More about packet writing and Windows XP
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After much trial, error, and gnashing of teeth, I was finally able to use InCD to format a CDRW and allow me to use it as a giant floppy.
I honestly can’t say what it was I did that finally got it to work, but here’s what I learned along the way:
- Many people in many forums have said that you have to turn off Windows’s ability to write on the drive. I’ve discovered just the opposite to be true. I had to allow Windows to write on the disk to get InCD to format it. Once the format was complete, InCD must’ve turned OFF that ability. I couldn’t copy a full directory onto the disk until I right-clicked on the drive letter, selected ‘Properties’, then the ‘Recording’ tab, then checked the box that said ‘Enable Writing on this device’. Individual files copied okay, but a directory (I hate the term ‘folder’!) produced an error that the CD was read-only until I did this.
- Dragging & Dropping entire directories is usually (but not necessarily ALWAYS) a problem, but using copy & paste to copy directories to the MRW disk seems to work fine. Go figure. Sometimes I can’t stand intermittent problems.
- Even if the cd does include a valid ‘autorun.inf’ file, it probably won’t autostart and ‘AutoPlay’ probably won’t appear in the context menu for that drive. You’re more than likely going to have to start your own programs. I say ‘probably’ because sometimes it worked, and all I did was remove and re-insert the disk then it didn’t work. In short, don’t count on the autoplay feature.
The long and the short of it is that, while I was finally able to get InCD to work with Windows XP, it isn’t nearly as reliable as it was under ‘98. Thank you Microsoft for releasing a BROKEN operating system and then refusing to support the one that DID work.
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