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CD-RW Not Being Completely Erased

G

Grandcheapskate

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Hi Guys,
I still have an Acer 2x CD rewriter which I use. I have a couple rewriteable CDs which are acting strange and I want to see if anyone has run into this before.

The Acer rewriter is running under Windows 95 on a Pentium 90. There is basically no other software on the machine - it's purpose is simply to store data and write that data to CDs. The software used is Adaptec Easy CD Creator v3.5c.

Here's the story...I had written a bunch of files to the CD and maybe updated a few of them on a subsequent write. Therefore the CD has two sessions. I have since modified the files on the hard drive and want to rewrite the whole CD. So I tell the Adaptec software to erase the disc using the full (rather than quick) option - the full option is supposed to insure the entire disc gets erased. After the erase is complete, I check the disc and it is empty.

So now I queue up all the files on the hard disk which I want written to the CD - most of them are the same as the files I just erased. When I go to write the CD I get a message that some files have been updated since the CD layout was created - in other words, since I queued up the files. This is of course impossible UNLESS the disc was not completely erased. So I erased the CD a second time with the same results - the Adaptec software (and Windows Explorer) see the CD as empty but when I try to add the files back, I get the "files have been updated" message.

The story does not end there. I have a second CD with the same files on it. I decide to take this one to a Win XP machine with a DVD rewriter. I select the CD via Windows Explorer and then ask Win XP to erase all files on the CD. After a couple minutes the erase ends but...and here's the wierd thing...the CD remains completely intact. In fact, after the erase ends (with no errors) you can see Windows reading the CD and expanding the directory tree in Explorer.

Ideas? My only conclusion is the directory on the CD is not being erased.

Thanks...Joe
 
My initial thought is that the file that is changed is the thumbs.db file which contains the icons for the files in a directory. The initial write of files does not create the thumbnails but instead is deferred until explorer reads the directory. Test the written disc and make sure the contents are correct. I don't remember which Diff tools are available under Windows 95. With later Windows versions, I often run Windiff on the machine that created the disc.

Edit: If the drive is very old, the laser may no longer have the power to reset the pigment. Try at least one rewrite cycle where the new files are completely different from the old files. If the wrong files show up when you read the disc, it is probably time to replace the CD drive. The disc should handle about 1000 erasures but I have never seen an evaluation of reliability of CD-RW discs as they age and get rewritten. However, if you see the same message with CD-R discs, then I am almost certain that is not a real problem but rather Explorer wanting to add its special files to the disc.
 
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Well, I tried writing a different file on the CD-RW and that went off without a problem. I got no warning message. I then erased the CD (using a quick erase since a full erase takes about 40 minutes) and then queued up the full set of files and got the same warning message.

When the warning comes up you have two choices. The first is to select STOP and then run a VALIDATE on the CD layout to see which files have changed - I did this and no files got reported as being changed. The second choice is to select CONTINUE which will write the updated files to the CD. After validating the layout, I simply selected CONTINUE and wrote the CD. The resulting CD has no errors and all files are intact.

As to why it acts so strange may just remain a mystery.

As an aside, the CD I erased on the WinXP machine showed up with a negative length when viewed with the Adaptec software DISC INFO option. A subsequent erase of this disc with the Adaptec software cleared the length back to zero.

Thanks...Joe
 
Joe,

I'm not knocking Adaptec, but I don't have a good record burning CD's with that program going all the way back to NT. If I were you I would at least give Nero a try. Just a hunch.
 
Since we are talking about Windows 95, I use ImgBurn 2.4.4.0 all the time on Win95 for burning CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R and DVD-DL disks. Works very well for me. (Just don't let it install the Google toolbar, and I wouldn't recommend later versions) I used to use Adaptec Easy CD Creator v3.5c a long time ago but it was limited in the types of drives it would work with.
 
Agent Orange said:
Joe,

I'm not knocking Adaptec, but I don't have a good record burning CD's with that program going all the way back to NT. If I were you I would at least give Nero a try. Just a hunch.
Click to expand...

I have a couple other CD writing software programs so if the Adaptec really gave me fits I would go over to one of them. In fact, I have Nero loaded on at least one other machine and would use that in any future machines. The Adaptec software came with the ACER rewriter so I just kept them together. I did have some issues with multiple sessions before I recently applied the 3.5c update patch - since then, it seems more stable. Probably helps that I recently loaded the machine from scratch.

Joe
 
njroadfan said:
It could be media incompatibility. Chances are the 2X drive is having trouble with "High Speed" CD-RW media. I don't think they have made "slow" speed media in many years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-RW#Speed_specifications
http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq04.html#S4-46

Have you done a "full erase" pass of the disc before trying to write new data?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did a full erase (sometimes twice in a row) and the issue persists. The CD-RWs I am using are multi-speed but only for 4x, 2x and 1x so I doubt it is media incompatibility.

Doesn't +R and -R only apply to DVDs?

As I said, it really seems to have no effect if I tell the software to continue and use the updated files. It is just weird how it only seems to do it with this one set of files and on both copies I make.

Thanks...Joe
 
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