DirectCD problem

I use DirectCD to store my digital photographs to CD-RW's and to back up my PC to CD-R's. I am using DirectCD version 5.3.0.71 on Win XP Home, with a Mat****a UJDA330 cd drive.

On Sept 12th I loaded a dozen or so digital photos to a cd-rw. This CD was only around 25% full at the time and none of the images I added were more than 250kb in size. So there is plenty of room on the disk. The next time I put this cd in the drive I get these messages: 1) The requested files could not be read from the CD in drive (D). It is recommended to copy any critical files on this CD to a new CD.
2) Windows cannot read the disk. The disk might be corrupt or it could be using a format that is not compatible to Windows.

I have had this happen before and was able to recover the data but I do not recall how. So the first question is: Is there some way for me to recover this data? Right now neither DirectCD nor Windows will let me access these files.

I can read and write to my other CD-RW's, just not this one.

Second question is a two parter: How do I stop this from happening in the future or what am I doing that is causing this?

Any and all suggestions will be most welcome. This is a very irritating problem and is causing me to lose faith in using CD's as a storage medium. If I do not find an acceptable resolution to this problem I will have to find another storage medium.

Thanks.

 

OK here is what I have learned:

How it happens. Any time your formatted RW is in the burner the table of contents (TOC) is in RAM. If you have a lockup or power failure it can’t write the TOC back to the CD and you can’t read the data. That is why the eject button is disabled when a formatted CD is in the burner. You have to eject it through the program to write the TOC. It is also subject to accidental erasure or being overwritten. You have the same problem with any packet writing program, so there isn’t any reason to buy something else. DirectCD works for most people on XP with the patches.

I can see that being exactly what happened. I have a tendency to put the CD-RW in the drive and leave it there for several days if I am working on something an think I'll need it again. I'll certain stop doing that and probably stop using CD-RW's!!

Recovery: Roxio ScanDisc: which is a data recovery applet.

Scandisk would not read the CD either, unfortunately. It actually crashed trying to read it. But some helpful person told me about a utility called CD Data Rescue and using it I was able to
recover all the data on the disk. So I am very happy with that. If someone else out there has a similar problem here is the link for this software: http://www.naltech.com/ It's not free but is well worth the money.

Thanks to all that helped. At least I understand why this happens now, how to minimize it and how to recover from it now.

 

Frankly, Direct CD is a waste of time and packet writing unstable. Why not use software that does not require you to format the CD-RW.

If you must use Adaptec's software then their Easy CD Creator should allow you to write multisessions to your CD-RW or better still get Nero Burning Rom from

http://www.ahead.de

They always have full demo versions available for download so you can try before buying.

 

Does anyone know whether Nero works ok under XP SP1? Easy cd Creator doesn't; there are many complaints on the Roxio board.

 

Nero works fine under SP1. Just burned some CD's last night. Be sure, of course, that you have the latest updates. (I haven't updated since installing SP1, so if it works now, it will work under SP1).

I haven't used this much, and don't know how well it works with packet writing, but it is a sort of "scandisk" for CD's. It also has a data recovery function for badly burned CD's. You may find it useful someday, if not today:


http://www.elpros.si/CDCheck/

As an aside, I agree totally with Mahmud603 . Not only is packet-writing with DirectCD (and Nero InCD) causing all kinds of problems for peoples' computers, support for it is waning. The time will come when no OS will even support using it. All your saved CD's will become inaccessible (as they already are on many other peoples' computers, so you can't share with them). Formatting a CD is ridiculous and time-consuming.
Packet-writing seemed like a good idea when hard drives were small and you needed to get stuff off the drive right away. But, now, with large drives, who really needs to save something to a CD immediately?

Much better to save all the things you want to burn in a folder and burn a standard ISO-9660 CD that is readable by everyone, all CD-ROM's, and even older computers.

 

Abraxas, what then wold you recommend me to use? Does such a system as you mention at the end of your post exist in a reasonably inexpensive form right now? Won't "Nero -ed" disks be able to be read on any computer cd player then?

 

OK folks here is a new question along this same line of thought:

I am considering adding an external firewire DVD+RW burner to my laptop. What kind of problems will I have once I have loaded the burner software for my DVD burner? I would assume that conflicts will ensue, is that correct?

 

If you are using roxio easy cd creator 5 platinum with the updates to version 5.3 you should be able to use that with your dvd recorder. You will not need to install the recording software that comes with your dvd+rw. It works with my firewire dvd+rw.

 

Thanks Russ, that's a good idea. I'll just have to upgrade is all, as I hvae only the basic version installed right now.