Beginners Guides: Burning CDs and DVDs

In this article, PCstats will continue its look at recordable optical media, or in other words, CD Writers. We will expand from our previous guide on "Optical Drives & Recording Formats" to discuss different recordable CD options work, and walk you through the steps to create an ISO file or disk image for burning. We'll also touch upon burning MP3 or audio data onto a CD-R/RW with an eye towards creating audio and MP3 CDs, and much, much more. So, let's get started!

For this guide we are going to use a Windows XP system with Nero CD-creation software for our examples. The information will be applicable to other burning software, however.

The subject of data-fastness and longevity of CD-media is still being debated, and likely will be for a while. Artificial 'rapid-aging' tests on various CD-R media types have shown that most disks seem to hold readable data for as long as a hundred years before the dyes used become unreadable.

Even the cheapest of disks is likely to hold its data for more than a decade, provided it is well cared for. Everyone already knows that CD and DVD disks are vulnerable to stains and scratches and should be handled carefully, so we are not going to tell you that.

What we will give you is a few best practices to increase the life expectancy of your data. Do not leave your disks (burned or blank) in direct sunlight or high humidity. Long-term exposure to either of these things can result in the media being difficult or impossible to read.

Keep in mind that the label side of the CD (or single-sided DVD) is considerably more vulnerable to scratching than the read side, since the read side has almost a millimeter of plastic protecting it, while the label side has only a single, incredibly thin layer protecting the actual data tracks.

A scratch on the read side may prevent the disk from being read, but a scratch on the label side will actually destroy the data.

Single and multisession ISO 9660 data CD-ROMs

Nero and other CD-burning software offers a multitude of options for CD creation. The most commonly used of these is the creation of 'ISO 9660' data CDs. These are data CDs formatted with the ISO 9660 file system that are capable of holding multiple sessions, meaning the disk can be written to multiple times until it is completely full.

ISO 9660 data CDs can be read on all CD-ROM drives and readers, and the process to create them is fairly straight forward...