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Macintosh OS X

Saving Files to a CD

The Compact Disc (CD) drives found on many campus computers can be used to access information from CD's and to write files to CD's as a way of accessing, saving, and sharing information with others. Computers equipped with a CD writer, or burner, have a type of drive called a CD-RW drive. To determine which General Access (GA) labs have CD writers, see Lab Management's Lab Hardware Summary.

Most blank CDs can hold about 750 MB of information. Thus, CD's are an ideal way to back up important documents or even an entire H: drive.

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 if caught. For more information, see the UW-Eau Claire Copyright Office's web site.

This document contains information on the following:

return to topWorking with CD Burners

All campus computers equipped with CD burners have a type of drive called CD-RW, for Compact Disc, Rewritable. These drives can write data to both CD-R and CD-RW discs. Both discs will function the same way and can hold about the same amount of information. CD-RW discs are more expensive, but they do have a significant advantage in that they allow you to delete, rename, and rearrange files like any other drive or disk. Once you burn a CD-R disc, the information cannot be modified or erased. CD burners have the ability to write to a CD in increments, which means you can start burning a CD in one sitting and add more data to it later.

If your CD keeps getting ejected, your disc is probably unreadable. For more information, see Working with CD's.

For more general information about CD writing as it applies to both Windows and Macintosh, see CD Creation FAQs.

return to topCopying Files to a CD-RW or CD-R

This section will tell you how to copy your files to a CD. This process is also known as Burning or Writing a CD. For more general information about copying files, see Working with Files.

  1. Press [Eject] Eject key
         The CD tray opens.

  2. Place your blank CD in the tray

  3. Press [Eject]
    The CD tray closes.
    The CD's icon appears on the desktop.

  4. Double click the CD icon to view and access the contents of the disc

  5. From the File menu, select New Finder Window

  6. Locate the files you wish to copy to the CD
    NOTE: It is a good idea to copy files located on the hard drive, rather than from a network drive. Burning files from a network drive may take longer and result in errors.

  7. Copy your selected files by dragging the file icons to the CD window

  8. When you are ready to burn the CD, from the File menu, select Burn Disc...
    A dialog box appears.

  9. Click BURN
    The Burn Disc dialog box appears as the CD burns.

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