Q I am about to purchase a new computer and at the same time I am trying to transfer my old files from floppy disks to CDs, as new PCs tend not to come with floppy disk drives.

The problem is that when I move any files to a CD they become “read only” and no matter what I do I can’t undo this.
Janet Newell

A CDs can generally only be written to once, which is why, once files are placed on a disc, they’re marked as read-only.

Even rewritable CDs don’t work like floppy discs – if you want to change information on a CD-RW you can add to it or rewrite the whole disc. One annoyance is that, even when copied to a hard disk, files from a CD remain read-only. To fix this, right-click on the file or folder, click on Properties and untick the box marked Read-only, then click on OK. You can do this with a group of files. Press Control and A to select all the files in a folder, right-click on one and select Properties to bring up the options window described above.

It is possible to make a CD-RW work like a floppy disk if you have Nero InCD, Roxio DirectCD or Sonic Solutions Drive Letter Access software (all of these are available in the relevant company’s media suite software packages). If one of these programs is installed and running it will allow files on a CD-RW to be rewritten or erased at will. Bear in mind that such discs may not be readable on other people’s computers.