As everyone seems to comment, Creator 8 is not as friendly as Creator 3. I have used v3 extensivly for coping and pasting files to RW CD's with excellent results.

I just installed Creator 8 on my new Toshiba Satellite laptop with Windows XP. The install seemed to go okay.
I tried to use Drag To Disk as the copy and paste function seems to not be available anymore (a real shame).
After sucessfully formating a RW-CD with Drag 2 Disk, it would not accept files.

After checking the properties, the RW-CD was full without my having written any data to it.
I re-formatted the RW-CD, but the properties still said it was full and would not accept data.

Any ideas?
Thanks!
Fatty Arbuckle II

I have been around on these forums for a long time, and I don't remember reading any posts that said EMC 8 is not as friendly as Creator 3.

You have to have your Eject Settings set to leave the disc alone.

Be advised that D2D, like all packet writers, is the least reliable form of burning ever devised. It should never be used for "backups" or "archiving"!

Creator Classic is the program to use. If you don't check Read Only in Classic, you can continue to add to the disc until it is full.

If you are using a non-burner drive to check the properties, then, since the the drive can't write to a disc, it would appear to be full.

Have you checked if any of your Packet-Written CD-RWs can still be read? You do not have a "great-big floppy-disc", you have a great way to permantly LOSE the data.

I didn't believe my software guru when I was warned. I lost the 80% of the data that wasn't also on the Hard Drive.

RW media can be COMPLETELY erased and re-used, but the recording media that is re-crystalized by the laser to create the pits and lands (the optical equivalent of the magnetic 0s and 1s) immediately starts to de-crystalize, taking the data with it. Usually it's months, but can be days, weeks, or years. CD-RW media prior to 2002 is more stable (they found a less expensive dye that is also less stable), but even so, I'd suggest getting any data you can still recover onto CD-Rs with Creator Classic.

If your computer can't see anything on the older discs, recovery programs such as cdroller (www.cdroller.com) and ISOBuster (www.isobuster.com) might be able to recover the data - I've seen a lot of grateful posts and a few unhappy ones.

And for future reference - if you want to KEEP the data, NEVER format the disc.

Lynn

Hello James,

Thanks for trying to help me.
I set up the advanced settings, as you show, selecting the "Leave Disc as is" option.

Unfortunately, the problem has not changed.

The newly formatted disc properties are as follows. . .
File System: UDFRDR
Free Space: 0 bytes
Used Space: 178'176 bytes

I have tried more than 1 disc, so it is not the disc.
I let ScanDisc check the disc and reformat it: no change.

Note that in the first Drag to Disc settings menu you have "Use on this computer only" selected. On mine, selecting this option disables the "Advanced Settings" button. Going back to the "Use the disc on other computers" selection and then selecting the Advanced Menu has the Advanced settings to UDF v1.02 & ISO/Jolet selected. I reset the Advanced settings to "Leave Disc as is" before formatting.

Anyone have any ideas?? I can't write to a disc that thinks it is full!!!

Thanks,
Fatty Arbuckle II

Yes you do have to toggle between the 2 but you want to finish with Leave it alone! I also have the Eject Options set to show on Eject. Because I do fiddle with settings to try things, I need to see what they are currently set to.

I never set my discs to use anything but UDF for the file system.

You said you have tried other discs… Does that mean different brands? If Memorex is in your house it needs a trip to the trash can.

You have not listed your burner make/model.

Please confirm that we are talking about discs being used in the same burner.

James, Thanks again for your continuing help.

Yes, the drive that reads "full" is the same drive that I am using to format the CD.
I have tried both a Memorex RW-CD and a Verbatim RW-CD; both end up "full" after formatting.
(By the way, in spite of your dislike of Memorex, I have used both Memorex & Verbatim RW-CD on other computers, running v3 and v6, with excellent results.)

New - I have discovered that if I take a RW-CD formatted with v8 (on the problem laptop) to a PC running v3, the disc then is recognized as blank and can be written to. That was a real surprise as somehow I got the impression that the versions would be able to read each other, but that they were incompatible for writing to a disc formatted by the other. Interestingly, with a 13KB file on the disc, the CD size is now 190KB.

Today I also tried using the erase function of v8 and then reformatting - no change in the problem on the laptop with v8.

Below are the RW-CD and Drive (burner) properties. Note that the disc is blank (no files), but shows 0Kb free space.

Thanks for your continuing help!

(I tried to upload images of the properties, but didn’t succeed. Below is a summary - hopefully no typos.)

XXXX Disc Properties XXXX
Medium type: CD-RW
Content type: Rom-XA
Disc status: Not blank
Used space: 576.6MB (65:36:32MSF / 295’232 Blocks)
Free space: 0KB (00:00:00 MSF / 295’232 Blocks)
File system: UDF
Number of tracks: 1
Number of sessions or borders: 1
Can be quickly erased
Can be fully erased

XXXX Drive Properties XXXX
Drive vendor name: MATSHITA
Drive product name: DVD-RAM UJ-841S
Drive firmware revision: 1.60
Can write the following media types: CD-R, CD-RW, CD-RW high speed, <ultra high speed and DVD’s also listed>
Current disc write speeds: 24x Max, 16x, 12x, 8x, 4x
Write speed optimization type: no wire speed optimization
Can perform buffer underrun-free recording
Can write session at once
Can write-at-once
Can write CD-Text with write-at-once method
Can write UPC and ISRC with write-at-once
Can read the following Media types: CD, CD-RW, <many DVD types>
Supported read speeds: 24x, 20x, 12x, 4x
Can read raw data (2352)
Can read raw data with P-Q subchannels (2368)
Can read CD text
Can read ISRC and UPC
Can read barcode


That is probably a whole lot more information than needed, but I don’t know what is important!

Interesting result, finding you can write with your older PC & DCD… V8 D2D are compatible back to DCD v3something. (FYI: V9 D2D is not Write compatible with media formatted with any previous version)

Can you otherwise write media on your laptop using Classic?

Can you use D2D with discs formatted from V3?

Have you checked for a firmware update for you laptop burner?

Complaints about Memorex abound. They do not manufacture any optical media so whatever you get from them is from the lowest bidder.

The results of the latest attempts:

Blank RW CD formatted with DirectCD v3 (v3 & old computer show disc as empty & formatted) shows as Free space= 0 bytes, Total Size= 186 KB on laptop with D2D v8. So there is no change in the apparent space status regardless of whether the CD is formatted with v3 or v8.

Checking the properties from the drive shows Used Space- 190'464 bytes, Free Space= 0 bytes
Tried to write file anyway, but of course v8 sees CD as full and does not write.

I looked on-line for updated drivers, but didn’t see any.

I then successfully wrote a file to a CD-R using Creator Classic, so that seems to work.
However, with Creator Classic I did not find any way to close the session and keep the CD-R open. (You can do that with v4!) So now I have a closed 700MB CD-R with a 1KB file on it; very annoying! (The settings are still set as “leave as is.”)

I want to figure out the CD-R issues later, as I really need to use the RW-CD for file transfers. So basically, there is no change in the problem.
Any new ideas?

Thanks

It's a piece of cake to do that. See attached photo. The session is closed, but the disk/disc remains open.

Thanks for the instruction on keeping CD-R's open. I'll try that soon. Looks like it is easy to do, but not as user friendly as previous versions.

Any ideas on solving the problem with the RW-CD's??????

Don't format them, and use Creator Classic. I have had no problems using CD-RW's with Creator Classic.

Thanks for the idea Bruce,

I tried using Creator Classic to write to the RW-CD. It worked, but is a choice of last resort as after writing the files to the CD the laptop again thinks the CD is full. To write any additional files to the RW-CD using Creator Classic, it first needs to be erased. (I made sure the Read-Only Disc box was not checked!)

For the short term this is workable, but is a real pain. Any more ideas on getting the Drag to Disc working??????
An additional item I have noticed: I have the option set so that a dialogue box should open to verify properties when ejecting. This box/window has never opened. Might this be any relation to the full RW-CD problem?

Thanks for everyone's continued ideas.

The only idea that I can give you on Drag to Disc is to never use it. It isn't loaded on my computers.

As far as using CD-RW disks and not being able to do sessions, forget about it, and use CD-R disks. They are only about $0.20 apiece.