Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (
More info?)
On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:53:55 -0700, Ron Martell
>"sheva" <sheva@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>For example don't use usb drive if you have to travel by any vehicle that
>>use electric power. (because electro-magnetic field can cause problem) So You
>>should use CD in case of it.
>>CD can be safe, because it can damaged only phisically. Use CD-RW, because
>>You can use it next time too.
On CDRs, CDRWs, DVDRs etc.; all of these involve holding data in a
layer of paint on the top side of a transparent plastic disk, whereas
"real" CD-ROMs and DVDs use a sheet of pitted aluminium.
Paint's far thinner and more easily damaged than aluminium.
So whereas with "real" CDs and DVDs, you'd worry about the see-through
side of the disk getting damaged, with "paint" CDRs etc. you should
worry more about the top side of the disk. Scratch that paint - and
that is very easy to do, as it is to have a plastic sleeve stick to it
and peel it off - and you lose your data very permanently :-(
>CDRW disks can be problematic if the computer does not have the same
>packet-writing software as the machine that created the disk. CDRs
>are cheaper than dirt and I find that the compatibility hassles that
>can arise with CDRWs is far worse than any cost savings they might
>achieve.
I agree with you on packet writing, which shares the same risks from
delayed writes that USB sticks do. Both technologies can only be
written to a finite number of times, so the system tries to minimize
these writes until you have "finished". If you eject the disk or
device, or crash or reset, before the writes are actually written, you
lose data and may corrupt the storage of what was there already.
In the case of a botched CDRW, the typical result is: No files, and no
free space. Welcome to another minutes-long "formatting" grind.
There's also the issue of old CD-ROM drive laser capabilities, and the
slightly different requirements for CDRs, and especially CDRWs.
However, I've had surprisingly good results with using CDRWs as CDRs,
i.e. authoring them formally via Nero rather than using packet
writing. I did this after burning 12 successive Bart PE project betas
in around 6 hours, at which point the "high" cost of a single CDRW
disk started to look quite attractive.
I'm still using the same "regimental condom" 3 CDRWs for Bart 1 and
Bart 2 and system building, respectively, after several months. And
as long as I'm not faced with a stone-age 4-speed CD-ROM, I'm golden!
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better one at
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