VB and Writing to CDs

Hello, I have a file which has to be written to a HP CDRW drive (that has Direct CD so that the D:\ acts as a regular drive). I need to be able to:

i. check to see if the CDRW is formatted
ii. ** erase the current data on the CDRW media **
iii. copy the file to the CDRW media

I really need help with these three tasks, especcially number two. Please help, thanks.

Brandr
[email protected]

you can probably shell the dos command DelTree, or you can shell FDisk or something.
and I think you just copy files like you normally would,
but I dont know the answer to #1

denniswrenn - No you actually can't shell to dos to do this. CDRW does not act as normal media. You need a third party program to treat it like a disk (ie Direct CD).

Brandr - I've seen code for C++ to write CDs, but never VB code. I don't know if it is possible without an additional dll or control

Here's something that might get you started.

In your project, make a reference to the 'Microsoft Scripting Library' (SCRRUN.DLL).

There are Win32 API calls for doing this, but this is much easier.


Use the Following code snipets:

(Declaration section)
Private oFSO As FileSystemObject
Private oDrive As Scripting.Drive

(Function)

Function GetCDInfo(strDrive as string) as String
Set oFSO = New FileSystemObject
Set oDrive = oFSO.GetDrive(strDriveLetter) '
GetCDInfo=oDrive.FileSystem
Set oDrive=nothing
Set oFSO=nothing
End Function


It will return the following strings for CDs:

"CDBLANK" unformatted CDR or CDRW
"CDFS" - normal data/music CD
"CDUDF" - formatted, unclosed CDR
"CDUDFRW" - CDRW formatted

Not sure how to programatically format an unformatted CDR(W),
But, once formated, you can use normal VB disk I/O methods.

Check and see if your writer came with any OCX controls, or DLLs.