machines cds but much more recoverable if
there
is a problem. It warns immediately if there is a writing problem, udf fails
silently until you
stumble into whatever ratsnest developed.

Pretty much as quick as udf, considering preformat time,
you just have to remember to click the 'write these files'
on the drive after dragndropping them. Multisessions eat space and there is
a low
limit on the number of sessions you can fit on a disc (99??) so don't go
adding 1k files
one at a time, just dragndrop a bunch then write as one session.
periodically recopy to fresh cds to decrease multisession delays and
incidentally
rebackup the data (50c cdr + 5 minutes user) vs (value of data + recovery
time )

Then just date and stack them in a labeled 'discardable' cylinder pack until
full or a year,
if you haven't needed them for the last year or more you can probably chuck
the bottom 50 once full
, security issues aside.I have found it convenient to burrow down 10 or 20
to find copies of
something misplaced or dropped then run over by the chair rollers when I
bend down to pick it up
doh !


All udf gives you is the illusion of completion and reuse saving a minute or
two of user time to initiate
and complete the write ( I usually wait for completion before proceeding
with other operations ),
but it may cost you many hours and dollars to get back what is lost _when_
it fails.

In addition the installable file system udf interface sometimes has problems
with other software,
virus scanners etc.

 

[Kittie Spit]

John

Since you ask, mentioned _one_ shareware app to give a fuller answer to
the question. I really don't think this hurts, since I've clearly
identified it as such. UDF is a pretty small field anyway, so it seems
to me every bit of info helps, not hurts.

Kittie Spit