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WinXP's CD writer?
I have a Document folder containing the latest version of all my downloaded software programs on a rewritable CD. Can I erase just that one folder with an updated one, or must I reformat the whole CD disk with Microsoft's CD writer (WinXP Home Edition)?
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Can't do it. XP has a very basic writer utility. If you want what you are asking about you need to buy a fully operational software package.
The specific utility is called DLA, Direct Library Access (different software vendors may call it something else). To make it work you need to format the disk so it is treated like a drive. But in doing this you will loose space on the CD.
I have found that is more trouble than it's worth.
My sentiments exactly. There is software such as DLA, InCD, DirectCD which, at first work just fine. Then one day a CDRW contents vanish and you start getting errors on a few CDRWs. The system you worked so hard on seems to crumble around you.
It's very simple why this happens. The two reasons I will note besides simple CD smudges and scratches are...
1. CDRW erasure cycles.
1,000. That's it. Anything beyond that is gravy. When you use the CDRW as a disk drive, the cycle count is "burned up" at a faster rate and you may actually wear out the CDRW media. Many will not heed a warning sign and replace the some to fail CDRW and then just lose the CDRW media. A shame since the blank is under 1 buck.
2. CDRW Drive aging.
After about 1 year, the LASER can begin to lose power. There is a power calibration that is done at each write session but heat and aging will take its toll and what used to work will fail. You'll see many posts where the CDRW drive has failed and the poor owner is franticly searching for "drivers" to fix it. I'm the lucky one that flunks the drive quickly and slips in a new CDRW to test if that's it. Others will spend a few months looking for another way.
-> In closing...
If you use a CDRW recording software and just erase, then record your new collection, you can be sure that it's on there and in a format that can be read by most PCs. If you don't have CD recording software beyond what XP provided, here's something I use. It's free.
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
Bob
Thank you both for your very helpful advice. I have a CD copy of Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator 6, which I used when my OS was WinMe. I never got around to installing Roxio's CD writer on my new OS system (WinXP Home Edition), as I only did minor backups occasionally. Guess I'd better install it, so that I can do selective deletion of my backup disk files. 
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