Hardware 3: CD Burners & Scanners

CD Burners

CD Burners are devices that allow you to write files to a CD or make copies. Usually, burner drives are identified with three speeds (ie. 48x-12x-48x): write, re-write, and read. The fastest burner drive is currently 52x and the school has some 48x and 24x in the computer lab. CD Burner drives can be connected to the system internally or externally.

Blank CD’s come in different types and speeds. There are CD-R’s and CD-RW’s. The difference between them is that you only burn CD-R’s once, while you may erase and re-burn files to a CD-RW (rewritable). CD-R’s are less expensive and also more popular. Also, CDs have different speeds but whichever has the lower speed (Burner drive or CD) will be used when burning. Most CD’s hold 700MB of data.

Roxio Easy CD Creator

Roxio is the company manufacturer of Easy CD Creator, a program that will be used for burning CD’s. When launching the Program Selector of Easy CD Creator, you will have different options to start a burning project: Make a Data CD, Make a Music CD and CD Copier.

Make a Data CD:

Use this option to create a Data CD with data files such as Presentations, Images, etc. The main Data CD project window consists of two spaces: an upper field where the source files are shown and a lower field where the contents of your project are displayed. The idea is to ‘move’ the files that you need to burn from the source (upper) window to the project (lower) window. You may do this by double clicking on the file or single clicking and Add. Notice that every time you add a file, the counter bar at the bottom of the screen will increase showing the space used on the CD.

When ready to burn, press Record. The Record options are displayed next. You can select a different Write Speed, Number of Copies, Record Options (record/test) and Record Method. From these the Record Method offers two options: Track-At-Once and Disc-At-Once. Best practices are:

+ Track-At-Once & Don’t Finalize Session: When you need to add more files later in the same session. You will not be able to use/read the CD until the session is finalized.

+ Track-At-Once & Finalize Session-Don’t Finalize CD: When you need to add more files later on a different session. You will be able to read the files from the first session.

+ Track-At-Once & Finalize CD: When you do not want to add more files and would like to read them.

Once the options are selected, click on Start Recording.

Make a Music CD:

A Music CD project works the same way as a Data CD where you need to ‘drag’ music files from the upper source window to the lower project window. The most important detail when creating a Music CD is that regular audio systems only recognize and read the music files that you recorded on the first session. Then, if you are compiling or mixing music from different sources you should always select Track-At-Once & Don’t Finalize Session as a Recording Method so that the first session is left open until the last song where you may Finalize the Session.

CD Copier

This option will create an exact copy of the CD inserted on the other drive. You do not have the option to select which files to burn. Use this option when a quick copy of a Data or Music CD is needed. In the Advanced tab you may change the Write Speed and Number of Copies.

Other ways to store data

DVD Burners/ DVD-R’s provide a large storage space (4.7 GB) but due to the price they are not that common.

Flash Memory is a popular way to store data on the run as they are easily connected to the USB port on any computer. Depending on the brand you generally do not need to install drivers or any software to read your data, but older systems such as Windows 98 requires them. These drives come from 32 MB to 512 MB.

Zip drives have become less popular for storing data mainly for the small storage space provided and the extra hardware needed. Zip drives only read Zip disks and the most common storage space is 100MB and 250MB.