Question about CD's and DVD's

I figgered it'd been awhile since I asked a stupid question :D

I know that dvd's have a larger storage capacity than cd's but what I'm curious about is whether or not I can store multiple cd's on a dvd and then be able to run the files as if they were individual cd's? ok let's back up and give a scenario why don't we?

I have a photo collection (Hemera 150,000 photo art or something like that) and it's split up on 9 different cd's and every time I want to look at a different image I have to switch the cd's out and that just gets tedious...

Now let's assume that I'm able to store all 9 cd's on 1 dvd...when I run the viewer and it has an image on cd #2 that I want to look at - would it find the cd #2 folder on the dvd and then just display it and then display an image on cd #7?

in this particular scenario I do not know what the file structure is on the individual cd's so that's why I said let's assu-u-ume - but maybe the Morrowind or LotR games which use multiple cd's

Just curious - I hate switching out cd's and the 'puter I bought has a dvd/r/rw jammy on it so I thought I'd ask

Thanks!

Well you can't fit 9 CDs on a single layer DVD anyways but you could either use a dual layer disc or two DVDs. As for it working, maybe, what you could do is make like a CD1 folder and put everything from that disc in it. But now when the program asks for the disc, does it let you tell you where the disc is? Like does it let you enter a path in? If so, it will probably work.

Alternatively if the file structure is just like all these files and folders and they don't share filenames, you could just mix them all together on the disc and you wouldn't need to worry about the program letting you specify a path to where the files are.

As for games, it depends on the game and how they laid the file structure out on each disc. But do realize by copying the disc, its not going to just let you play the game using your burned DVD. You'd need to disable the copy protection in the game. (Far from impossible usually)

thanks OG - just the info I needed - I wouldn't think that you could copy 9 cd's onto 1 dvd - it was just a "for instance" - but even 2 dvd's is better than swapping between 9 cd's

I do have a dual layered dvd thingy (I don't have the first clue about it *chuckles* - all I know is I have a better computer than my mom but she's got that lightscribe thing on hers :p )

I just wanted to check before I spent money on dvd's cuz I know they cost more and now I'm willing to spend a lil bit to find out for sure

Well it's kind of possible, but probably not the way you want to do it. You'd have to store each CD as an ISO/BIN on the DVD, then you could use Daemon Tools to mount the CD image you require. The CD would then be running under a virtual drive.

aha! I understand - I thought there might be something to do with a drive involved

okie dokie then and I can use nero or nemo or whatever that dvd burning software is to make the image right - it's not just burning a disc as in copy and pasting files...

kewl beans mark87 - thanks a ton!

Well it's kind of possible, but probably not the way you want to do it. You'd have to store each CD as an ISO/BIN on the DVD, then you could use Daemon Tools to mount the CD image you require. The CD would then be running under a virtual drive.

Thats if you couldn't combine them though.

How do you mean?

In terms of the photo collection, he'd just need to mount the CD image needed (takes about 2 mouse clicks), instead of physically taking out the CD and inserting the new one. Daemon Tools can mount up to about 4 Virtual Drives though I think, so 4 CD's could all be mounted at the same time.

I'm saying if the files aren't like named the same accross discs, like each disc does not repeat filenames (with this type of program I'd doubt it would) you could just copy each disc into the same folder on the hard drive and burn that folder to a DVD and then you wouldn't have to use Daemon Tools. However if they do share names, your idea would be the best way to go probably.