Does anyone know of a program that will either A: Display the physical layout of data on a CD, or B: Allow you to place files in a specific physical section of the disc.

Basically, I have a boot CD I'm working on, and while the CD works fine, it's going to be put into several CD Drives and taken out a lot, so I'd like to keep the more vital data(boot menu, etc) near the center of the disc, where it's less likely to get scratched, however, I can't seem to find any way to do that with any certainty. Any help on this would be appreciated.

It is not physically necessary to do this.

I don't know of a program that does what you want, but can't you just write it normally? iirc data is burned to the inside tracks first.

EDIT> Your post reminds me of this little tale:
http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Certified-DBA.aspx

Moral of the story: it doesn't matter .

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 28 2010, 2:29 pm by Aristocrat.

Clearly you don't understand my issue, I have a full DVD/CD of data, however, I want to write certain parts of that data, the most necessary parts, to the inside of the disc, and the more extraneous data to the outside, since it is more likely to be damaged. At the moment I have no way of telling or choosing which data is written first, whether it's alphabetical, or what, hence a simple physical layout viewer being an option.

Well the physical layout of a CD can bee seen with bare eyes. Just look at the surface and you'll notice where the surface is untouched and where there has been data burned. They are always burned from the inside towards the outside.

About where specific files are you could check which sectors they occupy and then do the math to find out where relative to the total number of sectors you burned the file is located. I don't know the number of bytes per sector for CD files system, but I'm sure that's easy to find out.

Finally Nero burning ROM writes the files in the order you see them in the folder tree when you compile the CD.
Watching the burning process and the information of "file being written" confirms this.

Okay, just the kind of information I needed to know, this might work for now. Of course, if anyone has another answer, I'm open to suggestions while I'm still working on the soft copy.

IsoBuster is one program that can tell you where the data is on the disk. (not physical position, just sector number)

Yes, but I think typically sector 0 is the center of the disc, thanks SF, very useful program.

1. Handle the CDs/DVDs carefully so they don't get damaged. Seriously unless you're using this thing like 100+ times I don't really see 'wear and tear' as a big problem unless you're careless.
2. Make multiple copies, so if one does appear to get damaged, you can use another.

I would not install Nero, it has become so bloated it even now includes a picture viewer, which manages to suck more than windows picture viewer.
Nero used to be good... like 8 years ago.

I also would recommend just making an extra copy or two. CDs do not cost that much.

I use Nero 6 which is only slightly bloated but still offers a simple yet powerful user interface.
Stopped upgrading it many years ago.

Nero 7 was probably one of the best updates, as far as the core burning engine. It is a vast improvement over 6; it is faster at handling various things like lots of small files or other types of compilations that used to be slow to make. It also made verification available for every type of compilation (like audio discs and disc copying), not just data discs, and made verification actually faster than burning the disc as it should be, instead of slower. I bought Nero 7 Ultra for $20 at a Black Friday sale in 2005. I mostly just use the core Nero Burning ROM program, but it has some other utilities I use a little, like a decent DVD player program and a utility to slow down my DVD drive when I want it quieter (like for watching a DVD).

I am going to be using this thing like 100+ times. This is a utility disc for my shop which is replacing the 4-5 other discs that we use on a regular basis, at least 3-4 times a day. Hence the paranoia.

I have the .ISO file(I am making the thing), so reburning it is not a problem, but if I can reduce as much wasted time as possible, I will, and having to reburn discs more often than necessary, rather than simply getting it right the first time, is a waste of time.

Nero 6 allows you to uncheck all the bloated features(we actually put it on all refurb machines), however, I think I'm going to do some tests with UltraISO and ISOBuster and see if I can figure out how to get the files in the order I want.

Nonetheless, anything that would make my life easier would be heavily appreciated.

Ok, so you doing this for a job and for some reason you think it is acceptable to burn your disc so that if there is a corrupt file, it doesn't cause problems?

If I was doing that for a job, any corrupt file would be a problem, no matter where it was on the disc.

Just make 20 copies, all at the same time, and store the 19 you aren't using somewhere safe. That way there is no time wasted "reburning" later because you've made a ready supply up front. Also if you lose the current disc you are using, you can quickly get a replacement.

Seriously, going into all this effort to write files to particular areas on the disc really is not worth it, especially if your investigation of this is on company time - it might take you 1 or 2 hours (or more!) to get it sorted, during which time you could've made 20 copies and be done with it. If your new disc is going to replace an existing collection of 4-5 discs, then it is going to be far superior time savings anyway, so trying to edge even more out by making a disc in a special orientation is definitely what would be classed "diminishing returns". Especially if by making this special disc image it ties you to using particular CD burning software - then if you want to make a replacement disc, you have to find the PC that has it installed, or install it on a new PC, which could be a problem if you can't find the software any more, or it isn't compatible any more, or x y z problem. It's much better to just stick with trusted tried and true technology and make a whole bunch of backups, since backing up is so cheap. Now maybe if these discs cost $50 each it'd be worth investigating a way to minimize usage, but CDs/DVDs are so cheap that this really isn't worth the time you're investing in it.

Now, if you're doing this on your own time, as a way to look impressive to your bosses, that's another matter. I just really don't think there's any technical merit for trying to solve your rather simple problem with such an elaborate (and apparently difficult and non-standard) solution.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 1 2010, 8:40 am by Lanthanide.

I agree with Lanthanide. I realized that right from the start, but I didn't say anything because I assumed his true goal is to expand his knowledge and to prove a point. Dunno if you can impress your boss with such an ineffective "improvement".

Partially, it is, of course, the main reason why I asked on this forum was because I hoped that there would be a simple way to do what I was asking, obviously there is not.

With the method I would have had to go with, this actually wouldn't be a problem, because ISOBuster would simply allow me to ensure that certain files were given the larger LBAs, while the more important ones received the smaller ones. All of this would be saved inside the .ISO, meaning that any burning software would produce the same result.


It's actually a collection of seven discs, along with a vast collection of extra tools, so yes, it is already saving a huge amount of time, however, one to two hours of company time is worth spending if it means the difference between grabbing a unbootably corrupt disc before you leave for an on-site job two hours away, and grabbing one that simply has a broken driver pack.

Now, while I think with the information you guys have, it still makes sense to do so, the project plan has changed slightly, and I am now turning each of the programs I am adding to the built-in BartPE into plugins, so the programs available on the disc are entirely customizable, which means that each time a new configuration is desired, the entire process would have to be redone to make the disc less corruptible, a job I'd prefer to avoid.

I'd still be interested in any kind of software that makes a job like this easy though, because I can see it being useful, as long as it takes a reasonable amount of labor to perform.