About CD-RW

Hate to admit my stupidity, but how do you erase a CD-RW so you can reuse it? Would appreciate your help. Thanks bunches!


ziggee

 

ziggee,

There should be an option in your burning program to erase the CD. With the Roxio Easy CD Creator program that I have, it's under "Disk" on the program toolbar. Every program will be a little different, but the option should be there.

Mike

 

There are lots of burner programs available but without any of them installed, I get this guidance from Windows Help:

To erase files from a CD
Open My Computer.
Double-click the CD recording drive. Windows displays the files and folders located on the CD.
Under CD Writing Tasks, click Erase this CD-RW. (see note1 if that isn't available) Windows displays the CD Writing Wizard.
Follow the instructions in the wizard to delete the files on the CD-RW.
Notes

To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
Erasing the CD deletes all the files on the CD; you cannot select individual files to delete.
Note 1. Not all CDs are erasable. If the CD you are using is not erasable, for example, a CD-R, then this feature is not available.

 

Thank you both, but your suggestions don't help me. Think I'll go checking a bit further on my own.........or maybe get in touch with Dell.

Appreciate the fast fast service, and again, thanks for your help, both of you.

ziggee

 

C drive died last month, so I went back and looked at the original CD's that came with the computer. Turns out that Adaptec info wasn't ALL readded and needed to be. I copied programs from the disk, and now have a way to erase my CD!!!

The technician who helped me ready the new C drive did something with Adaptec, but I needed to do just a bit more adding.

Again, thanks for trying to help, and for your fast responses.

Now better educated..........
ziggee

 

Well ziggee , if you don't have a burner software fully installed, it won't fully work. What can I say? I'm glad you got it sorted out.

 

What Operating System?

For Zephyr's suggestion to work in anything but XP you need a third-party packet writer installed (Roxio DirectCD or Ahead Nero's InCD)

XP is the only OS that has any inbuilt CD burning support.

 

It's nearly unforgivable how little information is available for people who get their first CD-RW drive. The software folks need some better communications in order to get people up to speed with the various facets of this technology.

I will assume that ziggee has EasyCd Creator by Adaptec. I can only hope that he is open minded enough to try something else. I use Nero and also have RecordNow, which is a HP program that comes with some of the their OEM machines. Frankly, Nero is much better. You can get it for $13.95 on E-bay. (Free on KaZaA ) I highly recommend it. I paid more than that to upgrade my RecordNow software to enable it to use DLA (Drive letter Access) and believe you me, you really don't want that "Convenience." I rarely use that feature since it's requires pre-formatting the disk and then you can't pass it along unless the recipient also has DLA software. Well, you can, but you have to "CloseIt Out" and after that, you can't write to that disk again unless you totally erase it. (Assuming it's an RW) Well, to each his own. [Did I mention that it reduces the capacity of the disk?]

I just think that you should be able to get a new computer that has a burner and be able to operate it without calling your brother in California for an explanation. I have never seen a single source that provides all the answers to the many questions that arise when using burners. If any of you have a good link, please post it so all can share.