Easy CD?

K

kiemposan

Registered
Hello all.
Question about CD-RW discs and software. Ive only just found out, through work, that CD-RW discs can be used like floppys!
We have PCs at work that use Roxio Direct CD or Easy Cd creator software which formats our CD-RW discs so that we are then able to use the discs as if they where floppys. Maybe this is common knowledge but ive only just found out so dont take the piss! Im looking for software that will enable me to do the same thing at home on my lovely mac, i have the hardware, but need the software.
Your knowledge and wisdom is greatly appreciated.
 
I guess it would help to know more about your system. What OS are you using? As I recall, both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X have the ability to work with CD-RW discs when working with Apple's built-in CD-RW/DVD-RW drives. You have to initialize them before re-using them, but beyond that there isn't anything special about it.

Otherwise, you can always get Roxio's Toast.

Points of interest:

  • (1) CD-RW discs are more expensive than CD-Rs.
    (2) CD-RWs have a higher failure rate (specially the more times they have been initialized), so don't use them for backups.
    (3) Some laptop CD-ROM drives have had problems reading CD-RWs.

kiemposan said:
...so dont take the piss!
Click to expand...

:confused: What does that mean?
 
Im running 10.2.8, G4 but my CDRW is a lacie firewire. i just nick the CD's from work... dont quote me on that.
i have toast but did not know it has the power to do this.
 
RacerX said:
(1) CD-RW discs are more expensive than CD-Rs.
(2) CD-RWs have a higher failure rate (specially the more times they have been initialized), so don't use them for backups.
(3) Some laptop CD-ROM drives have had problems reading CD-RWs.
Click to expand...

(1) 20 backups might waste 20 CD-Rs instead of 1 CD-RW, while a CD-RW is just 4 times (?) more expensive.
(2) It has compared to regular CD-Rs indeed a higher failure rate, but it's still good enough for at least 1000 disc-deletions. I am using CD-RWs for backups for few years and no problems so far.
(3) no more in these days. At least I never had such a problem or heard about. But feel free to prove me wrong ;)


kiemposan said:
I have toast but did not know it has the power to do this.
Click to expand...

Toast can't.
 
Typical that this amazing technology has not found its way onto our beloved macs, we go without once again.

and ive just nicked a load of discs! bo££cks
 
I can usually find deals on blank CD-R's, 100 ,piece spindles, after rebate for nothing to $5.00. So if I waste 20 0f them, doesn't matter.
But Toast will work for this. Multisession is similiar.
 
Burning a multisession-cd is not it. It doesn't let the disc behave like a harddisc drive. You won't be able to add and delete partial files without deleting the toc and burning the data (that you didn't touch) again. This all would be handled and somehow hidden by the tool. Unfortunately not available yet...

Bob, it's not just a thing about the price. Why are ppl so up with DVDs lately? They can save a lot of discs on one, eventhough 8 CD-Rs are still much cheaper than one DVD-R. CD-RW causes a similar thing... You can use just a single backup-disc and not have 20 CD-Rs. One might say it's even better to have 20 backup_CD-Rs, since you have a "tracked" backup. I would rather prefere to have just one disc labeled backup and I am willing to pay 4 times more on those discs..
 
Zammy-Sam said:
But feel free to prove me wrong ;)
Click to expand...

Okay...

(1) 20 backups might waste 20 CD-Rs instead of 1 CD-RW, while a CD-RW is just 4 times (?) more expensive.
(2) It has compared to regular CD-Rs indeed a higher failure rate, but it's still good enough for at least 1000 disc-deletions. I am using CD-RWs for backups for few years and no problems so far.
(3) no more in these days. At least I never had such a problem or heard about. But feel free to prove me wrong
Click to expand...

(1) Using CD-RW as a floppy replacement usually means using them to exchange information... often times you never get the CD-RW back in such exchanges (that was the problem associated with the expensiveness of zip discs also).

(2) Unlike most people, my experience covers large numbers of systems and users, failure rates are actually high (close to the rates I saw with zip discs under similar usage). Note that a failure is reading and/or writing. I didn't say that the disc was unusable after such a failure, there was just a loss of information. I would not recommend it for backing up or archiving.

(3) Within the year and a half I have had three separate calls (two using Gateway laptops and one using an IBM ThinkPad) about not being able to read CDs that were given to them because the media was a CD-RW. I know for a fact that my ThinkPad (though it is old) doesn't work with CD-RW media.
 
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