Thank you for using the
Dell Community Forum. Other systems cannot read the cd because you are leaving the cd "open" so you can add more files to it later.
Standard cd formats require that the cd be "closed" so that a cdrom can read it.
In order to be able to read the cd when left "open", I belive the other systems needs to have both a CD-RW drive, and Direct CD installed.
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Steps to using DirectCD
1.Launch the DirectCD for the Project Selector.
2.Now a DirectCD Format Utility will come up.
3.Insert your CDR/CDRW disk into your CDRW drive.
4.Click on Format CD.
5.Now just wait till the format process is finished. After its finished it will let you know that the disk is Ready for Read Write Access.
6.At this point go into Windows Explorer or My Computer.
7.Now you can drag and drop all the files you want to copy directly to the CDRW drive. You can also use Cut, Copy, and Paste.
8.Once you have all the files that you want on the disk, you can now eject the disk. Once you click on the eject button on the CDRW drive you should get a “Close Options” dialog box.
9.Within the Close Dialog box you should have an option to “Close to Read on Any Computer”. This does exactly what it says. The other option you will have is to close to UDF v1.5. This will allow you to come back at a later time to add more files to the disk. But this disk can only be read by the CDRW drive that it has been created on. That is until you close the disk to read on any computer.
10.These are the basic steps to creating a DirectCD disk. Also within the DirectCD Format Utility you will also have the options to erase a CDRW disk, Scandisk to fix any errors on your disk, and Undelete.
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>In order to be able to read the cd when left "open", I belive the other systems needs to have both a CD-RW drive, and Direct CD installed.
Roxio CD creator came with DirectCD format utility, is this what you meant by "Direct CD"? I have it on all of the computers I use but I am unable to access any files left "open". All of the files I accessed last time became unaccessable. I know they are on the disc but just can't gain access to it. Is there any way that I can close these files or somehow still access them even though they are "open"?
I do format all of the CD-RWs before I use them. As long as I click on "eject" from the computer screen, the files would be closed correct? Do I have to run DirectCD each time I try to eject a CD-RW?
Yes, Direct CD is the software that comes with Roxio, and that was what I was referring to.
I tested a 4X CDRW disk to make sure it works like I thought it should.
I installed Roxio 5.1 Basic, which is what most Dell customers get.
I formatted a 4X CDRW disk by going to, start, programs, Roxio, Applications, Direct CD format utility.
After the CDRW disk has been formatted I closed the Direct CD format utility.
I opened MY COMPUTER and dragged some files to the newly formatted cd.
It seemed to work just fine, so then I set about trying to test the cd.
By the way, I ejected the CD using the cdrom eject button and it did not cause any problems.
I tried to access the cd in a system with a CDRW drive, and another system with a CDROM drive.
On both systems it worked just fine, and neither system had Direct CD installed on it.
So...the problem could be caused by the following.
1.Software:
Try uninstalling both Roxio and Direct CD.
Then reboot the system and reinstall Roxio and Direct CD.
Then go to the Roxio web page, and download any available updates/patches for Roxio and Direct CD.
2.Older hardware.
If the drives from the other systems are older hardware, they may not be able to read the cd correctly. Try upgrading the firmware revision of the drive that is not able to read the cd.
Try the cd in a system with a newer drive model.
3.Bad CDRW disk.
Try another CDRW disk if possible, the one you have may be bad.
Thank you so much for the help and for testing the steps!
I gathered that there was no way to fix the "open" files? That was really one of the most important things I was trying to find out. I guess all the files left open were just lost, correct? I don't know what I did to cause the problem, there were just some files that were too important. Will cost hours to rewrite them, =[
There is no built in or native recovery program for those damaged files, that I know of.
But, you may want to try a 3rd party application to see if you can recover the files from the cdrw cd.
I found the following 3rd party program as an example.
CDRoller Soft Co. Ltd. I cannot guarantee that such a program would successfully recover your files, as I have not used it
myself. But, it is the only other option that I can think of if the files are extremely important.
Karell
2 Intern
•
2.5K Posts
0
November 5th, 2003 16:00
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
Other systems cannot read the cd because you are leaving the cd "open" so you can add more files to it later.
Standard cd formats require that the cd be "closed" so that a cdrom can read it.
In order to be able to read the cd when left "open", I belive the other systems needs to have both a CD-RW drive, and Direct CD installed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Steps to using DirectCD
1.Launch the DirectCD for the Project Selector.
2.Now a DirectCD Format Utility will come up.
3.Insert your CDR/CDRW disk into your CDRW drive.
4.Click on Format CD.
5.Now just wait till the format process is finished. After its finished it will let you know that the disk is Ready for Read Write Access.
6.At this point go into Windows Explorer or My Computer.
7.Now you can drag and drop all the files you want to copy directly to the CDRW drive. You can also use Cut, Copy, and Paste.
8.Once you have all the files that you want on the disk, you can now eject the disk. Once you click on the eject button on the CDRW drive you should get a “Close Options” dialog box.
9.Within the Close Dialog box you should have an option to “Close to Read on Any Computer”. This does exactly what it says. The other option you will have is to close to UDF v1.5. This will allow you to come back at a later time to add more files to the disk. But this disk can only be read by the CDRW drive that it has been created on. That is until you close the disk to read on any computer.
10.These are the basic steps to creating a DirectCD disk. Also within the DirectCD Format Utility you will also have the options to erase a CDRW disk, Scandisk to fix any errors on your disk, and Undelete.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
jo_ix
8 Posts
0
November 6th, 2003 12:00
>In order to be able to read the cd when left "open", I belive the other systems needs to have both a CD-RW drive, and Direct CD installed.
Roxio CD creator came with DirectCD format utility, is this what you meant by "Direct CD"? I have it on all of the computers I use but I am unable to access any files left "open". All of the files I accessed last time became unaccessable. I know they are on the disc but just can't gain access to it. Is there any way that I can close these files or somehow still access them even though they are "open"?
I do format all of the CD-RWs before I use them. As long as I click on "eject" from the computer screen, the files would be closed correct? Do I have to run DirectCD each time I try to eject a CD-RW?
Karell
2 Intern
•
2.5K Posts
0
November 7th, 2003 17:00
Yes, Direct CD is the software that comes with Roxio, and that was what I was referring to.
I tested a 4X CDRW disk to make sure it works like I thought it should.
I installed Roxio 5.1 Basic, which is what most Dell customers get.
I formatted a 4X CDRW disk by going to, start, programs, Roxio, Applications, Direct CD format utility.
After the CDRW disk has been formatted I closed the Direct CD format utility.
I opened MY COMPUTER and dragged some files to the newly formatted cd.
It seemed to work just fine, so then I set about trying to test the cd.
By the way, I ejected the CD using the cdrom eject button and it did not cause any problems.
I tried to access the cd in a system with a CDRW drive, and another system with a CDROM drive.
On both systems it worked just fine, and neither system had Direct CD installed on it.
So...the problem could be caused by the following.
1.Software:
Try uninstalling both Roxio and Direct CD.
Then reboot the system and reinstall Roxio and Direct CD.
Then go to the Roxio web page, and download any available updates/patches for Roxio and Direct CD.
2.Older hardware.
If the drives from the other systems are older hardware, they may not be able to read the cd correctly. Try upgrading the firmware revision of the drive that is not able to read the cd.
Try the cd in a system with a newer drive model.
3.Bad CDRW disk.
Try another CDRW disk if possible, the one you have may be bad.
jo_ix
8 Posts
0
November 8th, 2003 07:00
Karell,
Thank you so much for the help and for testing the steps!
I gathered that there was no way to fix the "open" files? That was really one of the most important things I was trying to find out. I guess all the files left open were just lost, correct? I don't know what I did to cause the problem, there were just some files that were too important. Will cost hours to rewrite them, =[
Karell
2 Intern
•
2.5K Posts
0
November 10th, 2003 13:00
There is no built in or native recovery program for those damaged files, that I know of.
But, you may want to try a 3rd party application to see if you can recover the files from the cdrw cd.
I found the following 3rd party program as an example.
CDRoller Soft Co. Ltd.
I cannot guarantee that such a program would successfully recover your files, as I have not used it
myself. But, it is the only other option that I can think of if the files are extremely important.