by cfitz on Fri Apr 04, 2003 2:52 am
Can you give more details as to what you are trying to do? It isn't clear from your post.
If you are trying to write to a single disc multiple times at different times, then you have only two choices: multi-session or packet writing. Multi-session writing allows you to write more than one session to an ISO 9660 data disc. It is generally more reliable than packet writing, and it creates discs that are readable in most all modern drives and operating systems. However, it might not be suitable for your application if you are writing only one file at a time and those files are small. Why? Because every session you write uses up about 15 MiBytes of the CD for session overhead.
Packet writing uses a special format that allows small files to be written efficiently, and makes the CD behave much like a large floppy disc. Unfortunately, packet writing tends to be less reliable, and data loss is a possibility. Also, packet written discs are not readable in some OS's without installing special reading software. In addition, the formatting required to support packet writing eats up a fair amount of the capacity of the CD. For example, a 74-minute disc's data capacity is reduced to from 650 to 550 MiBytes. Finally, Ahead's packet writing software only works with CD-RW discs (although Roxio's Direct CD works with CD-R as well as CD-RW).
cfitz
