burning cd-rw's

[nature girl]

I have a PB G4 which i got a couple of weeks ago. I burned a couple of files on a cd-rw, but i can't seem to delete the files nor can i burn more files onto the cd! Can someone help me?

[jeremy.king]

Erase the disc with disk utility. Not sure you can erase just single files.
For multisession support (allows you to add files after first burn) see http://macs.about.com/cs/osxbasics/a/burn_sessions.htm

[munkle]

CD's don't work like floppies unfortunately. You can't delete files one by one, or add files after you've burnt the disk.

To burn more files you have to delete the entire disk and start again as it were. Think of CD's as more of an archiving tool. If you're going to be moving lots of info around I would strongly recommend investing in a USB thumb drive, they can be found pretty cheap. Or even an iPod if you have one, if not you've got another excuse! :D

[yellow]

CD's don't work like floppies unfortunately. You can't delete files one by one, or add files after you've burnt the disk.

Surprisingly, they do on PCs using Nero. I was shocked too. But, that is one area that Macs lag behind PCs IMO, multisessioning is really nice. You could also consider using CD Session Burner (http://www.sentman.com/burner/), which has a pretty nice interface and supports multisessioning without all the Disk Utility rigamarole.

[jeremy.king]

Sony has/had a similar app called abCD (for PC) which allowed drag/drop/delete of files to CD, just like a floppy.

[virividox]

well finder burning is a basic burning app

if you want to get full functionaily of burns, check out roxio toast and all its diff flavors, jam, titanium etc etc

think of it as macs equivalant of nero :P

[Norouzi]

I have seen thoes apps that let you use a CD like a floppy and I would just like to say that they cause me more problems at my job than anything else. This is because for it to act like a floppy you must have that app. I work for a printing company and I get at least one person a week that brings us a CD that they've "burrned" and when we put it in our machine it says it's a blank CD because we don't have whatever "use a CD like a floppy" program they used to make it. So bottom line, if you are only going to use the disk on your own computer or a computer with that same app thoes programs work fine. If however you need to burn the disk so that it can be used on a computer without the special software it will not work. My advice is to just format the CD-RW with the quick format option in Disk Utility and burn all files onto it again. In the end it will save you alot of hastle believe me.

[Mechcozmo]

I like to use Toast Titanium 5. All the functionality of 6, but cheaper now. ;) It works in Panther, but you need to get a software patch (free on their website). Otherwise, it runs fine in Jaguar. DVDs, CDs, and stuff that I have never heard of before.

Oh, BTW, the one that I use is 5.2.3 but I belive 5.2.1 works too...And if you run the earlier software, it just dosn't do anything so you would need to force-quit it. The later ones work the best in terms of bug fixes, but overall I have never had Toast make me a toasty CD, aka a coaster, aka, a dead CD.

[nature girl]

oh. thanks.

ya, i thought it was like a pc. i thought you could burn something new on a cd-rw that already has files on it... i guess not.

i have a usb key, so i guess i'll just use that.

[yellow]

oh. thanks.

ya, i thought it was like a pc. i thought you could burn something new on a cd-rw that already has files on it... i guess not.

i have a usb key, so i guess i'll just use that.

The key is faster, certainly, but you can always copy what's on the CD-RW off of it into a folder on your Desktop, erase the CD-RW with Disk Utility, then move everything that you want back onto the CD-RW addding the new stuff, and then burn it again.

It's not as quick and easy as the PC, but CD-RWs do work. :)