[tonbo0422]

Believe it or not in this day and age i have never, ever burned a CD-RW.

I have all the tools: OS X, Toast Titanium 5.1.2, a CD-RW drive (G4 733) and a CD-RW blank disc.

But Toast doesn't seem to have an option for "Burn CD-RW." When I tried to burn the disc anyway I got a message saying it was "Write-protected."

Huh? Do I have to erase the blank disc first? Do I drag and drop? Use something other than Toast?

Can I use the CD-RW as a bootable disc?

Frankly, I've never seen the use for CD-RWs . . . the whole point of being able to burn CDs is that the data should be permanent . . . but what do I know

[ranga]

Try erasing the CD-RW, that might solve your problem.

Here's how I normally erase CD-RWs in Toast:

1. Select Erase from the Recorder Menu. This will bring up a dialog asking
how you want to erase the disk.
2. Choose "Quick Erase".
3. Click "OK" in the next dialog as well (its a confirm dialog as I recall)

Wait for it to erase and then you should be able to record by clicking
the Record button or selecting Record from the Recorder menu. Toast
uses the same "Record" button for burning all sorts of media.

I use CD-RWs occasionally mostly for incremental backups and music. I
like making random mixes of songs and then burning them to CD-RW, when
I get tired of listening to those songs I just burn a new set of songs.

--ranga

[Scotttheking]

Off to OSX - Gen

[tonbo0422]

Thanks, Ranga, I'll try it!

--Nick

[tonbo0422]

Whoops, no go.

I try to Quick Erase (or erase) and I get the following:

The driver reported an error:
Sense Key = ILLEGAL REQUEST
Sense code = 0 x 27
WRITE PROTECTED

However, the disc info says there are 650 MB free on the disc.

Could this have something to do with the drive not working with OS X?

[Nai no Kami]

You should be able to record your CD-RW without having to erase it first. I did it with no problem (using Toast).
However, you can erase your disc using both Toast and Disk Utility (under the Utilities folder stored in the Applications folder). Should one fails (like Toast here), you have the other option to try.
Just in case, it is impotant to point out that the main (and only practical by the time) difference between a CD-R and a CD-RW is that you can re-use it. When a CD-R is burned, there is nothing else that may be done except than reading from it (we are not dealing neither with multisession recording, packet writing or Mt. Rainer format here); when you burn a CD-RW you are able to erase all of its contents and use it again.

It is possible that the culprit of yout problem may be OS X or Toast. To figure this out, you should boot into OS 9 and launch Toast (which launches fine in OS 9)and try to burn. If you are successful, the culprit is OS X; if you are not, the culprit is Toast (which uses its own drivers).
I have a similar problem when I try to burn multisession CDs. I am able to burn them in OS 9, but I get an error if I try to do that in OS X.

If the culprit is Toast, you can still burn from the Finder. You insert the blank CD and the Finder prompts you to choose the format. Once chosen, you simply drag the contents you want to burn and choose Burn Disc from the Finder menu or try to eject it.

If what you want is to treat a CD-RW as a "Super Floppy", there is no way you can do that neither in OS X nor in Toast unless Mt. Rainer fomat or packet writing is supported by OS X.
However, you can use Toast (and another utility made in RealBasic which name eludes me now; try searching "multisession" at Versiontracker.com) to
fill your disc in a not-all-at-once way. This is called multisession recording. While you may add files incrementally and even "erase" others, that erasing process does not free up the space in the disc.

HTH,
If you need further explanation, drop me a line.

NnK

(edited typos)

[ 05-22-2002: Message edited by: Nai no Kami ]

[tonbo0422]

>>To figure this out, you should boot into OS 9 and launch Toast (which launches fine in OS 9)and try to burn. If you are successful, the culprit is OS X; if you are not, the culprit is Toast (which uses its own drivers).

I tried This using the OS 9 version of Toast and I get exactly the same error message.

>If the culprit is Toast, you can still burn from the Finder. You insert the blank CD and the Finder prompts you to choose the format. Once chosen, you simply drag the contents you want to burn and choose Burn Disc from the Finder menu or try to eject it.

I tried this too. I was able to drag the files to the CD and everything looked like it was copying fine. However, when I dragged the CD to the trash to eject it, I got a "Burn this disc before ejecting?" I didn't know what that meant so I just clicked eject.

Then, the CD didn't mount in my other G4. Did I have to click "Burn" when I got the dialog box?

I had no idea CD-RW was so complicated. And it doesn't seem as though I can burn a bootable CD-RW either.

Someone suggested using DiscBurner, but I thought Toast was the top-of-the-line . . . it just doesn't seem to particularly support CD-RW. And one would think by now OS X would have some native app to burn CD-RWs. Maybe there is, I just didn't see it.

Thanks for the help.

Nick

[Xeo]

Sorry, I am in a hurry so I haven't read everything. This could be answered already. Have you tried different CD-RWs? It could be a bad disc. I've had several discs that are no good.

[ranga]

Hi,

Have you tried burning a regular CDR with Toast in OS X? If not, give that
a shot, since Toast might not be fully compatible with your drive.

If you can burn CDRs, then make sure your disk is a CD-RW. The error msg.
you posted sounds like the drive is reporting that the disk can't be
erased. Even if it is a CD-RW, sometimes it may not be erasable because of
scratches.

Another question, does the disk show up in the finder when you put it in
the CD-RW drive?

If so, you may need to erase it using Disk Utility (located in the
/Applications/Utilites folder). When you lauch Disk Utility, just click on
the disk in the left hand frame and then select the Erase tab. The rest of
the procedure should be straight-forward.

Once you erase it, the disk should be automatically ejected. Launch
Toast and then stick the disk in and try burning it then. I think that
Toast has a problem burning/erasing CD-RWs that are mounted by the finder.

I was able to drag the files to the CD and everything looked like it was copying fine. However, when I dragged the CD to the trash to eject it, I got a "Burn this disc before ejecting?" I didn't know what that meant so I just clicked eject.

You should click the "Burn" button, otherwise the Finder won't burn your
files to the disc.

HTH,

--ranga