Hi, I hope I'm in the right place for this question to be answered. I burnt files on a cd and closed the session using the CDFS file system on a Windows Vista desktop. I'm trying to retrieve the files on an older laptop with Windows Me running. The laptop has Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum installed with DirectCD 5.0., which uses UDFRDR. The laptop CD-ROM recognizes the CDFS disk on DirectCD, but not the actual contents of the disk when I double-click on the CD-ROM drive. On the laptop, how do I display the contents of the disk so that I can retrieve the files? It seems that it's easier for newer systems to read older burned disks than older systems reading burned disks on newer systems. Thanks for any and all help and info on this.

Robio,

For a start, this has nothing to do with Direct CD and UDF discs. Please put them out of your mind.

Your disc was authored with CDFS in Vista, and any PC should be able to read the file system on that disc. It is the CDROM standard. So it's not a matter of file systems [CDFS vs. UDF] it's a matter of changing media over the years.

If your older laptop can't read the newer disc it will be an issue between the old laptop drive and the new disc. You may need to change the brand of CD you're using or even find an old slow one somewhere. Try a CDRW written slowly, or see if you can get a CD with the old, darker dye. It's a sad fact of life that as CD writers got faster and the CD dyes changed, more and more of the older CDROMS had difficulty reading newer discs.

Regards,
Brendon

Brendon,

Thanks for responding.

So to make sure I understand you correctly since I'm a little dense, if I use a newer store bought cd-r to burn the files onto using the Vista desktop, the old laptop should be able to read the disc? See, I used an old 2001 Fujifilm cd-r to burn the files with the Vista desktop. I also used another Fujifilm cd-r to burn files onto using the old laptop, but the Vista desktop was able to read that Fujifilm cd-r. Is my assumption correct? Also, you said,

"Try a CDRW written slowly, or see if you can get a CD with the old, darker dye. It's a sad fact of life that as CD writers got faster and the CD dyes changed, more and more of the older CDROMS had difficulty reading newer discs."

I don't know what you mean by darker dye and when you say more and more of the older CDROMS had difficulty reading newer discs just confuses me because I don't know if you mean newer discs as in discs that can be bought in the store right now or newer discs meaning discs (old Fujifilm or new Memorex, for example) that are burned using a newer computer system with the latest cd-rom technology. Can you please clarify? It would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Rob

Robio,

Sorry if I wasn't being perfectly clear. I'll try again

[1] As far as file systems go [UDF vs. CDFS] both your systems should be able to read CDFS without problems. It's pretty universal in PCs. I don't think your problem has anything to do with Direct CD at all, since you're not using it to read or write the CDFS discs.

[2] As far as burnable discs go, early CD drives and their old CDs were a bit insensitive so reading and writing were slow. Advances in the technology have brought changes in the dyes used in burnable discs to allow faster reading and writing, but some of the older drives don't much like the newer, lighter colored dyes. Some of the older dyes were very dark blue, whereas some of the newer ones are very light golden colored.

Your laptop must have a few years on it if it's running Direct CD 5, and I'm suggesting that it is having trouble reading the disc written on your Vista desktop. The suggestion to try a blank with a darker dye, or to try a RW disc, and a slower burning speed, are all things which have helped me some times in the past and might help you. There are no guarantees here though, and I have had to replace the old drives on occasion when nothing else helps.

I hope this is a bit clearer, but ask more if you need to.

Cheers,
Brendon