CD Burning Tips

CD Burning Tips

Compact disc (CD) burning is a common task performed on computer systems today. Many different types of files can be burned to a recordable CD---including music files, documents, database records and even small videos. Most computers come with a CD burner built in, so all you need are some blank discs and some files to write to them.

Purchase the Right Kind of CDs

1.      Before you can burn a CD, you must buy the right kind of CD. Stay away from cheap off-brand compact discs. You don't have to buy the most expensive, but do buy brand name discs like Sony, TDK or BASF CDs. Also, look for CDs that are labeled for the application you are burning: "Music" for burning music files to and "Data" for burning computer document files.

Close Other Applications and Turn Off Your Screensaver

2.      After you have the right kind of CDs, then prepare your computer for burning them. Turn off any programs running in the background, including screensavers, virus programs that are constantly doing updates and any other programs that may interrupt the CD burning process. Note---turn off any chat clients like AIM or Yahoo! and exit from the Internet also.

Check Your Computer's CD Burner

3.      After you have turned off any background programs, click on "My Computer" and then right-click on your CD burner drive and make sure the check box by "Enable CD recording on this drive" is checked. This setting turns on the compact disc recording features within Windows XP. If your computer is older and your CD burner is new or has been having problems, change the burning speed to a lower value---change 8x down to 4x or 4x down to 2x. Changing the burn speed will reduce "buffer underrun" errors. Changing the speed is also a much more reliable way to burn, especially if you are burning music CDs.

Make Sure You Finalize Your CDs

4.      After the burn process is complete, make sure you finalize the compact disc after you are done burning. Most computer CD programs will finalize the burn process automatically, but sometimes you are asked "Do you want to finalize the disc?" Always answer with "Yes" or "OK." When a disc is finalized, a "table of contents" like index is written to the disc so CD players can read the disc. If you don't finalize the disc or your CD burning program doesn't say "finalizing disc," "closing disc" or similar wording, you won't be able to play your burned CD on a stand-alone player.

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