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Making Data Discs Using DirectCD
Copying Files to a DVD-Recordable Disc for the First Time
Before you can copy files to a DVD-Recordable disc, you must for-
mat it.
You can also format the disc to erase its data. Using Quick Format
for this purpose only deletes the internal directory where the files
are listed. You can no longer see the files, but the files are still there.
To format a DVD-Recordable disc:
1 Insert a blank DVD-Recordable disc into your DVD-
Recordable drive.
2 From the Select CD drop-down list box on the DirectCD main
window, select the disc you want.
3 Click Format CD. The Format dialog box appears.
4 In the Label text box, type a name to identify your disc.
The label can be up to 11 characters. You cannot use the
following characters in a label: \ / : ; * ? " < > | + = . , [ ].
5 If you want to enable data compression on the disc, select the
Enable Compression option.
Compression makes your files take up less space on the disc.
Once a disc has been formatted using compression, all data
will be compressed on the disc. The compression ratio varies
from approximately 1.5:1 to approximately 3:1, depending on
the type of files you copy to the disc.
To read the disc, you must either have DirectCD 5.0 installed or
have the UDF Reader installed. When you make a disc using
DirectCD, it automatically copies the UDF Reader for
Windows to the disc. When you insert the disc in a DVD-
Recordable drive, the reader will automatically ask if you want
to install it. To write to the disc using other DVD-Recordable
drives in other computers, you must use DirectCD 5.0.
6 Select the Format Type you want to use:
■ If you are formatting a blank DVD-RW or DVD+RW disc,
you have only one option: