6 replies to this topic

[bchambers]

I have been using Roxio Easy Media Creator Basic DVD Home for nearly 6 years at work.  I have to save photos and scanned documents to CD-RW's and compile the data over time.  

A couple of months ago it just quit working.  I have 100 or more cds that will read but NOT let me add anything to them.  It says 0 kb free.  AND I can't burn anything else.

Our tech has reloaded my pc and all worked well for 2 days, now today it has quit working.  

I'm confused....

Thanks for your help,
Brook e

[REDWAGON]

When you burn a CD and close it, that's it. You can't ever add anything else later. So when burning a CD that you want to add to later, uncheck the option to close it after burning.

And btw, you are posting to the wrong Roxio forum. (Venue and Qflix)

Edited by REDWAGON, 21 October 2009 - 08:21 AM.

[d_deweywright]

What version of Easy CD Creator or Easy Media Creator are you using?  And how did you write your files to the discs?  I'm going to guess that maybe you formatted the discs and then just drag-and-dropped the files to the disc to copy/move them there?  If so, then you were using Direct CD, which uses a method of writing called "Packet Writing".  It's considered by most folks to be an unreliable form of writing data to discs.  And the fact that you say you're using CD-RW (erasable) discs, is even worse.  

But, since you can read the old discs, which is very fortunate, you may want to consider archiving that data to CD-R or even DVD+/-R discs.  There should be a portion of the program you can open that will allow you to add files to the project, and then write the disc without formatting it.  This is called Session Writing, and is considered more reliable.  And using "R" (write once, as opposed to RW) discs, is even better.  

Copy the data from the discs you have to your HD, then re-write it to new discs using Creator Classic (assuming that's part of the package you have).  If, as was mentioned, you elect to leave the disc open, you can continue to add files until the disc is full.

Hope that helps!

[bchambers]

Thank you for the sound advice.

I have used Roxio 7 and 9, both versions are behaving the same way.  It worked fine for 6 years and all of a sudden one day it went kaput.  Incidentlly odd things started happening when we got updated to Microsoft 2007.

My mother board and hard drive have been replaced, software uninstalled and re-installed, and computer completely reloaded.  

DVD RW's didn't work either because when I tried to "add to" after the first session, it told me there is no free space.  The same as the CD-RW's.   Working from a CD-R and simply not closing the session won't work either.

I work for a government agency and I am married to Roxio and this computer.  It takes an act of God to get rid of a computer before it's scheduled replacement date.  

Brooke  

[d_deweywright]

DVD RW's didn't work either because when I tried to "add to" after the first session, it told me there is no free space.  The same as the CD-RW's.   Working from a CD-R and simply not closing the session won't work either.

I work for a government agency and I am married to Roxio and this computer.  It takes an act of God to get rid of a computer before it's scheduled replacement date.  

Brooke

You can continue to use Roxio, just use the Creator Classic portion of it, instead of the Direct CD portion, which has been dropped with Creator 2010.  

Writing sessions is more reliable, and more readable by more computers than packet writing ever was.

Again, you want to use Creator Classic to write and add files to the disc.  If you look at the disc in Windows Explorer, it will indeed say that there are zero free bytes because of the file system, but if you look at the disc in Creator Classic, it will show you how much space is really available.

If you're using Easy Media Creator 9, then make sure you uncheck the box that says, "Read Only Disc" before you start the burn.  That will let you append more data.  If you leave it checked, then it closes the disc, and you're right, you won't be able to add more data, even if there is room.

Hope that helps!

[lynn98109]

If the idea is to KEEP the data, DO NOT use RW media.  RW media is fine for short-term things like testing something (if it works, burn to R media), but it has a tendancy to suddenly decide it is blank, and the data that was on it isn't readable anymore.  One way this can happen is if the area of the disc used to create the index wears out, but I consider RW media hazardous to keeping data over the long-term.

If you "format" the disc, whether RW or R, you create "Packet-Writing".  Packet-Writing is convienet, but unreliable.  This has nothing to do with which Version of the program - or which program (Nero's InCD, Roxio's DirectCD and Drag2Disc, Sonic's DLA, etc),altho different programs are incompatible, and often different Versions of the same program are incompatible with each other.

If you keep using a Packet-Written disc, eventually one day it will appear to be blank.  That day will happen sooner if you use RW media than R media.  It may be so far gone that even a recovery program won't be able to find it.

A little more detail here:

As to taking an extra disc instead of adding to a disc - is replacing the data worth more to you than the aproximately 15 or 20 cents a blank CD-R costs by the spindle?  Somehow that concept seems to get lost.

Lynn

[grandpabruce]

In addition to what Dave said, you aren't the first person to see problems, after installing Microsoft Office 2007.  (If you meant Office 2007.)