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Exploring burning engine limitations

Microsoft has integrated more and more features in Windows XP that were previously available only through third-party applications.

One such feature is integrated support for CD burning. In addition to the CD burning issues already discussed in previous TechMails, you should be aware of a few other issues, as well.

The burning engine doesn't include packet writing, obtainable from third-party vendors. This has several consequences to how the engine works. For instance, you cannot delete individual files from the CD-RW; you can only erase the whole CD-RW. Additionally, you cannot format CD-RW discs. You can only erase them.

When you write files to your CD-R, the engine creates a new session, burns the files, and then closes the session. However, the disc is not closed, which means that you can still add files to the CD-R. The engine opens another session, burns files, imports the previous session, and closes the new session. This causes some overhead (21 MB for the first session and 12 MB for each additional session).