[WOODY]

Can Anyone Please Tell Me , Is It Better To Use Cd - R Or Cd - Rw .

First Which One For Storing Photos.
Second Which One For Storing Programmes On :- I E Photoshop Etc

Also Which Brands Do You Use, Where Is Best Place To Buy.

Thank You

[orangepeel]

cdr is write once.
cdrw is write many (usually about 1000 times)

I don't use cdrw at all as it's usually too much hassle. Especially given the price of cdr's

I use SVP for my media... seems good prices to me. As for brand, with CD's I've found it's pretty much 6 and 2x3 although I quite like the unbranded (no markings) DataSafe disks.

[Dabhand16]

If you want to use a disk in a compatible DVD player it is worth checking to see what disks it will play. Some will only do -R, and some -R and +R.

Also check if your burner has a preference.

I use Maxell -R as I can get them cheap.

Don't forget that the storage on a CD is limited - you might be better off using DVD's - they will take up to 4.5 gig - a CD is only around 700mb.

[WOODY]

THANKS FOR YOUR REPLIES EVERYONE.

DABHAND I HAVE TRIED TO USE DVD TO COPY PHOTOS ONTO, BUT MY COMPUTER
WOULD NOT COPY THEM, IT CAME UP WRONG FORMAT DISC .

I WAS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMPRESSION DVD WAS FOR PICTURES CD WAS FOR SOUND.

STILL GOT A LOT TO LEARN

[Dabhand16]

Might be that you have a CD burner, so it will not do DVD's.

A DVD burner will do both CD's and DVD's, and you can get them pretty cheap these days. I think you might even be able to get an external one so you could just plug it into a USB socket (and the mains, of course).

[danpen]

Originally Posted by WOODY

THANKS FOR YOUR REPLIES EVERYONE.

DABHAND I HAVE TRIED TO USE DVD TO COPY PHOTOS ONTO, BUT MY COMPUTER
WOULD NOT COPY THEM, IT CAME UP WRONG FORMAT DISC .

I WAS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMPRESSION DVD WAS FOR PICTURES CD WAS FOR SOUND.

STILL GOT A LOT TO LEARN

I can see where you're coming from in terms of what they're generally used for by the entertainment industry. But actually they're both just devices for storing data (like a floppy disk), in computer terms you're just copying files onto another disk drive.

Dab is probably right, you have a CD Burner which won't allow you to read or write DVDs. There is another possibility though, there are different non-compatible writeable DVD Formats called DVD+R and DVD-R. Many modern DVD Writers can use both but some older drives are limited to one or the other.

Quite often the drives have some text or a logo printed on the front of the tray to tell you what they can do.

If you have more than 700MB to back up it's worth seeing if you can use DVDs as then you'll be able to keep everything on one disk which is simpler. If you have less than 700MB use CDs 'cause they're cheaper.

If you want to use DVDs then post what it says on the front, or I can give you instructions for finding out what model of drive you have, once we know that we can look it up on the internet to find out what it's capabilities are and what media it supports.

cheers

Dan

[WOODY]

Dan , On The Front Of The Disc Carriage It Says :-

Dvd Rom And Compact Disc Rewritable .

My Computer Is A Toshiba Satellite Pro .

Thank You For Your Help And Advice

[silkstone]

Your drive will write to CD-R and CD-RW but will only read from DVD. "DVD-ROM" means "Read Only Memory" - not writing to it unfortunately.

Since your machine is a laptop it could be tricky to replace the drive with a 'combi' drive that will do everything, so if you want to write to DVD it would probably be best to get an external USB DVD writer.

[WOODY]

Thanks For Your Help Silkstone,
Any Idea How Much An External Dvd Writer Would Be For My Computer?

Thank You.

Ps The Annoying Thing Is My Old Computer Had The Facility To Copy Dvd

But We Changed It As We Found A Laptop Was Easier.

[Dabhand16]

Just had a quick look on PC World site and found an LG ext. DVD for £39.99 here.

Not saying this is the best, or that PC world is the place to go, but does give an idea of the prices.

[WOODY]

THANKS DABHAND, THAT GIVES ME AN IDEA OF WHAT THEY ARE.
I THOUGHT THEY WOULD BE EXPENSIVE. THAT IS SURPRISING

THANK YOU

[spxxxx]

Taiyo Yuden DVD's are accepted as one of the best - just make sure you get them from a reputable source e.g.Taiyo-Yuden