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Forum Index : Other Stuff : CD-Rs now multisession ?
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| isochronic Guru  Joined: 21/01/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 689 |
Ordinary CD-Rs, used as in the "For use in CD drives" windows option, are supposed to be basically archival, right ? IE once they are written to, they are finalised and then supposed to be read-only ? I ask because a weird thing has happened. When I put a (new, from a new pack) blank CD into the writer, the prompt comes up as normal, asking if it to be a multiple use disk or for use with a CD reader - I definitely select CD use - burn the files etc - and eject. I can then insert it again and see the content OK. BUT I can also drag more files to it and reburn it, ie it must actually be a multisession disk. Worse than that, even decade-old manufacturer-supplied install CDs, that have never had any intent of being re-recordable, are also writable. And a message appears that duplcate files may be overwritten..So much for archiving. And a red carpet for malware. Both windows 8 and 10 show it, despite respected protection running, including after a windows refresh..I am wondering, maybe an external dvd/cd writer has been got at. Anyone else with this problem? Or is it now default windows behaviour? |
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BobD Guru Joined: 07/12/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 935 |
What burner software are you using? |
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| isochronic Guru Joined: 21/01/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 689 |
Standard Windows (pro) 8 and 10 |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
That is an interesting find. Does this happen with ANY CD-R? What about DVD-R's? I don't like the built-in Windoze CD writing anyway, so never really use it. I will have a play with this idea myself now. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6098 |
Standard CDs could be written in multiple sessions for yonks. It helped me make a living recovering data from failed writes. Travelers would bring a pre-used CD in and ask me to add their next lot of photos. I always refused and insisted on using a new blank CD. Not because I got rich on the sale of CDs but because I knew they would get upset if I was the one to loose all their holiday snaps. If I was creating a CD to be read in multiple devices, I would always chose to close the session. It helped with compatibility. It also helped stop the owner being a tight-a... and risking the data. When a multisession CD gets more data, or updates some files, a new index is written so it is common to have the index use much more space on the disk than the data. When a file is updated, the old file is still there if you have the means to look for it. Jim VK7JH MMedit MMBasic Help |
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| isochronic Guru Joined: 21/01/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 689 |
Are you saying, that if a CD-R is burned NOT as a multisession disk but with the intent that it is for a single-write only (ed - ie closed), that it can be routinely re-opened as a multisession disk ? ( ADDED/EDIT ) On further browsing it does indeed look like the CD-R situation has evolved so now newer drivers can open CDs for multiple sessions even though the CD-Rs in question were intended to be single-write only. Just Peachy.  |
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| isochronic Guru Joined: 21/01/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 689 |
So the question now becomes, how do I write a CD so that it definitely cannot be written-to again ? I guess I could fill the remaining space with junk so that there is no space remaining for writing ? |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
From what I can find, this seems to be a Windoze thing. It's Bill trying to be helpful - too helpful so it would seem. You get this situation when you use the built-in Microsoft CD burning ability. The solution is to NOT use the built-in CD writing feature of Windows, and use your own preferred 3rd-party burning software. Microsoft's CD burning is multi-session, and from what I can find, you CAN'T turn it off or make it write-once only. If you put a CD-R in a Windows 7+ machine, it will treat it as multi-session - even if you have finalized it in Windows previously. This is what I mean when I say that Bill is being too helpful. CD's that I have written on burning software do not show as being able to be written again in Windows, only CD's written using Windows built-in CD burning feature. I have been using CDBurnerXP for a few years now whenever I need to write CD's or DVD's, and it seems to work well. It is free. Perhaps try that and see how you get on. Make sure that "Finalize disc" is ticked in the burn options - I think it is by default. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Boppa Guru Joined: 08/11/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 814 |
I was going to check this out on my win10 tower, but then I noticed um It doesnt even have a cd/dvd burner Had it for close to 6 months now and never even noticed that before Not that its an issue for me, I currently have a ubuntu tower, ubuntu laptop, win7 laptop, xp laptop, xp tower, all with dvd burners and networked together (with the win10 laptop and a rasberry pi) Nearly all the software I download straight from the net, in fact I cant even think of the last time I actually used a cd or dvd, I know I havent rented a movie dvd for ages, um not last xmas, but the one before that The car uses usb sticks for music, what do people use cd's for these days when there are 1tb hdd that are only $70- jeez what was the limit on cd's 700megs?? I was given a 8gb usb `creditcard' as a promotional gift the other day- for free (edit sorry it was only 4gb, not 8)  (I covered over the company branding on it just in case) |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
Yes, I have to agree with that also. I don't really use my DVD drive at all now. About the only thing I ever use it for, is for copying the contents to the media-server. Hell, with HDD's being available in the 8-10TB flavour now for $400 or so.... ....well, lets just say that an 8TB drive holds rather a large number of DVD images. Linux has been bootable from USB flash-drives for ages, and even Windoze is doing USB boot media these days. I fully expect that IF there is another PHYSICAL version of windows ever sold, it will be on a bootable USB drive, not on a CD or DVD media - perhaps. I say "IF", because even that is unlikely now - Windows 10 is a case in point - you downloaded either the full version, or the upgrade. No physical DVD or media was needed(although physical DVD media WAS available to purchase). I dearsay that is how all new versions of Windows will be supplied. But I digress a little.... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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