On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:29:08 -0700, "Bill in Co."
wrote:

wrote:
What ever happened to the good old days where all that was needed was
a simple floppy disk, and files could be dragged and dropped from
Windows, or use the "copy command" from dos.

Those days are LONG gone.

After not even owning a CD player for years, I just bought an external
Iomega ZipCD player and recorder, connected to my USB port. After a
little hassle getting the drivers installed, it works fine, and I was
able to install a few CD's that have been sitting on the shelf for the
last several years.

On the other hand, I have never burned a CD or DVD or anything. This
drive came with Iomega Hot Burn Pro. I have played with it, but have
not yet purchased any blanks. One thing I am not sure whether to get
the Write once or Multi-write ones. Worse yet, which are which. In
the store they had R and RW. What do these letters mean? I thought
that R meant READ and RW meant READ-WRITE. But what good is a blank
CD that is only readable? The Walmart clerk did not know what I was
talking about (typical Walmart idiot), so I left the store not buying
any discs because I did not know what to buy.

Then, when I finally do get the disks, what do I do next?

The software has the following options to select.
Music Disc
Data Disc
MP3/WMA Disc
Disc Copy
CD Label

MP3's are music, so why is there both a "music disc" and a "MP3/WMA"
option?

Just two different formats. Keep researching it.

I am sure the Data Disc is for backups and saving files off the hard
drive. And I know that CD Label makes labels (which my laser printer
would unlikely be able to make.

Then I started to select a bunch of MP3 files on my harddrive and it
told me that they will not all fit. Well, DUH..... Why does it not
tell me where to stop, assuming I will need several discs?

Do I need to manually copy the files to a special directory until I
know I have no more than 700 megs (or is it 650, since several
websites do not agree and list 650 on some and 700 on other sites for
the max capacity).

Then it says that MP3's can not be played on a standard CD player on a
stereo. What's the point of putting them on a CD if they wont play
(other than as a backup).


I spent half a day reading help files and websites, and this seems to
be the most complicated thing any computer can do.

A half day isn't really long enough to get into this stuff with all the
questions you have. It will take more research than that.

Also, you might try the (more appropriate_ windows multimedia newsgroups,
when you get to a specific question or two.


Thank You

You just answered my question by not answering anything. I can see
now this is far too complicated to answer, and thus means it's too
complicated for someone as old as me. I already wasted too much time
on this nonsense.

Just like everything these days, the mindset of the young generation
is to make everything as complicated, costly, and difficult as
possible. I was raised with the "KISS" theory (Keep It Simple
Stupid). I'll just use memory sticks to backup and forget the CD
burning. At least I got a CD player now.

Those memory sticks are one of the few advances for computers in the
last 10 years that are worth anything. I'll stick with Win98 and Dos
programs and leave the rest of the world suffer with all the bloated
garbage they sell these days. In my opinion, the older the software
the better it is.