How to get 750 MB on 74min/650MB CD-R

April 16, 2002

Yesterday we opened our Audio Forum and one of the first posting was already very intresting. little-endian
made a thread with an explanation how to fit 750 MB on a 74min/650MB CD-R. This by storing the data as audio instead of data. It's more experimental then usefull, but it's a good read:

First let me say: You *MUST* have a *VERY* good AUDIO reading drive (perfect DAE). If you don't have such one, don't waste your time reading this post! All others can try to record DATA as AUDIO: Because Audio-CDs are using less error correction than Mode1 Discs, you can store more usable data on it.

It is good to get the driver CDFS.VXD first. It allows you to access AUDIO-CDs directly from the explorer. Search for it on the web and replace it with the file located in the folder %windir%systemiosubsys.

Now get WinRAR and compress (or just store without compression) all the files you want to have on your CD.

Create a small file containing digital silence with e.g. Cool Edit. Lengh 0.1 seconds or about 4000 samples (cut the rest if you're getting to much silence). Save this file as RAW-PCM 44100 Hz, 16 Bit Stereo.

Then merge your silence-file (it could contain noise, too) with the created RAR-archive - and this again with the silence-file:

example: DOS-Prompt: copy /b silence.raw + test.rar + silence.raw test_cdr.rar

You still get a RAR-File but with silence @ beginning AND end.

This resulting RAR-File you can burn with CDRWIN and a cuesheet which looks like:

FILE test_cdr.rar BINARY

TRACK 01 AUDIO

INDEX 01 00:00:00

The RAR archive can be about 750 MB in size depending on the CD-R you use (this guide assumes the use of a 74 min CD-R).

The burnt image is a pure audio-cd containing DATA. Please don't try the play it with your CD-Player - it doesn't sound really good. Also the autostart feature of windows is DANGEROUS!!. It could play the disc as audio.

To get back your DATA, you can open the CD with WinRAR again (Folder Stereo16Bit44100HzTrack01.wav) and extract all your files. That's it!

Read more about this, and get some usefull tips if you want to try this by reading the entire thread on the Club CD Freaks Audio Forum.

With special thanks to little-endian for posting this on our forum !

Source: CD Freaks Forum