SO Embarrassing I can only ask it here

[Alanfc]

CD-RW Overwrite vs. New ?

I have Nero Express. It was bundled with my TDK CD-RW machine.

I use it to back up big projects as Data (not Audio) to CD. Using CD-RW discs

The files are small enough to fit 2-3 generations of the project.

I want to save them separately/consecutively on one disc so its like:
1. Backup 1 Apr 13 122 mb
2. backup 2 Apr. 17 157 mb etc....

But I keep overwriting the original and I can't figure out why. I have plenty of CD space and I don't want to overwrite (because I've heard that can affect data if overwritten too many times). It has something do do with "Session/multi-session" and "Disc at once" but I've tried every permutation of these options and can't get it .

Does it have something to do with the naming of the disc? Or re-naming the original big file I'm copying off my hard drive?

The weird thing, to ME anyways, is that when I put the CD into my CDRW machine, the Windows folder showing the contents of the drive show only one item, my latest overwrite at its proper file size (of a single project) .. .... But in the Nero Express view showing disc contents, it shows all the saves I'd done with all the proper file sizes of the 2 or 3 versions I've saved .

Very frustrating because its gotta be some major obvious thing I'm missing here. I can't find any mention of it in the 131 page Nero Express manual - of overwriting vs. adding !

Any patient ones out there that can help me?

thanks

 

[Nosferous]

If you don't trust the data to be over-written why don't you use CD-Rs they are cheaper and you can still to multi-session CDs.

What happens when you open a CD in nero that was previously burned with nero on a multi-session CD. Nero checks the location those contents on the CD-R/W were originally copied from. If anything has been changed it automatically updates those contents, rather than adding the new additions.

So, there's either an option in nero to prevent this.
OR,
before you open the CD in Nero, rename the MAIN folder for the project.

Like it it was: "Audio 1" when you originally wrote the files to CD.
Before you open nero rename the folder to "Audio 1 V1"
then when you open Nero, it won't see any changes since the original source will no longer be there,

Then just add "Audio 1 V1" next to the original "Audio 1"

At the least that process will work until you find an option for Nero to not auto-update.

 

[Alanfc]

Nosferous-
this is actually what I'm looking for.

And I think that since theres no more that 3 or 4 generations of any given project I do, I will go to CD-R and just make a new copy each time. I don't don't think I need to even mess with overwriting.

So your idea is to rename the big project file on my hard drive each time, which will make Nero think its something different- and therefore give it its own spot on the CD. This is good

thanks alot

 

[Nosferous]

Exactly.

I just checked Nero out on that auto-update thing, and I don't see an option to disable it. So, it looks like you'll have to rename the folder.

Also, with some CD-R/W drives.

When you insert a multi-session CD-R, if you go to my computer and right-click on the CD-R/W drive and go to properties.

Sometimes you can go to past sessions and re-read the data.
So, if you have one of those drives, you can just not bother renaming the folder and your up-to-date data will be right up front on the CD-R.

But if you need to back track you can go back to past written sessions, there may even be a program that does this incase it's not directly built into your CD-R/W drives functions.