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.