Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs have been divided up into several sections. Select from the following options:

Miscellaneous
Recordable Disc Capacity

Build Process: If the time on a server is different than the time on my workstation, when I create a file on the server, which time is used?

The time on the server is used. Read on for information and an explanation of how daylight savings time and crossing time zones are managed for Windows95 and NT systems:

When Windows NT automatically adjusts for daylight savings time, the times on files on Windows NT file system (NTFS) partitions and the events in the event logs are retroactively shifted by one hour, even though the files and event records were created before the daylight savings time change.

To configure Windows NT to automatically adjust for daylight savings time, run Control Panel, choose Date/Time and select "Automatically Adjust for Daylight Saving Time".

This behavior occurs because of the way that Windows NT stores time information. All times displayed in Windows NT for event log events and files on NTFS partitions are computed as offsets to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). When you select your local time zone for the system, the appropriate number of hours are added or subtracted to the stored GMT value. This adjusted time is displayed. When "Automatically Adjust for Daylight Saving Time" is selected, an additional hour is added to GMT during daylight savings time (the first Sunday in April through the last Sunday in October).

If you are viewing another machine remotely across one or more time zones through Event Viewer, the times for events on the remote system appear relative to your local time. In other words, if you are viewing an event remotely that actually occurred at 8:00pm Central Daylight Time, the time displayed for the event on your computer will be 6:00pm when you view the event from the Pacific Daylight Time zone.

When Windows95 or NT clients access network resources, they are passed the GMT time of the file stored on the NTFS partition. When the client receives the time stamp in GMT they then adjust the time stamp (+) plus or (-) minus the time zone they are set for.

In the case of Windows95, the time returned by the file system is not adjusted for daylight savings time. This feature is by design and was implemented to work with servers such as NetWare that do not support the daylight savings time APIs and time functions in Windows95. In this case the files will display off by one hour. This is by design for Windows95 clients.

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About Recordable Disc Capacity

So what is the true capacity of CD media and how do you calculate it?

Calculating Data Capacity

But it says right here on the disc that it will hold 770 megabytes!

Here's a commercially-manufactured CD-ROM disc that contains more than 700 mb. How did they do it?

I heard that I can get more data onto a disc by recording in Mode 2.

Calculating Data Capacity

Blank recordable CD-R and CD-RW discs are available in two capacities: 74 minutes (both CD-R and CD-RW) and 80 minutes (CD-R only at this time).

So, if we do the math:

74 min x (60 sec) x (75 sectors) x (2 kbytes) = 666,000 kilobytes
= 650 megabytes

80 min x (60 sec) x (75 sectors) x (2 kbytes) = 720,000 kilobytes
= 703 megabytes

Factory-recorded CDs can be made to hold a little more data.

The actual capacities of blank discs can vary slightly; some 74-minute discs can hold up to two minutes more than their stated capacity. However, this is not likely to be evident on the packaging; you will have to find it out by direct experience.

But it says right here on the disc that it will hold 770 megabytes!

Some 74-minute recordable CDs are advertised as having capacities of 700 megabytes or more. How is this possible? Most likely the disc's capacity is being calculated according to the number of bytes which would be stored on the disc if it recorded in CD-DA (audio) format:

74 min x (60 sec) x (75 sectors) x (2352 bytes) = 783,216,000 bytes = 764,859 kilobytes = 747 megabytes

...but this is misleading, since you can't record 2352 bytes per sector when recording data format.

The most data you should try to fit onto a recordable CD is 620 to 630 mb.

Here's a commercially manufactured CD-ROM disc that contains more than 700 mb. How did they do it?

There are ways to squeeze more data onto CD-ROMs pressed in the factory, just enough so that you can't copy it to a 74-minute recordable CD. In fact, this used to be an easy way to protect commercial CD-ROMs from unauthorized copying. Similarly, commercially pressed audio discs can contain slightly more than 74 minutes of music.

I heard that I could get more data onto a disc by recording in Mode 2.

Sorry, but this is wrong. The term "Mode 2" is used widely, if not quite correctly, to refer to the CD-ROM XA (Mode 2 Form 1) format. This format, just like the regular CD-ROM Mode 1 format, contains only 2048 bytes of user data per sector. The reason to use Mode 2 is to ensure maximum compatibility for your multisession discs.

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