Compact Disc Creation

CD Creation Setup Options

The CD burner drives in many campus computer labs can be used for creating CDs to archive information and share information with others. The CD burner drives have the ability to write to the CD in increments, which means you may start creating the CD in one sitting and add more data to it later.

There are several options available to you as you use the CD burner drives. For basic instructions on how to use the CD Burner, see Creating a CD. The following document describes the different setup options available to you when you are ready to record information to a CD.

This document contains information on the following:

Accessing the Advanced CD Creation Dialog Box
CD Creation Setup Options

Accessing the Advanced CD Creation Dialog Box

When you are ready to record your selected files or folders onto your CD, you may access and change several options including the number of copies, write speed, and write method. These options are detailed in the CD Creation Setup Options section. To access these options, follow the instructions in this section.

On the toolbar at the top of the screen, click CREATE CD
The CD Creation Setup dialog box appears.
In the CD Creation Setup dialog box, click ADVANCED
The advanced CD Creation Setup dialog box appears.
In the dialog box, make the appropriate selections. See CD Creation Setup Options for an explanation of each setting.
Click OK
The CD Creation Process dialog box appears and the CD begins recording.

CD Creation Setup Options

Target Devices

Target Devices: Select the CD burner you want to use for recording CDs. If more than one CD burner is connected to your system, select the CD-Recorder you want to use from the pull-down list.
NOTE: Campus computer labs will have only one burner connected to each computer, so you should not have to change this setting.
Write Speed: Select the speed of the drive for recording CDs. If you consistently get errors while burning or find that your burned CDs do not work properly, your computer may not be fast enough to write at higher speeds. If this is the case, try reducing the write speed. The default speed is generally best for most recordings.
NOTE: The number of people logged on to a shared drive at any given time impacts the speed of data transmission. When burning a CD, data must record at a constant rate or the burn may fail. For that reason, you will achieve more reliable results if the file you are recording is located on your C: drive. We recommend that before you begin recording a CD, you copy the file you want to record from its current location (e.g., H: drive) to your C: drive. For more information on copying files, see File Management within Office 2000 Programs.
Number of Copies: Type or select the number of copies (i.e., number of discs) you want to make from the CD Layout you are about to record.
HINT: You may want to make two copies: one for normal use and one for backup.

Create Options

Test Only: Select this option to simulate recording to the CD. No files will actually be recorded onto the CD. This setting will verify that the CD is recordable and all recording devices are functioning properly.
Test and Create CD: Select this option to first test the CD and recording devices, and then record (create) a CD if the test process is successful.
Create CD: Select this option to begin recording the CD without a test. This is the default option.

Write Method

Definitions of terms used in this section:

Track: An individual group of information. This can be a single song or other group of data.
Session: Think of a session as a "recording session." Just as it implies, a session is a group of information recorded at one time, in the same recording session. A session may contain one track (as is usually the case with Data CDs) or several to many tracks (as in most Audio CDs).
Open CD: If a CD is open it means that further information can be added to it. It is not write protected.
Closed CD: If a CD is closed it is permanently write-protected. No further information can be added to the disc. Closing a CD is analogous to moving the write-protect tab on a floppy disc to the write-protect position. However, unlike with floppies, you cannot change the write-protect setting on a burned CD.
Closed session: A closed session is permanently write-protected. No further information may be added to it. However, the remaining space on the CD is still open and may be recorded.
Burn (a CD): Burning a CD is the same as recording a CD. The word "burn" has come to mean "record" when discussing recordable CDs.
Track-At-Once: Select this option to record a single track at a time. Tracks recorded in Track-At-Once mode are separated by gaps. If a data track is followed by an audio track, the gap is 2 or 3 seconds. The gap between audio tracks is usually 2 seconds.

Leave Session Open: This option is primarily for audio CDs. Select this option to add more songs to the CD at a later time.
NOTE: In this mode, the CD will not be readable until the session is closed. Once you have added all the songs you want and choose to listen to the CD on a home or car stereo CD player, close the session.

Close Session and Leave CD Open: Select this option to close the current session, but leave the CD open (not write-protected). Since the CD remains open, you can continue to record additional data to the CD until it is full. This option is the default setting and is correct for most CD recording purposes.

Close CD: To write-protect the CD, select this option. You will not be able to add any further data to the disc.
Session-At-Once: Select this option to record a single session and leave the CD open. For example, you may use Session-at-Once to record both audio files and data files onto a CD. In the first session, record the audio files/tracks and leave the CD open. Then record a second (data) session and close the CD.
Disc-At-Once: Select this option to write and close a CD in one operation without turning the writing laser on and off between tracks. This eliminates any gaps between tracks and write-protects the CD. You can select this option if you are recording WAV or MP3 files stored on your hard-drive, or music CD tracks.
NOTE: If you select this option you cannot add any further data to the disc.
Set as Default: This button is for changing the CD Creation Setup default options. In the campus computer labs, do not use this button for any reason.