Hampshire College

General CD Burning Tips

CD's come in two types: CD-R and CD-RW. While you can use either type of CD for any backup, each type has special purposes for which it is preferred. In simplest terms:

• CD-R discs are primarily used to backup data or music a single time. For the most reliable data backup discs, use CD-R.
• CD-RW discs are primarily used when you want to burn data or music to a CD and at a later time erase the CD and burn updated or new files to it. CD-RW discs can be erased and burned as many as a thousand times.

Capacity :
Most CD's have a 700MB capacity. To get an idea of how much data this will hold, a typical 5 page Word document is only about 60kb. At this size, you could store over 10,000 files on a CD. Uncompressed image files may average about 1MB each, so you could save about 700 pictures on one CD.

Options available with CD burning software :
The line between CD-R and CD-RW discs becomes blurred because some CD burning software allows you to use each type more flexibly.

For example, if you use Roxio Easy CD Creator on a PC or Toast on a Mac, one option you will be given is to finalize a session on a CD-R, but not finalize the CD. This enables you to burn some files today, and return and burn more files on another date. In this way, a CD-R disc can perform similarly to a CD-RW. This is a helpful feature if you want to fill a CD. With a capacity of 700MB, if you burn a single file or folder, you may use only a tiny fraction of the available space. It is important to note though that the CD may not be compatible with other CD drives, so you will only be able to reliably read the files from your own computer.

By finalizing a CD-RW disc, you can use it as an archive CD for backing up your data. If you do this, you will not be able to erase the disc and burn new files to it at a later time. However, you should also know that CD-RW's are less reliable for this purpose, and should not be used this way except when a backup must be made, and a CD-R disc is not available.

Basic CD Burning Step By Step

The step-by-step instructions provided below are the simplest method to burn files to a CD on either Macs or Windows PC's. Your own computer might also have other CD burning software installed on it, which will provide you with more options.

Mac

• Insert a blank CD into your CD writable drive. A window will open asking you to provide a name for the CD. Type a general name like, “backup Oct08” and click OK. If you aren't given an option to name the CD here, just click OK to open it.
• Drag the files you want to backup to the CD icon on your desktop. When you have dragged all the files to the CD that you have found,
• Drag the CD icon to the “Trash” on your Dock. The icon will change to a Burn symbol. If you haven't already named the CD, this window provides a space to do so. Click OK to burn. When burning is complete, drag the CD to the Trash icon again, and this time it will become an Eject icon.
• After burning your first CD, insert it in another computer and open a file or two to verify that you have completed the process correctly. Nothing would be worse than losing your files, only to learn that you don't have a good backup either.

Windows XP
This process allows you to add more files to the same CD at a later time. Here are the steps:

• Insert a blank CD. Click to Do Nothing with it, instead of the other options it offers.
• Highlight the files you want to burn to the CD.
• Right click and select Sent to: CD from the popup menu.
• Continue to select and add files from other locations on your hard drive.
• Open “My Computer” then double click the CD to open it.
• Click on the File menu and select “Write these files to CD”.
• A wizard window will popup allowing you to give the CD a name.
• When the files have finished burning to the CD, the CD will be ejected and the Wizard will give you an opportunity to burn the same files to a different CD. If you only need the one copy, click Finish.
• To add files, simply put the CD back into the drive, highlight the new files and follow the same steps to add and write them to the CD.