Windows copy to CD fails

[General Mailbox]

Greetings,
I have attempted about 4 times to copy folders onto a CDRW.
1st event: Placed unformatted CDRW and system says there's no CD in the
drive. I tried 2 other CDRW's in case of being defective. I used another
utility to format it.
2nd event: It worked. On a 650MB CDRW, I placed about 250MB data.
3rd event: I wanted to add another 300MB to the same successful disk in #2
event. Everything acted normal, the lights were blinking on the tower and CD
drive. After 15 mins, it completed and ejected the CD. However, only the 1st
session shows as being on the CD. No signs of the 2nd session.
4th event: Did a quick format of CDRW, using a 3rd party utility, and tried
to add all the folders as one session instead. It took about 23mins with
everything looking normal. Upon completion and reboot the system, the CD
still shows 650MB free with no data on it.

Question 1: Why isn't windows doing the formatting if that is what it seems
to need from a CD?

Question 2: Why can't multiple sessions be placed on a single CD? Item #6
under my Help & Support Center states "If the CD is not full, you can add
more files to the CD by repeating this process."

Question 3: What happened to all the folders that the system appeared to be
working on all this time?

I did spend time looking back in the previous posts and found some
interesting things, but nothing that answers the issue I am having.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can give. Oh, I've notice a few
postings about Acronis and Norton Ghost. I'll be looking into those, but
still expected Windows to do what it was designed to do. Thanks.

B.rgds,
Kevin
WinXP SP2

 

[M.I.5¾]

Greetings,
I have attempted about 4 times to copy folders onto a CDRW.
1st event: Placed unformatted CDRW and system says there's no CD in the
drive. I tried 2 other CDRW's in case of being defective. I used another
utility to format it.
2nd event: It worked. On a 650MB CDRW, I placed about 250MB data.
3rd event: I wanted to add another 300MB to the same successful disk in #2
event. Everything acted normal, the lights were blinking on the tower and
CD drive. After 15 mins, it completed and ejected the CD. However, only
the 1st session shows as being on the CD. No signs of the 2nd session.
4th event: Did a quick format of CDRW, using a 3rd party utility, and
tried to add all the folders as one session instead. It took about 23mins
with everything looking normal. Upon completion and reboot the system,
the CD still shows 650MB free with no data on it.

Question 1: Why isn't windows doing the formatting if that is what it
seems to need from a CD?

Question 2: Why can't multiple sessions be placed on a single CD? Item #6
under my Help & Support Center states "If the CD is not full, you can add
more files to the CD by repeating this process."

Question 3: What happened to all the folders that the system appeared to
be working on all this time?

I did spend time looking back in the previous posts and found some
interesting things, but nothing that answers the issue I am having.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can give. Oh, I've notice a
few postings about Acronis and Norton Ghost. I'll be looking into those,
but still expected Windows to do what it was designed to do. Thanks.

The only thinng you haven't told us is what utility you are using to create
the CD-RW.

I somehow assume that it is the Windows XP's own inbuilt CD writing
capability. I somehow feel that the laser in your CD writer may have failed
and is unable to reliably write disks (given that it occasionally works but
mostly doesn't). Unfortunately the failure rate of CD/DVD lasers is
ridiculously high.

However, there is another answer to your question 2 which I don't think is
really your problem but people should be aware of it. The Windows XP's own
CD writing utility writes CDs in a technically invalid format. The orange
book specification (which addresses multi session writing) only intended
multisession disks to be written in Mode 2 (also known as CD XA). However,
it was somewhat ambiguous on the point. As a result there are CD drives out
there which won't recognise anything other than the first session on a Mode
1 disk. However, most do. Just to confound the issue, those that don't
will usually successfully write a subsequent Mode 1 session. The Windows XP
writing utility is very basic and only supports Mode 1 multisession writing.

 

[General Mailbox]

The only thinng you haven't told us is what utility you are using to
create the CD-RW.

I somehow assume that it is the Windows XP's own inbuilt CD writing
capability. I somehow feel that the laser in your CD writer may have
failed and is unable to reliably write disks (given that it occasionally
works but mostly doesn't). Unfortunately the failure rate of CD/DVD
lasers is ridiculously high.

However, there is another answer to your question 2 which I don't think is
really your problem but people should be aware of it. The Windows XP's
own CD writing utility writes CDs in a technically invalid format. The
orange book specification (which addresses multi session writing) only
intended multisession disks to be written in Mode 2 (also known as CD XA).
However, it was somewhat ambiguous on the point. As a result there are CD
drives out there which won't recognise anything other than the first
session on a Mode 1 disk. However, most do. Just to confound the issue,
those that don't will usually successfully write a subsequent Mode 1
session. The Windows XP writing utility is very basic and only supports
Mode 1 multisession writing.

Thank you M.I.5¾. Logically, I would need to agree with you about defective
hardware. It didn't dawn on me that a laser can sometimes work and other
times not. I had thought it was like a light bulb, either burnt out or not.
I'll change it out to give it a try.
B.rgds,
Kevin

 

[M.I.5¾]

Thank you M.I.5¾. Logically, I would need to agree with you about
defective hardware. It didn't dawn on me that a laser can sometimes work
and other times not. I had thought it was like a light bulb, either burnt
out or not. I'll change it out to give it a try.

Without getting too technical, the laser works by generating light energy in
a semiconductor crystaline cavity. Unfortunately the energy density in the
cavity causes the crystal structure to develop micro fractures as they get
fairly hot. As these fractures develop, the efficiency of the laser falls
and its output drops. Consequently the laser doesn't suddenly go out like a
filament bulb, but gradually dims like an allegedly 'energy efficient'
Compact Fluorescent Lamp (though fortunately nowhere near as fast). As
others have noted, the laser does represent the most unreliable part of any
CD/DVD drive. The CD/DVD writers have a harder time of it because the
energy of the laser is much higher.

If it makes you feel any better, I noted that I bought my first CD writer in
1998. I replaced it with a DVD/CD-RW Combo when it failed. I replaced that
with a DVD writer when they became sensibly priced. That unit has been
replaced 3 times as each unit failed (and I had to buy the latest one just
yesterday). I just don't expect any sensible life out of them any more.