BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW

Subject: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 09:20 PM

Does anybody know how to do this? Have tried & failed to copy & paste, just will not allow me to paste into CD-RW.

Someone suggested first copy into Adobe, then to CD-RW, but haven't discovered how to do that either, again, will not allow me to paste into Adobe!

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 09:38 PM

It depends on which program you are using to set up the CD-RW. You can't just put an unformatted disk in and copy to it.

You sorta need to explain what your setup is, and what you are using...copy & paste is not how you'd do it...it is more like drag & drop or 'copy' from one folder to another AFTER making sure the CD-RW is ready.

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 12:43 AM

For regular CDs, I would drag and drop with Explorer. For the CD-RW type you might need Nero or Roxio to pave the way.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 01:20 AM

For simple transfer of text to CD, I use Record Now!. It's free, available for downloading. Then I do a Save As to access the CD.

That's what I've done in the past to save chunks of my documents to transfer to a new computer as needed.

The next time it will be even simpler. I recently bought an external hard drive (plug and play Passport at Costco) so when the time comes I'll just plug it into the new computer and voila! and there I am. Don't know why I didn't do it before- it takes a long time to copy and paste everything ono CDs that you want to save. And externals are not that expensive- mine was $90 and this is Alaska; it's probably cheaper elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 07:47 AM

Try Description of CD-R and CD-RW recording in Windows XP, Microsoft KB279157.

If you're using WinXP, this should be enough to get you started with the built-in utilities.

Because of the way that Windows and other "simple" processes record to CD-R/W media, it's not really a very efficient way of saving stuff one file at a time, especially for moving stuff on and off the CD-R/W, although it can be done that way.

If you save up enough stuff to justify putting it on a CD, and burn it all at once, the difference in price between CD-R and CD-R/W usually justifies using the CD-R, and when you've saved up enough for an update just toss the old CD in the coaster bin and make a new one.

You need enough hard drive space to process the entire CD-R/W content for each burn, even if your just adding a file or two; so I find it simpler just to make a folder on the HD for the in-and-out and when needed, use Nero (best for data) - or Roxio ( prettyy good for audio, but sometimes has problems with data disks) and burn a CD-R.

As suggested above, a $100 external USB hard drive is much more satisfying to use than a CD-R/W (for most people).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 11:22 AM

And I should have added that while I have a couple of CD-RWs around here somewhere, I haven't used them in years. I agree with John, the cost of the CD-Rs is so low they can be treated as disposable. I recycle them at the university where I work--they have a two-step contract to recycle media that is supposed to remove data from the disk before it goes to the plastic chopper stage.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: Amos
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 11:56 AM

1. Put all the Word documents you want to save off into a single folder.
2. Start up Roxio Toast.
3. Drag the folder into the files pane and make sure it is selected to write a Data type CD.
4. Make sure a CD burner is connected to your computer and place a writeable CD in it.
5. Click Burn and wait for bell to ring.

Voilaa!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: Tootler
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 06:01 PM

I gave up on CDRWs a long time ago. I found they failed after only a few rewrite cycles and as others have said, the cost of CDRs was so much lower that I used those. Also for relatively small amounts of data you could just keep adding or replacing files until the disk was full then bin it, so you didn't need all that many CDs anyway.

Now that flash drives have come down in price I use those. I have a 1GB flash drive which gives me more capacity than a CD can be rewritten many more times, you can work directly off it with no problems.

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: mack/misophist
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 09:56 PM

A little explanation may help. a file, any file, is nothing but a string of ones and zeros. The cd doesn't care what they represent. But a new cd is entirely blank. It can't/won't copy anything until a framework has been laid down so that the os can tell where to look for the file. It's exactly (in principle) like formatting a floppy, back in the days when they weren't pre formatted. It divides the disk into areas and makes an index of where the files are stored. For this you need special software. You must already have it. It comes iree with every cd burner.

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 10:21 PM

"It comes free with every cd burner. "

Only new ones purchesd from a shop - second hand and 'recycled ones' - not!

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 10:29 PM

Do NOT be lazy!

Take a weekend. Read the documents one by one - reformat if necessary - PRINT the material on premium paper (archival not worth the price) and then determine binding order - chrono, topical, source - recopy and create three original bound copies.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Corresponce has decreased with some and increased with others when they recieve a bound (hard back copy) of 10 years of e-mail.

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 11:49 PM

All that you really need just to put a few files on a CD-R or CD-R/W is built into WinXP. There are some sort of wizardish methods (built in) to make it look like all you need to do is drage-and-drop the files to your CD - after doing some necessary setup, but in fact all the files to be added and all the files already on the disk must be copied to a space on your hard drive, after which they are "formatted" on your hard drive, and then burned in sequence to the CD. This happens even if you use the "methods" that make it look like you're just "copying to the CD-R/W."

Things already on the CD sometimes don't actually have to be burned again, but have to be "on the hard drive" with the stuff to be added so that they're part of the new file index that gets burned each time something is added. The index is written on the hard drive and then just gets copied to the CD. You can get the appearance of deleting something from a CD (CD-R or CD-R/W) by burning a new index, but the old file and the old index are still on the CD - just inacessible, and the space they occupied is "used up" on the CD.

The only way to actually recover "used up" space on a CD-R/W is to "reformat" the entire CD; which means of course that any data you want to save has to be copied to your hard drive, and after the CD-R/W is "re-melted," copied back to the CD. The "reformat" of a CD-R/W is seldom perfect enough to make it "like new," so there is some degradation in quality with each reformat; although I'm told that they'll commonly stand up to about a dozen(?) reformats before data loss is common. They will eventually "wear out."

CD-R backup of stuff you want to keep off the machine is reasonably reliable, if good quality disks are used and if they're properly stored. For an in-and-out memo pad, CD-R/W may be of some use to a few people, but most of those of my acquaintance who've tried it (and been enthused at first) have found CD-R more useful, with or without a supplemental "drive," which can be an external hard drive or more recently a "thumb drive" (USB) of one sort or another.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 11:57 PM

One limitation of the WinXP "automatic" CD burning that might be of interest to someone. The one thing that it cannot do (current versions) is make a bootable CD. If that's a concern for anyone, there is some information available, but it's "arcane" and not too readily accessible. (i.e. I'd have to go look it up - again.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: GUEST,May in SF
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 12:18 AM

I am new to burning. What's the diff between CD-R and CD-RW. What does R and RW mean? Do you use the same kind for copying documents and music. Are they interchangeable? Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 01:31 AM

CD-R are "recordable" and come as a blank disk on which you can "burn" your own information. Once data is written to the CD-R, it cannot be removed.

CD-R/W are "re-writable." You can reformat the disk to erase information that's been written to it, and it can be used again to write new data.

Either kind, but especially for "data files," can be "finaled" with or without closing. If the data is "finaled" without closing additional information can be added via a second "burn" or recording session, assuming that there's sufficient unused space on the disk. Once the disk is "closed" nothing more can be added to a CD-R, and reformatting (erasing all existing information) is required before a CD-R/W can be used again for new data.

You can buy "music CD-R" disks for recording music, or "data CD-R" disks for recording ordinary computer data and/or program files. The "music CD" version is usually a few cents more expensive per disk than "data CD-R" disks due to having a "royalty fee" paid by the manufacturer; but you actually can burn any kind of information to either kind of CD-R. If the only thing you're going to record is music, the music blanks may make some sense, but for ordinary use it's usual to just buy whichever is cheapest, which usually means using the "data CD-R" disks.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: Grab
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 05:25 AM

Only new ones purchesd from a shop - second hand and 'recycled ones' - not!

No, you've still got it. It's a standard part of WinXP. You certainly can get fancier stuff to do it with a nicer front end and more features, but WinXP will do it OK. I've never installed anything special on my machine.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: Amos
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 09:21 AM

I really find Roxio Toast to be an easy interface.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: GUEST,Seiri Omaar
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 10:44 AM

Invest in a thumb disk. Great little bit of technology. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 03:05 PM

Roxio Toast only runs on Toasters.

The Windows equivalent is Roxio EZ-CD (at least approximately).

A legal copy of either is about $80, and the version appropriate to your OS is a good investment if you're going to do much CD burning. Roxio is somewhat better at handling data burns, but if you do primarily music CDs you may (or may not) prefer "Nero Burning ROM," the other popular "commercial" burner program. There are lots of other options as well.

If you only do an occasional CD, WinXP has built-in utilities that are adequate, and the procedures are fairly clearly described, at the KB link way back up above or in the WinXP HELP files if you choose to violate the macho protocol and

        RTFM.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 05 Apr 07 - 11:20 PM

I haven't found the WinXP procedures "fairly clearly described" at all!

I still haven't managed to copy anything to my CD-RW!

Does anybody know what the difference is between CD-RW(+), CD-RW(-) & ordinary CD-RW?

Thanks, by the way, to all the responses to my original query.

Subject: RE: BS: Copying Word Documents to CD-RW
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Apr 07 - 07:28 PM

For the technical specifics of CD burning and playback:

Go to Optical Storage Technology Association Q&A

At the top of the page, in fine print, you'll see "Download PDF File." Right-Click on that, and select "Save," choose a place to put it on your computer, and download the file. You'll get a 53 page pdf document, 481 KB, that contains answers to far more than you need to know about technical aspects of CD recording and playback. (Note: the link for the pdf file appears at each page on this site, but is the same file all places so you only need to save it once.)

The pdf file contains the same information as is posted in multiple pages at the website. You can choose whether to read from the pdf or step through the pages at the site. I recommend that you do download and save the pdf for future reference, even if you choose to read the information on-site at this time.

Does anybody know what the difference is between CD-RW(+), CD-RW(-) & ordinary CD-RW

There was some competition over formats when CD burners first appeared, and the CD-RW(+) etc may have appeared briefly, to distinguish between them. Currently, at least in my market, the CD-R and CD-RW are the only formats available. Information on the others has virtually disappeared from any sources to which I might refer you. If you have a CD burner that specifies one of the other obsolete formats, you may be able to download a ROM update for your burner from the drive manufacturer that will let you use the now-standard CD-R and CD-RW formats.

(You should check periodically for available updates to your burner, ROM and drivers, as some changes to the CD format specifications have made it possible for your drive to be physically damaged by attempting to burn to a "modern" CD-R in an obsolete drive.)

The situation is somewhat different for DVD, where you may still see DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+/-R, with or without DL, or a couple of other formats, with similar variants for DVD-RW. Your only concern should be that the disks you use MUST be the same, or a known compatible type, as is shown by the logo(s) on the front end of your drive and the specifications for it.

For WinXP, with a CD-R or CD-RW in your burner drive, you can select files in Windows Explorer, copy them and paste them to the burner drive, or just drag and drop them on the drive. When you paste, or drop, the files onto the drive, the temporary folder on your HD, where WinXP sets up the CD burn, should appear, and the CD burn Wizard should open. You follow the instructions given by the Wizard.

When you insert a blank CD into your drive, you may or may not get a popup asking "What do you want to do." If you have a working CD burner, one of the options should be "burn a CD."

If the Wizard does not appear, or doesn't work, your Windows (XP) installation is defective. This may be because (the simple reasons only):

1. You have a bootleg copy of Windows and the function has been disabled due to non-registration.

2. You don't have a CD burner and are trying to copy to a CD-ROM drive.

3. You have not properly installed drivers (and perhaps codex files) needed by the burner.

4. Your hard drive, or a critical file on it, has been corrupted.

5. You have acquired malware on your computer.

The CD or CD-RW is burned only when you complete the Wizard process. Until that point, the files you want to copy are in a temporary folder on your hard drive. Note that you do not necessarily have to complete the Wizard and finish the burn. You can leave the files in the temp folder, and add/remove files as needed. Since each burn decreases the remaining space on the CD-RW, you may want to minimize the in/out transfers in some cases, and just use the temp space on your hard drive until you have a "full CD" – in which case, as pointed out previously, you might as well use a CD-R. (Note that removing a file from a CD-R or CD-RW decreases the remaining space available.)

Although you can generally remove and replace the CD-RW on the same computer that makes the first write to the disk and you can add or remove files from it on that computer, each file transfer is essentially a separate operation. The Wizard should appear and make it fairly simple for you to complete the operation each time you need it if you're using only WinXP built-in functions. In general, only the machine that makes the first burn to a CD-RW can be reliably expected to be able to read that CD-RW or to add/remove things from it. In most cases any other machine can read what's burned to a CD-R and sometimes what's burned to a CD-RW. For a "playback" machine, such as an audio player, to be able to read the CD-R, it usually is necessary to "final" the CD, which prevents adding new stuff to it.

The drag and drop capability built into WinXP essentially uses the CD-RW exactly like a CD-R, with the exception that when it gets full, the CD-RW can be "erased" to start over.

If you want true drag-and-drop in-and-out transfer of files between your hard drive and your CD burner, you will need additional software. This is an additional method for using CD-RW that is available only in some burner programs. As an example only, my Roxio "EZ CD Platinum" offers the option of mounting a CD-RW using their progam called "DirectCD" that allows the sort of drag and drop transfers you may be expecting. "Direct CD" is included in most Roxio burner programs that I've seen, but not necessarily in all of them. A similar utility is included in some Nero programs (but not in the one I have). Other burner programs vary with whether a "drag and drop R/W" utility is included so you must look specifically for one that offers it.

Note also that several of the major CD drive manufacturers have discontinued making any CD-only drives, since most people expect, and only purchase, a DVD drive with CD read/write capabilities. If you're looking for a new drive, it's suggested that you verify that you get one (currently) with a "DVD-R/RW" logo, and a "RW DVD+R DL" logo and a "Compact Disk Rewritable High Speed" logo, each of which should be separately imprinted on the front panel. A drive that shows only "DVD-ROM" and/or "Compact Disk" logos is a read-only drive and cannot burn anything. And read the specs before you buy.

John