Windows Vista

Storing Files on a CD: Overview

The Compact Disc (CD) drives found on many computers on campus can be used to write files to CDs as a way of archiving and sharing information with others. Computers equipped with a CD writer have a type of drive called a CD-RW (Compact Disc, Rewritable) or a DVD-RW (Digital Video Disc, Rewritable). To determine which General Access labs have CD writers, please see Lab Management's Lab Location Map & Detailed Lab Descriptions page.

A blank CD can hold about 750 MB of information. This makes CDs an ideal medium to use for backing up important documents or even an entire H: drive. CD-RW discs and CD-R discs can hold about the same amount of information.

WARNING: The use of CD writers to make copies of music or software is illegal without permission from the copyright owner. Persons engaged in such activity could be prosecuted. For more information, see the UW-Eau Claire Copyright Office's website.

Things to Consider

DVD-RW and CD-RW drives can write data to both CD-R and CD-RW discs.
While CD-RW discs are more expensive, they do have a significant advantage because they allow you to delete, rename, and rearrange files without losing storage space. CD-R discs have a limited amount of storage space available, and while files may be deleted from the disc, the space used by those files will not be freed up.
The number of people logged on to a shared drive at any given time impacts the speed of data transmission. When writing a CD, data must write at a constant rate or the write may fail. For that reason, you will achieve more reliable results if the file you are writing is located on your C: drive. We recommend that before you begin writing a CD, you copy the file you want to write from its current location (e.g., H: drive) to your C: drive. For more information on copying files, see Working with Files.
Adding files and folders to a CD in Windows Vista is very simple, thanks to the Burn function. You can find steps for completing the Burning process at Storing Files on a CD: Writing the Files to a CD.
For more information, see the CD Creation FAQs.