CD-RWs and Packet Writing

[Jakki0]

I'd like to take advantage of the RW section of my burner. I am thinking of using some sort of Packet writing software to get the job done,reason being that some of them offers compression. Can You Gurus out there help me select a good Packet writing software? Two of my main concerns are compression on the RW disk and UDF 1.5 compatibility. In my line up so far is:

AbCD - Prassi
DirectCD - Adaptec
InCD - Ahead
InstantWrite - VOB
PacketCD - Cequadrat

Of the above, the only one I know for sure that does compression is PacketCD (1.2Gb on a 650Mb CD-RW). However I cannot find much info on the others.
I'm just an underdog in this field, can someone throw me a bone.

 

[JackMDS]

I don?t know what is the nature of you work, could be the packet writing is the only solution you have.

However in general:

Compression is the last excuse to use Packet writing, using packet writing the cdrw has to be specially formatted for this purpose and you lose a big chunk of the storage space for the special formatting scheme.

Packet writing is notorious to create havoc in the driver setting of the CDRW, and tend to conflict with the regular CDRW burning capacity.

As a first step chose a package, i.e. if you use Nero (ahead) for general burning use the ahead packet writing.

The most popular packet writing is Adaptec Direct CD, however most of the other burning software (non-packet) will not work correctly if Direct CD is installed.

Take into consideration that a regular CDROM on another computer will not read the packet cdrw, unless you install on it packet reader special driver.

 

[IsOs]

I was having problem with Direct CD together with Norton AntiVirus and my USB camera. I did not install it when I reinstall everything and I don't have anymore problem. How about Zipping the files before burning and use ZipMagic.

 

[Workin']

<< Can You Gurus out there help me select a good Packet writing software? >>

No such thing as good packet writing. From my own (painful) experience and that of others on the forums here, packet-written CD-RW's are the biggest single cause of lost data.

<< I'd like to take advantage of the RW section of my burner. >>

You can burn CD-RW's as if they were CD-R's. Handy for experimenting without wasting a disc, or for testing different disc layouts. Those are about the only practical uses for CD-RW, in my opinion and experience.