Is it possible to just delete some but not all files from a CD-RW?

Like if I had some backup info on the CD-RW, but not all of it, could I make more space without getting rid of it all? Or if I had an Audio CD-RW, and wanted to get rid of a few songs, is this possible?

No, its not possible at 2002 , but who knows !! in 10 years it will .

Tipycol said:

Like if I had some backup info on the CD-RW, but not all of it, could I make more space without getting rid of it all? Or if I had an Audio CD-RW, and wanted to get rid of a few songs, is this possible?

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You can't actually delete the files, but I believe that you can delete them so that they won't show up. You don't save any space on the CD, but if it is something that you don't want someone to see then it could still be usefull

Kiriakos said:

No, its not possible at 2002 , but who knows !! in 10 years it will .

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Well I'll take this as a no. I could've guessed what you have said. They probably wouldn't be using CD's for much in 10 years anyway

soundfx4 said:

You can't actually delete the files, but I believe that you can delete them so that they won't show up. You don't save any space on the CD, but if it is something that you don't want someone to see then it could still be usefull

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Well that's interesting. If only it worked backwards
That way, it would be giving me more space since I have nothing to hide

Tipycol said:

Well that's interesting. If only it worked backwards
That way, it would be giving me more space since I have nothing to hide

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hehe, yeah sux don't it

Well, I thought you could.

@ my school, I have a CD-RW that I use open-session and I delete and create new files on there all the time.

As far as I know a cd rw can be used like a hard drive. You can delete and get the space back just like a hard drive. It sounds like you mean cd r. A cd r you can delete but not get back your space as it is already hard burned but on a cd rw it can as it can be written on many times. I believe Funkdamonkman is correct.

Bull said:

As far as I know a cd rw can be used like a hard drive. You can delete and get the space back just like a hard drive. It sounds like you mean cd r. A cd r you can delete but not get back your space as it is already hard burned but on a cd rw it can as it can be written on many times. I believe Funkdamonkman is correct.

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If you have open session you can move and change files, but you have to specify that in your cdrw program before writing to the cd. Once the session is closed you can only delete all or nothing. I think you miunderstood Bull.

you could always copy all the files on your cd to your hard drive, erase the cd, and copy only the files you want back to the cd. While your at it, just make the cdrw open session so you don't have to ever repeat this process.

FunkDaMonkMan said:

you could always copy all the files on your cd to your hard drive, erase the cd, and copy only the files you want back to the cd. While your at it, just make the cdrw open session so you don't have to ever repeat this process.

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Oh, well that's all I needed to know. I didn't mean to say the CD's could not be erased cause of the data, I just wanted to know if there was a way to make it like a hard drive or 3.5" floppy


Thanks for the help guys

Tipycol

as far as I know it IS possible to use a CD-RW as a floppy but you will have to use a prigram like Direct CD or the like

petreza you are correct though I think you can use almost any program the trick is top not finalize the disk. once you finalize you can only erase the whole thing. the disadvantage to not finalizing is that you can only read the disks in a cdrw drive. ie you can't read them with a regular cdrom or a cd player.

Hi,

It seems to me that you guys are confusing media type with format and writing modes. Let´s see :

A CDRW media can have its 'bits' set and reset multiple times.
A CDR media can 'only' be written once.

You can use either media to write data/audio in the 'traditional' sequential way, that is, writing one 'track' (song or data) one after each other. Some magic at writing sw code converts 'files' to tracks... Using this format you can 'only' append to the end if you leave your session 'opened', that is, you do not 'mark' the last track as such.
If you use this option with CDRW media, you can always erase ALL the media at once, and start over with the same phisical disk.

...Or you can use 'packet writing mode', which can be used with CDRW media only and is implemented through ROXIO's Dircetcd, Nero's InCD, Veritas whatever... This startegy works more like a hard disk, by partitioning the disk into small sectors which the system keeps track about, so that files CAN be erased and data space reused without the need to erase the whole disk. And this disks can also be used in CDROM units (Read only) as long as you install the UDF reader software.

Hope this helps
Regards
FTC

UDF reader

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Yep. That was it - "UDF" - if you want to write to a cd-rw as if it is a floppy you need to install a program that supports "UDF" reading/writing. Once installed you need to put the cd-rw in and use the program to FORMAT the cd-rw. Formating the drive takes a long time (as much as writing to it full I think) and reduces its size for 650MB to 500-something. Once formated you can put the disk in the CD-RW drive and can copy stuff to it by using drag and drop in windows explorer and so. You can also use the disk for reading or writing on any drive on any computer as long as they have a "UDF" program installed (of course the drive has to be a CD-RW if you want to write )

Also keep in mind that there is a new standart coming out called "MOUNT RAINEER" or something like that. It is supposed to be better than the method described above - no need for formating, increased data security - the drive is able to detect bad sectors and mark them as such - which is not possible on the UDF, and other improvments.

Anyway, this gives you some info but does not answer your question. But I hope it helps you in the future.

lite-on drives utilize MOUNT RAINEER by default. cdrw burns never have to be closed. (thank god)

but i can swap out 100meg files with my lite-on in less than a minute. no problems whatsoever. It cuts the max size of a disk though. i think its because of the formatting. you lose about 100 meg.

-peace