Last-modified: 2000/09/21
Version: 2.22
DOS, Win31, Win95, and WinNT all work well, though some recorders are more difficult to configure for Win95 and WinNT than others. (Note: Win95 and Win98 are considered equivalent here.)
Mac System 7.x works well, as should 8.x. UNIX variants (notably FreeBSD and Linux) work, but there aren't as many people using them to create CD-Rs as there are on other platforms.
If you're interested in burning CDs with long Win95 filenames, be sure to get a software package that supports Joliet (see section (3-5-4)). Otherwise all filenames get mashed down to 8+3.
EMedia Professional has an index of CD-R hardware and software versions, with a different category featured each month. Take a look at http://www.emediapro.net/AprEM/news4.html#index for an example.
Generally speaking, you get what you pay for; the more expensive software has more features. However, this isn't always the case, and the software with more features isn't necessarily more reliable.
There's little standardization among CD-R drive manufacturers, so not all devices are supported by all programs.
If you're new to CD-R, on the PC start with Easy CD Creator 3 Deluxe. If you just want to "back up" discs, or you want a lot of flexbility when creating audio CDs, go with CDRWIN. On the Mac, go with Toast or Discribe. If you want to write to a disc like a floppy, try DirectCD (listed with the packet writing software in section (6-3)).
Amiga users should check out MasterISO (6-1-11), and UNIX users probably ought to start with cdrecord (6-1-20) or GEAR (6-1-3).
Most of the software listed below is for PC running Windows. Use the search feature of your newsreader or web browser to look for "Mac" or "UNIX" if that's what you're interested in.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT)
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/
The software was developed by a company called Incat, which was purchased by Adaptec in 1995.
Easy-CD Pro has been superseded by Adaptec's Easy CD Creator.
Easy-CD Pro 95 v1.2 seems to have trouble writing umlauts and other non-ASCII characters in Joliet mode. Romeo format will work, but the files will only be accessible from Win95 and WinNT.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT3.x)
See http://www.corel.com/
See http://www.corel.com/support/web/pages/downfile.htm [upgrades]
See http://www.adaptec.com/support/overview/cdc1n2.html
The software was developed by Corel, and published by them until it was purchased by Adaptec in mid-1996.
CD Creator has been superseded by Adaptec's Easy CD Creator.
The package includes drivers that allow several popular CD-R drives to be used as general-purpose CD readers under Win95. It can also create VideoCD and PhotoCD discs.
Version 2.x is a considerable improvement over version 1.x. Versions older than 2.01.079 had some problems inserting "knacks" into audio CDs.
Platforms supported: DOS, Windows (3.1, 95, NT), OS/2, UNIX, Mac
See http://www.gearcdr.com/
This was sold by Elektroson until early 1999.
This is bundled with some drives. Does not support Joliet (important for long Win95 filenames).
Versions older than 4.0 should be upgraded. A number of bugs have been fixed (e.g. one user found that v3.3 left clicks on audio CDs, another was unable to use it with Adaptec EZ-SCSI v4.0d or later).
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/
The software was developed by Miles GmbH and published by Astarte until Miles was purchased by Adaptec in early 1997.
This program is recommended for making Mac/PC hybrids, and is the most popular package for the Mac. It supports HFS, ISO-9660, and Joliet. At one time it was sold by an OEM as "CD-It All".
The "Toast DVD" upgrade enables creation of DVD-Video and DVD-ROM.
Software updates are available on the web site.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cequadrat.com/
(CeQuadrat was purchased by Adaptec in July 1999.)
WinOnCD is the full version. WinOnCD ToGo is a "lite" version that comes bundled with some drives.
Can create VideoCD discs and bootable CD-ROMs.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.ymi.com/
See also "CD Studio" for UNIX and WinNT on the web site, and some specialized solutions for things like recording over Novell networks and working with CD-R jukeboxes.
Platforms supported: DOS, Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.goldenhawk.com/
See http://www.cd-brennen.de/ (german distributor)
(CDRWIN is the name of the Win95 version. I don't believe the DOS versions have an official name.)
Contains sophisticated CD-ROM duplication programs, track-at-once and disc-at-once utilities for sound and data, and other goodies. Some of the DOS-based software is free, the rest is relatively inexpensive.
This comes highly recommended for creating audio CDs, because it gives you a great deal of control over the creation process. Updates for the software are available on the net.
The "vcache" tweak from section (4-1-2) is strongly recommended for users of CDRWIN to avoid buffer underruns.
If you use a Yamaha 200/400 and get "Logical Unit Not Ready" errors, try disabling the data caching.
Independent cue sheet editors are available from http://www.dcsoft.com/ and http://www.crosswinds.net/~cueed2000/.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.microtest.com/html/optical_media.html
[ product has been discontinued ]
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), UNIX
See http://www.cdr1.com/ (a/k/a http://www.hycd.com/)
Can create Mac/PC/UNIX hybrid CDs (i.e. CDs that work on all three platforms), as well as bootable CDs for PCs and UNIX. If you need a CD that works (and looks good) on Win95, MacOS, and UNIX, this is the program for you.
The Solaris version should be available through Sun's Catalyst program; see http://www.sun.com/sunsoft/catlink/cdr/cdrpub.htm.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT), UNIX (many)
Sources at ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord
This allows creation of an ISO-9660 filesystem on disk or tape, which can then be copied to a CD-R. It supports the Joliet and Rock Ridge extensions, and can be configured to ignore certain facets of the ISO standard (like maximum directory depth). Recent versions support multisession and several kinds of bootable discs.
This can be used in conjunction with "cdrecord" (6-1-20) to write discs under UNIX. For other platforms, chances are good that your favorite CD recording application is able to write ISO-9660 images.
See http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO for a "HOWTO" guide on writing CDs under Linux.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.asimware.com/ (demo available)
Full-featured CD-R mastering package for the Amiga.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.ntius.com/ (demo available)
CD creation and duplication software. Reportedly works very well on otherwise difficult discs.
They also make "CDR Explorer", free CD-R creation software that works like Win95 Explorer. It's available at their web site.
If you get "illegal request, invalid block address" complaints reading from an ATAPI CD-ROM drive, your ASPI layer may be corrupted. See the instructions in http://www.fadden.com/doc/ntius-aspi.txt.
Platforms supported: OS/2
See http://www.cirunite.com/ (demo available)
Drag-and-drop CD creation, written specifically for OS/2. Allows creation of CDs with an HPFS (OS/2) filesystem.
[ product has been discontinued? ]
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://hohnermidia.com/proaudio.html
Windows-based CD-R software that has some nice features for creating audio discs, including the ability to edit the P-Q subcode data.
The "rrdemo.zip" on the web site is actually a demo of Samplitude Master from SEK´D Software. Samplitude Master is a fancy audio editing program that - among other things - allows you to create ISO-9660 images suitable for writing to a CD-R, but the demo package doesn't include software to do the actual writing (the full package includes PoINT CDaudio).
Platforms supported: DOS
See http://www.dataware.com/site/prodserv/cd_rom.htm
See http://www.dataware.de/untern/index.html
CD creation software aimed at the corporate user. Comes with libraries for creating custom applications.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.creamware.com/
A hardware and software combo for professional-quality sound editing, this now includes an audio CD creation tool.
Platforms supported: DOS
See http://www.microtech.com/product/mmaker/
Pre-mastering software that supports the Rock Ridge extensions. The free demo creates ISO-9660 disc images.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://makecd.core.de/
CD-R creation software that supports the "AS" extensions (which preserve the Amiga protection bits and file comments).
You need AmiCDFS, CacheCDFS, AsimCDFS, or something similar to make use of the "AS" extensions. AmiCDFS is available from http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/disk_cdrom.html. Look for amicdfs*.lha, where '*' is a version number.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K), Mac
See http://www.liquidaudio.com/
A music player that includes the ability to record CDs. You can preview music and purchase it over the Internet.
Platforms supported: UNIX (several), Windows (95, NT), Mac, OS/2, BeOS, VMS, ...
See ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord
A collection of freeware software and drivers for burning CDs under an impressive variety of operating systems. Source code is available. See the web site for an up-to-date list of features and supported systems.
Works best in conjunction with mkisofs (which is now integrated into cdrecord). X-CD-Roast may also come in handy; see section (6-1-40).
Supports DVD-R as well.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.prassi.com/
CD mastering bundled with SCSI Rep, which allows you to write to more than one SCSI CD-R at once. See also section (3-17).
A review can be found at http://www.emediapro.net/awards/award8.html.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.zittware.com/Products/CDMaster32/cdmaster32.html (shareware)
Specializes in recording audio CDs from MP3s.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.giga.or.at/nih/cdtools.html
Free CD writing tools, with source code.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.pointsoft.de/
Full-featured CD recording.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.pointsoft.de/
Creates audio CDs, with full control over P/Q subcodes.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT4, 2K)
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/
Adaptec's all-singing, all-dancing combination of Easy CD Pro and CD Creator. Combines the best features of both and costs less, including the ability to create PhotoCDs, VideoCDs, and jewel case inserts. Also includes some new features, including an application called "Spin Doctor" that helps convert from old LPs to CD.
The write buffer management is reported to be so robust that some testers were able to defragment their hard drive while writing a CD.
ECDC up to v3.5a has a "two-second truncation" problem, where extracted audio tracks end up missing two seconds. This doesn't happen for every system or every disc, but is 100% reproducible in situations where it arises. Version 3.01d fixed the problem for some users but not others. See also http://www.adaptec.com/support/faqs/ecdc35adae.html.
One other note: CD Copier Deluxe in ECDC v3.x does *not* do disc-at-once recording when copying from disc-to-disc (the web site is right, the manual is wrong), but ECDC itself does. If you want to make a disc-to-disc copy with disc-at-once recording, you should set up ECDC to copy the disc without buffering to the hard drive. ECDC will refuse to use DAO if your writer doesn't support it reliably or the source drive is too slow.
Recent versions of ECDC can be used to write to 80-minute discs. Don't use the wizard, and ignore the complaints about being six minutes over the maximum.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.padus.com/ (demo available)
Allows you to write to more than one SCSI CD-R at a time. See also section (3-17).
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.ahead.de/ (demo available)
Full-featured CD creation and duplication. Fairly popular among the Internet community.
Supports the "variable-gap track-at-once" feature of drives like the Sony 926S and Mitsumi CR-2801TE when creating CDs (but not when copying them?). Comes with "MultiMounter", which appears to be similar to Adaptec's "Session Selector".
NOTE: Nero may not work correctly if DirectCD is installed. You may need to uninstall DirectCD to get Nero to work.
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.charismac.com/Products/Discribe/index.html
CD creation for the Mac. Supports creation of hybrid CDs and disc-at-once recording. This is a popular alternative to Toast for the Mac.
Platform supported: VMS (VAX, Alpha) See http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/vms.html
Construct CD-ROMs under VMS.
Platforms supported: Windows (NT, OS/2)
See http://www.rsj.de/
CD writing with support for ISO-9660, Joliet, and Rock Ridge extensions. Uses a buffering scheme to allow drive-letter access without packet writing.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT), UNIX
See http://www.ge.ucl.ac.uk/~jcpearso/mkhybrid.html
This is a mkisofs variant that creates discs in ISO-9660 format with Joliet, Rock Ridge, and HFS extensions. HFS files can be encoded as an HFS "hybrid" or using Apple's ISO-9660 extensions.
This has been merged with "mkisofs" and "cdrecord", section (6-1-20).
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.jvcinfo.com/archiver.html
See http://www.jvc-victor.co.jp/english/cdr/cdrext-e.html
JVC's CD-R software, frequently bundled with JVC recorders.
Includes "CD-R Extensions" packet-writing software for Win31/Win95 (also known as "FloppyCD"?).
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/
An updated version of Astarte's "CD-DA" package, intended for creating professional audio CDs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.vob.de/
Standard recording software plus a fancy disc copier and some other goodies. Claims to be able to copy a variety of discs, including some copy-protected CD-ROMs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.sonicfoundry.com/
Fancy audio CD creation, including PQ editing and cross-fades. Can be used as a SoundForge plug-in.
Platforms supported: VMS (VAX, Alpha)
See http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/9999/vmscdwri.html
Get ftp://v36.chemie.uni-konstanz.de/cdwrite/
Construct and write CD-ROMs from VMS.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.cequadrat.com/
Audio CD creation. Includes de-noise program for data digitized from tapes or records, and a layout tool for creating booklets, inlay cards, or labels.
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.digidesign.com/prod/mlcd/
Full-featured audio CD creation.
Platforms supported: UNIX (Linux)
See http://www.fh-muenchen.de/home/ze/rz/services/projects/xcdroast/e_overview.html
This is a Tcl/Tk/Tix front-end for mkisofs and cdrecord.
Platforms supported: UNIX
See http://sunsite.auc.dk/BurnIT/
This is a Java front-end for cdrecord, mkisofs and cdda2wav.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.feurio.de/
Audio CD creation.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.asimware.com/ (demo available)
Looks to be a solid data and audio recording program.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.dartpro.com/ (demo available)
Audio CD creation with wide support for both analog and digital sources.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT), Mac, UNIX (Linux, Solaris)
See http://www.cdeverywhere.com/
This is a Java application that creates hybrid disc images with Rock Ridge, Joliet, and HFS support. The image can be written with any application that can handle ISO-9660 disc images.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.titancomputer.de/burnit/
Simple but powerful recording for the Amiga.
Platforms supported: Linux
See http://www.ping.de/sites/daneb/cdrdao.html
Linux application that does disc-at-once audio recording. Source code is available.
Platforms supported: UNIX (several)
See http://www.tracertech.com/
Business-oriented CD-recordable applications, ranging from single user CD recording to data migration and archiving with CD and DVD jukeboxes.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT4, 2K)
See http://www.elby.de/ (demo available)
See http://www.elaborate-bytes.com/
CD copier that claims to be able to copy just about anything. Only works with certain readers and writers; check the web site for details.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.fireburner.com/ (shareware)
Simple disc recording software that takes image files (BIN/CUE, ISO, WAV) as input and writes a disc. The "binchunker" program, which converts to and from BIN/CUE files, is incorporated.
Platforms supported: Windows (NT, NT-Alpha), UNIX (several)
See http://www.jodian.com/
Somewhat limited recording software available for a broad range of platforms.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://users.pandora.be/erik.deppe/cdgcreator.htm
Create your own CD+G discs.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cdcomposer.com/
Audio CD creation. Extracts audio from CDs, MP3s, LPs (via a sound card), and allows you to construct custom CDs. Also copies CD-ROMs and writes ISO images.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.earjam.com/
An "Internet Music Player" that can record to CD-R.
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.emagic.de/
Full-featured audio CD creation for the Mac. Can do crossfades and other fancy tricks.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.zy2000.com/ (shareware)
Recording application dedicated to writing MP3 songs onto CD-R.
Platforms supported: PC
See http://www.speedy-cd.com/
Fast CD-R duplication, with support for up to 6 CD recorders running simultaneously.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.net-burner.com/ (demo available)
Net-Burner lets you wrap up data into a self-extracting -- and self-recording -- downloadable file. For example, Music Net-Burner lets you wrap up MP3s, jewel case art, and a track listing into a single executable file. When run, the program unpacks itself and writes to a CD recorder. It does on-the-fly MP3 decoding, supports overburning, and can do disc-at-once recording. Data Net-Burner does the same sort of thing for CD-ROMs.
MP3-Burner creates audio CDs from MP3 files.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.clicknburn.com/
Full-featured CD recording. Creates CDs and CD-ROMs, with all the trimmings.
Software related to CD-Rs that isn't a direct part of the premastering process.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.microtest.com/html/optical_media.html
[ product has been discontinued ]
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.winimage.com/
Among other things, this lets you list and extract the contents of an ISO-9660 image.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.asimware.com/
Allows the Amiga to read High Sierra, Mac HFS, and ISO-9660 (including Rock Ridge extensions).
Platforms supported: UNIX
See http://www.midwinter.com/ftp/WorkMan/
In addition to its primary role as an audio CD player for UNIX workstations, version 1.4 (still in beta) allows SPARC/Solaris2.4+ workstations to extract digital audio into ".au" files.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.b.shuttle.de/cyberdyne/cdworx.html
Full-featured extraction and manipulation of audio data from CDs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.cdrom-prod.com/software.html
Claims to do a number of useful things, such as displaying the contents of the TOC, listing the full volume label, analyzing the media, and recovering data from "lost" sessions and hosed UDF discs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.dcsoft.com/
Cue sheet editor for CDRWIN.
Platforms supported: Mac
See ?
Half of a CD copier. CD-Copy has a lot of features for reading CDs as images, but is unable to write them (presumably you're supposed to use Toast for that).
[ Doesn't appear to be published by www.astarte.de anymore. Doesn't
seem to be part of the Adaptec lineup, either. ]
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.gum.de/it/download/
Attempts to identify the manufacturer of a CD-R disc. Reports the code from the ATIP region, which tells you who made the stamper used to create the blanks, and what kind of dye is in use. Shows the exact length of a disc.
This information may or may not be accurate; see section (2-33) for an explanation.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.macdisk.com/macimgen.php3
Allows you to create a virtual Mac HFS partition, manipulate files there, and create a hybrid CD-ROM image.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://come.to/cdspeed
Tests various facets of CD-ROM drive performance, including DAE ability. Tables of results are available on the web site. (Some users may know the site better as http://user.glo.be/~erikd/cdspeed.htm.)
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
There are many programs for extracting digital audio, but EAC has become the de facto standard application for doing so. On some CD-ROM drives it can guarantee extraction of 100% perfect audio, and on most others it does better than most anything else available.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.ziplabel.com/cdrlabel/
Generates and maintains catalogs of CD and CD-ROM data, including song lists and file directories. Makes it easy to print label cards.
Packet writing is an alternative to writing entire tracks or discs. With track-at-once recording there's a maximum of 99 tracks per disc, a minimum track length of 300 blocks, and an additional 150 blocks of overhead for run-in, run-out, pregap, and linking. Packet writing allows several writes per track, with only 7 blocks of overhead per write (4 for run-in, 2 for run-out, and 1 for link). Since it's possible to write packets that are small enough to fit entirely in the CD recorder's buffer, the risk of buffer underruns can be eliminated.
There are some problems with packet writing, mostly due to the inability of older CD-ROM drives to deal with the gaps between packets. CD-ROM drives can become confused if they read into the gap, a problem complicated by read-ahead optimizations on some models.
There are two basic "philosophies" behind packet writing, fixed-size and variable-size. With fixed-size packets, the CD recorder writes data whenever it has a full packet. All packets in the same track must have the same size. It's relatively easy for a CD-ROM drive to skip over the inter-packet gaps if it knows where the gaps are ahead of time, but there's a large installed base of CD-ROM drives that aren't that smart.
With variable-sized packets, the CD-ROM drive can't tell ahead of time where the gaps are. The problem can be avoided by laying out the filesystem in such a way that the drive never tries to read from the gaps. One approach is to put the entire file into a single packet, but if the size of a file exceeds the size of the CD recorder write buffer, the risk of buffer underruns returns. An alternative is to write the file in several pieces, but the Level 1 ISO-9660 filesystem supported by most operating systems doesn't support this. Replacing the "redirector" (e.g. MSCDEX) with one that supports Level 3 ISO-9660 solves the problem.
Files on packet-written discs are typically stored in a UDF filesystem. When the session is closed -- necessary for the disc to be readable on anything but a CD recorder -- some implementations will wrap an ISO-9660 filesystem around the disc to make the files accessible on systems without a UDF reader. When DirectCD for Windows closes a disc in ISO-9660 format, it uses Level 3 multi-extent files. Support for Level 3 ISO-9660 will likely be added to future OSs, but for the time being it can be difficult to share such discs between machines that aren't running Win95/NT.
DirectCD for Mac OS leaves the disc in UDF format, so reading the discs requires a UDF driver. See section (6-4) for more information on UDF, including a web site where free UDF drivers can be downloaded. (If you have DirectCD, you don't need to download the drivers separately; you would only need them if you didn't own packet-writing software and wanted to read discs created by somebody who did.)
Writing to a CD-R with packets will be slower than writing with standard
premastering software. Since the expected application for packet writing
is "drive letter access" rather than creating an entire CD, this should not
be an issue for most people.
Audio CDs can't be written with packets.
Some CD recorders may only be able to write to a disc the first 99 times it is placed in the drive, because the recorder has to calibrate the laser power before writing, and there are only 99 spaces for doing the test writes. Sony and Philips have recently developed ways to work around the problem however, and will presumably make them available to other manufacturers. For details about the problem, see http://www.emediapro.net/JanEM/standard1.html.
Drives based on the Sony 920S/940S/960S, Philips CDD2000/CDD2600, JVC XR-W2010, Ricoh MP-6200, and Yamaha CDR-400 mechanisms are capable of packet recording. (This list is not comprehensive; there are others.)
A glossy overview of packet writing software can be found here:
http://www.emediapro.net/MayEM/starrett5.html
Details on Adaptec's software, as well as a good overview of the benefits and limitations of packet writing and UDF, can be found at: http://www.adaptec.com/products/faqs/directcd.html
For a highly technical - if somewhat dated - reference, see: http://www.emediapro.net/cdrompro/0296CP/02osborn.html
Information on packet-writing software follows. It is in general a bad
idea to have more than one installed at the same time.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K), Mac
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/
UDF-based packet writing software. Check the compatibility list on the web site to see if it works with your CD recorder and your firmware revision level.
DirectCD for Windows versions older than 1.01 conflicted with some scanners. Be sure to check the Adaptec web site for the latest version. Note that DirectCD for Windows 1.x and 2.x may not support the same set of drives on all operating systems; for example, 2.0 only worked with drives capable of using CD-RW media. If you're running WinNT, you need 2.x.
NOTE: There seems to be a great deal of misinformation about how to disable DirectCD for Windows. See section (3-45) for more information.
One other note about DirectCD for Windows: in some situations you may have trouble reinstalling it. If so, try removing (or renaming) scsi1hlp.vxd, usually found in c:\windows\system\iosubsys\.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cequadrat.com/
UDF-based packet writing software. Recent versions offer transparent data compression, potentially increasing the disc capacity.
Platforms supported: Windows (NT)
See http://www.smartstorage.com/page5.htm
Packet writing software intended for shared environments.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.floppycd.com/
Originally released by JVC as "CD-R Extensions".
Does variable-sized packet writing that leaves you with an ISO-9660 Level 1 CD-ROM (constrast to the ISO-9660 Level 3 disc produced by some other packet writing solutions). This should make it possible to read the finalized CDs on operating systems other than Win95/NT.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.vob.de/
Does UDF. Don't know what else. [15 months later, and I'm *still* having trouble finding information on their web site. Today all I get is blank pages -- when it responds at all. ++ATM 19991218]
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.prassi.com/
Packet writing for CD-RW. Appears to be less ambitious but far simpler than its competitors.
Read-compatible with Adaptec DirectCD (i.e. you can read DirectCD discs if you have this installed).
Also sold under the Sony label.
UDF is an acronym for the humbly-named "Universal Disk Format". It's a specification for a filesystem intended for use on write-once and rewritable media. It's currently being used for DVD and some of the CD-R/CD-RW packet writing software (e.g. Adaptec DirectCD).
There have been three important releases of the specification:
Download free UDF 1.5 drivers for MacOS and Win95/Win98/WinNT4 from http://www.adaptec.com/products/overview/udfreaders.html.
The technical specification for the UDF filesystem can be found at http://www2.osta.org/osta/html/ostatech.html#udf.
UDF is based on the ISO/IEC 13346 standard, now ECMA-167, which is available from http://www.ecma.ch/stand/ecma-167.HTM.
Some information about ISO/IEC 13346 and ISO/IEC 13490 is at http://www.mv.com/users/kaikow/.
For a technical discussion of packet writing with UDF, check out http://www.emediapro.net/MayEM/mcmurdie5.html.
You can find Linux source code under development at http://trylinux.com/projects/udf/.
It depends. If your primary interests are writing audio CDs, duplicating CD-ROMs (for backups, right?), or creating CD-ROMs full of files that you can give to others, packet writing won't help you much.
Discs written by programs like Adaptec DirectCD aren't usable in a CD-ROM reader until they're finalized. Finalized discs are in ISO-9660 format, but it's ISO-9660 Level 3, which not all operating systems can interpret (Win95 and WinNT can, with appropriate "redirectors" installed).
On the other hand, if you want to be able to add small amounts of data over time, it may be extremely useful. You can read the unfinalized discs on your system, so the data isn't inaccessible; it just can't be accessed on other systems that aren't also set up to do packet writing. You can overwrite files on CD-R media (the old data is still there, but the newer directory entry points to the new file), something that was very costly with multisession writes. And, of course, the risk of a buffer underrun is almost nonexistent.
As with CD-RW, it doesn't hurt to buy a recorder that supports it, but you're probably not missing much if you have one without it.
Source code and ready-to-link libraries are available, but the more useful products tend to be more expensive. The library authors are usually CD-R software publishers themselves, and aren't about to put themselves out of business. Expect to sign a strict licensing agreement, if they agree to do business at all.
Source code for some of the packages (notably Joerg Schilling's "CD Record" and "CD Tools" by Dieter Baron and Armin Obersteiner) is available. See sections (6-1-20) and (6-1-23). You can get ASPI developer documentation and SDKs from http://www.adaptec.com/adaptec/developers/.
Platforms supported: Windows, OS/2
See http://www.pointsoft.de/earchiv.html
API and SCSI device drivers.
Platforms supported: PC
See http://www.goldenhawk.com/
C++ class libraries. See the web site for licensing information.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT)
See http://www.gearcdr.com/
16-bit and 32-bit APIs for CD-R/CD-RW, tape drives, and SCSI hard disks. DVD support is planned.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.vob.de/us/Products/WizardSDK.htm
ActiveX interface to CD writing functions. [ Not yet available? ]
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.dialog-medien.de/html/acdwrite.ocx.html (demo available)
ActiveX/OCX interface for writing audio CDs. Develop audio CD recording applications with Visual Basic or other ActiveX environments.
See section (3-20) for commentary. Remember, if you're backing up less than 650MB of data and don't need fancy features like incremental backups, you don't *need* special backup software. Just write the files to a CD-R and put it in a safe place.
Veritas Backup Exec is probably a good place to start looking.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/
Backup software designed to store data on CD-Rs. Allows incremental backups via multi-session writes, but backups aren't allowed to span multiple volumes. Doesn't support long filenames.
[ no longer available ]
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www8.pair.com/dmurdoch/programs/doslfnbk.htm
Saves the long filenames, so that you can use backup software that only knows about short "8.3" filenames. This is an alternative to the LFNBK program that comes with Win95.
Old versions are free, new versions are inexpensive.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT), Mac
See http://www.dantz.com/
Dantz's Retrospect 4.0 can make use of CD-R and CD-RW by using packet writing. Useful for backing up multiple machines on a network.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.veritas.com/products/
This was originally adapted for use with CD-R by Seagate Software, who appeared to have developed it out of Arcada Backup Exec. The Seagate Network and Storage Management Group was sold to Veritas in June 1999.
The consumer "Backup Exec Desktop 98" version works with Win95 and Win98. Separate versions are available for WinNT Workstation and WinNT Server.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT), OS/2
See http://www.ghostsoft.com/
(Looks like Ghost Software got purchased by Symantec.)
Ghost is intended as a way to create boilerplate software installations and distribute them. It also works rather well as a way of backing up an entire disk partition. A "ghosted" image file can be written to a CD-R.
Platforms supported: Windows (via DOS)
See http://www.powerquest.com/ [ no CD-R product info available yet? ]
See http://www.eciusa.com/ps/index.htm (click on "Drive Image")
Drive Image 2.0 creates a compressed hard drive image file that allows you to backup and recover your hard drive. It runs as a DOS application to prevent Windows from messing with the disk while you're copying it.
The Special Edition for CD-R allows the disk image to span multiple CD-R discs, providing an effective way to back up or archive an entire hard drive onto CD-R. The CD-Rs created are bootable, and (if your PC supports it) you can restore your system by booting the disc.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT)
See http://www.centered.com/ (shareware)
Second Copy maintains a duplicate of your files on a different system or removable media. It runs in the background and constantly updates the backup. Useful for maintaining an archive of a few files; not meant for full-system backups.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.fileware.co.uk/products.htm (shareware)
Similar to Second Copy, but with a different feature set.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.novastor.com/backup/datasheets/cdrw.html
Backup software that is "CD-R aware". Requires drive-letter access to the drive, which has to be provided by another program (e.g. DirectCD).
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.adaptec.com/cdrec/
Image-based backup software. Included with Easy CD Creator 4.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.ntius.com/products.htm
Full backup software for CD-R/CD-RW. Includes data compression and automatically spans multiple discs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.cequadrat.com/
Backup software, included as part of WinOnCD v3.7.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.duncanamps.com/disk2disk/ (demo available)
Inexpensive backup software for Windows. Requires drive-letter access to backup media, i.e. you need to have DirectCD or PacketCD installed. Does incremental and differential backups, and handles disc spanning.
When you buy retail software, you are paying for a license to use the program. Generally you are also paying for customer support that is provided at little or no additional charge.
When you buy a drive with bundled software, you are buying a version of the program for which customer support fees have not been paid. The software was provided to the hardware vendor at a reduced cost, so that the price of the package you buy is lower than the price of the drive plus the price of the software.
If you go to the store and buy the latest version of Fubar Software's Disc Writing Thing, you should contact Fubar Software for customer support. If you buy a new Frobozzco 12X SkyWriter that comes bundled with Disc Writing Thing, you will most likely be expected to contact Frobozzco with any problems you may have, because Fubar Software isn't being compensated for support costs.
FAQ Copyright © 2000 by Andy McFadden. All Rights Reserved.