How to format a CD-RW automatically or in a Batch job 1

[michaelharrington]

How to format a CD-RW automatically or in a Batch job

On windows 98 I need to format a CD for an overnight backup job. I need the Cd to be blank to enable the backup to work so I want to delete the old contents but automatically without user intervention. The back up is all task scheduled at the moment and I do not want to have the user to remember to format or erase the cd each day as this is only asking for problems!

I have tried a DOS command format E: but it errors saying it “cannot format a network drive! “

Is there anyway I can do this ?

I have contacted the people who provide the software I use (Iomega hotburnpro) but they say their software cannot do this and can offer no advice.

Can anyone help me?

Many thanks

Michael

 

[kjv1611]

Well, maybe a couple of possiblities would be to use some sort of scheduling software. For instance,

http://www.rjlsoftware.com

has software that will run any application at whatever time or frequency you specify. it's meant to be a prank, but it can be used as a utility, i would think...
I would imagine the Nero or Roxio would have something along these lines if nothing else..

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[joemck2004]

Am I right that the trouble here is either a lack of command line options or an "are you sure" dialog? This seems to be present in most CD burning programs. I've seen a keyboard/mouse macro program that runs in the system tray. Such a program might help, but the only ones I've seen are 30-day shareware.

 

[michaelharrington]

Joe

There is no dialogue box. I just cannot format a CD using DOS -without getting an error. Format E: does not work, I have not tried and extra line options.

I would have assumed there would be a method of formatting a CD from DOS.
thanks for your advice

Michael

 

[joemck2004]

Format doesn't support CDs. Try CDTOOLS.EXE from

http://www.goldenhawk.com/freeware.htm.

It seems to be command line driven and says it has a feature to erase CD-RWs. If there's some kind of "are you sure" prompt, just redirect in a text file with any needed input.

CDTOOLS will only work if you just need the disc erased. I used to use Nero InCD, a program that integrates with explorer to allow you to save files directly to a CD-RW. It used UDF 1.5 and you had to format a CD with it before use, which consisted of erasing and scanning for bad sectors. It used the multiread function of the CD-RW drive to overwrite files as needed. What I use now simply burns multisession ISO discs. It doesn't have to format, and the resulting disc can be read in computers without a UDF 1.5 driver, but the CD fills up as if it were a multisession CD-R, rather than overwriting deleted files. When it's full I have to fully erase it. If your program requires some sort of UDF formatting or bad sector scan, there aren't any utilities that can do that, as each program uses its own special format. (A raw CD image would work if it weren't for the bad sector scan, which is unique to each disc.)

 

[zepper]

Roxio's DirectCD is supposed to format CD-RW on the fly.. but it only works within Windows as most CD writing software does.
.bh.


He who dares not offend cannot be honest. -- Thomas Paine.