Just wanna use my cd-rw like a floppy

[anotherDell59]

I had been using a cd-rw to store master copies of files like my address book, so I carried the disk from home (XP machine) to work (Windows 2000 machine). I could write to the cd-rw on each machine, now both machines indicate the "folder is read-only." What's the simplest way to format a cd-rw so I can use it like a giant floppy, allowing me to rewrite files, drag and drop files, etc. THANKS.

[kiosk]

You'll have a lot of compatibility issues if you even try doing that - CDRWs are very "linear" media and don't work well unless they are written from start to end. You could get away with open burn sessions, but that's a very half-assed solution and usually only works with a computer where you originally recorded the media in question (so it's basically useless for transferring files from one computer to another).

What you need is an USB memory stick. They've grown real cheap these days, and they're much more portable, reliable and sometimes even faster than CDRW media.

[Sylvander]

You need a "Packet-Writing" program installed on each PC, and you format the CD-RW disk using that before attempting to write to the disk.

"DirectCD" was the prog I used to use with Win98.
"HP DLA" is what I'm now using with Win2000Pro.
I believe XP has its own prog included with the OS.

[Paul Komski]

What is important is that you use the same burning software to firs format and later read and write the CDRWs in all the computers that you want to use these "giant floppies" on. Nero's InCD and Roxio's DirectCD would be two of the best known packet-writing parts of the Nero and Roxio burning suites of programs. The OS (as long as it supports the software) is then immaterial.

WinXP has native burning software but it burns in sessions and is not a packet writing utility so it doesn't prepare the CDRWs as "giant floppies". There is no drag n drop using WinXP's native software for example.

Personally speaking I find this software to be now redundant (its slow to format the disks for example) and use cheap flash memory usb drives in their stead. If you were using Nero at home then InCD Reader (http://www.nero.com/nero6/enu/Support_Tools_InCD_4_Reader.html) could be installed on the work machine to read the disks.