Drive Letter Access

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Drive Letter Access
Developer: Sonic Solutions
Latest release: 5.2 build 09a / November 21, 2005
OS: Windows
Use: optical disc authoring software
License: proprietary
Website: sonic.com

Drive Letter Access, DLA in short, is a commercial packet writing application for the Windows operating system that allows optical storage media to be used in a similar manner to a floppy disk. DLA uses packet writing technology for CD/DVD media and the UDF file system.

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[edit] History

DLA was originally developed by VERITAS Software and later sold to Sonic Solutions in 2002. It is very popular mainly because it was and still is shipped with a majority of CD and DVD recording drives, where DLA comes as a custom OEM version for the branded drive. Most PC systems from Dell, HP, IBM, Sony and Toshiba come with DLA pre-installed or prepared for installation, also an OEM version can often be downloaded for the specific computer system.

[edit] Technology

To use an optical media such as a CD-R, CD-RW, DVD±R or DVD±RW just like a floppy drive it is necessary to utilitise a technique called "packet writing". After formating the optical media it is then possible to write data in small packets, therefore the name "packet writing". The optical drive unit has to support the ability to write in small units, which most modern CD and DVD recording drives do. This way it is possible to save files onto optical media, as well as change, rename or delete them, or copy files seperatly onto the media.

Without packet writing an optical media like the above mentioned would have to be written in one big block, like Disc At Once (DAO), Session At Once (SAO) and Track At Once (TAO), see optical disc recording modes, because these media types normally don't support sectors. After formating with packet writing the media is sectored in blocks that can be written to individually. The preferred file system is the Universal Disk Format (UDF) in versions from 1.50 onward, which is also used by DLA.

For the use with DVD-RAM it is not required to use packet writing. DVD-RAM media are already sectored (which can be seen when looking at an empty DVD-RAM disc) and the hardware logic of DVD-RAM capable drives supports sectored read/write opterations as required by the DVD-RAM standard. DLA then only provides the UDF support (for Windows up to XP), because Windows including XP only support UDF file system reading, but not writing.
DLA also supports the Mount Rainier standard (for Windows up to XP). DLA will then provide the MRW functionality as well as the UDF support.
Windows XP is the first Windows operating system to support DVD-RAM. Windows Vista is the first Windows operating system to support full UDF functionality (UDF up to version 2.50, full support meaning read and write operations) and Mount Rainier.

[edit] Versions

DLA is only available for Windows operating systems. It is available in english language only.

  • Version 4.95 runs on Windows 98SE, Me, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP.
  • Version 5.2 build 09a is the most recent version for Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 and XP.

Note: Most OEM versions officially only support Windows 2000 and XP now. DLA itself runs also on older versions of Windows, like Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Me, as well as Windows NT 4.0.
Windows Vista is not yet supported.

[edit] Known Issues

DLA is known to cause stop errors (BSOD) on Windows Server 2003 operating systems. It can also lock up Windows XP when RW media is inserted and it can prevent eject of ROM media.

[edit] See also

DLA is using the following techniques:

The following applications are compeditors:


[edit] External links

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