Recently I purchased a new computer running Windows XP Service Pack 2. Unlike my previous computer, this new computer does not have a floppy drive. On my old computer, I used the floppy drive to save backups of documents. On my new computer, I am attempting the same thing but instead doing backups to CD-RW disks. However, whenever I attempt to save a file to the CD-RW (D) drive from within an application (e.g. Microsoft Word) the following message appears: ‘You do not have access to the folder D. See your administrator for access to this folder’. I am able to successfully save the files to my hard drive, and then copy them to the CD-RW disk using the Windows XP in-built CD writing function. A related problem is when opening a document on a CD-RW disk and modifying the contents, then attempting to save the file back to the CD, the following error appears: ‘Cannot save the file D: est.doc. The file exists and is marked Read Only’. How can I write files to CD like my old floppy disks?

As you mentioned, you are trying to use CD-RW disks like floppy disks (i.e. writing to the disk directly through applications). While Windows XP does have in-built support for writing to recordable CDs (i.e. CD-R and CD-RW disks) Windows does not support saving data directly to a CD from within applications. Likewise, you cannot open the file located on a CD-RW disk, modify the file and then save the file back to the CD-RW (i.e. writing-over the file already stored on the CD).

Instead, you will need to use the conventional Windows XP method for writing to CDs. This involves dragging/copying the files you wish to copy to CD, onto the CD-RW drive icon in Windows. These files are then copied to a ’staging area’ (i.e. a temporary area where files waiting to be written to CD are stored). Once all the files to be written are in the staging area, you click the ‘Write these files to CD’ button to write all the files to the CD in a batch. For a full description of Windows XP CD recording, check: support.microsoft.com/kb/279157.

There are third-party CD writing applications which allow CD-RWs to be treated like floppy disks. An example is Nero InCD 4 (www.nero.com/nero6/eng/InCD_4.htm) which is included as part of Nero 6 Reloaded. However, such applications are not always reliable and could result in the data written to CD being corrupted. This is especially the case with files such as Word documents, which can easily become corrupted if interrupted during the write process.

I recommend you just use the Windows XP inbuilt CD writing capability to write the data to CDs in one batch. If you are using a CD-RW, and wish to write over the data already on the CD-RW disk, you will need to format the CD (which will delete all data off the CD) and then write the new data to the CD.

Windows XP also supports the creation of multi-session CDs. This will allow you to add data to the CD until the CD is full. You don’t need to write all the data at once, you can write new data at different times (i.e. you can write multiple ’sessions’ to the CD). However, you cannot write over data already on the CD. This creates a problem if you have a file which you wish to backup to CD, but there is already a file on the CD with the same name. A work around for this issue is each time you write to that CD, create a folder on the CD with a unique name (e.g. the current date/time, such as 2612050930 for 26th December 2005, 9:30am). Then, put the data you wish to write to the CD within that folder, on the CD. Again, next time you write data to the CD, create another folder with the current date/time and write the new data into that folder. Because the data is being written into folders with different names, there are no name conflicts. So, you can keep writing data to the CD until the CD is full.