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Number : 3307 Date : 2002-12-14 Author : Kan Yabumoto Subject : CD Packet-Writing Size(KB) : 5
Hi to those who were engaging in the packet-writing tools. I was sitting on the sideline for a while as I was just exhausted by posting a few (lengthy, as usual) messages... This is my understanding with the issue; both Ahead's Nero and and Roxio's Easy CD Creator packages come with their respective packet-writing software tool. Ahead's one is called InCD and Roxio's one is called DirectCD as you know. Whichever product you use, you should treat the packet-writing tool as a separate piece of software from the rest of the tool set. That is, if you take a look at either of the products (I haven't touched the Roxio package for a while), you will see that the CD/DVD disc authoring tools are integrated into one (to duplicate a data/music CD, or create your own music CD, etc.) and they can indeed be considered a group of tools in one, nicely packaged suite of programs. In either of the packages, the InCD and DirectCD are odd balls in their respective packages. That is, the packet-writing tool is intrinsically a separate piece of tool which works in a different set of rules (and format). As far as I know, they both follow some sort of industry standard (I'm not an expert on this subject and I can't off hand, give you the name of the standard) in such a way that a CD which was created in the packet-writing format is compatible with one another. In my relatively limited experience, I have verified that a CD created by DirectCD was fully operational using InCD. So, they are compatible one another as far as I could tell. On the other hand, I would not be surprised if someone discovers some minor incompatibilities between the two. I have found a few minor but irritating problems in DirectCD (e.g., DirectCD stores 8.3 formatted file names in case-preserving fashion --- in my view, this is against the rules which causes the files not accessible when the disc is to be read in a pure 16-bit environment using the MSCDEX driver which cannot effectively handle lowercase 8.3 filenames ---- this is one of many little bugs I found in DirectCD and I don't trust DirectCd). In conclusion, it is my understanding that you may keep both Nero and Easy CD Creator on your system and you may run either of the tools (not at the same time, though) as you like without completely uninstalling one another. If they are not running, no "active" software components are there to interfere. On the other hand, InCD and DirectCD (as I said earlier, they are not just an application but rather a serious device driver that will be resident ---- analogous to the good old days' TSR) cannot co-exist. The good news is, either of the tools are to be installed independent from the rest of their respective software package and therefore, you may selectively install either InCD (I recommend) or DirectCD (I don't recommend) while you may install both of the rest of the CD/DVD authoring tools. Some difficulties reported by some members here with the packet-writing tools is probably caused by their confusion as to what format the current media inside the CD-RW or DVD-RW drive is. If the media is initialized as a packet-writing format (and has not been converted to the regular CD-format at the end of a session), the drive will behave like a virtual disk. That is the mode where XXCOPY can access the volume. You may also perform a drag-and-drop operation on the disc but make sure that you don't even attempt to run the "cd-authoring tool" at the time for drag-and-drop. You should perform the drag-and-drop only in the context of Windows Explorer or similar tools. In that mode of operation, the regular CD/DVD authoring tools should not be opened and used because they operate under the principle of non-packet-writing formats. In other words, the drag-and-drop support in those tools may confuse some users as to what is going on. The drag-and-drop in the context of the CD-authoring tools is not really a file-copying operation but rather a step to edit the newly created "custom-CD" that you are creating --- a preliminary step to burning a CD. Although one may think he is "copying" files in drag-and-drop, he is simply creating an image of the media in a temporary "buffer" inside your hard disk. In that case, until the disk is "burned" as the final step of the operation, the drag-and-drop operations does not cause any access to the physical CD-RW media. Of course, when you are doing the drag-and-drop in the CD-authoring tool (as opposed to packet-writing), you should refrain from using Windows Explorer or XXCOPY to access the CD-RW volume. Once the user is fully aware of whether or not the media is currently formatted in packet-writing mode, the problem should not arise. Correct me if I'm wrong. Kan Yabumoto ======================================================= At 2002-12-13 23:54, you wrote: >dayvah49, >I found the InCD manual was very explicit about removing any other packet >writing software. I had both installed at my last attempt and will first >try DirectCD alone then InCD if I have any failures. I will document my >XXCopy command and results as well. I was surprised when I posed my >simple need to the Roxio tech support and they basically said they had no >solution since they deleted command line support with their latest >software releases. But it seems that the bulk of the problem will be >solved by following this groups recommendations. Thanks again for the info. >Marek
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