Burn your data on a CD

Burn your data on a CD

Vishnu K. Mahmud, Contributor, Jakarta

Nowadays, new personal computer systems come packaged with a
CD Writer. These specialized devices cannot only play your music,
show your movies or read your computer data but can also "burn"
them onto a special CD.

Also known as "CD Burners", these optical drives come in two
different technologies. One is the CD-R, or CD Recordable. This
unit can only burn data on to a CD-R disc but can be read many
times (Write Once, Read Multiple), similar to the commercial CD's
your music or software comes in. You cannot delete information
once they are written since the data is stored permanently on the
discs.

The other system is the CD-RW, or CD Rewritable. In addition
to writing information on CD-R discs, these units can also burn
data on special CD-RW discs that is reusable. In other words, CD-
RW discs can be erased and rewritten like a hard drive.

Is a CD Burner really necessary? Consider this: computer files
(especially music and video) can be rather bulky and sharing them
with friends and family overseas can be rather taxing. Uploading
them via e-mail on a dial-up internet account may take hours and
you just can't fit 30 Megabytes of Baby's first steps into a 1.44
Megabyte floppy disk.

With a CD-Writer, you can safely burn your information on to a
CD and mail it over. CD-R media is rather inexpensive nowadays
(about Rp3,000), while the reusable CD-RW disc is about Rp20,000.
The latter is rather useful for transferring large files back and
forth from your home to the office, while the former can be also
be used for archiving and safeguarding your data.

You can also get CD-R discs in different sizes. There are even
companies that can produce small CDs to your specific design.
Want to give out your business card with your complete portfolio?
Hand them the square shaped disc and all the receiver has to do
is put it in his or her CD drive. Want to give all your relatives
a copy of the video and photos of the wedding? Burn them on a
heart shaped disc and send them out.

Using a CD Burner is not that complicated. Some operating
systems such as Apple's Mac OS X and Microsoft's Windows XP come
with built-in support for these drives. They have included
software so the user can easily "drag and drop" files into the
CD's and in Apple's case, burn your MP3 with iTunes to listen in
your car CD player. You can also use applications such as Roxio's
Easy CD Creator or aHead's Nero Burning ROM to create music CD's,
auto-playing movies, instant loading software programs, or to
make a copy of a CD.

Some tips about burning. It is recommended that when you burn
a CD (especially a huge file), don't run any other processor
intensive applications such as a 3D Game or a massive spreadsheet
that requires immense calculations. These programs can disrupt
the CD writing process and that would end up giving you a useless
disc (or in geek terms, a coaster, as in a place to put your
coffee mug!).

Also, be aware of the file system you are burning your CD
with. Some system formats on Windows may not be compatible with
those on the Macintosh or Linux systems, so make sure you are
using a system depending on whom your "audience" is.

Make sure the writable CD's you purchase have clear grooves
and have no defects, as a flawed disc would not write properly.
Although homespun Compact Discs can be played on almost all types
of machines, older CD players may have problems in reading the
disc.

Finally, most computer users utilize their CD Writers for
burning data only, and use their CD-ROM or DVD drives for playing
movies or running games. This is done simply to extend the life
of the CD Burner since, like any other machine with moving parts,
they do wear down with use.

If you are in the market for a new computer, make sure it
comes with a CD-Writer. Even the latest notebooks offer these
units as a selling point. You can also pick up CD Burners for
your desktop rather reasonably as the prices have fallen
dramatically with the introduction of faster drives.

When the desktop printer first came out, suddenly everyone was
a publisher. With a consumer CD-Writer, you're now a multimedia
king!

For more information, go to www.cdrfaq.org.