CDRLabs.com

Ok, this is a newbie question, so bear with me:

Is it possible to selectively erase certain files on a CD-RW without erasing the whole cd, or is there no other way but the latter?

If the disc was written with packet-writing software such as InCD or Direct CD, then yes you can. If the disc is a standard ISO 9660 data disc, then no you can not, at least not in general. If you burned a multi-session disc, you can simulate erasing a file by writing a new session and not including the file you want to delete when you import the previous session. This actually works for both CD-RW and CD-R, but doesn't actually free up space on the disc. The file remains there, but becomes inaccessible.

Of course, as you suggest you can always copy the contents of your disc to hard drive, fully erase the CD-RW, then re-burn it without the file you want to delete.

cfitz

Hey thanks! I once used Incd, and burned a cd-rw using just the windows explorer. After ejecting and reloading the disc, I can't add more files to it because it has 0 bytes of free space, but I knew I left some before ejecting the disc. Is this normal, or am I missing something?

And by the way, I seem to have problems posting messages here because everytime I do (even when previewing) I'm always dumped back to a login page. Anyone experiencing the same problems? If this message gets posted, I was just lucky I guess...

As for your InCD problem, you should try better CD-RW media first. Otherwise, it could take a while to look for other culprits. If you are still interested, take a look at

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=9572 (XP)

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php ... adid=64787 (W2K)

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=9597 (98x)

and come back with more information.

Hey, very extensive work right there KCK... thanks, be checking those out later.