Formating CD's and DVD's in Windows 7 for data storage not music and videos.

Format a CD or DVD

Before you can burn files to a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Disc, the disc must first be prepared using a process called formatting. There are several ways to format a disc. Your choice of format determines which computers and other devices will be able to read the disc.

1. Insert a      recordable or rewritable disc into your computer's CD, DVD, or Blu-ray      Disc burner.
2. In the      AutoPlay dialog box that appears, click Burn files to disc using Windows      Explorer.
3. Type a      name for your disc in the Disc title box.
4. Click one      of the following formatting options:
   • Like a       USB flash drive

The disc will use the Live File System format.

- With a       CD/DVD player

The disc will use the Mastered format.

1. Click Next      to prepare the disc.

Now you can burn files to your disc using whichever method you selected. For more information about burning a CD or DVD, see Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Explorer.

When you format a CD or DVD, you can choose either the Live File System or Mastered format. Use the following information to help you determine which formatting option you should choose.

Where do you select “Live File System” or “Mastered”?

First: the window to format a CD-RW or a DVD-RW has no choice for ”Like a USB flash drive” or “Live File System” or“With a CD/DVD player” or “Mastered”.

Second: format a CD-RW in Windows 7 and insert it into a computer running Windows XP Service Pack 3, that is up to date, an you will get the blue error screen with the bold white text and your computer reboots. Not what the description, herein, of “Live File System” formatted CR-RW and DVD-RW states being able to function in Windows XP.

Sorry this system will not accept JPG screen shots that tells part of the problem better than words.

Live File System discs:

• Enable you      to copy files immediately to the disc by dragging them.
• Are      convenient if you want to keep a disc in your disc burner and occasionally      copy a few files at a time.
• Are convenient      because there is no lengthy recording step as there is with Mastered      discs. Each file is written to the disc as you drag it to the disc folder.
• Enable you      to save a new file directly to the disc.
• Enable you      to update or delete individual files.
• Enable you      to format the disc again when you use a rewritable disc, such as a CD-RW,      DVD-RW, or DVD-RAM.
• Might have      to be closed before      they can be used in other computers.
• Are      compatible only with computers running on Windows XP and later      versions of Windows.

Mastered discs:

• Enable you      to drag files to the disc and then burn all the files at once.
• Are      convenient if you need to burn a large collection of files.
• Are compatible with computers running older or current versions of the Windows operating system, a different operating system other than Windows, as well as consumer electronic devices such as CD players, DVD players, and Blu-ray Disc players.
• Might      require a large amount of free hard disk      space to burn (up to twice the capacity of the disc you're burning).