Using CD Writers Some Student Computer Lab systems have the ability to burn(create) audio CDs and CD-ROMs. For help finding a machine that can burn CDs, please see a lab consultant.

CDs are less convenient than magnetic media such as floppy disks, zip disks or file-server storage (SAMBA). In general you will want to reserve burning CDs for finished projects, rather than works in progress.

The program used at UMSL to burn CDs and CD-ROMs is called Easy CD Creator. You can find Easy CD Creator by going to:

Start→Faculty Software→ Easy CD Creator→Applications→ Easy CD Creator.

When you open Easy CD Creator you will be in a new audio CD project by default. If you want to make a CD-ROM instead of a CD, you will need to change the project type. Using CD Writers

To set the project type for a CD- ROM, choose File→New CD Project→ Data CD

To set the project type for an audio CD, choose File→New CD Project→ Music CD

Next you need to browse

(in the top pane of the Easy CD Creator window) to the files you are interested in storing to the CD or CD-ROM. With the file or directory you wish to record selected, press the ‘Add’ button on the center toolbar to add the file to the CD or CD-ROM project. Using CD Writers

When you have added all your files to the project, Insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW disk in the drive and click the ‘Record’ button on the center toolbar.

For best results, make sure the checkbox next to ‘Copy to hard drive first’ is checked and then click the ‘Start Recording’ button.

Note on choosing an appropriate disk type:

CD-R disks are ‘record-once’, which means that nothing can be erased from them and once session is closed or disk is full they can no-longer be modified, but they are much cheaper than CD-RW disks. CD-R disks are an ideal choice for archiving. Leave sessions open until you are sure you will never want to modify the files again.

CD-RW disks can be erased and re-used many times (usually between 500-1000) CD-RW disks are an ideal choice for occasional transfer of large files. Leave sessions open until you are sure you will never want to modify the files again.