There are a number of programs that allow CD/RW disks to be used as giant floppies. Unfortunately, it is necessary to spend time formatting the disks before they can be used.

How about having stores sell preformatted CD/RW's the same way they sell preformatted floppies? People who were planning to do a session-at-once burn could use unformatted disks if desired (they'd get no benefit from the pre-formatting), but those wanting the free read/write abilities of UDF disks could safe the time that would otherwise be required to format them.
-- supercat, Feb 08 2002

Verbatim's formatted CD-RW disk. http://www.verbatim...ucts.cfm?pro_id=175
[francois, Jun 11 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Good idea. Believe it or not, floppies used to be sold unformatted.
-- phoenix, Feb 08 2002


phoenix: I know. I don't think preformatted floppies were common until well after 1.44MB MS/DOS was the dominant format. While preformatted floppies have basically replaced unformatted ones, though, I would not expect nor hope for such a thing to happen with CD/RW's. It is sorta nice being able to tell at a glance whether a disk has been used, and preformatted disks would lose that "feature".
-- supercat, Feb 09 2002


I was under the impression that different CD/RW drives use different formats. If this is indeed the case, then it wouldn't really be practical to sell preformatted disks, at least until all the drive makers could standardize on a format.
-- rizniz, Feb 09 2002


rizniz: NO. how can different drives use different formats if the cd is expected to be able to be used anywhere, it would kinda defeat the purpose. But: DVD/+RW is the most stupidest format ever invented, it's not compatible with anything but those specific drives, and y not just wait a month and buy a full DVD burner for only a bit more cost.

I would think that using CD/RW in the same manner as a floppy would cut its usable life drastically. Also the disk would become exessivly fragmented wasting plenty of space, and slowing the read process considerably. Normal CD/R's are cheaper than floppy disks these days so just multi session one and leave it in the drive, once it's full, play Frisbee with it.
-- Taiti, Feb 09 2002


I believe that this is baked. I remember a CD that came with a Gateway computer and was manufactured by Vertibaim (I think that's correct). It was formated in UDF with a DirectCD logo on the front.
-- joshguy875, Jun 11 2002


It is baked. See link.

Taiti, using a CD-RW as a floppy (that is, for short term data transport) will reduce the usable life, just as using a floppy as a floppy will. But not as much as you imply; a given area of a CD-RW disk can be written to (nominally) at least 1000 times before failure. It's certainly more economical than a multisession CD-R disk, which can hold a maximum of around 50 sessions.
-- francois, Jun 11 2002


francois: Thanks for the link. I wonder if they made those back in February when I posted the idea? I could understand getting fishboned for an idea being baked, but otherwise don't understand the mass emnity toward the idea, especially since there's apparently enough market for a company to pursue (don't know how much their disks cost, though).
-- supercat, Jun 12 2002


So format a handful of CD-RWs and list them on eBay. If it's a good idea, you'll know soon enough.
-- whlanteigne, Jun 03 2003



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