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Author Topic: Burner only burns 1K shortcuts of audio files  (Read 13506 times)

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chimako

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Burner only burns 1K shortcuts of audio files
« on: August 14, 2010, 12:51:38 PM »
After I burn an audio cd in either Nero or Windows Media Player, it doesn't play in any other cd player and the files on the actual cd are only 1K shortcuts of the audio files I initially dropped into the burn list.

I simply drag and drop the files into the designated area, whether its in Nero or WMP.
The files show up as normal, actual files in the burning programs without any trace of them being shortcuts to anything.
During the burning process, the burner takes same time to burn the files as if they were real audio files.
Only after I open the cd in the file browser the file type reads "CD audio track shortcut" with a size of 1K per each track.
This happens with both wma and mp3 files.

What I have tried to do so far is uninstalled the drive in device manager and rebooted the computer thus reinstalling it. I have have no idea where to go next. I can't find the fix for it anywhere in the settings of both Nero and WMP and haven't changed any setting.

This problem just began occurring recently and before it began I was doing the same exact steps I'm doing now without any problems.

Any help would be appreciated.

BC_Programmer


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Re: Burner only burns 1K shortcuts of audio files
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2010, 04:24:50 PM »
you're burning it as an Audio CD. technically an Audio CD doesn't have any files at all, but their tracks are often represented as files. Since the files are "make-believe" by the computer, and don't truly exist (and are, in essence, shortcuts to play each track) they really do not have a size.

Don't know why it wouldn't be playing in other players. Maybe they aren't capable of reading the brand of disks you selected, or you forgot to finalize the disk.
I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

truenorth



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    Re: Burner only burns 1K shortcuts of audio files
    « Reply #2 on: August 18, 2010, 05:21:20 PM »
    chimako, I am not a big fan of either of the burning programs you are using. Not withstanding the comments of BC i would like to suggest an alternative software which is free and in my opinion is far superior to the 2 you have mentioned. It is called "CD Burner XP" and can be downloaded from here:
    http://cdburnerxp.se/download
    truenorth

    jimbo8098



      Beginner

      Re: Burner only burns 1K shortcuts of audio files
      « Reply #3 on: April 17, 2011, 06:50:20 AM »
      I know this is an old thread and all but i want to get to the bottom of this.

      I've been having this problem for a while now but only on my mum's pc which runs windows xp , i run windows 7 and the only thing ive ever burned to cd is data.

      When i used  both windows media and koyote soft's free easy burner (which has facilities for audio cds , i use it for backup mainly , itseems very good) both would burn shortcuts. Now when i put these cds into my hifi the disk tray moves onto the next slot (3 disk tray ftw :) ). That would show that the disk isnt being recognised as being there at all!

      Now to my next point. When a cd is put in which is bought from say a record company , why is it that the audio on these disks (unless write protected) is NOT shortcuts? What is the difference?

      What has been said here points to the software NOT being the problem. So it must be either the disk or the way in which the disk is burned! Assuming its no 3rd party program , the most likely problem is the way in which the disk is burned (since a disk is just a mirrored surface with holes in it and a plastic cover)

      Could it be that the audio shortcuts are , in fact ,on the disk but are 'hidden' so the shortcut actually points to a sector on the disk which is not seen by a user , thus 'not there'?


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      Salmon Trout

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      Re: Burner only burns 1K shortcuts of audio files
      « Reply #4 on: April 17, 2011, 08:27:11 AM »
      All audio cds have these "shortcuts". They are actually 44 bytes each, but due to the way Windows Explorer shows file sizes under 1024 bytes in size, they show up as "1K".  This is normal, and is how audio CDs are seen by computer operating systems. They are, if you like, "pointers" to the digital audio data which is stored in a way not visible to the computer operating system. If you put any audio CD into a computer CD/DVD drive, whether it is pressed (store bought) or burned in a computer, that is what you see. Try it if you don't believe me.

      Here is a store bought CD, called "Raoui" by the French/Algerian singer Souad Massi.



      Here is what you see in Windows Explorer



      Command prompt sees this (the disc was released in 2002, by the way)

      Code: [Select]
      C:\>dir x:\
       Volume in drive X is Audio CD
       Volume Serial Number is 0164-6C2E

       Directory of x:\

      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track01.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track02.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track03.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track04.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track05.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track06.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track07.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track08.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track09.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track10.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track11.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track12.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track13.cda
      01/01/1995  01:00 AM                44 Track14.cda
                    14 File(s)            616 bytes
                     0 Dir(s)               0 bytes free

      So to find the reason why the audio CDs burned on your mothers computer won't play in your hi-fi, I would be looking at such things as the quality of the CD blanks and maybe try a different brand, and also maybe the burner is on the way out, for example it is out of alignment or the write laser is getting weak. Some hi-fi systems are very fussy about burned disks. Have you tried the burned disks from your mother's PC in various computers, (in Windows Media Player), and other hi-fi systems?

      And, as BC_P wrote,

      Quote
      you forgot to finalize the disk.