New to burning (CD help)

[komal]

I just bought a DW-U10A, and I need to make sure it burns CDs and DVDs correctly. I've got a CD I'd like to fill up with games, I burned a CD once, put a small file on it, and after that was unable to put anything else on it. Lol, it looked like I had filled it up, was that just bad formatting? I'd like to avoid that if possible. I had just copied and pasted on to the CD, no program, I've got nero installed now though. So, basically, if I burn one thing on that CD, will it show up as full again and not let me burn anything else? How can I avoid that?

[big1]

The easiest way to burn using Nero is to group all the files you wish to save to the disk into one folder, then when you start the program, use the wizzard and goto the Data CD. Then Create A New Data CD. If you intend on adding further files, then select the Do Not Finalize option. Otherwise this will just as you found out, finalize the disk and allow no further writing. You want to choose the Multisession option, as this will permit further writing and when the time comes, use the Continue Multisession option to continue writing to the disk.

HTH

[komal]

Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help. I'll do that. I was wondering what multisession was.

[komal]

I can't find the do not finalize option, do know where it is located?

[komal]

Never mind, I just found it, it's greyed out though, so I guess it isn't a problem. Thanks.

[big1]

If it is 'Greyed Out' then chances are you have Nero Light. Yep, they do a 'light' and a 'full' version. IIRC the light version comes bundled when you purchase a burner, so if you purchased this version as an OEM copy. I hope it cost you less than the full version did. Or you could have purchased it along with another burner and decided to use it with this version, in which case it would revert to the 'light' version.

You could goto www.nero.com and use the 'contact us' button. Then tell them of your problem and ask to purchase a 'full version' activation key. If memory serves it costs in the region of $20 US

That said of course, I recieved the same error when I first purchased a new burner. I emailed them and they told me to download the update from their www site. I would give that a try before you go handing over any money. As it activated the copy for me.

FWIW their tech support are a friendly bunch. If you inform them that you purchased a copy of nero seperately from your old burner and now when you try to use it on this burner it 'greys out' certain options, chances are they will issue you with another key. By their way of thinking, you must have purchased it otherwise you wouldn't be contacting them etc.

HTH

[komal]

After I burned the first time, I went back to burn more and it was no longer greyed out. Maybe I just can't do it right away. I was just wondering about one more thing, is there any ways to reverse the finalization?

[big1]

As I understand it, by ticking the finalization button you are essentiallywriting termination characters to the end of the file so that when you place the disk into a cd drive it knows where the data ceases and does not continue looking for it.

Of course you could try to continue using the wizzard and multisession, but there isn't a program that I know of that will write over that 'blank' space. If you find one, or can write one, let me know.

HTH

[komal]

K, thanks.