Drive letter access

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Drive letter access
Basic data

developer Sonic Solutions
Current  version 5.21 build 01C
(April 30, 2008)
operating system Windows 98SE to XP (Vista with patch)
category Firing program
License proprietary
German speaking No
no longer available, see roxio.com

Drive Letter Access , or DLA for short, was a commercial packet writing program for Windows . As such, it enables write access to optical media in the manner known from hard drives or floppy disks. DLA uses packet writing for (re) writable CD and DVD media as well as the UDF file system.

DLA is not compatible with Windows Vista or later. However, there was an official patch from Roxio that made DLA run on Windows Vista.

The successor to DLA was the Roxio Burn, available from April 2009. It is called the successor to DLA and solves the compatibility problems with Internet Explorer 8 and 9.

history

DLA was originally developed by Veritas and sold to Sonic Solutions in 2002 . DLA owes its widespread use to the fact that it was included as OEM software with numerous burners and preinstalled with various computer manufacturers. These are for example Dell, HP, IBM, Sony and Toshiba. In many cases, an existing DLA version could be updated for these systems and sometimes a (full) OEM version could even be downloaded free of charge.

As of Windows Vista, DLA was either no longer supported or was replaced by a similar product, e.g. B. Drag-to-Disc replaced.

technology

In order to be able to write to CD and DVD media like a hard drive or floppy disk , a technique called packet writing must be used. With this technology, the (re) writable media are first formatted, then data can be burned onto this media in the form of small packets (hence the name "packet writing"). This makes it possible to change files on this media, for example to rename and delete them. Files can also be copied or moved to the medium one after the other.

This technology is necessary because CD-R , CD-RW , DVD ± R and DVD ± RW media do not have any sectorization and can therefore normally only be burned in one piece ( DAO , TAO and SAO ). After formatting, only those sectors that have been changed are burned (written). DLA uses the “ Universal Disk Format ” as the file system , as it best meets the requirements of optical media.

Packet writing is not required to use DVD-RAM , as DVD-RAM media already have sectorization and this is supported by the hardware. DVD-RAM media can therefore in principle be written to without packet writing software. In this case, DLA only provides DVD-RAM functionality (up to and including Windows 2000 ) and UDF support (up to and including Windows XP). With suitable hardware, DLA also allows the use of Mount Rainier (up to and including Windows XP). Windows XP is the first to support DVD-RAM; For the first time, Windows Vista fully supports Mount Rainier and UDF up to version 2.50 (including writing).

Versions

DLA was only offered for Windows. It is only available in English.

  • Version 4.95 runs on Windows 98SE, Me, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP.
  • Version 5.2 was the last version for Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 and XP.

A patch is required for Windows Vista compatibility, but is only available for the sales and trial versions. The exception is a patch for the OEM version from Dell, which however installs the Vista-compatible drag-to-disc (instead of updating the DLA).

Program error

  • DLA is not compatible with Internet Explorer 8 and 9.
  • Under Windows Server 2003 , DLA can cause so-called "Stop Errors" ( BSOD ) and thus cause the system to crash.
  • In Windows XP, DLA may crash when RW media is inserted.
  • A known bug is that DLA prevents media from being ejected from the optical drive under certain circumstances. In such a case, only restarting Windows will help.

Web links

Wikibooks: Tips for Using DVD-RAM  - Learning and Teaching Materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Drive Letter Access . Product page. Sonic Solutions , 2006, archived from the original on November 10, 2006 ; accessed on April 29, 2012 (English).
  2. ↑ a b Drive Letter Access driver blocked on Vista launch . In: Roxio Knowledgebase. Roxio , archived from the original on November 15, 2010 ; accessed on April 29, 2012 (English): " Through a clerical error, a driver is incorrectly being blocked as incompatible with Windows Vista "
  3. ↑ Roxio Delivers Essential Burning Solution for Windows 7 Users . In: press release. Roxio , April 30, 2009; archived from the original on June 13, 2009 ; accessed on April 29, 2012 (English).
  4. ^ Roxio Burn . (No longer available online.) In: Product page . Roxio , archived from the original on May 5, 2012 ; accessed on April 29, 2012 (English): " DLA is now called Roxio Burn " Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.roxio.com
  5. ↑ The "Drive Letter Access" add-on is not compatible with Internet Explorer 9. KB969228. In: Microsoft Knowledge Base. Microsoft , accessed on April 29, 2012 : "Drive Letter Access is now called Roxio Burn"
  6. ↑ Optical Drive May Not Eject With Sonic Solutions Roxio Record Now 7.0 DLA Installed . KB Article 290076. In: Dell Knowledge Base. Dell , July 15, 2005, accessed on April 29, 2012 : “ Sonic Solutions DLA is no longer supported. "
  7. ↑ Drag2Disc software . In: Lenovo Support. Lenovo , accessed on April 29, 2012 (English): " Drive Letter Access is replaced by Drag2Disc. "