CD-RW/DVD Writing Information & Software

Alex Nichol on CD Burning - This is the definitive site on CD Burning issues as they pertain to Windows XP's built in burning capabilities. Alex shares his insight on the differences between different recording formats and also offers a Problems section including fixes for a few well known CD/DVD/CD-R/W issues.

How To Burn CDs - Authored by Galan Bridgman this article is very nicely put together and will easily walk the novice through the craft of burning CDs using XP's built in software.

Andy McFadden's CD-Recordable FAQ  this is the definitive CD-R/W resource. Everyone who is using a burner or is thinking about burning disks needs to bookmark this one!!

Mike Richter's Primer on CD-R - Mike R's gives a comprehensive treatment to a range of CD-R and CD-R/W FAQs. This is good solid information and worthwhile bookmarking.

VideoHelp.com - This site will help you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs or DVDs that can be played on your standalone DVD Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, DV, Cam or downloaded movie clips like DivX, MOV, RM, WMV and ASF. Lots of tutorials, excellent tools and more.

OSTA - is an international trade association dedicated to promoting use of writable optical technology for storing computer data and images. The organization has over 60 Members and Associates in North America, Asia, and Europe. There is very good information regarding the different aspects of CD Writing including information on packet writing and mastering software technology

Mt Rainier Technology - The newest technology for drag and drop file copying to CD-R/W is here. Read more about Mt. Rainier here http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,97404,00.asp

Saving files to CD-R using XP's Built In Recording Software - most people find that trying to save directly to the CD Writer drive letter from applications like MS Word, Excel, NT Backup, Notepad etc results in an error message similar to this "You do not have access to the folder 'd:\'.  See your administrator for access to this folder." .....

Create A Bootable CD/DVD or USB Disc - If your system does not have a floppy drive you might wish to create a bootable CD/DVD or USB Device to use for troubleshooting or updating the BIOS.

Error Messages After Removing Easy CD Creator from XP - fixes for a variety of problems that occur after you remove Easy CD Creator

CD Device Not Being Recognized - Microsoft has a possible fix here and Alex Nichol also offers possible solutions in his Problems Section

How To Troubleshoot CD-R or CD-R/W Problems in Windows XP - From the Microsoft Knowledgebase you find tips, advice and links to some of the most common problems XP has with CD writing.

Creating a bootable Windows XP SP1 CD - You want to slipstream SP1a into your copy of XP? Or you simply want to add a few commonly installed apps to your XP installation disk you can use this process.

How To Properly Enable DMA - Don't skip over this part thinking, "oh I already know this one". Chances are, you haven't got it properly enabled.

CD-Rom Guide link to FAQs, Tutorials and other Essentials - compiled by one of the moderators at CD-Rom Guide this is an excellent pace to find a wealth of hard to find information.

Tips and Tricks to Good CD-R Burning - a page from the PKer.com site which is an excellent read through if you are new to burning and solid  reminders for veterans!

Clean Your CD-R/W - If you find that you are starting to make more coasters than before, or  when you run the simulation test it completes perfectly but the burns fail you may have a dirty lens. Dust is getting sucked into the drive all the time and it doesn't take much to affect your laser lens. I've cleaned an old HP 7100i several times using the directions at this site. If the warranty is gone, what have you got to lose?

How To Transfer Vinyl To CD - Another great link to getting those old LPs stored on CDs. Simple and direct instructions.

How To Transfer From Cassette to CD-R - basic info on connecting your system to transfer audio cassettes to CD-R.

Bart's Way for making Bootable CD-Rom - An excellent resource and one of the best on the net.

CD-Rom Guide Forum on CD-R/W - one of the best peer support groups on the internet. If you have questions ask them here!

Software Sites

Cheetah DVD Burner v1.41 - Burn Dual Layer DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, CD-RW, and CD-R disc's. Burn Bootable CD/DVD's, ISO Files, and Audio CD's from MP3, MP2, WMA, WAV, AVI and OGG files. The Cheetah DVD Burner also includes an Audio CD Ripper and many other useful utilities.

Burn4Free - This program allows you to burn data and audio from different file types including WAV, WMA, MP3 and OGG. It supports CD-R/W, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM drives. It also supports multiple languages. It allows you to burn ISO files and supports drag-and-drop. And it is completely FREE

BurnAtOnce - Simple interface freeware burner. Give it a try.

SilentNight Micro CD/DVD Burner. This is a free stand alone burning app that does not install anytning to your computer. You can even run it off a floppy or USB drive.

CDBurnerXP - Pro is a freeware CD-RW/DVD program. There is no spyware or hidden malware added during installation. The interface is very similar to Nero. The program can write to either CD or DVD discs. this is fully functional and can create audio or data discs. It even burns and writes .ISO images. An excellent tool.

DLA - Drive Letter Access (DLA) gives you the ability to easily drag-and-drop your files directly to a recordable CD or DVD disc and make the disc compatible with almost any Windows computer. No trialware but it is under $20 USD.

WriteUDF  -  enables your CD-RW drive to work like a giant floppy drive! It is also the first software in the world that unlocks the power and ease of use of the new Mt. Rainier CD-RW drives and while continuing to provide "drag and drop" capability for non-Mt. Rainier CD-RW drive. It will enable you to open your old packet formatted CD-R/W and save files off of them to your Hard Drive. If you've upgraded to XP and find that you can't open your old Direct CD or InCD disks then give WriteUDF a try. Unfortunately the demo version is no longer available.

Backup MyPC - So you've learned the hard way that the MS Backup program does not open the .QIC files that you created with your previous version of Windows. You've upgraded and now you want to open the backup and you are being told that the file can't be opened. Don't despair. The 30 day trial of Backup MyPC works across platforms to open and restore those .QIC files! Backup MyPC is actually the full featured app that the MS Backup program is based on.

SuperBlank v 3.0 - If you have trouble erasing CD-R/W disks with your software's erase feature try this freeware program. It was designed to erase multiple CD's (up to seven at a time) but works very well in my home system.

Media Player Classic 6.4.8.6 - Classic looks just like Windows Media Player 6.4, but has many additional features. It has a built in DVD player with real-time zoom, support for AVI subtitles,  built-in MPEG2/SVCD/DVD codec. Even plays RealPlayer streaming video.

K-Lite Codec site  - One of the best resources for free codecs. You can also get Real Alternative (.rm and .ram file player) and Quicktime Alternative (play Apple .mov files) from here.

DVD XPack Plug-ins - If you want to watch DVD's through Windows Media Player you've likely found that you need a codec. This low cost set of tools will give you control over your audio and video files.

FDDShow - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies. It is freeware. Check for updates and read the reviews.

DivX Codec (free) - To play DivX movies you first need to install the DivX codec on your computer. The DivX codec v5.2.1 is the latest version of the DivX codec and it's fully backwards compatible with all previous versions of the DivX codec.

XviD Codec (free) - Another codec used in opening Xvid files

DVD/CD-R Diagnostic - practically all of the software that I list on my site is under $30 US or freeware. This piece of software hit the top of that range. However it is invaluable if you burn disks. It will enable you to recover data from damaged disks. So if you make a few "coaster" (and we all do) or you can't get you drive to read a UDF disk, this program will help with the recovery.

DVD/CD Data Rescue is a windows based application that recovers files from damaged or defective CD's. Every time you get an error reading a file, CD Data Rescue can help you to recover it. With this product you can easily recover files, folders, or deleted files from CD-Rs and CD-RWs. It also can recover files from quick formatted CD-RWs. I have tested it on XP and this application definitely will recover files off CD-R/W disks that have accidentally been deleted or Quick Formatted. However it does not recover files if you Quick Erase the media. It is well worth the purchase price if you use packet writing software.

IsoBuster - a freeware recovery program that is similar to CD-R Diagnostics in what it attempts to do. I have recovered data with it from a CD-R that reported "no data". Give it a try!

Patin-Couffin Access Layer is a required device I/O interface for various applications, such as DVD43

Need to update your ASPI Layer? ASPI stands for Advanced SCSI Programming Interface. It's an interface to access directly to the CD hardware, with a set of commands the device can handle. Even though the word SCSI appears it's compatible and used with IDE ATAPI drives. Almost all the CD drives in the market belong to one of these category, so can be accessed through ASPI.  Windows 2000/XP delivers its own version of ASPI, but it can be to be unstable and unreliable. Adaptec, who owns the copyright, has a good, reliable distribution with all its SCSI cards and CD software. Symbios has its distribution, as well as some CD burning or extracting software.

Adaptec's ASPI 4.71 download the latest ASPI Layer directly from Adaptec. You can also install the latest Adaptec ASPI drivers *without* the requisite Adaptec hardware or software in your system, by 'virtually' installing an Adaptec 2940 SCSI adapter (even if you don't actually have one). You do this by going into your Install New Hardware wizard: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Hardware. This will trick your system [and the ASPI32.exe installer program] into thinking you have an Adaptec SCSI card installed in your system. After you have 'virtually' installed the phantom Adaptec SCSI adapter, you will be able to install the Adaptec ASPI layer.

WinMX - WinMX is a peer->peer sharing program that  gives you an easy to use interface, great download speed, and you can download more than just .mp3 with it. There is no spyware that is found with many other peer->peer programs.

Kazaa Lite - The difference is that there is no spyware with this version of the popular peer->peer sharing program.

MP3Gain - Ok so you have a ton of MP3s on your drive. But when you play them with your favorite player like WinAMP you find that they have different volume levels. You can either turn up or down the volume button - a real PITA - or you can use this freeware app to basically set the volume levels the same for all your files. Or you can normalize the volume for an entire folder. This is a must have.

cdrLabel - cdrLabel is a shareware tool for creating labels for your CD-Recordable and CD-ROM disks. It stands out with it's ability to produce nicely formatted catalogs on these labels. cdrLabel allows you to easily find what files a CD-ROM contains without ever opening the case! This is shareware and the author asks $15US

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