How to forum: Unable to remove 'READ ONLY' from a file

I have to say I have never had an problems with this, but I know it's confusing.

A CD is a storage media that holds files which cannot be altered in anyway, and cannot (generally) be deleted. They are not like hard disks where we can add, remove, rename, and so on, as and when we wish. In fact the way I see it, calling these files "Read Only" is a little misleading, not by you but by the industry and by us.

Think of music CDs that we buy from shops. We cannot change that CD in any way. The normal CDs we use for copying data to are similar in a way. Once they are copied, (burned), to a disk, they are permanent. I won't go into CD (RW), (CD Read/Write that can, in fact, manipulate files), because they are slightly different.

So, the files you copied on to CD are there permanently and cannot be changed. That is why they are called "Read Only".

But when you get your new computer, you should be able to simply copy the files from the CD onto the new computer's hard drive. They should then lose their "Read only" status, but if not you can soon change them individually.

HOWEVER I do see one possible complication. Don't throw that old computer away immediately you get the new one because you may need it. When we record, (or copy), data on to a CD, we have the choice of closing or finalizing the session on the CD, or leaving the session open. They are called "Closed CDs" or "Open CDs".

A closed CD can be read by any computer. But a closed CD cannot have any more data copied onto it.

An open CD means more data can be added to it, but no other computer will see that data. Only the computer that was used to copy the data onto the CD can see those files.

You may need to insert the CD, (or CDs), back into the original computer and use the software you used to copy the data to them to close the session. Then it should be able to be used by any other computer.

That is why we now tend to not bother with transferring files onto CD but instead use USB memory sticks or external USB drives. Apart from having much more capacity, they do not suffer from this closed/open problem. And also, coping data is so much easier. Simply Copy/Paste onto the memory stick or external drive.

I hope that helps.

Mark

Thanks Mark. This was VERY helpful. It helped educate this DUMMY. Before your answer, I had tried using a USB memory stick and found it to work just great. Just need to go buy a larger capicity stick. Thanks again.

Frank

and I'm glad you found an easier way to do this.

We were all dummies once,

Mark

I've got to go back on what I said about figuring it out. I bought a new SanDisk Flash Drive today to download my files. But low and behold I'm right back where I was with trying to download to a CD. I get ARCHIVED files but when I try to undo that, they revert back to READ ONLY files and I cannot do anything with them. So I cannot download them to my new computer. Guess I might still need to buy an external hard drive. I might still try to download them in an ARCHIVED condition. That might work. More later.

Frank

The file I am trying to delete is on a usb stick. using properties to change out of RO will not change
I cannot delete it. any suggestions? please I can't use the stick because of this file. I have tried formatting but it will not format

Please start a new thread about this. Your issue seems to be different from the one discussed in this thread.

Kees

Do not yet have new computer set up. Want to get all my files removed before I do the new set up. Also if I put other files, such as pictures, on a CD, does that mean they are also 'READ ONLY'? Thanks for your input.

... to get yourself an external hard drive for back up.

Wouldn't an external hard drive yield the same results as trying to download to a CD? Wouldn't I still have a READ ONLY file? Thanks