1. [OT] CD Burning
I have a stack of blank CDs.
Before I obtain a CD-R/W i would like to know,
Can you erase a CD and re-use it and if not, can you burn 50% of a CD and go
back and add to it later?
Anybody with experiance w/ CDs ?
Don Cole
2. Re: [OT] CD Burning
Hi Don
>Can you erase a CD and re-use it and if not
Yes as long as the CD is rewriteable.
>can you burn 50% of a CD and go back and add to it later?
Some software allow you to select not to finalize the CD so you can add
more data at a later time.
----If you continue to do what you have always done,
you will get what you have always gotten.----
3. Re: [OT] CD Burning
Thany you C. for your quick response.
C Bouzy wrote:
>
> Hi Don
>
> >Can you erase a CD and re-use it and if not
> Yes as long as the CD is rewriteable.
I assume you mean the Disk(software) not the drive.
In other words you can format them if you screw up?
>
> >can you burn 50% of a CD and go back and add to it later?
> Some software allow you to select not to finalize the CD so you can add
> more data at a later time.
My girl friend wants to write a book a little at a time (dosen't everybody)
so I suppose it would work for that?
>
> ----If you continue to do what you have always done,
> you will get what you have always gotten.----
Thanks again.
Don Cole
--Our governor cut his lip(fool).
4. Re: [OT] CD Burning
don cole wrote:
>
> I have a stack of blank CDs.
> Before I obtain a CD-R/W i would like to know,
> Can you erase a CD and re-use it and if not, can you burn 50% of a CD and go
> back and add to it later?
>
> Anybody with experiance w/ CDs ?
>
> Don Cole
There are two basic types of recordable CDs: CD-R and CD-RW. CD-RW can be
written, erased, and rewritten. CD-R can only be written once.
You can record a little at a time like C Bouzy said, but I haven't actually done
this. I think they call this a "multi-session" CD when you do that. It is a
function of your CD recording software.
--
"Actually, I'm sitting on my butt staring at a computer screen."
- Tom Tomorrow
j.
5. Re: [OT] CD Burning
don cole wrote:
> My girl friend wants to write a book a little at a time (dosen't everybody)
> so I suppose it would work for that?
If you want my advice, get your girlfriend a USB flash drive. I used to carry
my Euphoria stuff on a CDRW and it was a pain to have to keep backing stuff up to
the CD. Plus, you have to copy the files off the CD onto the computer if you
want to change them.
I now have a USB jump drive that uses SD cards. I got 1GB of storage for ~$50
and the drive cost me all of $8. I can connect the drive to my computer, Windows
will recognize it as a drive letter and can edit any of my files easily. AAMOF,
my installation of Euphoria points to the jump drive, not on my hard drive.
If you want to look at this might I suggest http://www.ecost.com
Jonas Temple
http://www.yhti.net/~jktemple
6. Re: [OT] CD Burning
- Posted by Kenneth Rhodes <ken_rhodes30436 at yahoo.com>
Jan 11, 2006
-
Last edited Jan 12, 2006
Jonas Temple wrote:
>
> don cole wrote:
> > My girl friend wants to write a book a little at a time (dosen't everybody)
> > so I suppose it would work for that?
> If you want my advice, get your girlfriend a USB flash drive. I used to carry
> my Euphoria stuff on a CDRW and it was a pain to have to keep backing stuff
> up to the CD. Plus, you have to copy the files off the CD onto the computer
> if you want to change them.
>
> I now have a USB jump drive that uses SD cards. I got 1GB of storage for ~$50
> and the drive cost me all of $8. I can connect the drive to my computer,
> Windows will recognize it as a drive letter and can edit any of my files
> easily.
> AAMOF, my installation of Euphoria points to the jump drive, not on my hard
> drive.
>
> If you want to look at this might I suggest <a
> href="http://www.ecost.com">http://www.ecost.com</a>
>
> Jonas Temple
> <a href="http://www.yhti.net/~jktemple">http://www.yhti.net/~jktemple</a>
Wow! Jonas, I'll check with you before I buy any new peripherals... :)
To put things in perspective, "Far From the Madding Crowd" in an uncompressed
text format is only 796KB - that would fit on most old fashioned floppies - cost
- 55 cents;
on the smallest new (128mb)USB flash drives a hundred times over for less than
$25.00.
You've got lots of options.
Ken Rhodes
100% MicroSoft Free
SuSE Linux 10.0
No AddWare, SpyWare, Viruses
Life is Good :)
7. Re: [OT] CD Burning
- Posted by Al Getz <Xaxo at aol.com>
Jan 11, 2006
-
Last edited Jan 12, 2006
don cole wrote:
>
> I have a stack of blank CDs.
> Before I obtain a CD-R/W i would like to know,
> Can you erase a CD and re-use it and if not, can you burn 50% of a CD and go
> back and add to it later?
>
> Anybody with experiance w/ CDs ?
>
> Don Cole
Hi there Don,
As others were saying, the two basic types of recordable CD's
are RW and R.
The 'R' type is writeable, but when you erase a
file (delete) you dont get that disk space back--it's gone forever.
And, once the R disk is filled up that's it...no more space on that
disk.
The 'RW' type is erasable depending on what software you use.
With some software you can erase individual files and recover the
space that they took up on the disk. With other software (like that
which comes built into XP) you cant recover space even on RW disks
without erasing the whole disk and starting over.
The speeds of the recorders vary from model to model also. If you
get one that is around 50x or better you'll be able to record something
like 650 Megabytes in less than 5 minutes. If you get one that is only
about 4x you'll be sorry you didnt get a faster one.
You'll also have to check the speed of the disks themselves. If they
are marked "2x" or something like that you wont be able to record
any faster than that so it could take a half hour or more to record a full
disk. If they arent marked at all and they are somewhat older they
may be only 1 to 4x so they wont record very fast.
Also, not all CD disks work as well as you would like them to. They
could end up with errors after the record session is complete so you'd
have to start over with a fresh disk. In some packs of CD's ive found
about 3 out of 15 to be bad (especially when recording near the edge
of the disk when the disk is almost full), while with other packs i've
found none to be bad. If the disks are old there is a chance they
wont work as well as you would like so you may end up buying new disks
anyway. Most of the newer made disks work much better.
Before you buy, there is also popular the recordable DVD disks now.
They hold up to 4 gigabytes (8 gigs double sided) so you can basically
store about 6 or 7 CD's on one disk. Of course the downside is that
if something happens to that disk you lose 6 cd's instead of one.
As someone else was saying, there is also the 'jump drive' which has
become popular too now because it's so easy to use. You really need
to have USB 2.0 or better to appreciate this kind of drive however
or you'll notice a very slow write speed. They have come down in
price drastically over the past year or two too, so they are very
worth getting now.
The advantage is the jump drive acts very much like a small hard
drive so there is no fuss over what format you use...just plug into
USB and it shows up in Win Explorer as another hard drive! Very nice.
Drawbacks are: Once it fills up, you have to buy a new one unless
you erase files (just like a hard drive), and before you unplug you
have to click a button on the taskbar to make sure it's "safe" to unplug
it. Also, if your USB plug is on the back of the computer you'll want
to get an extension for it so you dont have to keep reaching behind
the darn computer box.
Oh yeah, these little things are so very portable too as they are
very small (typically about 1 inch or less wide by about 3 inches long
and about 1/4 inch thick) so you can carry in your pocket with ease.
In my experience, i've found that there are basically two types of
long term storage: that which you intend to keep for a very long time
and that which you intend to eventually back up to a CD or DVD disk for
very long term storage. The jump drive comes in handy for the short
run and for stuff that is very important to back up often (and isnt
exceptionally large), while the cd disks are better for long term storage.
RW type disks arent very reliable however, at least not with the ones
i had gotten in the past. Out of several (maybe 10 to 15 disks) only
one or two of them lasted more than about 2 years. I dont trust them
anymore so i dont use them anymore. Also, the RW software varies
considerably for recording RW's so you have to read up on what you
are using before you use it in order to know if it is really what
you want, as well as if you can read a disk recorded on one system
(Windows or other) on another system...an RW disk recorded with one
software may not read at all with another software.
Out of all the software i've used, i like Nero recording software
the best because it gives you plenty of feedback while it's recording
and also has a 'verify after recording' feature which checks the disk
after it's recorded. Sometimes an error will occur and you wont know
it until some time later when you go to read a file on the disk, so
if the disk is 'verified' after recording at least you know ALL the files
got to the disk intact--very very important in cd recording.
Take care,
Al
And, good luck with your Euphoria programming!
My bumper sticker: "I brake for LED's"
8. Re: [OT] CD Burning
>don cole wrote:
>>
>> I have a stack of blank CDs.
>> Before I obtain a CD-R/W i would like to know,
>> Can you erase a CD and re-use it and if not, can you burn 50% of a CD and go
>> back and add to it later?
>>
>> Anybody with experiance w/ CDs ?
>>
>> Don Cole
Hi Don,
I agree with most of Al's post:
Avoid CD_RW (the disks not the drive), stick with write-once CD_R.
CD_R's are much cheaper, just throw them away when no longer needed,
for most uses it costs less in both the short and long term, IMO.
CD_RW are also much more susceptible to read errors. Mileage varies
enormously, some brands of CD work really well with some brands of
burner, and some suck big time (applies to both R and RW disks).
- Erm, but somehow buying several drives to see which works best with
the stack of disks you have is not likely an option 
Yes, you can write a bit, remove the CD, and later stick it back in
and add some more. It costs about 20-40K each time, but that is
insignificant on a 700MB+ device. I used to do this all the time, and
never had any problems. My burner flatlined many months ago, though
I also set up an XP box for a mate to do this last year no problem.
As mentioned, USB flash drive is a good alternative, but I have not
personally used one. One of my mates has one, swears by it, and says
he does not have to "undock" on his Mac but does on his work PC.
I have no experience of DVD_RW but I believe they are more robust
against read errors and have a longer shelf life, worth investigating
Regards,
Pete
9. Re: [OT] CD Burning
I would like to thank,
C ,
Jason,
Jonas,
Kenneth,
Al,
and Pete
for their responses.
It gives me a lot to digest before I buy anything.
Don Cole
--Our stupid Governor cut his lip on his motorcycle.--
--If you don't get it his name is Schwareggzener--
