[hpwolfe]

Are CD\R & CD\RW considered floppy disks? If not, what is considered a floppy disk?

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Hi there, here is a picture of a floppy disk. Floppy disks and floppy disk drives are old technology now, most new computers you buy don't even have one. If you look at purchasing a new motherboard to build a computer yourself, you'll find that they are phasing out the connector port, meaning you can't even add one to the computer!

CDs and DVDs are considered "optical media" (I think).



I hope this helps some.

Troy

[Troy]

Hi there, here is a picture of a floppy disk. Floppy disks and floppy disk drives are old technology now, most new computers you buy don't even have one. If you look at purchasing a new motherboard to build a computer yourself, you'll find that they are phasing out the connector port, meaning you can't even add one to the computer!

CDs and DVDs are considered "optical media" (I think).



I hope this helps some.

Troy

[vorybory]

Are CD\R & CD\RW considered floppy disks? If not, what is considered a floppy disk?

Floppy Disks also only generally contain 1.44 megabytes of storage data. Now days you can get almost 100 times that amount onto a single CD-R disk if you have a CD-Burner.

[Major Payne]

This is a good source on the history of the floppy with images and what is or isn't a floppy:

Floppy Disk

Ron

[hpwolfe]

My question is answered. The reason I asked is my CD burner kept telling me the disk could be used as a floppy.

hpwolfe

[Samm]

My question is answered. The reason I asked is my CD burner kept telling me the disk could be used as a floppy.

hpwolfe

Blank CDR's and CDRW's can be set up to be used like a floppy disk. This involves formatting the blank CDR/RW using packet writing software. Some CD burning programs include packet writing software, but XP also has this facility built into it.

Once the disc has been formatted (using either cd burning software that supports packet writing or XPs utility) you can then simply drag and drop files/folders on to it using My Computer or Windows Explorer etc (the same as you would with a floppy disk). This means you don't need to use CD burning software to burn files to the CD in sessions.

If you format a CDRW, you can also delete files/folders from the disc. You can also do this with formatted CDs with some packet writing programs but you won't be able to regain the space on the CDR. i.e. if you have 200MB of free space left on the CDR and you delete 50MB of files, you'll still only have 200MB of free space.

To format a CDR using XP:
Insert a new blank CDR/CDRW into the drive. After a few seconds, a box should appear on screen with some options in it. Select the 'click here to create data disk that will be accessible through a drive letter' option. This will format the CDR. Afterwards you should be able to access it from My Computer and drag & drop files on to it.

Alternatively, once the blank CDR/RW is inserted, using My Computer, you can right click on the files/folders that you wish to copy and select 'Send to' followed by your CDRW drive, in the drop down menu.