Issues with CD Writer

In the past I have used CD writer on my friends, desktop/ laptop and if I needed to write some file on CD, I just used to do copy and paste and after that write these files to CD.

Recently I bought my own laptop and I noticed that I can't do copy and paste on my laptop, it will not except this command.( May be I have disabled some running services). Each time I will have to open Record Now( my CD burning software) and only through it, I can write any file to CD. Another problem is that after I have written even a small file on CD by Record Now, I can't write anyother file alongside the previous file. Although the previous file is small but my disk will appear all occupied. Is this a software issue or hardware? I mean I need to upgrade my CD room or CD burning software?
I will be thankful for the help.

 

Your problems are in your software set up. Sounds like your friend was using WinXP's native (built into the OS) burning program, which is a stripper version of Roxio I think.

Let me explain some things to you so I can tell you what you want to know. First, there are two ways to burn CD's. You can do them re-writable or recordable (permanent).

In the re-writable manner the CD is treated just like a hard drive, where files are dragged and dropped onto it, deleted, moved around and so on. In that mode, I have never had a program ask me if I want to burn the file to disc, that is done automatically. You can use the rewritable mode on CD-R and CD-R/W media. Which ever media you choose, you must first format the CD and the max storage space is around 550MB, or so. If you should choose to use a CD-R in this mode, you will rapidly use up the media if you move files around and delete them a lot, because the CD-R media can only be written to once. The one problem with using this mode is that other computers might not be able to read the CD because the file structure might be unique to the burning program you used. For example, when cd writers were new, roxio/easy-cd-creator were competing wth Nero for the burning software market. Each used it's own format for making re-writable CD's and I couldn't get them to read each other's format. That *may* have changed, but I don't know.

You can also burn CD's in the recordable mode. In this way you tell the computer to add files to a disk and the files can't be moved around on the disk. They are stuck where ever/ however you put them on the disk. Just like a music or game CD. You can copy the files off, but that's pretty much it. If you should happen to put a newer version of the file on the CD, the older version will be 'deleted' from the CD's file system, although the file would still be on the disk and invisible to you. Now, there are multiple ways to make a CD in this mode. You can write the files in disk at once mode, track at once, and session (or something like that). If you write in the disk at once mode, the CD is 'closed' at the end of the burn and you can't put more files on it. So, if you only put one tiny file on the CD using disk at once, you would have wasted most of the space on the CD. The other modes allow you to put some files on now, and then put some more on later. I don't really know the difference between the two.

Now that's out of the way, we can get back to your problem. You probably realize now that XP on your friend's PC is writing using the 'recordable' format, because you didn't have to format the CD first. You also may recognize that XP was using session or track at once burning, since you could add more files later. Your set up however, is burning files in disk at once mode, which is why you can only put one file on the disk.

You can use RecordNow to write multiple times to a CD by finding the option that lets you choose to burn the disk in session or track at once mode rather than disk at once. However, you will have to move the files to the CD using RecordNow, rather than dragging and dropping them on the CD in windows explorer. You will have to drag the files from window explorer and drop them into the RecordNow program window. Then choose burn.

You could also enable DLA, which is Sonic's rewritable format, which will let you drag files right onto the CD from windows explorer without opening the RecordNow program. However, this will require you to format a disk before you can write to it and you will get slightly less space on the disk.

Your other alternative is to open up windows explorer, right click on your CD writer, go to properties, and choose to disable the sonic program and use XP's native burning options. i would keep sonic, though, since it will burn faster than XP's native program. Also, I suggest you read the help files with your RecordNow program.

 

Thanks for ur detailed reply, it,s really nice to know all this. BTW, I am just talking about CD-R disks as I usually don,t use CD-RW. And I don,t have DLA at the moment, only RecordNow.

I have already choosen this option.

I did not try this as I was trying to put files directly on CD. I will try this now.

That,s a new information for me. I will try this as well. Sounds to me that the previous laptop I used was not having any CD burning software.

One more question I want to ask, which option I should choose to burn an iso live CD image on RecordNow.

 

Burning live CD ISO's -like Kanotix/Knoppix/Ubuntu- is always done disk at once, other wise they won't be bootable. Also, you usually need to find the proper burning option in your burning software for making a CD from an iso. Usually the options are 'music', 'data', 'vdeo' or something. I think you end up just copying the iso file to disk rather than making a disk from the iso if you do it wrong. This is all a little fuzzy for me because I haven't used my sonic in a while. Check the help files in RecordNow and search for ISO. Maybe it will tell you something useful. Might also see if it says anything in the help file about burning 'bootable' CD's. You should also know that the version of Sonic RecordNow I have been using and referencing is several years old, so YMMV.

 

Ya i have got some information in help file about bootable CDs but not mentioning about iso images.
BTW whenever i have to burn an iso image i use BurnCDCC by by TeraBye. Its, free, tiny wonderful utility, even no install needed.