Off topic: CD-R

[Patricia M Godfrey pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

I'm going to need some kind of high-capacity removable media drive for my
new system and am wondering about others' experiences with CD-R. I have a
CD burner on my old system and we have one over at the office. I'm not
happy with either. Mine is fairly old, and by a small company
(SmartnFriendly) now out of business. The office's is an HP. Both are
running Adaptec/Roxio's Easy CD Creator. Straight CD-Rs are OK, except
for the occasional unreadable disk. It's Direct CD that's problematic.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes, even after you "close" the disk, it's
unreadable in a CD drive (as opposed to a CD-R drive). Sometimes it's
unreadable even in a CD-R, and causes the system to lock up tighter than
a drum. Now I have a disk that, having been read OK in a plain CD, cannot
be read in the CD-R where it was created. Direct CD apparently CANNOT be
used at all with either CD-RWs or mini-CDs.
I need Direct CD or something like it. But if this is, as I'm coming to
suspect, a technology that just isn't here yet, I may have to go with a
750 Mb Zip Drive, though I resist and resent the outrageous cost of ZIP
cartridges. On the other hand, I've never had to toss a ZIP cartridge
(knock wood); I've tossed dozens of coasters (and I am not burning
music--so-called--tracks, but backing up and porting data or downloaded
apps). Any one else have any experience with Direct CD? Do more recent
burners handle it better? Do other apps (e.g. Nero Burning Rom) do a
better job than Roxio? Thanks.
Patricia