A Practical Guide To Making CDs

Purpose	CD Type	Write Method	Restrictions
Make a CD that can be used in any CD drive anywhere	CD-R	Single session, Finalize CD	Have to write everything at one time
Write some files now, some files later, read in any CD Drive	CD-R	Multi-session, Do not finalize CD	Can only read last session written
Write to CD like writing to a floppy	CD-RW	CD becomes like any other drive where you can write, delete, rename, etc.	Can only be used in a CD-RW drive

It may be obvious from this table that the first thing to decide is how you want to use the CD after you're created it. If you want your CD to work in any CD drive (CD-ROM, CD-R, or CD-RW) you're going to have to use a CD-R disk. If you're only using the CD for yourself for backup or moving files back and forth and you have a CD-RW drive available wherever you're going to want to use the CD, then you can use a CD-RW disk.

Steps for writing to a CD-R

1. Start the Roxio Easy CD Creator Project Selector and specify whether you are writing a music cd or a data cd. Mouseover the buttons on the left to get options as shown in these next two screen captures.

   

   

2. The main window opens. The top pane shows your computer in a Windows Explorer interface. The bottom pane is where you set up what you want to write to the CD.

   

   Simply drag the files and/or folders from the top pane and drop them in the bottom to assemble the structure you want on the CD. You can also give the CD a meaningful name instead of the default given by Easy CD Creator (030731_0837 in the screen capture above). The Project Size bar along the bottom displays how much space your selected files will need on the CD and tells you how much free space is remaining. When you're ready, click on the Record button.

3. The Record CD Setup window appears where you can specify options for writing the CD.

   

   • Write Speed
     There will most likely be several choices here for write speed. If you are copying files directly of the local hard drive, then you should have no problem using the fastest speed. If you are copying files from Mercury or some other remote source, you may need to slow down the write speed to avoid data underruns. That's where the data source can't keep up with the write speed. When that happens, the disk is ruined and you'll need to start over. In that case, either slow the write speed or copy the files to the local hard drive first.

   • Buffer Underrun Prevention
     Leave this checked to minimize the risk of underruns.

   • Record Options
     You have the option of doing a write test to see whether you can successfully write the CD. It will go through the entire write process without actually writing anything to the CD and then report any errors that were encountered. If you're not sure your data source can keep up, this is a good way to test it. There are 3 choices: Record CD (write only, no test), Test Only (test only, no write), or Test and Record CD (test first, then write). You may want to do the test the first couple times you make CDs and then skip it when you're convinced things are working.

   • Record Method
     If you're writing a data CD, you should select Track-At-Once. Below that, select Finalize CD if you are writing everything to the CD at one time. It's recommended that you use this approach for CDs that you'll want to use in any CD drive. If you're going to want to add more files later, you can select Finalize Session, Don't Finalize CD. This will let you write more files at a later time, but remember that only the most recent session will be accessible. This works well for "versions" of a document. As you're working on a document, you might save the latest version to a CD and not finalize the CD. Then tomorrow you can save that version to the same CD with a new session. You can keep writing in this way until the CD is full or you finalize the CD. Because you're saving successive versions, you only are interested in accessing the latest version so you don't mind not being able to access previous sessions.

   If you are writing a music CD, then you probably want to select Disk-At-Once for the write method. This will write the music files exactly as they are. If you select Track-At-Once, then there will be a 2 second space inserted between every track.

   When everything is set up correctly, click on Start Recording. The first time Easy CD Creator uses a new data source, it will spend a couple minutes doing some data access tests. Then the write monitor window opens where you can monitor the process. You'll be notified when the CD is finished.

Steps for writing to a CD-RW

Compared to what you've just read, using CD-RWs is a breeze. However, there are serious limitations as mentioned previously. A CD-RW disk can only be accessed in a CD-RW drive. They are becoming more common, but there are a lot of machines yet with only CD-ROM drives. In addition, music files written to a CD-RW will not play in an audio CD player.

1. Insert the CD-RW in the drive. Most CD-RWs are preformatted so you will then get a notification from Easy CD Creator that the disk has been recognized and is ready for writing.

2. Write to the CD-RW as you would a floppy or zip disk. You can drag files in Windows Explorer or write to it directly from Word or any other application. Files can be deleted or renamed just like a floppy or zip.

3. Eject the CD when you're finished.

One word of caution. I've seen a couple CD-RWs "die" and not been able to get any files off of them. For that reason I wouldn't recommend CD-RWs for your permanent backup of critical files. Use CD-Rs for that. Use CD-RWs for transferring files back and forth between machines so if something does happen with the CD-RW, you still have the files on a machine somewhere.

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