Description

This article is from the CD-Recordable FAQ, by Andy McFadden (fadden@fadden.com) with numerous contributions by others.

3-1-1] Why can't I just do a block copy like a floppy?

(1998/04/06)

CDs don't have circular tracks. They're laid out on a spiral, with
multiple sessions composed of multiple tracks composed of sectors, and the
data in the sectors is interleaved and spread over a large area. The
sector format is standard, but there's more than one standard.

"The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from."
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum, _Computer Networks_, 2nd ed, p.254

The ability to read certain portions of a CD depends on the CD firmware.
Some CD players aren't capable of understanding multi-session discs or of
reading audio tracks as digital data. Jitter, described in section (2-15),
is also a problem for some drives.

See also section (3-42) on "bit-for-bit" copies.

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• prev: 3-1] How do I copy a CD-ROM?
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• next: 3-2] How do I extract tracks from ("rip") or copy an audio CD?