Burning and Ripping CDs

Burning a CD is the act of storing files on a CD-ROM. There are several varieties of CD on the market now and it is important that you choose the correct one for the job that you are doing.

Types

CD-R : Will Store files but once burnt cannot be updated or deleted.
CD-RW :
This type is re-writeable and can be updated with new information.
DVD:
This type is required to store video information and requires the use of a DVD burner.

Storage
Note that the old floppy disks held approximately 1.3 Mb,a CD-ROM will nominally store 720Mb of data,which is about 700 times the storage capacity. DVD disks store Gigabytes of information,required to hold all of the video information.

Speed
CD/DVD drives can burn at different speeds - rather like the old 33/45/78 vinyl system - and it is important that the burn speed is within the range of the drive you wish to read the disk. The drive will have legended upon it "16 max" or something similar which indicates the maximum burn speed it can read.

Software
These days,XP and VISTA take care of burning CDs with use of MS MEDIA Player Version 9+,but you can get dedicated software for the job and often this is packaged with the drive. NERO is the most well-known package,but note that the software bundle may ONLY work with the drive it was bundled with.

Ripping
If you wish to take audio tracks from a CD to turn into MP3s then MS Mediaplayer 10+ will do this for you - make sure that you check the TOOLS menu for the location of the stored files and whether they are turned into .WMA or .MP3.

You may find that you do not have the MP3 option available - in which case you may need a CODEC - this allows Mediaplayer to turn files into .MP3s for use with MP3 players.

If you are burning files to make an audio disk to play back on a stereo then you will need to store .WAV files onto the CD and m ake sure the CD is a "CD-R" type.Make sure also that your CD-ROM is capable of burning CDs.
If you are burning files to a CD then with Windows XP and after it is merely a matter of copying and pasting the files to the CD. The CD will transfer "temporary files" before asking you to write the files to the CD.

To transfer files to a CD:

My documents folder and CD folder open with two files selected for burning. Once the files are transferred to the CD-ROM window, temporary files will be created ready to be written to the CD.   After the CD has been burnt the temporary files will be destroyed automatically. If you do not wish to keep the files on the hard drive after they are burnt to CD,they too can be destroyed manually.


Points to remember about burning CDs:


See Also:

Free software

Burn Express

Software

Nero

Information

CD-rom

Information

CD-RW

Information

DVD formats
Right click and choose 'Save target as..' Ripping Music[Doc]