Remove ‘Read Only’ attributes on CD files

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An acquaintance of mine told me once (long forgotten) about a little utility that would remove the “Read Only” attribute from files copied to a CD R/RW so that you could either read them or copy (use) them on another PC other than your own. Does anyone know of any freeware applications that would do this?

Here’s my particular situation. I have burned all my downloaded programs to a CD RW using Nero on my XP machine and also copied them from the CD RW to a CD R. But when I put either of these disks in the CD ROM of my Win 98SE machine, in Windows Explorer the contents of that disk aren’t displayed….. i.e., blank. I know about Nero’s “EasyWriteReader.exe” that you can install on another PC that doesn’t have Nero installed that would allow that PC to access files on a CD that were written with UDF packet writing software, i.e, Nero in this case, or like the CD R that was copied from the CD RW. But to take advantage of this, you would have to put this utility on a floppy and install it first before being able to use the data on the CD RW. I am hoping that a utility that would remove the “Read Only” attribute from the files on the CD RW and the CD R would work just as well???

Jeff

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When copy any file from ANY CD there are Read only, and one MUST change the properties to the remove this setting. I use the properties settings within Windows explorer to mak these changes. Just select the files and right click and select Properties.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Dave,

The problem is that I CANNOT read any of the files on either the CD RW or the CD R (copied files from the CD RW) and created on my XP machine using Nero, on my Win 98SE machine.) If that were possible, then the problem of changing attributes of these files wouldn’t be necessary, hehe. The problem is that the files on neither of these disks can be read (they are invisible; i.e., when I put either of these disks into the CD ROM of the Win 98SE machine, they are not recognized.) Yet on my XP machine, the disks are recognized and the files are visible and can be copied to my HD, etc.

Further, if I put my CD RW into my XP machine’s CD ROM and a blank CD R into the burner, I cannot copy the files from the CD RW to the CD R now. There is always an error “Reading” the CD RW in the “Copy” utility. See the error dialogue below:

Jeff

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Sounds like a job for ISOBuster. That should at least allow you to recover the files on the CD.

If you created them using the built-in CD-ROM burning service in XP, it’s probably because it creates open session CDs that don’t always work after the fact. Nice concept, but it doesn’t work very well in my experience.

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Mark,

I don’t use XP’s CD Burning utility…… I likewise had too many problems with that at the very beginning. Perhaps you missed it, but I’m using Nero 5.5.9.0 to burn all my CD R’s and InCD 3.31.0 to burn my CD RW’s. I’ll take a look at this ISOBuster you recommended and see if it is applicable to my particular problem.

Jeff

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(Edited by Leif to make link live – see the quick guide)

Have a look at http://www.ask-nic.com/xpreadonly.html%5B/url%5D but tread with caution. There is a method of creating the URL as a link but I forget, some genius published it as a series of graphics. Does anybody know?????

Ted

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>>some genius published it as a series of graphics

That would be me! All you have to do is hover your mouse over each graphic and a tooltip will pop up telling you what it does.

Might be a good idea to read the FAQ and the HELP.

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Jeff, I think you’ll want to keep Isobuster around. It bypasses the Windows means of accessing the CD-ROM drives and goes directly to the CD’s file system, so even if Windows wants to choke on it, there’s a very high chance that Isobuster will allow you to read it. It doesn’t solve the core issue, which is a CD that should have been readable from any workstation, but at least you can get to the data. I hope.

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Hi Jeff:
I’m far from an expert in this area, but have had the issue of read-only. I have an old version of Adaptec’s Easy CD Creator & Direct CD & have these observations.
1. You can’t just pop a burned CD into a CD-ROM drive & read it. You must save it in a format that allows it to be read. All CD burners have that capability (otherwise they’d be sort of worthless). I know Adaptec always gives me the option of keeping the CD in the same format (for later burn sessions) or formatting it for CD-ROM.
2. I’ve never heard of such a utility. If the CD is formatted to be read in a CD-ROM drive, the drive can’t write to the CD anyway. There is no utility that I’ve ever heard of that turns a CD-ROM drive into a burner.
3. If you copy read-only files onto your hard drive, you can select all of them & use either Windows Explorer or File Manager (winfile.exe, if you still have it) to remove all the read-only attributes at once. With Explorer, just select, press Alt+Enter, & then uncheck the box.

Hope this helps.

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The other site that makes it easy is http://www.bysierra.com/attritude.html%5B/url%5D I always do it with DOS but both programs mentioned are easier if the DOS knowledge is forgotten

Ted

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