Last-modified: 2006/02/20
Version: 2.64
On the PC, DOS and all versions of Windows (from 3.1) work just fine.
On the Macintosh, you should use System 7.x or later.
UNIX variants, such as FreeBSD and Linux, work, but can be more difficult to use for neophytes. The support in recent versions of Linux is pretty good.
Generally speaking, you get what you pay for: the more expensive software has more features. However, this isn't always the case, and the software with more features isn't necessarily more useful or more reliable.
There's little standardization among CD-R drive manufacturers, so not all devices are supported by all programs. This has changed somewhat with the development of the MMC specification, but deviations from the standard are not uncommon.
On the PC, if you're new to CD-R, start with Ahead's Nero (6-1-28) or Roxio's Easy CD Creator Deluxe (6-1-26). If you just want to "back up" CD-ROMs try CloneCD, and if you want good "backups" and lots of flexbility when creating audio CDs go with CDRWIN. If you want to write to a disc as if it were a floppy, try Roxio's DirectCD (included with ECDC; see section (6-4-1)) or Nero InCD (6-4-7).
On the Mac, go with Toast (6-1-4) or Discribe (6-1-29).
UNIX users probably ought to start with cdrecord (6-1-20) or CDRDAO (6-1-47).
Most of the software listed below is for PC running Windows. Use the search feature of your newsreader or web browser to look for "Mac" or "Linux" if that's what you're interested in.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT)
[ These have been superseded by Easy CD Creator Deluxe (6-1-26). ]
The software was developed by a company called Incat, which was purchased by Adaptec in 1995.
Easy-CD Pro 95 v1.2 seems to have trouble writing umlauts and other non-ASCII characters in Joliet mode. Romeo format will work, but the files will only be accessible from Windows.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT3.x)
[ This has been superseded by Easy CD Creator Deluxe (6-1-26). ]
The software was developed by Corel, and published by them until it was purchased by Adaptec in mid-1996. It was combined with Easy-CD Pro to form Easy CD Creator.
The package includes drivers that allow several popular CD-R drives to be used as general-purpose CD readers under Win95. It can also create VideoCD and PhotoCD discs.
Version 2.x is a considerable improvement over version 1.x. Versions older than 2.01.079 had some problems inserting "knacks" into audio CDs.
Platforms supported: DOS, Windows (95, NT, 2K), UNIX
See http://www.gearsoftware.com/
GEAR Software was Elektroson until early 1999. It was a subsidiary of Command Software Systems, Inc. until May 2001, when it became a free-standing company.
Full-featured CD recording. Includes unattended CD copying and batch file support.
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.roxio.com/
The software was developed by Miles GmbH and published by Astarte until Miles was purchased by Adaptec in early 1997. In 2000 Adaptec spun the CD recording software group off into Roxio. In August 2004 Roxio's consumer software division was purchased by Sonic Solutions.
This program is recommended for making Mac/PC hybrids, and is the most popular package for the Mac. It supports HFS, ISO-9660, and Joliet. At one time it was sold by an OEM as "CD-It All".
The "Toast DVD" upgrade enables creation of DVD-Video and DVD-ROM.
Software updates are available on the web site.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cequadrat.com/
(CeQuadrat was purchased by Adaptec in July 1999, and became part of Roxio.)
WinOnCD is the full version. WinOnCD ToGo is a "lite" version that comes bundled with some drives.
Can create VideoCD discs and bootable CD-ROMs.
Platforms supported: Windows (NT), UNIX (Linux, others)
See http://www.ymi.com/
CD recording system with a Java interface. The web site has information about specialized solutions for things like recording over Novell networks and working with CD-R jukeboxes.
Platforms supported: DOS, Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.goldenhawk.com/
See http://www.cd-brennen.de/ (german distributor)
(CDRWIN is the name of the Win95 version. I don't believe the DOS versions have an official name.)
Contains sophisticated CD-ROM duplication programs, track-at-once and disc-at-once utilities for sound and data, and other goodies. Some of the DOS-based software is free, the rest is relatively inexpensive.
This comes highly recommended for creating audio CDs, because it gives you a great deal of control over the creation process. Updates for the software are available on the net.
The "vcache" tweak from section (4-1-2) is strongly recommended for users of CDRWIN to avoid buffer underruns.
If you use a Yamaha 200/400 and get "Logical Unit Not Ready" errors, try disabling the data caching.
Independent cue sheet editors are available from http://www.dcsoft.com/ and http://www.crosswinds.net/~cueed2000/.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.microtest.com/
[ product has been discontinued ]
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), UNIX
See http://www.cdr1.com/ (a/k/a http://www.hycd.com/)
Can create Mac/PC/UNIX hybrid CDs (i.e. CDs that work on all three platforms), as well as bootable CDs for PCs and UNIX. If you need a CD that works (and looks good) on Win95, MacOS, and UNIX, this is the program for you.
The Solaris version should be available through Sun's Catalyst program; see http://www.sun.com/sunsoft/catlink/cdr/cdrpub.htm.
Platforms supported: Windows, UNIX (many)
Sources (in "cdrtools" package) at ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/
This allows creation of an ISO-9660 filesystem on disk or tape, which can then be copied to a CD-R. It can create discs with Joliet, Rock Ridge, and HFS filenames, and can be configured to ignore certain facets of the ISO standard (like maximum directory depth). Recent versions support multisession and several kinds of bootable discs.
This can be used in conjunction with "cdrecord" (6-1-20) to write discs under UNIX. For other platforms, chances are good that your favorite CD recording application is able to write ISO-9660 images. (If not, there's probably a "cdrecord" port for your platform of choice.)
See http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO for a "HOWTO" guide on writing CDs under Linux.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.asimware.com/
[ product discontinued ]
(Asimware was purchased by Iomega in March 2001.)
Full-featured CD-R mastering package for the Amiga.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.ntius.com/ (demo available)
Full-featured CD creation and duplication software.
If you get "illegal request, invalid block address" complaints reading from an ATAPI CD-ROM drive, your ASPI layer may be corrupted. See the instructions in http://www.fadden.com/doc/ntius-aspi.txt.
Platforms supported: OS/2
See http://www.cirunite.com/ (demo available)
Drag-and-drop CD creation, written specifically for OS/2. Allows creation of CDs with an HPFS (OS/2) filesystem.
[ product has been discontinued? ]
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://hohnermidia.com/proaudio.html [web site gone?]
Windows-based CD-R software that has some nice features for creating audio discs, including the ability to edit the P-Q subcode data.
The "rrdemo.zip" on the web site is actually a demo of Samplitude Master from SEK´D Software. Samplitude Master is a fancy audio editing program that - among other things - allows you to create ISO-9660 images suitable for writing to a CD-R, but the demo package doesn't include software to do the actual writing (the full package includes PoINT CDaudio).
Platforms supported: DOS
See http://www.dataware.com/site/prodserv/cd_rom.htm
See http://www.dataware.de/untern/index.html
CD creation software aimed at the corporate user. Comes with libraries for creating custom applications.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.creamware.com/
A hardware and software combo for professional-quality sound editing, this now includes an audio CD creation tool.
Platforms supported: DOS
See http://www.microtech.com/product/mmaker/
[ product discontinued ]
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://makecd.core.de/
CD-R creation software that supports the "AS" extensions (which preserve the Amiga protection bits and file comments).
You need AmiCDFS, CacheCDFS, AsimCDFS, or something similar to make use of the "AS" extensions. AmiCDFS is (was?) available from http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/dirs/disk_cdrom.html. Look for amicdfs*.lha, where '*' is a version number.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K), Mac
See http://www.liquidaudio.com/
A music player that includes the ability to record CDs. You can preview music and purchase it over the Internet.
Platforms supported: UNIX (several), Windows (95, NT), Mac, OS/2, BeOS, VMS, ...
See ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/
A collection of freeware software and drivers for burning CDs under an impressive variety of operating systems. Source code is available. See the web site for an up-to-date list of features and supported systems. (Note the package is now called "cdrtools".)
Supports DVD-R as well.
There are a variety of front-ends for cdrecord. One of them, X-CD-Roast, is listed in section (6-1-40).
This is commonly used with "mkisofs" (6-1-10) for creating ISO images.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
[ product has been discontinued ]
CD mastering bundled with SCSI Rep, which allows you to write to more than one SCSI CD-R at once. See also section (3-17).
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.zittware.com/Products/CDMaster32/cdmaster32.html (shareware)
Specializes in recording audio CDs from MP3s.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.giga.or.at/nih/cdtools.html
Free CD writing tools, with source code.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.pointsoft.de/
Full-featured CD recording.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.pointsoft.de/
Creates audio CDs, with full control over P/Q subcodes.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.roxio.com/
[ Adaptec spun off Roxio as a subsidiary in 2000. All of Adaptec's CD recording software products were moved to the Roxio label. In August 2004, Roxio's consumer software division was purchased by Sonic Solutions. ]
This was created in the 1996 as Adaptec/Roxio's all-singing, all-dancing combination of Adaptec Easy-CD Pro and Corel CD Creator. It combined the best features of both and cost less. Recent versions were renamed to Easy Media Creator to reflect an emphasis shift toward managing music, photos, and video.
Some notes on older versions:
ECDC up to v3.5a has a "two-second truncation" problem, where extracted audio tracks end up missing two seconds. This doesn't happen for every system or every disc, but is 100% reproducible in situations where it arises. Version 3.01d fixed the problem for some users but not others.
CD Copier Deluxe in ECDC v3.x does *not* do disc-at-once recording when copying from disc-to-disc (the web site is right, the manual is wrong), but ECDC itself does. If you want to make a disc-to-disc copy with disc-at-once recording, you should set up ECDC to copy the disc without buffering to the hard drive. ECDC will refuse to use DAO if your writer doesn't support it reliably or the source drive is too slow.
Versions 3.x and later of ECDC can be used to write to 80-minute discs. For v4.x and earlier, don't use the "wizard", and ignore any complaints about being over the maximum time.
Uninstalling ECDC v4.02c up to and including v5.01 may disrupt access to CD-ROM drives under WinXP and Win2K. See section (4-49) for details. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23448.html for an opinionated piece about the trials and tribulations of ECDC and WinXP/Win2K.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.padus.com/ (demo available)
Allows you to write to more than one SCSI CD-R at a time. See also section (3-17).
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.ahead.de/ (demo available)
See http://www.nero.com/
Full-featured CD creation and duplication. Fairly popular among the Internet community.
Supports the "variable-gap track-at-once" feature of drives like the Sony 926S and Mitsumi CR-2801TE when creating CDs (but not when copying them?). Comes with "MultiMounter", which appears to be similar to Roxio's "Session Selector".
NOTE: Nero may not work correctly if DirectCD is installed. You may need to uninstall DirectCD to get Nero to work. (This was especially true with older versions of the software back in 1999, but may still be the case now.)
NOTE: Some shrink-wrapped copies of Nero that were originally bundled with CD recorders have been turning up at flea markets and computer shows. These may only support the device that they were initially sold with, but there is no such indication on the disc or packaging.
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.charismac.com/Products/Discribe/index.html
CD creation for the Mac. Supports creation of hybrid CDs and disc-at-once recording. This is a popular alternative to Toast for the Mac.
Platform supported: VMS (VAX, Alpha) See http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/vms.html
Construct CD-ROMs under VMS.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, OS/2)
See http://www.rsj.de/
CD writing with support for ISO-9660, Joliet, and Rock Ridge extensions. Uses a buffering scheme to allow drive-letter access without packet writing.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT), UNIX
See http://www.ge.ucl.ac.uk/~jcpearso/mkhybrid.html
This is a mkisofs variant that creates discs in ISO-9660 format with Joliet, Rock Ridge, and HFS extensions. HFS files can be encoded as an HFS "hybrid" or using Apple's ISO-9660 extensions.
[ This has been merged with "mkisofs" and "cdrecord", section (6-1-20). ]
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.jvcinfo.com/archiver.html
See http://www.jvc-victor.co.jp/english/cdr/cdrext-e.html
JVC's CD-R software, frequently bundled with JVC recorders.
Includes "CD-R Extensions" packet-writing software for Win31/Win95 (also known as "FloppyCD"?).
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.roxio.com/
An updated version of Astarte's "CD-DA" package, intended for creating professional audio CDs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.pinnaclesys.com/
[ VOB was purchased by Pinnacle Systems, Inc. in October 2002. Previous sites were http://www.vob.de/ and http://www.vobinc.com/ ]
A package that includes:
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.sonicfoundry.com/
Fancy audio CD creation, including PQ editing and cross-fades. The original product was popular among people who regularly pre-master discs for mass production.
The product was discontinued in 1998 or so, but returned to the market in late 2002. Sonic Foundry's product line was purchased by Sony Pictures Digital in August 2003.
Platforms supported: VMS (VAX, Alpha)
See http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/9999/vmscdwri.html
Get ftp://v36.chemie.uni-konstanz.de/cdwrite/
Construct and write CD-ROMs from VMS.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.cequadrat.com/
(CeQuadrat was purchased by Adaptec in July 1999, and is now part of Roxio.)
Audio CD creation. Includes de-noise program for data digitized from tapes or records, and a layout tool for creating booklets, inlay cards, or labels.
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.digidesign.com/prod/mlcd/
Full-featured audio CD creation.
Platforms supported: UNIX (Linux)
See http://www.xcdroast.org/
This is a Tcl/Tk/Tix front-end for mkisofs and cdrecord.
Platforms supported: UNIX
See http://sunsite.auc.dk/BurnIT/
This is a Java front-end for cdrecord, mkisofs and cdda2wav.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.feurio.de/
Audio CD creation.
(As of mid-2002, Feurio! was also being sold on the Ahead web site.)
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT4, 2K, XP), Mac
See http://www.iomega.com/software/hotburn/
See http://www.asimware.com/
(Asimware Innovations was purchased by Iomega in March 2001.)
Looks to be a solid data and audio recording program.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.dartpro.com/ (demo available)
Audio CD creation with wide support for both analog and digital sources.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT), Mac, UNIX (Linux, Solaris)
See http://www.cdeverywhere.com/
This is a Java application that creates hybrid disc images with Rock Ridge, Joliet, and HFS support. The image can be written with any application that can handle ISO-9660 disc images.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.titancomputer.de/
Simple but powerful recording for the Amiga.
[ no longer listed on their web site? ]
Platforms supported: UNIX (several), Windows (cygwin), OS/2
See http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/
Linux application that does disc-at-once audio recording. Good for copying many types of discs. Source code is available.
See http://users.forthnet.gr/ath/axatis/XDuplicator/ for a GUI front-end.
Platforms supported: UNIX (several)
See http://www.tracertech.com/
Business-oriented CD-recordable applications, ranging from single user CD recording to data migration and archiving with CD and DVD jukeboxes.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, ME, NT4, 2K, XP)
See [...] (demo available)
[ Originally developed by Elaborate Bytes in Germany (formerly [...], now [...]), the software was sold to SlySoft in September 2003. Apparently the folks at Elaborate Bytes were concerned about legal action after the EU started moving toward laws similar to the USA's DMCA. ]
CD copier that can copy just about anything. Check the web site for a list of supported hardware.
There are some "unofficial" CloneCD discussion forums that may be of interest when trying to copy something tricky:
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, Linux)
See http://www.fireburner.com/ (shareware)
Simple disc recording software that takes image files (BIN/CUE, ISO, WAV) as input and writes a disc. The "binchunker" program, which converts to and from BIN/CUE files, is incorporated. Can record audio CDs from MP3s.
Platforms supported: Windows (NT, NT-Alpha), UNIX (several)
See http://www.jodian.com/
Somewhat limited recording software available for a broad range of platforms.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://users.pandora.be/erik.deppe/cdgcreator.htm
Create your own CD+G discs.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cdcomposer.com/
Audio CD creation. Extracts audio from CDs, MP3s, LPs (via a sound card), and allows you to construct custom CDs. Also copies CD-ROMs and writes ISO images.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.earjam.com/
An "Internet Music Player" that can record to CD-R.
Platforms supported: Mac
See http://www.emagic.de/
Full-featured audio CD creation for the Mac. Can do cross-fades and other fancy tricks.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
See http://www.zy2000.com/ (shareware)
Recording application dedicated to writing MP3 songs onto CD-R.
Platforms supported: PC
See http://www.speedy-cd.com/
Fast CD-R duplication, with support for up to 6 CD recorders running simultaneously.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.net-burner.com/ (demo available)
Net-Burner lets you wrap up data into a self-extracting -- and self-recording -- downloadable file. For example, Music Net-Burner lets you wrap up MP3s, jewel case art, and a track listing into a single executable file. When run, the program unpacks itself and writes to a CD recorder. It does on-the-fly MP3 decoding, supports overburning, and can do disc-at-once recording. Data Net-Burner does the same sort of thing for CD-ROMs.
MP3-Burner creates audio CDs from MP3 files.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.clicknburn.com/
Full-featured CD recording. Creates CDs and CD-ROMs, with all the trimmings.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.steinberg.net/products/
Audio restoration and CD recording. Designed specifically for transferring music from analog sources such as cassette tapes and vinyl records.
Platforms supported: Windows?
See http://www.enreach.com/Products/products/etv1/iauthvcd.htm
See http://www.enreach.com/Products/products/etv1/iauthsvcd.htm
Authoring tools for VCD and SVCD.
Platforms supported: Windows
See [...]
Disc copier; does "raw" reads and writes. Can be useful for analyzing copy-protected discs.
Platforms supported: Windows (XP)
See http://www.microsoft.com/
Windows XP has built-in support for recording to CD-R and CD-RW. See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/columns/bridgman/august13.asp for an overview.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, ME, NT, 2K, XP)
See [...] (demo available)
See [...]
Full-featured data and audio CD recording software. Competes with CloneCD and Nero.
Platforms supported: Windows
See [...]
Disc copying and drive emulation software. Often recommended for difficult copy-protected discs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, ME, NT4, 2K, XP)
See http://www.stompinc.com/recordnowmax/
Fancy CD recording intended to compete directly against Easy CD Creator. Supports DVD+R. Includes "Drive Letter Access" packet writing software for CD-RW drives.
Platforms supported: Winodws (95, ME, NT4, 2K, XP)
See http://www.cheetahburner.com/
Straightforward CD recording.
Platforms supported: Windows (98, ME, 2K, XP)
See http://www.blazeaudio.com/
Audio CD extraction and recording software, designed for people moving music between CDs and MP3 files.
Platforms supported: Windows (98, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.acoustica.com/ (demo available)
Burns music and MP3 CDs/DVDs from MP3 and WMA files. Includes a music library manager and a CD label maker.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.magiciso.com/ (demo available)
Creates, manipulates, and records disc images in a variety of formats. Can create DVDs and bootable CD-ROMs.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://burn4free.com/ (freeware)
Create audio and data CDs.
Platforms supported: Windows (98, 2K, XP)
See http://www.sonic.com/
CD copying and mastering.
Packet-writing tools and DVD software are also available; check the web site.
Platforms supported: Mac (OS X)
See http://freeridecoding.net/ (shareware)
Writes files to CD-R or CD-RW, specializing in multi-session recording for archiving data.
Software related to CD-Rs that isn't a direct part of the premastering process.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT), Mac
See http://www.microtest.com/html/optical_media.html
[ product has been discontinued ]
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.winimage.com/
Among other things, this lets you list and extract the contents of an ISO-9660 image.
Platforms supported: Amiga
See http://www.asimware.com/
(Asimware was purchased by Iomega in March 2001.)
Allows the Amiga to read High Sierra, Mac HFS, and ISO-9660 (including Rock Ridge extensions).
[ product has been discontinued? ]
Platforms supported: UNIX
See http://www.midwinter.com/ftp/WorkMan/
In addition to its primary role as an audio CD player for UNIX workstations, version 1.4 (still in beta) allows SPARC/Solaris2.4+ workstations to extract digital audio into ".au" files.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.cyberdyne-software.com/cdworx.html
Full-featured extraction and manipulation of audio data from CDs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.arrowkey.com/ (or http://www.cdrom-prod.com/)
[ products formerly published under "Paul Crowley CD-ROM Productions" ]
Does a number of useful things, such as displaying the contents of the TOC, listing the full volume label, analyzing the media, and recovering data from "lost" sessions and hosed UDF discs.
This software is widely recommended for recovering data from otherwise unusable discs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.dcsoft.com/
Cue sheet editor for CDRWIN.
Platforms supported: Mac
See ?
Half of a CD copier. CD-Copy has a lot of features for reading CDs as images, but is unable to write them (presumably you're supposed to use Toast for that).
[ Doesn't appear to be published by www.astarte.de anymore. Doesn't seem to be part of the Roxio lineup, either. I'm told the intellectual property was purchased by Apple in 1999 or 2000. ]
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See ?
Attempts to identify the manufacturer of a CD-R disc. Reports the code from the ATIP region, which tells you who made the stamper used to create the blanks, and what kind of dye is in use. Shows the exact length of a disc.
This information may or may not be accurate; see section (2-33) for an explanation.
Development has been discontinued. It can still be found available for download though. One such location: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22912,00.asp
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.macdisk.com/macimgen.php3
Allows you to build CD-ROM images on a PC that are compatible with the Macintosh. Can create hybrid HFS/ISO-9660 images, ISO-9660 with Apple extension images, and pure HFS images (using the virtual filesystem image feature).
The virtual HFS partition feature allows you to create Macintosh volumes in a file on the PC, and manipulate files there.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cdspeed2000.com/
See http://come.to/cdspeed
Tests various facets of CD-ROM drive performance, including DAE ability. Tables of results are available on the web site.
[ There are references to "Nero CD Speed 2000" on the web site, suggesting that the software is now related to Ahead? ]
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
There are many programs for extracting digital audio, but EAC has become the de facto standard application for doing so. On some CD-ROM drives it can guarantee extraction of 100% perfect audio, and on most others it does as well or better than anything else available.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.ziplabel.com/cdrlabel/
Generates and maintains catalogs of CD and CD-ROM data, including song lists and file directories. Makes it easy to print label cards.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.adobe.com/
[ In May 2003, Syntrillium Software's assets were purchased by Adobe Corp. Three months later, one of the best shareware sound editing programs ever written -- Cool Edit -- was officially discontinued when Cool Edit Pro was re-released as Adobe Audition. ]
High-end, fairly expensive audio editing software.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://bttb.sourceforge.net/
Given a large collection of files, BTTB finds the arrangement that gets the most files onto the fewest discs.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cdwave.com/
Useful utility for breaking a large WAV file into several smaller ones. Comes in handy when you're working with audio recorded from a cassette or LP and want to insert track markers.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.eciusa.com/driveeasy.htm
System diagnostic program, useful for making sure that your system and CD recorder are working correctly. It includes some utilities for getting technical information on your drive and on CDs.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/ (demo available)
See http://www.audiograbber.de/
Fancy audio extraction application. Can rip to MP3 and normalize sound levels across multiple tracks.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.HighCriteria.com/
An audio capture program that looks like a sound card. After you install this software, you can tell Windows to play sound through it. A copy of the sound will be recorded to disk, making this an easy way to get perfect copies of audio from "protected" formats (e.g. encrypted Windows Media Player files or DVD-ROM).
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/ (shareware)
Creates and manipulates disc images in a variety of formats (ISO, BIN/CUE, CIF, NRG, others). Has some features for recovering data from damaged discs, some of which are only available after the software has been registered.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.goldwave.com/ (shareware)
Full-featured audio editor, suitable for manipulating CD audio data. Includes CD ripper and click/pop reduction filters.
Platforms supported: Windows (98/ME/NT/2K/XP)
See http://www.naltech.com/ (trial version available)
Recovers data from damaged CD-ROMs. Can retrieve data from "deleted" files.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/ (trial version available)
Recovers data from damaged CD-ROMs, floppy disks, and more.
Platforms supported: Windows (95/ME/2K/XP)
See http://www.cdroller.com/ (trial version available)
Recovers data from damaged CD-ROMs, floppy disks, and more.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.fleximusic.com/ (trial version available)
Inexpensive sound editor with a good set of features.
Platforms supported: Windows (95/ME/NT/2K/XP)
See http://www.dvdinfopro.com/ (adware until registered)
Provides information on CD and DVD recorders and media.
Platforms supported: Windows (98/ME/2K/XP), Mac OS X, Linux
See http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (freeware)
Free sound editor with lots of fancy features.
Packet writing is an alternative to writing entire tracks or discs. It allows you to write much smaller chunks, down to the level of individual files. With track-at-once recording there's a maximum of 99 tracks per disc, a minimum track length of 300 blocks, and an additional 150 blocks of overhead for run-in, run-out, pregap, and linking. Packet writing allows many writes per track, with only 7 blocks of overhead per write (4 for run-in, 2 for run-out, and 1 for link). Since it's possible to write packets that are small enough to fit entirely in the CD recorder's buffer, the risk of buffer underruns can be eliminated.
There are some problems with packet writing, mostly due to the inability of older CD-ROM drives to deal with the gaps between packets. CD-ROM drives can become confused if they read into the gap, a problem complicated by read-ahead optimizations on some models.
There are two basic "philosophies" behind packet writing, fixed-size and variable-size. With fixed-size packets, the CD recorder writes data whenever it has a full packet. All packets in the same track must have the same size. It's relatively easy for a CD-ROM drive to skip over the inter-packet gaps if it knows where the gaps are ahead of time, but there's a large installed base of CD-ROM drives that aren't that smart.
With variable-sized packets, the CD-ROM drive can't tell ahead of time where the gaps are. The problem can be avoided by laying out the filesystem in such a way that the drive never tries to read from the gaps. One approach is to put each file into a single packet, but if the size of a file exceeds the size of the CD recorder write buffer, the risk of buffer underruns returns. An alternative is to write the file in several pieces, but the Level 1 ISO-9660 filesystem supported by most operating systems doesn't support this. Replacing the "redirector" (e.g. MSCDEX) with one that supports Level 3 ISO-9660 solves the problem.
Files on packet-written discs are typically stored in a UDF filesystem. When the session is closed -- necessary for the disc to be readable on anything but a CD recorder -- some implementations will wrap an ISO-9660 filesystem around the disc to make the files accessible on systems without a UDF reader. When DirectCD for Windows closes a disc in ISO-9660 format, it uses Level 3 multi-extent files. Support for Level 3 ISO-9660 will likely be added to future OSs, but for the time being it can be difficult to share such discs between machines that aren't running Win95/NT.
DirectCD for Mac OS leaves the disc in UDF format, so reading the discs requires a UDF driver. See section (6-3-1) for more information on UDF, including a web site where free UDF drivers can be downloaded. (If you have DirectCD, you don't need to download the drivers separately; you would only need them if you didn't own packet-writing software and wanted to read discs created by somebody who did.)
Writing to a CD-R with packets will be slower than writing with standard
premastering software. Since the expected application for packet writing
is "drive letter access" rather than creating an entire CD, this should not
be an issue for most people.
Audio CDs can't be written with packets.
You really don't want to defragment a CD-RW written with fixed packets. The disc is deliberately fragmented to avoid "wearing out" sectors on the disc.
Some early CD recorders were only be able to write to a disc the first 99 times it was placed in the drive, because the recorder has to calibrate the laser power before writing, and there are only 99 spaces for doing the test writes. Sony and Philips have developed ways to work around the problem, such as remembering the last 10 pieces of media seen, so this doesn't cause problems on current drives.
Information on packet-writing software follows. It is in general a bad idea to have more than one installed at the same time.
UDF is an acronym for the humbly-named "Universal Disk Format". It's a specification for a filesystem intended for use on write-once and rewritable media. It's currently being used for DVD and some of the CD-R/CD-RW packet writing software (e.g. Roxio DirectCD).
There have been four important releases of the specification:
Download free UDF 1.5 drivers for MacOS and Win95/Win98/WinNT4 from http://www.roxio.com/en/support/udfwin/index.html http://www.roxio.com/en/support/udfmac/udfmacreadme.html
(The Windows driver appears to have moved; look at the bottom of http://www.roxio.com/en/support/roxio_support/ecdc/ecdc_software_updatesv4.jhtml.)
The technical specifications for the UDF filesystem can be found at http://www.osta.org/specs/index.htm.
UDF is based on the ISO/IEC 13346 standard, now ECMA-167, available from http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/ECMA-167.htm.
You can find Linux source code under development at http://trylinux.com/projects/udf/.
Philips has made UDF verification software available (source and binaries) at http://www.extra.research.philips.com/udf/.
It depends. If your primary interests are writing audio CDs, duplicating CD-ROMs (for backups, right?), or creating CD-ROMs full of files that you can give to others, packet writing won't help you much.
Discs written by programs like Roxio DirectCD aren't usable in a CD-ROM reader until they're finalized. Finalized discs are in ISO-9660 format, but it's ISO-9660 Level 3, which not all operating systems can interpret (Win9x and WinNT can, with appropriate "redirectors" installed).
On the other hand, if you want to be able to add small amounts of data over time, it may be extremely useful. You can read the unfinalized discs on your system, so the data isn't inaccessible; it just can't be accessed on other systems that aren't also set up to do packet writing. You can overwrite files on CD-R media (the old data is still there, but the newer directory entry points to the new file), something that was very costly with multisession writes. And, of course, the risk of a buffer underrun is almost nonexistent.
Most backup software (by which I mean backing up your system, not "backing up" the latest game) uses packet writing. This can affect your ability to read backups from some operating systems, notably MS-DOS. See section (4-52).
As with CD-RW, it doesn't hurt to buy a recorder that supports it, but you're probably not missing much if you have one without it. (As of the year 2002, nearly all new recorders support both.)
Now, a reality check: sometimes packet-written discs "go funny". This could
be because the CD-RW media is wearing out, or because the computer locked
up when some data was pending but not yet written, or because the software
has bugs. Whatever the case, DO NOT write your only copy of valuable data
to a packet-written disc and keep adding stuff to it. If you do, there
is a good chance you will be making a contribution to the people listed
in section (6-2-6).
The format that has proven the least reliable of all CD formats is packet-written CD-RW media (which almost always uses fixed-length packets). Writing to a CD-R with variable-length packets is a big step up, especially since nothing is ever really erased from a CD-R. If it's important data, write it to a CD-R (with packet writing or, better yet, conventional disc-at-once recording) and then close the disc and don't write to it again.
Having had our reality check, I can point out that a HUGE number of people use packet writing every day, for the most part without even realizing it, and relatively few suffer for doing so. It's important to understand the risks and act appropriately.
There is no clear winner, but most current offerings are pretty good.
Platforms supported: Windows, Mac
See http://www.roxio.com/
This used to be sold as a separate product. As of November 2005 it wasn't listed on their web site, and it's hard to tell what products, if any, it is still included with.
UDF-based packet writing software. Check the compatibility list on the web site to see if it works with your CD recorder and your firmware revision level.
DirectCD for Windows versions older than 1.01 conflicted with some scanners. Be sure to check the Roxio web site for the latest version. Note that DirectCD for Windows 1.x and 2.x may not support the same set of drives on all operating systems; for example, 2.0 only worked with drives capable of using CD-RW media. If you're running WinNT, you need 2.x.
NOTE: There seems to be a great deal of misinformation about how to disable DirectCD for Windows. See section (3-45) for more information.
One other note about DirectCD for Windows: in some situations you may have trouble reinstalling it. If so, try removing (or renaming) scsi1hlp.vxd, usually found in c:\windows\system\iosubsys\.
Uninstalling DirectCD v3.01 or v3.01c may disable access to CD-ROM drives under WinXP and Win2K. See section (4-49) for details.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.cequadrat.com/
(CeQuadrat was purchased by Adaptec in July 1999, and is now part of Roxio.)
UDF-based packet writing software. Recent versions offer transparent data compression, potentially increasing the disc capacity.
Platforms supported: Windows (NT)
[ product has been discontinued ]
Packet writing software intended for shared environments.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
[ product has been discontinued ]
Originally released by JVC as "CD-R Extensions".
Does variable-sized packet writing that leaves you with an ISO-9660 Level 1 CD-ROM (constrast to the ISO-9660 Level 3 disc produced by some other packet writing solutions). This should make it possible to read the finalized CDs on operating systems other than Win95/NT.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.pinnaclesys.com/
UDF packet-writing software. Supports DVD-RAM and drag-and-drop audio CD creation. Compatible with discs created by DirectCD.
Comes with a backup package called InstantBackup.
Platforms supported: Windows (95)
[ product has been discontinued ]
Packet writing for CD-RW. Appears to be less ambitious but far simpler than its competitors.
Read-compatible with Roxio DirectCD (i.e. you can read DirectCD discs if you have this installed).
Also sold under the Sony label.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, 2K)
See http://www.ahead.de/
UDF packet-writing software. Only works with CD-RW discs.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.oaktech.com/products/recording_software/simplicd.html
Part of the SimpliCD package. UDF packet-writing for CD-RW discs.
[ Unclear if this is related to the SimpliCD product formerly published by Young Minds Inc. ]
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.ntius.com/ (demo available)
UDF packet-writing software. Uses Windows-Explorer-style interface. Only works with CD-RW discs.
Platforms supported: Windows (98, 2K)
See http://www.hp.com/ (for HP DLA)
Most users will encounter this as HP DLA, sold with a Hewlett-Packard drive. Some documentation is available from http://www.benq.com.sg/service/cdr/manuals/veritas/DLA%20User%20Guide.pdf.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://bhacorp.com/
UDF packet writing software for rewritable CDs and DVDs.
In general, no.
Do not assume that two packet-writing programs will coexist peacefully on the same system. Most won't. You may need to disable the CD recording features built into WinXP to get packet software to work.
Do not assume that discs written by one program will be readable by another. Many developers have deviated from the UDF standard when writing discs, so attempting to start a disc with one program and finish it with another is likely to end badly. It might work, it might appear to work but quietly fail, or it might fail outright.
Source code and ready-to-link libraries are available, but the more useful products tend to be more expensive. The library authors are usually CD-R software publishers themselves, and aren't about to put themselves out of business. Expect to sign a strict licensing agreement, if they agree to do business at all.
Source code for some of the packages (notably Joerg Schilling's "CD Record" and "CD Tools" by Dieter Baron and Armin Obersteiner) is available. See sections (6-1-20) and (6-1-23).
ASPI developer documentation and SDKs used to be available from http://www.adaptec.com/adaptec/developers/, but seems to have vanished. See http://www.hochfeiler.it/alvise/ASPI_1.HTM for an introduction, and ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/obsolete/adaptec/aspi_w32.txt for what's left of the Adaptec documentation.
Visit http://www.hochfeiler.it/alvise/cd-r.htm for a nice introduction to controlling a CD recorder.
The basic idea is to issue SCSI commands directly to the drive, via some standard interface. Windows has ASPI (courtesy Adaptec), WinNT and later have SPTI, and other platforms have their own approaches. ASPI is well documented (though you have to search for the docs), SPTI is not (but it's very straightforward, and some sample code exists). Descriptions of the SCSI commands can be found in the SCSI-2 and MMC specifications at ftp://ftp.t10.org/t10/, e.g. ftp://ftp.t10.org/t10/drafts/mmc2/mmc2r10.pdf, ftp://ftp.t10.org/t10/drafts/mmc3/mmc3r10.pdf, and ftp://ftp.t10.org/t10/drafts/s2/s2-r10l.pdf.
Some nice samples can be found here: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65147
Platforms supported: Windows, OS/2
See http://www.pointsoft.de/earchiv.html
API and SCSI device drivers.
Platforms supported: PC
See http://www.goldenhawk.com/
C++ class libraries. See the web site for licensing information.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP), UNIX (Linux, others)
See http://www.gearsoftware.com/
16-bit and 32-bit APIs for CD-R/CD-RW, DVD, tape drives, and SCSI hard disks.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.vob.de/us/products/professional/WizardSDK/
See http://www.vobinc.com/
[ It looks like this may have gone away when Pinnacle Systems purchased VOB in October 2002. ]
COM/ActiveX interface to CD writing functions. Not cheap.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.dialog-medien.de/html/acdwrite.ocx.html (demo available)
ActiveX/OCX interface for writing audio CDs. Develop audio CD recording applications with Visual Basic or other ActiveX environments.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.eciusa.com/theengine.htm
A utility that can be integrated into other software to provide "one-click" recording.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, ME, XP, NT, 2K)
See http://www.nugroovz.com/
[ This product line was taken over by NuMedia Soft in January 2003. See section (6-6-9) for their products. ]
ActiveX and COM components to develop CD-R/W applications for audio and data.
Other products from the same company are CDRipperX (audio extraction), WMAEncoderX (encode WMA), MP3EncoderX (encode MP3), and VorbisEncoderX (encode Ogg Vorbis).
Platforms supported: Windows (95, ME, 2K, XP)
See http://tech.ashampoo.com/plugburn.php
See http://www.ashampoo.com/
C library for adding recording features to applications. Supports audio and data CDs and CD copying. User interface code included.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, ME, XP, NT, 2K)
See http://www.numediasoft.com/
ActiveX components for developing CD recording applications.
DVD recording is also available.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.sonic.com/
A collection of APIs for CD and DVD authoring.
See section (3-20) for commentary. Remember, if you're backing up less than 650MB of data and don't need fancy features like incremental backups, you don't *need* special backup software. Just write the files to a CD-R and put it in a safe place.
For fast, occasional backups of a disk partition or an entire disk, Norton Ghost is a good way to go for PCs. If you have a second disk or multiple partitions it can be a useful way to back up your C: drive before installing something that could muck up your system (like the drivers for a Creative Labs sound card). If you want full-featured incremental and remote backups, Veritas Backup Exec is probably a good place to start.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95)
See http://www.adaptec.com/
[ no longer available ]
Backup software designed to store data on CD-Rs. Allows incremental backups via multi-session writes, but backups aren't allowed to span multiple volumes. Doesn't support long filenames.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www8.pair.com/dmurdoch/programs/doslfnbk.htm
Saves the long filenames, so that you can use backup software that only knows about short "8.3" filenames. This is an alternative to the LFNBK program that comes with Win95.
Old versions are free, new versions are inexpensive.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT), Mac
See http://www.dantz.com/
Dantz's Retrospect 4.0 can make use of CD-R and CD-RW by using packet writing. Useful for backing up multiple machines on a network.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.veritas.com/products/
This was originally adapted for use with CD-R by Seagate Software, who appeared to have developed it out of Arcada Backup Exec. The Seagate Network and Storage Management Group was sold to Veritas in June 1999.
The consumer "Backup Exec Desktop 98" version works with Win95 and Win98. Separate versions are available for WinNT Workstation and WinNT Server.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP), OS/2
See http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/
(Looks like Ghost Software got purchased by Symantec.)
Ghost was created as a way to create boilerplate software installations and distribute them. It currently works rather well as a way of backing up an entire disk partition quickly. A "ghosted" image file can be spanned across multiple CD-Rs, and the backup set can be a bootable CD-ROM. Individual files can be extracted from the .GHO image files from a Windows application.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT4, 2K), DOS
See http://www.powerquest.com/
Drive Image 4.0 is a hard drive cloning program that includes CD-R/CD-RW support. Images may span multiple discs. It comes with "DataKeeper" to make automatic backups easier.
Platforms supported: Windows (3.1, 95, NT)
See http://www.centered.com/ (shareware)
Second Copy maintains a duplicate of your files on a different system or removable media. It runs in the background and constantly updates the backup. Useful for maintaining an archive of a few files; not meant for full-system backups.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.fileware.co.uk/products.htm (shareware)
Similar to Second Copy, but with a different feature set.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.novastor.com/backup/datasheets/cdrw.html
Backup software that is "CD-R aware". Requires drive-letter access to the drive, which has to be provided by another program (e.g. DirectCD).
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.roxio.com/
Image-based backup software. Included with Easy CD Creator 4.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.ntibackupnow.com/
Full backup software for CD-R/CD-RW. Includes data compression and automatically spans multiple discs. Supports file-level and image-level backups.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT)
See http://www.cequadrat.com/
(CeQuadrat was purchased by Adaptec in July 1999, and is now part of Roxio.)
Backup software, included as part of WinOnCD v3.7.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.duncanamps.com/disk2disk/ (demo available)
Inexpensive backup software for Windows. Requires drive-letter access to backup media, i.e. you need to have DirectCD or PacketCD installed. Does incremental and differential backups, and handles disc spanning.
Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K)
See http://www.pinnaclesys.com/
Packet-based backup software, included with VOB's InstantCD (6-1-35). [ I can't see info for it on the Pinnacle Systems page. ]
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.microsoft.com/
Right click on a hard drive icon, select "Properties", click on the "Tools" tab, and then click on "Backup". With a packet-writing program installed, this should work for simple tasks.
Platforms supported: Novell
See http://www.portlocksoftware.com/dvd.htm
Supports access to various formats (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+RW) via Novell NetWare. Useful for backups and disaster recovery.
Platforms supported: Windows
See http://www.willowsoft.com/
Easy-to-use software for backing up data files. Supports file compression and spanning of large files across multiple discs.
You must have packet-writing software already installed in your system.
Platforms supported: Windows (98, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/ (shareware)
Hard drive partition imaging software. Creates block-by-block image snapshots to recordable CD and DVD formats.
When you buy retail software, you are paying for a license to use the program. Generally you are also paying for customer support that is provided at little or no additional charge.
When you buy a drive with bundled software, you are buying a version of the program for which customer support fees have not been paid. The software was provided to the hardware vendor at a reduced cost, so that the price of the package you buy is lower than the price of the drive plus the price of the software.
If you go to the store and buy the latest version of Fubar Software's Disc Writing Thing, you should contact Fubar Software for customer support. If you buy a new Frobozzco 12X SkyWriter that comes bundled with Disc Writing Thing, you will most likely be expected to contact Frobozzco with any problems you may have, because Fubar Software isn't being compensated for support costs.
FAQ Copyright © 2006 by Andy McFadden. All Rights Reserved.