Dottie,
You can write files to a CD and later add more files to it, using Windows XP only.  However, if you have 650mb available on the CD and you write 100mb, then you have 550mb left availble (still a total of 650mb), BUT when you add files, you will lose access to the original 100mb area, so those files will be RE-written to the 550mb "available" area along with the files you are adding.  This reduces the total filespace of your CD to 550mb.  You still have both sets of files on the CD, but the original 100mb area is now inaccessible dead space.  

You still have both sets of files on the CD, but the total CD is now only 550mb, of which you have 300mb filled with files and 250mb of available space left.   Each time you separately add files, the size of the CD is effectively reduced by whatever amount of space was already used and will be lost when you add more files(the space will be lost, not the files - the files will be rewritten as long as there is enough available space for them and the files you are adding).  In this example, you lose not only the 100mb that you first wrote to, but the 250mb "available" space is unusable to you because the 300mb of files you have on the disk now cannot be rewritten to the 250mb of available space, much less adding any new files.  

You don't want to use this method using Windows XP.   Roxio Easy CD Creator or Nero Burning will do what you want without wasting space on your CDs, OR you can use the method of writing all the files at once, using Windows XP only.

You will not lose space on the CD if you set up a folder and put all the files in it that you want to write to the CD and then write them all at once.   If you have more than 650mb of files (or 700mb, depending on the CD), then put them in another folder and write THEM all at once, on another CD.

Programs such as Roxio Easy CD Creator, will format the CD and let you drag files to the CD without losing CD space.  Afterward, you have to "close" the CD so that it can be read on other computers.  You can often get older versions pretty cheap on the net, which still work fine.  I'm using version 6.1 from 2003.  I don't think version 5 works with XP.

Good luck,
AnnaSummers



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Carol 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 2:03 AM
Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] Putting files on CD


Dottie,
You can burn, (save or write),  files, documents etc. to CD, and you can
often add addtional data later at the end of the first data, (depending on
the CD and your program), but you can't change what's already on the CD, as
in editing a document that has already been burned, (saved),  to a CD.  You
would have to copy from the CD to your hard drive, then edit the document,
and then reburn the document onto another CD.  Also, some blank CDs are
rewritable, which means you can erase them and use them again, and some are
not.
Carol Hanson


Peter:

What I want to do is put some files onto a CD that can then be edited for
future use, with whatever changes that need to be made.  Do I understand
that you are saying CD's can only be used as read only?  Dottie Hoch

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