The Mount Rainier logo

Mount Rainier is a format for re-writable optical discs which provides for packet writing and defect management. Its goal is the replacement of the floppy disk. It is named after Mount Rainier, a mountain near Seattle, Washington, USA. In computing, optical disc authoring, including CD authoring and DVD authoring, known often as burning, is the process of recording source material—video, audio or other data—onto an optical disc (compact disc or DVD). ... The optical lens of a compact disc drive. ... It has been suggested that ISO image be merged into this article or section. ... A CD recorder drive. ... Optical disc authoring software is computer software for authoring optical discs including CD-ROMs and DVDs. ... CD and DVD recorders for authoring optical discs such as CD-ROMs and DVDs have a history of various technologies. ... In optical disc authoring, there are multiple modes for recording: Dics At Once and Track At Once. ... Packet writing is an optical disc recording technology used to allow writeable CD and DVD media to be used in a similar manner to a floppy disk. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW) is a rewritable optical disc format. ... See also IBMs VM operating system family, where minidisk refers to a logical unit of storage. ... DVD (commonly known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... A DVD+R disc The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... DVD-R DL (Dual Layer) (Also Known as DVD-R9) is a derivative of the DVD-R format standard. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... DVD+R DL (Double Layer), also known as DVD+R9, is a derivative of the DVD+R format created by the DVD+RW Alliance. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... You can recognize a DVD-RAM immediately because visually there are lots of little rectangles distributed on the surface of the data carrier. ... A Blu-ray Disc (also called BD) is a high-density optical disc format for the storage of digital media, including high-definition video. ... Blu-ray Disc recordable refers to two optical disc formats that can be recorded with an optical disc recorder. ... HD-DVD disc HD DVD (for High Density Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical media format which is being developed as one standard for high-definition DVD. HD DVD is similar to the competing Blu-ray Disc, which also uses the same CD sized (120 mm diameter) optical data... HD DVD-R is the writable disc variant of HD DVD, and is now currently available with a single-layer capacity of 15GB. Currently, HD DVD-R has slower write speeds than the competing BD-R format (1–2x vs 1–4x) and lower storage capacity. ... An example of proposed HD DVD-RAM media. ... Ultra Density Optical (UDO) is a next-generation optical disc format designed for high-density storage of high-definition video and data. ... A UMD The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. ... The Rainbow Books are a collection of standards defining the allowed formats of Compact Discs. ... ISO 9660, a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization, defines a file system for CD-ROM media. ... Joliet is the name of an extension to the ISO 9660 file system. ... The Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol (RRIP, IEEE P1282) is an extension to the ISO 9660 volume format which adds POSIX file system semantics. ... The Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol (RRIP, IEEE P1282) is an extension to the ISO 9660 volume format which adds POSIX file system semantics. ... The El Torito Bootable CD Specification is an extension to the ISO 9660 CD-ROM specification. ... Overview Apple Macintosh computers use the HFS (or HFS+) file system on hard disks, mainly. ... The Universal Disk Format (UDF) is a format specification of a file system for storing files on optical media. ... Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Packet writing is an optical disc recording technology used to allow writeable CD and DVD media to be used in a similar manner to a floppy disk. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. ... Mount Rainier is a stratovolcano in Pierce County, Washington, located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle, Washington, in the United States. ... City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ... Official language(s) None Capital Olympia Largest city Seattle Area  Ranked 18th  - Total 71,342 sq mi (184,827 km²)  - Width 240 miles (385 km)  - Length 360 miles (580 km)  - % water 6. ...

Mount Rainier (MRW) can be used only with drives that explicitly support it and works with standard CD-RW and DVD+RW media.

The physical format of MRW disks is an extension of the UDF format, but this is transparently managed internally by drive intelligence which remaps physical drive blocks into a virtual and defect-free space. Therefore the host computer does not see the physical format of the disk, giving it filesystem independence. The Universal Disk Format (UDF) is a format specification of a file system for storing files on optical media. ...

The time needed for the formatting of the disk is shortened to about one minute by the background formatting capabilities of the drive. Formatting allocates some sectors at the end of the disk for defect management. Defective sectors are recorded at a table in the lead-in (an administrative area) and in a copy of the table in the lead-out. Formatting a hard drive using MS-DOS Disk formatting is the only process of preparing a hard disk or other storage medium for use with the file system (FAT, NTFS, UFS, etc. ... A sector is a part of a whole. ... In computing, optical disc authoring, including DVD authoring, known often as burning, is the process of recording source material—video, audio or other data—onto an optical disc (compact disc or DVD). ... In computing, optical disc authoring, including DVD authoring, known often as burning, is the process of recording source material—video, audio or other data—onto an optical disc (compact disc or DVD). ...

From the host computer's perspective, an MRW disc provides a defect-free block-accessible device, upon which any host supported filesystem may be written. Such filesystems may be FAT32, NTFS, etc., but the preferred format is usually UDF 1.02, as this file format is widely supported. An MRW-formatted CD-RW with a UDF filesystem gives approximately 500 MB free space. File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system that was developed for MS-DOS and used in consumer versions of Microsoft Windows up to and including Windows Me. ... NTFS or New Technology File System is the standard file system of Windows NT and its descendants: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. ...

Mt. Rainier allows write access to a disc within seconds after insertion and spin-up, even while a background formatting sequence is taking place. Before this technology, a user would have to wait for the formatting to complete before writing any data to a new disc. It is even possible to read (but not write) MRW disks without an MRW-compatible drive; A "remapper" device driver is needed, an example of which is EasyWrite Reader for Windows. Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or a software driver is a specific type of computer software, typically developed to allow interaction with hardware devices. ...

An alternative to MRW is to physically format a disc in UDF 1.5 or higher. This is achieved by the use of specialized packet writing software. MRW capabilities overlap somewhat with that of UDF 1.5+. Packet writing is an optical disc recording technology used to allow writeable CD and DVD media to be used in a similar manner to a floppy disk. ...

Advantages of MRW over UDF 1.5+

• fast background formatting of the media
• finer grained packet size of 2K versus 64K
• is file system independent
• does not depend on the host system to perform defect management

Advantages of UDF 1.5+ over MRW

• does not need specialized drive hardware to write
• more portable

Operating System Support

Mount Rainier is implemented natively in Windows Vista, which was released on January 30, 2007. Linux has built-in MRW support since kernel version 2.6.2 (2004). Operating systems that don't support MRW natively (notably Windows XP and prior versions) need third-party software to read and write MRW-formatted discs, and these tend to be the same packet writing utilities which allow native UDF filesystems to be written to optical media. Windows Vista is the latest release of Microsoft Windows, a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and media centers. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system family. ... The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Windows XP is a line of proprietary operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ... Packet writing is an optical disc recording technology used to allow writeable CD and DVD media to be used in a similar manner to a floppy disk. ...

EasyWrite

The EasyWrite logo is the marketing symbol for CD drives that are Mount Rainier compatible. The logo was created by Philips to ensure that products using the logo were tested and verified for quality. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Philips HQ in Amsterdam Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.), usually known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is one of the largest electronics companies in the world. ...

CD-MRW stands for Compact Disc – Mount Rainier Read/Write. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW) is a rewritable optical disc format. ...

External links

• Homepage of the Mount Rainier standard (inactive)
• Mount Rainier Support in Linux
• Understanding CD-R & CD-RW by Hugh Bennett