Thats Fine As Long as The Computer Does Not Burn In A Fire. Have A Great Day John S. Wilkinson WILKINSON, McCOTTER, GREENWELL - Maryland DELAMAR, McCOTTER - North Carolina -----Original Message----- From: Allan Plucinik [mailto:allan.plucinik@adelphia.net] Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 1:29 AM To: FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [FO] Backing up Files to CD-R Yes, it is true that CD-RW media is usually only readable on the same unit that burned the CD. But I still think it is a good backup. Because even if the worst case scenario happens where my PC is dead as a doornail, all is not lost. I have two options: 1. Eventually my PC is going to be repaired so I'll have access to my hard drive again or even if I lost all data on the hard drive, at least I still have the data backed up on the CD-RW disk. The CD-RW drive will be operational again. 2. I buy a new PC or use another PC that is available to me. In which case I remove the CD-RW drive from the old PC and install it in the new PC including the same CD burning software. There shouldn't be any problem restoring the data. This might seem like a lot of work, but this type of scenario should be a very rare occurrence and hopefully unlikely to happen anyway. As for needing a CD-R disk in order to share data with others, yes the CD-RW disk won't be very useful. In that situation I would simply burn the data to a CD-R on an as-needed basis. The data on CD-RW disk is intended for my own personal backup & restore, not for sharing data. Allan Plucinik Colorado Springs, CO Tom Longman wrote: > One important reason to use CD-R instead of CD-RW is that CD-RW media is usually only readable on the same unit that "burned" the CD, and often times requires that same program as was used originally when writing the CD. This can easily preclude sharing the CD with others, but also means that you might not be able to read your CD on your CD-ROM drive, should you have to replace the unit for whatever reason. > > Tom ==== FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS Mailing List ==== GETTING THE MOST OUT OF FAMILY ORIGINS by Bruce Buzbee - FO DEMO http://formalsoft.com NO WEB ACCESS? Write to FormalSoft@aol.com for ordering information.