Writing to CD-R

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Guest

With Vista Home Premium, I appear to be able to update and delete data on
Word documents that have been copied to a read-only CD.
I select the DVD drive and open it, and select and drag and/or copy the file
to it.
The file appears to be on the CD, but I don't get the burn to CD option that
was available on XP, but can hear the CD spinning, and the amount of free
memory decreases.
On opening this file, I can edit and delete data on it, even if I log into
another non-administrator account after powering down/up.
This cannot be correct..... can it?
Or am I doing something wrong?

Annie
 
annieuk said:
With Vista Home Premium, I appear to be able to update and delete data on
Word documents that have been copied to a read-only CD.
I select the DVD drive and open it, and select and drag and/or copy the
file
to it.
The file appears to be on the CD, but I don't get the burn to CD option
that
was available on XP, but can hear the CD spinning, and the amount of free
memory decreases.
On opening this file, I can edit and delete data on it, even if I log into
another non-administrator account after powering down/up.
This cannot be correct..... can it?
Or am I doing something wrong?

Annie
Click to expand...

I suspect you have some third-party software to enable packet writing to
CDs. Look in your notification area.

ThePro
 
annieuk said:
With Vista Home Premium, I appear to be able to update and delete data on
Word documents that have been copied to a read-only CD.
I select the DVD drive and open it, and select and drag and/or copy the
file
to it.
The file appears to be on the CD, but I don't get the burn to CD option
that
was available on XP, but can hear the CD spinning, and the amount of free
memory decreases.
On opening this file, I can edit and delete data on it, even if I log into
another non-administrator account after powering down/up.
This cannot be correct..... can it?
Or am I doing something wrong?

Annie
Click to expand...

"Packet Writing"

That's the default setting for any CD/DVD you put in the drive.

You CAN alter the file and resave it to the CD-R.

Actually, saving ANY file with the same name on the disk will 'replace' the
original file. I put 'replace' in quotes because what's happening is the
old file isn't actually being deleted, the file system on the disk is simply
pointing to the new version of the file while access to the old version of
the file has been removed.

This is why you're seeing the available free space decreasing, the old
version(s) of the file are taking up that space and each time you save the
same file to the same CD-R you're going to loose that much space, plus the
overhead for the session on the disk.

Mic
 
ThePro said:
I suspect you have some third-party software to enable packet writing to
CDs. Look in your notification area.

ThePro
Click to expand...

I haven't tried it yet but I read Vista supports UDF packet writing without
the need for 3rd party software. Thing is, he said he is using read-only
CDR's. Can't be if he can change the data in the files that are on the CDR.
They would have to be CDRW disks.

To the OP, when writing files to a CDR in Vista it is done the same was as
in XP. You drag the files and/or folders to the drive disk and then select
write these files to disk in the file menu. That's how I have been doing it
with DVD+R's in Vista.
 
Vista defaults to using what it calls the 'live file system' when a blank
CDR is inserted but the default can be changed to the more standard
'mastered' format. There is little info in help and support or online at
Microsoft's websites, as to the details of how the 'live file system' works.
I suppose it could be allowing you to save the document multiple times on a
CDR, but wiping out the directory entry and losing the space allocated to
the previous version each time. I believe the 'live file system' formats
the CD, which wastes 3 to 10 percent of the disc space, but that is just my
guess.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Wi...5b0d-b280-4589-9805-55e753888f5c1033.mspx#EYG
says that when the 'live file sytem' is used on CDRWs, files can be deleted
and the space is recovered.

If anyone knows of a web site that thoroughly explains this 'live file
system' on CD-Rs, please post the URL here.

-Paul Randall
 
Thanks for replying.....
I have taken my Vista created read-only CD to my daughter's. She has XP. My
read-only CD has all of my data on it and it behaves as you would expect from
a read-only CD, ie. you cannot save changes to Word documents on the CD. NOTE
that on my Vista system, I could unexpectedly amend and delete data on the
CD, as if it were a RW.

However, this is on the same computer that I created the read-only CD files.
What I need is another Vista system to see what happens when the computer
that created the CD is not involved with reading it......... Anybody got 2
independent Vista systems???

NOTE that all I did to copy the files onto the CD-R was to drag and drop. I
did not have to burn them onto the CD nor to save them to disk from the file
menu to get them onto the CD....... BUT maybe I should have done that to
remove them from my computer system???

How do I get MS to look at this??? They must have 2 independent systems....

Annie
 
Try putting a new blank CD into your CD writer.
Does Windows bring up a 'autplay' message box with three options like:
1) Burn an audio file with Windows Media Player
2) Burn files to disc using Windows
3) Add files using Roxio Creator Data (I'm thinking this may be an add-on
included with my HP computer).
and a link to set autoplay defaults in control panel?

If so then try some of the options. I think you will find that you were
using a CD that had been formatted in the 'live file system'. In this
system you don't do anything special, after the formatting, to burn the
file -- it is automatically done when you drag a file or save a file to that
drive.

-Paul Randall
 
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