Won't let me use CD-RWs

Hello,
I have a computer with 98SE on it....runs very well.
On this computer I have a Creative sound card with a great internal Wave Studio that I use to record original song studio mixes on....

I have had no problems creating Music CDs on CD-Rs with the free Sonic Record Now program loaded on this computer...

Now I am trying to use a rewriteable CD-RW and the program refuses to recognize it as a writeable CD.........

The CD ROM I am using is an HP CD writeable-Plus Series 9300
This CD Rom does support a rewriteable CDs.....

Is there a setting somewhere I can activsate to correct this function or should it not already be part of it's makeup.......

 

Have you written to this disk before? If so, did you erase the CD? If you've written something to the CDRW before you have to erase it before using it again. The software won't just overwrite what's on it. If you haven't erased it, look in the menus of your CD burning software for something like erase disk or CD. Maybe in the tools menu?

 

Hi Zander.......Actually, in the options menu on the face of the Record Now skin that I have loaded on my computer there is a box that says ......erase all files from CD-RWs before writing new files..........
Naturally I checked it thinking..... 'Oh Cool I'll be able to use a CD-RW over and over again to check the progress of my mixes in a CD player'...........No Luck!

When I do put in either a brand new CD-RW or even one with some files already on it The CD-RW is always rejected............

I seem to remember a long time ago when the CD-RWs first came out....I was asked if I wanted to format the CD-RW....And it took quite some time to go thru it's process.......I guess the new CD-RWs are already formatted at the factory.....

I am using a Memorex Ultra Speed CD-RW the specs are 24x 700MB 80min

Could the 24x be too much for this older computer setup???

 

From this I'd guess it's formatted with the UDF file system. If this is the case, you're able to just drag and drop files to the cdrom and they're written just as if it were a floppy drive. Is this the case here?

Are you trying to write data files to the cdrw (mp3s, wma files, etc.) or are you trying to make an audio cd? If the latter, you have to get rid of the UDF formatting. I'd have a look in the help file. Search it for the word erase.

They shouldn't be. I've never bought one yet that was. But, if you have packet writing software (UDF) most will prompt you to format the cd. It monitors the drive and when you put a cdrw in the drive you're prompted to format it. If you choose not to, you should be able to write to it with your burner program just as you would if it was a cdr.

You can more than likely turn this prompt off. With Roxio software you simply right click on the icon in the system tray, and your able to open the options for direct cd from there.

I don't think this is what you're looking for to erase the cd. My guess is that it erases the files from the cd but not the UDF formatting. Somewhere in the program there should be a way to erase it so that it's like it was when it came from the factory.

The only thing that doesn't make sense in all of this is that you say a brand new cdrw is rejected also. If it's not formatted (they shouldn't be from the factory) there's no reason it should reject it. When you put a new one in are you formatting them too when prompted?

 

CD burners are tricky some times. Your computer may require the ASPI drivers.

I use Force ASPI Drivers I find they work better than Adaptec ASPI drivers. 9 times out of 10 you dont need them but some DVD playing software/packet writting/burning software needs these drivers to use certain functions (ie. Burning CDRW). InCD I believe is the most common packet writting software.

Personally I have never used CDRW's because CDR's is so cheap. In some cases I wish I did use CDRW's.

Cheers

 

blakston6286, the guys are giving you some good info. I have Sonic on this computer and it also has big problems with CD-RW disks...especially any written in UDF format. I have not solved the problem, I just swear loudly and go over to my other machine and burn there.

If you still have problems, try using one of the basic, free burning programs, some are really good. Try
www.majorgeeks.com, www.cnet.com or www.tucows.com

Matt

 

Zander......I have not gotten any prompts from my computer to format the CDRWs when I insert them......And I do remember a few years ago this same computer DID tell me I had to format the CDRW before I could use it so this is a concern of mine...The machine currently informs me that the inserted CDR is not valid and I must insert a valid unwritten CDR.

Dcrypter........ Thank you for the link to Force ASPI Drivers I will go there and see what it is

Yes,,,,,, Bulk CDRs are relatively inexpensive.
However, for my purpose regular CDRs won't work........I am writing CDA files (WAV) which require MUSIC CDRs..
I tried regular CDRs and they simply don't play in my cars CD player or a home CD player....If I get lucky and they do play the sound breaks up during the performance so it is useless to use the regular CDRs.....Music CDRs are a bit more expensive, even in bulk.......But CDRWs are ideal as they will play music files and my purpose of checking mixes so I can tweak them after every mix is ideal since I make CDs after every step....

Example: I get a drum mix and record it and listen,,,,the snare sounds less poppy than I was going for and it is back to the studio to adjust my ears........I have used a whole round of 50 Music CDs just to get the preferred drum sound......
Since I am not a signed artists with an unlimited budget being able to use a CDRW would help me greatly.

Mattman....Yes the advice is top shelf......I will visit the sites you put links too.........as long as I can write Cda files to a CDRW with at least one of these burners I am agreeable to using them.....
I don't want to transfer the format from my original WAV files so I can preserve the integrity of the mix and get a true reality on what I need to tweak.
As I stated before,,,,, I am using the Sonic Record Now function which has been fine up until I attempted to use a CDRW

I will post the results to all the suggestions and links in a few days......Thank you very much for the help.....

 

Maybe I'm not understanding completely here but why not record it to your hard drive and then listen to it from there? The sound should be the same as it is on the cd. Digital data is digital data regardless of what source it comes from. It should sound the same from the hard drive as it does from the cd. Besides, it has to be recorded to the hard drive before you burn it unless you're using UDF formatting on the disk. Is there something I'm missing here?

As for the CDRW thing, do this. Put one of the CDRW's you're trying to use in the drive. Then, open My Computer and right click on the drive and choose properties. What does it say to the right of "file system "?

FWIW, I've got an old computer here with a HP 9200 SCSI drive and never had a problem with CDRW's when I used it. My guess is (like you thought) the drive doesn't have anything to do with this.

 

It may be a Record Now - Windows 98 problem.

The free version of Sonic is trial version. It may have limited capabilities.

I will try some burning on the weekend.

Matt

 

Why wait for the weekend?

I know this problem is deja vu for me somehow.

My theory on this is that the free Sonic program does not have a built-in UDF reader/writer and when you ask to burn to a CD-RW that is formatted in UDF, the system jams the way you describe.

I went to Sonic downloads, looking for the Sonic UDF reader, seems you need to register (a purchased product?) to download:
http://support.sonic.com/desktop/downloads.asp?product=recordnow

[BTW, I won't be purchasing the full version of Sonic ]

From this deja vu...try reinstalling the Sonic program, if you have inserted a UDF formatted disk when it asked you to insert a blank disk, it may have lost all connections with CD-RW disks.

Matt

 

Zander....I understand your point.......
However, the purpose for recording a mix to listen else where is my purpose....

You see..............if the mix sounds good in a consumer environment format then I know what it is going to sound like in other peoples systems......

My system is a hard core detailed professional system and sometimes the mix sounds somewhat different thru home or car stereos.......
When I listen to a mix both ways my mind can make adjustments for the difference and I end up with a mix that kicks it just as powerful and true as in my studio....

This adjustment needs plenty of trial and error to shift my perception...........Soooooooooooo I am using up alot of music CDs along the way.

Mattman.....Yes, I think possibly you're correct about the problem being I am using the free, limited software......I just thought the fact that I am using a CD Writer capable of Rewriteable funtions built into it I should be able to get a prompt to format the disk instead of a rejection..........

I wonder why I got the prompt before and now.......nothing???

Looks like a stale mate on this one.....

Thank you all very much for taking the time to help me...
I t is truly appreciated

 

Ok, I understand what you're up to now.

As for your problem, are you trying to write directly to the cd from the program you're editing the song in? If so, that would require the cd to be formatted but more than likely an audio cd player in a car and most in the home wouldn't recognize it. Some do, most don't.

Do you have an icon for the program in the system tray? If so, right click on it to see if you have the option to format it there. If not, have you ever used msconfig or similar program to keep programs from running at startup? If so, perhaps one of those that you've disabled was the one that was responsible for the prompts. Have a look in msconfig on the startup tab for a disabled program that might be related. Also, check the program's options to see if it's been disabled there.

Having said that, formatting the cd isn't what you want to do in this case. If formatting the cd is the same in your program as every other program I've used it means that it will write a UDF file system to the cd. You don't want that for an audio cd. If the cdrw is blank and unformatted, it should write to it just as it does to and cdr disk. It may be that the free version of the program is limited in this respect. I'll take a look at it and see what I can find out about it.

 

OK, I did a quick search for sonic record now and I see it's a Roxio product now. I didn't realize that. If that's the case I'd be surprised if the software that came with the drive didn't support writing to cdrw disks. I've used the free Roxio software that came with the drives I've bought and none of them ever had this limitation. I'd be surprised if yours did.

 

Another thought. You could try a different program to see if you get the same error. There's a couple of really good free ones available that I know of. I've used both. One is called CDBurnerXP Pro and the other, Deep Burner. Deep Burner has a paid for version and a free one. As you might expect, some features aren't available in the free version but I know it writes to cdrw disks. They have a page where you can compare the features of the two. CDBurnerXP Pro is free and the one I find myself using mostly these days. Both are worth checking out IMHO. Neither of them have ever caused any conflicts for me with the Roxio software I had installed. And, they both support Win98. Neither has any adware of any type.

 

Correction, the UDF reader in the Sonic program is called DLA. It may be a UDF writer, but I have not been able to make a UDF disk with it yet (maybe it is some type of drag and drop method). Anyway found this in the readme (should be under Start > Programs > Sonic):

I did have Nero installed on this system, but uninstalled it before installing Sonic. When I put a disk that is formatted using INCD into the drive, I get a "drive not ready" error.

Record Now will recognize blank CD-RWs, but I think I had your problem, then uninstalled and reinstalled the Sonic programs.

BTW, I have had conflicts before after uninstalling Nero, that's why I started using freeware programs. If you search on the Software forum, they have mentioned a specific Nero uninstalling program in case you think you need to use it.

Matt

 

That's what it is. A UDF formatted disk is a disk formatted so you can drag and drop to it like a floppy. DLA is just Sonic's name for it. Same thing as DirectCD and InCD. Only problem is, they all have their own way of doing things and there is no real standard (not that they all follow anyway). So, a disk formatted with DLA may not be able to be read by a system that has InCD on it.

I used to use EZCD 3.X on 98. When built this system I couldn't use it on XP but the burner I installed came with EZCD 5 so I used that. Wouldn't you know, even though both were from the same company, the 5.X version couldn't read the disks that I'd made with the older version. I had to install a special driver for it. Dumb.