Why is it so hard to write Multi-Session discs with OSX?

My goodness, I've never had this trouble in Windows. Every software I've ever used (and we're talking packaged software that comes bundled as OEM with computers) has been able to write multi-session discs. And in XP, just whatever the heck is part of the o/s writes multi-session discs as par for the course.
But not OSX. So then I learned that I should get Toast. Toast can write mutli-session. I buy an external DVD unit (LaCie D2) that came bundled with Toast.
But it is Toast Lite. But I think, so what. It should do it.
But in the "Advance" tab of the recorder settings the "Write session" is greyed out. This is what you click on if you just want to write one session. "Write Disc" is the default and that closes the disc after one session.

I'm not very keen at this point to spend any more money. I'm also not prepared to upgrade my OSX at this point (even if that would do the trick). What is out there (free) that can write multi-session CD's or DVD's? Anything at all?

This is really ridiculous.

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.3.4), 1g ram

Posted on Sep 12, 2006 7:38 PM

Reply
9 replies

Sep 12, 2006 8:20 PM in response to !!

!!...

First of all, why is it so important to create a Multi-Session CD?

(Hereinafter refered to as: M/S-CDs)

A Window's PC friend told me that was a thing to do when the Blank CDRs used to cost some real money. Then the downside was poor readability from other machines. Overall archive and reliability stinks from there.

By the way, there was some tricks in Mac OS 10 to create M/S-CDs, but I haven't needed them.

Sep 13, 2006 4:41 AM in response to Ron JACKLE

not sure why i have to even answer this, but i will out of courtesy.

i use CD's to archive work that i have done.
i use them to organize the work.
my work is not always such that it would completely fill up a cd.
if i wrote to CD whenever i wanted to back up work (which frankly is not that often due to poor habits, but SHOULD be) then i would not fill up a CD each time.
if i did not fill up a CD each time (and mind you, i usually write to TWO of them with the same stuff at the same time) then I would have an awful lot of CD's to keep track of, and i have enough to do that try and dig through 300 cd's whenever i'm looking for something.

in other words, it would be idiotic to do it as you suggest.
but i will agree with you that CD's are very inexpensive, but that was never the reason for multi-sessioning in the first place.

Sep 13, 2006 11:03 AM in response to !!

!!...

"not sure why i have to even answer this, but i will out of courtesy.
&
In other words, it would be idiotic to do it as you suggest.


Sorry, but you got my motives all wrong. Idiotic? No, kind of like something Spock said on Star Trek. ..."Thats Illogical"

As we know burning isn't all that swift of a process on any machine. So I concluded it can become a time consuming project each time I thought it was necessary to burn a CD. Now add in the idea of M/S-CDs, to me it is something I don't have the time for.

I chose (circa 1999) to rely mostly on HD based backup. It is more swift of a process than burning, any day of the week. Then if I thought the data needed either portability or a second form of backup, I would burn a full session on to a CD. I can count them now as being a total of 15 CDs in one of those CD wallets in my safe.

My backup collection would consume an easy 1,000 CDs, if I chose only to burn my data. Instead it is mostly on 6 HDs in a managable setup.

...Ron

Sep 13, 2006 11:18 AM in response to !!

You can try the following (I have tried them all and they work)....
BurnXFree
http://www.hernansoft.com/downloads_en.html
CD Session Burner
http://www.sentman.com/burner/
DiscBlaze
http://www.radicalbreeze.com/blaze/index.shtml

or try below...


Multisession Burning
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/multisessioncds.html

I have tested this tutorial with three append procedures and it is functional..
1. Insert a blank CD.
2. Open Disk Utility.
3. From the Toolbar, click on "New Image" .... pop up menu appears...
• Save as: (file 1, file 2 or title of folder))
• Where: Desktop is the best choice
• Size: select size from pop up menu
• Encryption: optional
• Format: read/write disk image
4. Click "Create"
• On the desktop, a drive icon titled "file 1" will appear.. For each append procedure... file 2/file 3/file 4...etc .....
5. Go to Finder and locate the file/folder you want to copy.
6. Drag your file to the drive icon "file 1" .... not to the .dmg icon.
• There will be a brief flash as the drive puts your file in the image file.
7. Drag the drive icon "file 1" to the Trash... This is very important step !!
8. In Disk Utility click on "file 1.dmg" to highlight it.
9. In the menu bar, click on "Images">Burn. A pop up menu appears....
10. You may have to click on the triangle in the upper right corner, Then make the following selection.... some items will be grayed out, waiting for the CD to mount..
• Speed; Maximum possible
• Click on: Leave disk appendable
• After burning: click "Verify burn"
• Mount on Desktop
• Burn” (will change to Append after the first burn)
11. Insert CD and when mounted, click on Burn/Append
12. Wait... it will takes a while....CD will dis-mount and you will see ...
• burning
• writing track
• closing track
• closing session
• verifying
• burning was accomplished successfully

• But we're not done . For additional burns, you must create a new image "file 2.dmg"
Repeat steps (2-12).... as you append additional files, name them.."file 2/3/4..etc

• One disk will mount for each Burn/Append procedure

or try the following.....
BurnAgain http://freeridecoding.net/content/PROJECTS/01/burnagain.dmg
• BurnAgain will show only one CD icon on the desktop for Burn/Append...
BurnX Free http://www.hernansoft.com
CD Session Burner at..... http://www.sentman.com
DiscBlaze at ................. http://www.RadicalBreeze.com
provides a nice,neat interface for session burning..



george

Sep 13, 2006 11:20 AM in response to Ron JACKLE

ok ok, i'm sorry too. let's get together for a beer and be friends.

to each his own i guess. so far, i don't generate THAT much stuff. i do a specific and limited number of graphic projects each year, each of which easily fits on a CD, often with space left over. right now i'm looking at the shelf of stuff generated over the past 10 or so years (which include the duplicate CD's that I've stupidly never gotten around to moving to another location!) and they all total about 40 cd's. So, as you can perhaps see, if I didn't multisession, I could easily have generated twice if not triple that amount.

But considering that I've just recenly recovered this computer both from leaving it sitting in a parking lot and from a bad crash, I am considering purchasing an external HD, one of which would probably suffice for 3 different computers!

I'm pretty easy. :o)

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Why is it so hard to write Multi-Session discs with OSX?

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