Windows XP and rewriteable Cds - can't edit docs!

S

Sophia2457

Registered User
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Hi
Has anyone found a way round this problem? Being very non-techie I bought a bunch of Sony rewriteable Cds for the OH to put assigments on and work on in his breaks at work, as the pcs there dont have ports (is that what you call them?) for USBs, but to have cd drives.

I wasn't too pleased to discover that with Windows XP all the docs you save to the cds are read-only, and you have to buy a bit of software to make it possible to edit them. If I did buy it there's no guarantee they wouldn't come up as read-only on his pc in work, I suppose.

I tried unchecking the 'read only' box in properties but no joy. Can anyone help please?
 
best bet would be to save a copy locally. edit it and save it back to the cd (a 2 step process in xp, 1)send to CD and 2 write to CD) and then delete the local copy.
 
That's the best way to do it. It will require that your OH's work computer has a CDRW drive.
 
Make sure that you haven't 'finalised' the cd when burning too.
If you used something like Nero to burn the cd, it may have this option checked automatically and means that the CD is locked and no further data can be added. (Bit of a pain if you only have 1% of the CD full and then realise this)
 
You could use an online alternative like google docs.

Otherwise as has been said copy them locally. Edited them. Then same the new version back to the CD. use good naming. You don't need extra software.

2008 02 18 1500 doc1.doc
2008 02 19 1505 doc1.doc
2008 02 20 1515 doc1.doc

If the USB ports are blocked, there might be a good reason for this. Consider if you really should be doing this.
Etc.
 
Another idea would be to email the docs to an internet email account (eg hotmail) and they can then be retrieved wherever you can get internet access. I've done this a few times in situations where I wasn't sure I would be able to use by USB drive.
 
If USB ports are disabled, you can be sure that internet email will definitely be blocked.
 
This is what you want its called "Packet Writing"
Packet writing software can write only to CD-RW, DVD-RW or DVD+RW if the disks are formatted using the Universal Data Format (UDF) file system. The advantage of packet writing is that your rewritable media can be used like a floppy or zip disk (drag and drop from Windows Explorer is also possible).

Try this link as a start:
[broken link removed]

And this one for some suggestions:
[broken link removed]


Remember there are loads of different packet writing S/W out there,some better that others.
Read some reviews to see which are the better ones.

Hope this helps....
 
Pique318 said:
If USB ports are disabled, you can be sure that internet email will definitely be blocked.
Click to expand...

OP said there were no USB drives, not that they were blocked - I was thinking of older PC's - i.e pentium II's etc. The same advice would work with Work email as well, though.
 
My experience with Packet Writing was poor at best. Maybe other software/hardware combinations would have worked better, but my inherent distrust of solutions that force devices to appear to be something they are not makes me suspect that this is not going to be a reliable and portable solution to any problem. My recommendation is use a CD-RW and erase/rewrite the data as necessary.
 
My experience with Packet Writing was poor at best
Click to expand...

Packet Writing has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. I agree, at the start, it was best stayed away from. It is VERY important to use good quality media and burner.

When it works well, and it can, it is far more practical than erasing and re-burning CDs just to change a few KBs in a doc. as OP's OH wants to do.
 
It would want to be an old computer to not have USB. I just think the OP should consider the wider implications. Maybe theres none. But its good to consider all angles.

I also found packet writing to bt unreliable between different machines. I'd prefer to use a CDRW myself, and just rewipe as needs be. Just don't close the CD.
 
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