UDF/Packet Writing

[Chips]

Up until I moved from XP to Win 7 I’ve been using a rather good program on my old Roxio 7 to format blank DVDs into storage disks. The program was so good that, not only did it allow me to drag n drop files onto the disks, but also edit the data once it was on the disks, things like change names, making new folders and transferring files into those files etc. In essence they became little portable hard drives. But now, with my old Roxio being incompatible with Win 7, I’m without this ability. However, I’ve been told that Win 7 has this formatting program built in! I understand its technical name is “UDF/Packet Writing”. Can anyone tell me where this facility is on Win 7? Be a BIG help if anyone can. Thanks.

 

[logicearth]

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/vista-live-file-system/

 

[Chips]

Thanks. I take it from that page that, unlike a regular hard drive or my old Roxio 7, you can't actually delete files without scrubbing the disk completely? Yep, the old Roxio 7 could actually do that! But other than that you can do everything a normal hard drive can do? Looks interesting.

 

[logicearth]

Actually you can delete files. You just do not regain the space.

 

[Chips]

Sorry, that's what I meant. You can't actually delete them, just hide them. Pity about that though,' 'cause then it would've answered all my troubles. But it's still easier to handle than most other disk writing programs out there that simply burn to disk.

 

[unifex]

I was a big fan of Roxio's DirecCD turned Drag-to-Disk package. I still have it running on my old XP laptop. However, it turned out that Roxio itself was not interested in developing the software and they dropped it right when Vista came out.

Nero has InCD which I never used but read that it was not as good as Roxio's, but it still does not work on my system.

Here I should note that I run 64-bit version and I think that's the point: one could run InCD on a 32-bit system. Not sure about old Roxio.

If anyone knows a similar software working in 64-bit 7, I would be very grateful.

Now, on the other hand, one can ask, why bother? They are selling 32 GB flash drives these days for the price I paid for 256 MB once (long time ago). I have recently bought 8 GB Cruzer for 20 bucks or so - using it for ReadyBoost, but one could use it for file storage as well, right? External hard drives are not expensive either - and not limited to 4 GB one can put on a DVD.

So here's another question I don't quite know the answer - reliability. I have seen in fact that a DVD-RW might lose some of the information I wrote using Drag-to-Disk. I am not sure if the problem was with the disk itself wearing out or with the software. I have never seen that with USB memory - is that the general idea, are USB flash drives more reliable to keep information over say a few months, but constantly re-writing and updating?