Ok, the dilema is this: do I temporarily move up to a 512 USB flash drive or should I spring for a rewritable CD/DVD drive? The flash drive will be about $45-$55 and I will get double storage which will hold me for a while but I'll fill it up again, easily.

I currently have a CD writer but it has always given me problems and it needs to be replaced if I go with the rewritable CD/DVD drive. One of those will be around $100 on sale. However, each disk holds about 4 GBs of information so that's 8 times more storage on one disk than on that flash drive. In the long run, this is could easily be the most economical option.

It would seem an easy choice - get the CD/DVD drive - but, I could never figure out how to store data with the one I have. Is it that hard to do or am I just using the wrong software with it? The people who fixed my computer recently told me that the one I have is worthless so that could easily explain my problems with using it, maybe. From what I've heard, you have to save things on your hard drive and then, you can transfer them to save them to the CD disk. However, that sounds like a lot of work just to save each item.

Let me know if anyone has any good ideas. I could upgrade to a 700mb zip drive but, again, I'd run into the same problem in a short time as well and just have to try to figure out how to replace it...

Thanks,

First about the data,
It is always best to work with your data on your hard drive and at the end of the session or at least once a day copy it to the removable media (zip, flash, cd, dvd) because:
1) The computer hard drive is faster.
2) Less risk of data loss while you work with it.
3) You have more than one copy of your data.
4) Allows for using PKZip or 7-Zip type software to compress your data before copying to CD backup disk. Most data compresses to 1/5 to 1/2 its original size.

Flash drives are good for moving files from one machine to another but they are more expensive per megabyte. Also, it's dangerous to rely on a single flash drive. The data can be lost by getting near a magnet, the wheel on your desk chair, or a dog that likes to chew.

CDs are good for backups. They are very cheap (10 cents / 700 mb can be found). The CD recorders are cheap (as low as $30 including software) and the software they come with is easy to use. Easy CD Creator and Nero Express are two standard ones. If you can drag and drop files, you can use this software.

DVD recorders are still pretty new so are the most costly. The blank disks also cost a lot more than CDs.

If it was my system, I would:
1) Keep the working files on my hard drive.
2) Buy a new CD burner with new software to use for backups.

If you don't want to spend money yet, download the free compression software from http://www.7-zip.org/ and you can immediately double the capacity of what you can fit on your current zip drives.

Whatever you do, keep multiple copies of your data. It's only a matter of time before the master copy doesn't work because of damage, accident or virus.

Hope this has been helpful.

I purchased an external CD-RW drive and I hope it will do the trick. Zip drives are nice but the disks are very expensive and they are so limiting. I can't take them to another computer unless I take everything. So, if I can get down how to store things on the CDs that will be nice and a lot cheaper.

One of the reasons I have hesitated to use the CD-RW was due to the fact that things had to be saved on the hard drive first. It concerns me since so many viruses slip through. I didn't want to risk infecting my material anymore than necessary. Of course, I guess my zip disks weren't any safer than the hard drive once there is a virus on board.

One question I have, I know that with CD-RW disks I can write multiple time to the disk as well as rewrite. However, with CD-R disks, can I only write one time? Right? So, if I want to add additinal information to the disk but not write over some of the original information, can that be done? Just curious, I'm trying to figure this thing out.

Thanks for all your help,

Angie

Your new drive can use two different types of media, CD-RW and CD-R.

The CD-RW is more expensive but can be erased and rewritten to as many times as you want. However, sometimes there can be a problem having a CD-RW work on a different computer.

The CD-R is cheaper and compatable with all computers. You can only write to each part of the disk once but you can keep adding to the disk many times until the disk has no more free space. The software will allow you to "Keep the session open"

If you make changes to a file and save it, the old space will be lost but the new copy can be written to the disk.

Hope this answers your questions.

Thanks for the help as well as explaining the way the CD disks can be used. I really needed that explanation. That will help me if I can ever get this thing going properly because, unfortunately, I have a problem.

When I try to transfer the data over to the CD-RW disk it looks like the information has been transfered, the folders are all there but the information inside the folders is not. Also, I had a message telling me there was a failure.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It seems so simple, I follow the directions but...I just can't get it to flow to the other disk properly.

Oh, and on top of that, when I go to explorer to see how much of the disk was used, it's full. I don't understand. If only the names of the folders transferred and not all the information, then the disk should not be full. Additionally, I only transferred some of the folders off of the 250mb zip disk to the 700mb cd-rw disk. There should still be a great deal of room on the CD. I'm so confused.

I think I am just CD Writer Retarded.

CD writers can be confusing because they do work differently than hard drives.

There are two ways to write to a CD. You can set up software to allow direct drag and drop to the CD. This is the easiest if it works but can be a little tricky if it doesn't work. The other way is to write your files to the CD in one batch. This is more fool proof.

What is the name of the software that came with your drive? Are you getting any specific error messages when you try to write to the drive?

The software that came with it should provide a method to do a test to see if it works. You may need to go to the website of the drive manufacturer for specific troubleshooting help.

Good luck with your project.

Thanks for the advice. I may use that down the line because it sounds handy. However, I am determined to figure out how to also have a hard copy of my information on hand. I also like the idea of being able to hand off the information to friends if necessary. Sooo, it's back to chatting with DadOf2 to try to figure this one out.

DadOf2,

I'm lost on this one. I'm using Nero and it gave me a message that I could print out. It's about 4 pages. It's all very unfamiliar to me and I can't figure anything out here other than seeing a lot of "False" listings so I'm assuming that means failure. I'll break some of it down and see what you think.

Under Iso document burn settings
_________________________________

determine maximum speed : False
simulate : False
Write : True
Finalize CD : False
Multisession : True
Multisession type : Start multisession
Burning mode : TAO
Mode : 1
ISO Level : 1 (Max. of 11=8+3 char)
Character set : ISO 9660
Joliet : True
Allow pathdepth more than 8 directories : True
Allow more than 255 characters in path : True
Write ISO9660 ;1 file extensions : True

Does that help any? Probably not but worth trying.

Thanks,

Angie

Don't worry about the "false" items. They don't mean failure. They are like a yes/no answer to a setting question. For example, "Finalize CD: False" means do not finalize or close out this cd. By keeping it open, you are allowing the cd to be written to again at a future date.

I can't tell you much else without seeing specific error messages. If you want, you can e-mail me the entire burning report. I may be able to figure it out from that.

Also, you should have a program called Nero Info Tool in the Nero Toolkit directory. When you run this program, there is an option to save all info to a file. (click on the floppy disk icon) Then you can e-mail me this file.

When you put a CD in the drive, do you hear it spin? Can your computer read files from a disk you didn't burn such as a program installation disk?

DadOf2