Burning a CD, DVD or Blu-ray

When creating the actual CD/DVD/BD using 3rd party CD/DVD/BD-Burner software, it is necessary that the files reside in the root directory of that CD/DVD/BD.

There is no single standard for how much data a CD or DVD can hold. Depending on the media used, the CD/DVD burner, and the 3rd party burning software it may not be possible to fit the entire file set on the blank CD/DVD.

In our test set-up it was possible to fit 700MB of data on a 700MB CD-R, but we have had reports of other systems (with older CD-Burner software), only being about to fit 630MB (63 files) on a 650MB CD-R.

As an experiment we also burnt 700MB on to a 650 CD-RW disc. The 1st 695MB was data was readable but the last 5MB could not be re-read from the disc. We don’t however recommend exceeding the capacity indicated on the media.

With DVD’s there are currently multiple competing standards for writing data, so the only way to determine what you system is capable of is to read the documentation and experiment.

We also found that when burning CD’s it was possible to fit more data on the CD if the disk was ‘finalized’, (This means that you can’t add any additional information to the disc however).

If your system can’t burn a full disc, just fill up the disc with as many files as possible, without exceeding the capacity indicated on the media. BurnInTest will work will a partially filled disc.

3rd party CD / DVD / BD Burning software

Easy CD Creator from http://www.roxio.com

Nero from http://www.ahead.de/