Win XP trashing my CDR's ?

[noblues]

Anyone know why when I try and add to a CDR using the XP CD writing function, and the CD is nearly full it seems to make the whole CDR unusable ?

I notice XP doesn't make any allowance for free space, ie. if their is say 100 Mbye free space and to be written is 97 Mbytes it spends ages trying to write the last bits of data and sometimes gives up rendering the CD unreadable ?

Why doesn't it just say can't write what data it can and leave the disk useable, is their any way I can recover data from these CD's ?

Are their any options in XP to correct this (otherwise i'm going back to Nero !).

[fobotcso]

You don't say whether the first writing on the CD was also done by the XP CD writing function. This could be significant. Also can you not read any of it?

The XP CD writing format is quite different to others and will not be compatible if the first lot was written using Nero or Roxio. But they don't tell you this in the blurb.

The data is still there on you unreadable disk but it is likely to be unreachable without special facilities. What has probably happened is that the Table of Contents (ToC) has been "corrupted".

I came across the same problem with my new Sony Vaio with CDRW and CDR disks and XP. All those backup disks...

But that's OK, just install your Nero Propriety CD writing package and all will be well.

[noblues]

fobotcso - All data was written using XP.

Yeah, I suspect the table of contents is corrupted and the root cause of the problem. Is their any way I can read a CD in this state ?

[fobotcso]

We mere mortals probably don't have the wherewithall to read disks in this state but I would try other machines and software before giving up.

If it was really important to you there are people like Vogon who can read corrupt media for a price. I doubt they'd charge very much for this but don't hold me to it!

On a lighter note, why not take it (them) to the local cop-shop and tell them that you that you think that there are a lot of "adult" images recorded. They'd be glad to help out, I'm sure. :)