Cannot burn disks cd or dvd

Without purchasing new disc burning software, there are actually 3 ways to burn CDs & DVDs in your Mac OS X system (Mac OS X 10.3-10.6)

There are methods using Finder and Disk Utility.

Both are easy to do and when set up to use will have you burning music, video, data, and image files (ISO) to CDs or DVDs in no time at all.

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BURNING DISKS WITH FINDER

1.) Create a Burn folder and burn a CD/DVD

* The easiest way to burn a disc with Finder is to create a Burn folder with Finder. Here's how you do that:

* Click on any blank space on your desktop and in an instant, Finder will appear on the Apple menu bar next to the Apple menu icon.
• Click on File and select from the drop down menu



* This distinctive folder will now appear on your Desktop




* Now insert a blank CD or DVD and in moments, you will see this window pop up:



• Just click the OK button.


* In a few more moments
on your desktop, you will see this Untitled DVD (or "CD: for CD-ROM Disks) icon:




• Now you can either drag and drop files into the folder, or just double-click the folder and also drag and drop files into the open Burn Folder window

* If you notice, each file you drag (or copy and paste) into the Burn Folder window will have a small curved arrow at the bottom left corner of the file.
That is merely a designation that the file is a image of the actual file and ready to be burned to the CD or DVD you use.



* Notice the Burn button (highlighted in the red box). This is the button you will press, to commence the burn (or copying) of the data you have placed in the burn folder to be copied to disk.

• Click the Burn button, name your disk and that is all it takes. When the process is complete, you will now see a formerly Untitled Disk icon on your desktop replaced with a "Your_new_disc_name" DVD.

(Additional Note: If you wish, you can also simply bypass creating a Burn folder, insert a blank CD or DVD and simply drag and drop or copy and paste files into the open window of the Untitled CD as well.)

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BURNING A DISC WITH DISK UTILITY

There are actually two ways to burn data to an DVD or CD with Disk Utility:

1.) Burn a disk in Disk Utility

* Simply open Disk Utility by either clicking anywhere on a blank space on your Desktop window and Finder will appear near your Apple menu, select Go >Utilities and that will take you to the Utilities Folder which is the default location of the Disk Utility application.




* Or you can click the Finder icon on your Dock, open a new Finder window, click on "Applications" listed in the side window and select the Utilities folder






* Either way, you will land here.




• Insert your CD or DVD.




* Once you open Disk Utility, you will see this main window




* Now all you need to do is click the "Burn" button located on the Disk Utility toolbar.




* For an example, I am striving to burn a copy of my Quicken .dmg file to CD.

* Once I have selected the file, then I click the Burn button located at the bottom right corner of the Finder window.



* Follow the onscreen instructions to start the burn process.

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2. Creating a multi-session disk using Disk Utility:
Now it is known, that one cannot burn more than once with a single CD-R disc, but it can be done as provide from the knowledge base of Apple support:

• In the Finder, create a folder for the session and drag the items you want to burn into the folder.

• In Disk Utility, choose File > New > "Disk Image fromFolder." Then select the folder you created in the dialog and clickOpen.

• Type a name for the image, choose a disk format, and click Save. Mac OS Extended allows burning the disc more than once. Formats such as ISO allow burning the disc only once.
  

• When the disk image is complete, select it in the Disk Utility list and choose images > Burn or click Burn in the toolbar.

• Insert a blank CD in the optical drive.

• Select the "Leave disc appendable" checkbox. If you don't see this option, click the triangle in the top-right corner.

• Click Burn.

What is really nice about this CD/DVD burn feature of DIsk Utility, is that now you can come back later and add more files to the same CD without having to waste all the space on a new CD-R.

This especially useful, if the image file you are need to burn is small in capacity. Just pop the previously burned CD in your drive and add that file or files until that CD is filled to capacity- that is all it takes.

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So there you have it, a quick tip on how to use Finder and Disk Utility to burn any data to your CD and DVDs.

Thanks for viewing my Mac OS X tip from FixYa Support. Stay tuned for more tips for how to make the most of your Mac OS X systems!

Regards,

-Mactechtrainer