CD and DVD burning

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Guest

I have a drive that is labelled as DVD/CD-RW. I assume that I can only read
DVDs and read/write CDs but I am not sure. I do not seem to have any
documentation on writing DVDs.

My question is about DLA. When I look at drive properties there is a check
mark on "use with DLA". I currently write CDs by dragging files to the D
drive and while in the D drive directory selecting burn CD. This works fine.
I use CD-R disks.

Is DLA only used for CD-RW disks? What is formatting? Is it only necessary
for CD-RW disks? If I didn't use DLA what would change in the way I write
disks. How can I tell if I can write DVDs?
 
I have done further research on DLA and it seems that by just dropping a file
on the D drive it will burn it without having to select the burn command. If
I have the "use with DLA" checked and do not format the disk does the system
automatically fall back to the standard way of burning? What is the advantage
of DLA?
 
Well, to answer my own question I have found that my computer requires CD-RW
disks to use DLA. I still would like to know of any advantages.
 
You may wish to read about the UDF format or packet writing, which is what
DLA uses, at Alex Nichol's site http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm

The advantage of an application like DLA is that it "preformats" or prepares
a CD-R/W so it can perform like a giant floppy. You drag and drop files
directly to the CD Writer icon and they will be immediately written to the
disk. You can also delete or overwrite individual files in addition to being
able to erase them. And most importantly you can save directly to the disc
from any program that can write to a floppy drive, like Notepad, MS Word,
NTBackup etc. You can even download files off the internet directly to a DLA
formatted CD-R/W. This all sounds grand however packet formatted disks have
problems. One is that unless they are finalized they usually can not be read
on a computer that doesn't have packet reading software installed. You can
not use packet writing software to create music CDs. A major problem is
that these disc are notorious for becoming unreadable. The main cause can be
traced to how they write data. Most packet writing software programs create
a VCache (virtual cache) which contains data that is not burned to the disc
until it is ejected. Incorrectly ejecting packet formatted discs can result
in the VCache data not being written and the disc is unreadable. The correct
ejection is to use the software's eject method rather than using the drive's
eject button. A system lock up, improper shutdown or power failure can also
render the disc unreadable if the VCache data isn't written to the disc
prior to shutdown. Third party software like ISOBuster or CD-Diagnostics
should be kept on hand if you use packet writing as these apps can extract
raw data from otherwise unreadable discs.
 
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