Read "Direct CD" disk?

Steve W · 10-22-2008, 08:49 AM

Just a wild stab-in-the-dark here: I have some CDs written in the days when I used to run Windows 98, and they are created in a Roxio format called "Direct CD". Are there any Linux programs that would enable me to recover the data, or close the disk so it can operate as a normal data CD would?

Direct CD enabled files to be dragged-and-dropped straight onto the disk, in the days when session-writing was the norm. But until you closed the disk, only Direct CD could read the data...

pinniped · 10-23-2008, 02:05 AM

You can try your luck with any front-end to the cd burner - like xcdroast - see if the previous sessions are recognized and if you can "fix" the disc. Good luck - a lot of those schemes were proprietary and you just couldn't read the data without the right driver.

michaelk · 10-23-2008, 05:55 AM

DirectCds use the UDF filesystem. I assume that Ubuntu includes UDF support in their kernel and all you need to do is mount the cd.

Steve W · 10-23-2008, 02:41 PM

Okay, thanks. I did try mounting the CD in the first place, but no luck. I'll try a few burner programs and see if I have any luck.

TB0ne · 10-23-2008, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve W

Okay, thanks. I did try mounting the CD in the first place, but no luck. I'll try a few burner programs and see if I have any luck.

Did you try a generic mount, or did you specify the udf filesystem type?

Steve W · 10-25-2008, 01:45 AM

Well I guess I just popped the CD in the drive, and it whirred round for a minute, not picking any indexing information up. Can I specify the filesystem type before/after/during a mount then? In standard Ubuntu?

b0uncer · 10-25-2008, 02:37 AM

When running 'mount' just give the -t option along with the wanted filesystem:

Code:

mount -t udf /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom