Read only discs
Alistair Macdonald
CD-RW (TDK 700 MB) perhaps understandably it is read only. However three
other test imports to the same disc are also read only. This I cannot
understand, and hesitate to add any more files which I may want to edit on
disc.
Am I missing something?
Alistair
Maaax!
carved in stone... or should I say 'plastic'. You have writable CD's, not
re-writable CD's, but even Re-writable CD's are not 'active'. No way to edit
on the fly and you have to format re-writable's before you can use them
again once you've written to all of the free space.
I don't even know where to buy re-writable CD's anymore. Flash drives have
pretty much killed that market.
"Alistair Macdonald" <alistair....@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:aq-dnR1VgLlYt4TX...@bt.com...
Frosty
> is carved in stone... or should I say 'plastic'. You have writable CD's,
> not re-writable CD's, but even Re-writable CD's are not 'active'. No way
> to edit on the fly and you have to format re-writable's before you can use
> them again once you've written to all of the free space.
He could have CDRW's and probably does. He needs packet writing software for
what he wants to do which is write/edit rw's without finalizing the disc.
Alistair Macdonald
I've seldom had such useful advice to any of my problems, particularly
advice that I can understand. I had no idea that CD-RWs were on the way out
and giving way to Flash Drives. That raises another follow-up question. I
have and use a 4GB Flash Drive plus and Ex HD and Zip Drive. Would you
recommend the purchase of another Flash Drive (or two) to accommodate all
that I wish to save/backup? And does a Flash Drive discriminate between a
read-only and a "straight" file? My present Flash is used mainly to
transpoat files to other computers, and from my laptop to the printer on my
PC. I run Windows XP.
I have some 2500 photos held in an imaging program, four family trees, an
autobiography. an "anthology" and several other substantial files (say each
50,000 words) which I would wish to save. In other words, do all my backups
on Flash? Of course letting my External HD carry on as it is doing, on a
weekly backup program.
I hope this makes sense, and as I am in my 90th year simplicity is
paramount!
Alistair
"Maaax!" <age...@NOSPAM.mts.net> wrote in message
news:PigSl.110911$HZ1....@newsfe15.iad...
homepc
external drive is just as temporary as a flash drive, both could fail at any
time. Memory cards in digital cameras are similar to USB flash drives and
can also fail. However for short term use, these kind of media are
perfectly fine.
An archival quality DVD or CD data disc like Taiyo Yuden would seem to be
far more appropriate for your application. If you are just doing routine
backups, consider not finalizing the disc when you are burning -- that way
you can just keep adding data until the disc is completely filled. I use
Nero Express -- a free program that was included with my DVD burner. It
gives you the option of not finalizing the disc after the burning process.
It also gives you the option of burning at a lower than rated speed. If the
disc you are using is rated at 16X, you can burn at a slightly slower speed
if you wish. Doing so will create a more stable burn process that may leave
the disc readable for a longer period of time.
"Alistair Macdonald" <alistair....@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:btmdnQhcAeUaMofX...@bt.com...
Frosty
backing up files is great. You would use a thumb drive if you're just
transfering files from your computer to another.
Maaax!
He was in his 90's when he learned how to use a computer to finish his
latest book. I remember him phoning me the day he first needed to change ink
cartridges. I pull up to his apartment building with my car and he comes
bounding out with the empties (this I didn't expect). We whip over to
Staples and just as I'm about to park he says, "wait here!" He bails out,
walks briskly into the store; gets exactly what he needs in better time than
I would've managed (I waste time impulse shopping), and we're off. Minutes
later I drop him off at his place and as he turns down my offer to install
the cartridges (preferring to do the work himself) he says, "thanks for the
ride... gotta get back to work."
Double wow. Hope I'm still 'with it' when I'm your age Alistair.
By the way, what Frosty says is correct. You may actually have CDRW disks
there. Since I don't know of anyone still plunking down more than a buck a
blank for 700MB of optical storage that's a pain in the **s to use. I just
assumed that you had regular CDR's. My bad.
Here's how I'd set up your storage needs for a family tree if I was you:
Firstly, ditch the CD-RW's. Not every optical drive will read your disks. If
you scratch your CD-RW (and you probably will) you might lose your data. If
you leave your CD-RW in the sunlight, you might lose your data. If your
optical drive fails during a write (and it eventually will), you might lose
your data.
Secondly, keep a copy of your work on your hard drive. Easy as pie.
Thirdly, get a small USB flash drive (8GB for $25) and a 4 foot USB
extension cable ($5). Plug the extension cable into one of your USB ports
and run the other end of the cable out to a spot on your desk so that you
can conveniently plug and unplug your flash drive without having to reach.
You can save, edit and transport your data from computer to computer. Easy
to use. Toss in on your keychain or wear it around your neck when you
travel. Just don't wear it in the shower or run over it with your car.
Fourthly, very now and then you might want to burn your finished work to a
regular CD (cheap and super easy to do).
Finally, if you want some extra insurance... keep a copy of your work on
your FREE Shaw or MTS website space so that you have a FREE backup that you
can access, edit and share (if you want) from any location on the planet.
Your internet service provider will show you how to do this for free as
well.
You're welcome.
"Alistair Macdonald" <alistair....@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:btmdnQhcAeUaMofX...@bt.com...
Alistair Macdonald
Again more thanks for the combined help. This is where I now stand. Having
found a couple of CD-Rs among my CD-RW's I followed advice given. Success! I
now have all I wanted to back up on one CD. However in the process I found
that I could not persuade Nero to allow the downloading of the free
program - continually steering me towards a pay slot. Nor can I raise the
suggested Shaw or the MTS websites. This seems to be not now necessary as I
am generally where I want to be.
Backing up to the hard drive was accomplished by using an existing program -
Driveimage XML, but wonder what safeguard that provides. A crash could erase
both?
Not sure also of how to "not finalising the disc when you are burning" The
question is how do I do this, or not as the case may be?
Jumping back - I find that on my successful CD-R I cannot delete (an error
made in my back up) as the disc is proclaimed Read only. This was surprising
and I wonder if there is a simple CD without the appendage R which I should
be using.
All in all I am very happy with the results of your advice, and seem to be
90% of the way towards a complete resolution. Anything beyond what has been
accomplished, and as described above could be nitpicking.
Dave S.
> Jumping back - I find that on my successful CD-R I cannot delete (an error
> made in my back up) as the disc is proclaimed Read only. This was surprising
> and I wonder if there is a simple CD without the appendage R which I should
> be using.
Whenever files are copied to CDR, CDRW, DVD-R, etc. those files will
have the property of being Read-only. That file cannot be modified. You
can 'effectively' modify it by opening it in the appropriate
application, modifying it however you want, saving it, and then
re-copying it to the (un-finalized) CDR. If the CDR was previously
finalized, then you cannot write to it again.
However, if you copy that file back to your hard drive, you can then
change the properties from read-only to read-write.
Using Windows Explorer, right-click on the file you want to change,
choose 'Properties', uncheck to box labelled 'Read-only', and then click
'Apply'.
Dave S.
TechGuru
serial: 1K22-1867-0795-66M4-5415-5490-KC2K
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download
http://infrarecorder.org/
theres also these 2 free programs
TechGuru
news server??
homepc
When you backup a file to DVD-R or CD-R, think of it as taking a snap shot
of the file you have on your PC as at that particular time and date. Once
that file is written onto a DVD or CD disc, it cannot be changed or
over-written like it can on your PC using a hard drive or flash drive.
The only partial exception to this rule is if you do not finalize the disc
after burning. When you finalize the disk after burning, you cannot burn
anymore files onto it, even if you only used up a small fraction of the
recording space available -- in effect the disk would be locked. If you do
NOT finalize the disk, you may keep adding files to the disk at different
dates until you have used up all the recording space. You cannot change or
delete any existing files already present on that disk, you may only keep
adding more files until the disk is full.
For example: If you backed up the same file once a month onto the same disc
without ever finalizing it, at the end of the year you would end up with 12
identically named, read only files, on that one disc. However each file
would be different because they were backed up on different dates. You can
copy any of these files back to your PC hard drive and go on updating them
as you would normally do.
CD-RW's work in exactly the same way. The only difference is that if you
want to re - record files on a CD-RW disc after it has been finalized or
full, your CD burner will actually erase ALL the existing data on that disc,
leaving you with a new clean disc to record on. There is a trade off for
the convenience renewing a recording disc over and over again like this.
CD-RW's will not retain data for a long time, and will eventually fail to
record properly after being over-written repeatedly. These two short
comings make CD-RW's a very poor choice for archiving anything really
important.
Hope this clears things up a little for you ;)
"Alistair Macdonald" <alistair....@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:0p-dndOHGcJ4bobX...@bt.com...
Alistair Macdonald
problems which are now almost completely solved. Only one remains and I am
very reluctant to terminate this thread although the remaining glitch is
only part of the whole, and possibly not related.
Very briefly (I hope) it concerns my Family Tree Maker program, on which
Help correspondence has been going on for about two months and still remains
unresolved today. Background - a crash completely removed my entire, four
family FTM v.6 data, and its installation disc was not acceptable to an new
HD. Upgraded (for �40) to FMT 2009 which surprisingly did not support the
original FTM v.6. (I thought this was deplorable) After much to and fro
emails we got the original data transferred to the new FTM 2009. Then the
backup pantomime started. To back up to disc the data has to be exported to
the HD, picked up in My Documents and from there sent to the CD.
That was accomplished and I now have four family histories on the same CD as
those which I can now, with your help open and read, but not the four FTM
family files. (at this point I gave up trying to get a satisfactory help
from Ancestry's FTM Support) but now when I try to open and read/check the
FTM contents I get -
Windows cannot open this file. Needs to know what program created it, Use
web service to find the appropriate program. OK.
Recommended, a Registry scan. OK. Completed and Finish. I go back to the CD,
open the file and again get Windows cannot open etc
I have tried several other opening possibilities but no joy. I am sure that
I am missing a simple process but can't put my finger on it. My main
frustration is that the FTM backups do not perform as do the others on the
same disc.
Any steer would be appreciated.
"homepc" <wieb...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:wB%Sl.76357$bi7....@newsfe07.iad...
homepc
right click on the file name , select open with, select choose program,
select the program you wish to use to open the file ( FTM ), and then check
the small box at the bottom of the pick list that says <Always use the
Selected program to open this kind of file>.
If FTM does not appear in your pick list, use the browse button to find the
program you are using. If you already have a short cut icon for FTM on your
desk top, check it for properties, and it with give you the program's
location to use if you having trouble using the browse button.
"Alistair Macdonald" <alistair....@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:ieCdnUV-_Yf1lIDX...@bt.com...
homepc
http://www.familyhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=1792
Good luck!
"homepc" <wieb...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:h_aTl.70565$9w4....@newsfe08.iad...
homepc
http://www.fhug.org.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=forum&board=GEDCOM&num=1578&op=display
Software link just in case you still can't read your gft files:
http://www.mudcreeksoftware.com/
"homepc" <wieb...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:x_bTl.35936$ho7....@newsfe10.iad...