Erasing cd-rw

You didn't give much to go on.

What CD burning program do you have?  e.g. Roxio Easy CD Creator, Nero or some other CD burning program that came with your PC?  Either way, there should be a program to format and erase CD-RW's, such as the Roxio "Direct CD" or Nero's "InCD".  Programs such as these are needed to work with RW discs, not the built in Windows XP CD writing features.

BTW, any initial problem post should include your PC Model Number and Operating System Version.  It can make a difference for someone to assist you.  There are many different Dell PC models and configurations so you have to be specific with what your system is and what software you are trying to use to do the task, etc. 

I am using Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 4, it came with Dell Photo Studio.  The operating system is Windows XP.  Computer Dem. 4600.  The software does not seem to have an erasing feature. 

Thanks

J

The Paint shop is NOT a CD burning program.  It won't erase CD's.  You will have to use whatever CD burning program that Dell supplied to do the erasing, or if you don't want to use what Dell supplied you will have to purchase a CD burning program, such as Roxio Easy CD Creator 6 Platinum to do the job.

Dell used to supply Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Basic (which has Direct CD for formatting and erasing RW discs) and I think the newer systems have CD Now with "DLA", either way you MUST use a CD burning program with UDF capability to format and erase the RW discs.

Ok.  That worked using my Sonic Record Now Burner software.  Now after I use Jasc to install pics on the cd/rw and trying to view them with Jasc I get this message from Windows.  Disk Is Not Formatted  Windows cannot read from this disk.  Disk might be corrupted or it could be using a format that is not compatible with windows.  Does the cd have to be formatted?  If so could you point me in the right direction?  Thanks for the help.

Thanks

J

If you use a CD-R and want to copy files to it, like a floppy, you must first format it.  Sonic Record Now should have a feature to format a CD.  I don't have that program so I can't give you the exact instructions, check through the program or the program's help file and it should have instructions on how to format a disc for UDF (direct CD) use.

Got it.  It took all day.  This might help some others.  The last answer to my original question seems to be right.  To format a cd-rw you need cd-rw software.  I did not receive cd-rw software with my computer even though I ordered a 8x DVD+R/RW CD-RW.  The Sonic Record Now software that I received will only format dvd-rw.  After 9 hours on the phone with dell, speaking with tech support to software support to customer service we finally figured it out.  If anyone else ordered a computer recently check it out and make sure you call to get your Roxio software.

J