Solved: How to put folders on CD disks

[busygrandma]

I place a lot of photos on CD-R disks & am not sure if I'm doing it correctly. I format the disk in Mastered format. I then drag photos off of desktop, place on the new disk, close session & eject. Every once in a while, I'll place a disk in the computer & it just goes round & round in there & won't be recognized even though it worked fine just the night before. I will then place another disk in the drive & that works fine. Am I doing something wrong? Is "close session" equivalent to burning or as safe saving items on disk? Are the disks faulty even though they're new? Thank you for any help you can give me.

 

[bp936]

Welcome to TSG.
There are sometimes faulty disks unfortunately.
What program are you using to burn the CD?
I usually make a folder on my desktop to collect the pictures I want to burn and then rightclick,to see properties to make sure I didn't go over the capacity of the disk. As far as i Know, all burning programs need a little space to do some housekeeping.
What operating system are you using? and is it a CD drive or a DVD drive? I have to tell my program what I am burning, a CD or a DVD, that could also be a problem, that the settings change.

 

[busygrandma]

I am using Vista & using the CD drive. I insert a new CD-R disk, click on "Mastered" format so it can be read in other computers, name it & that's it. Then I edit my photos in Picasa or the program that came with my camera. After I'm done editing, I place them in a folder on my desktop, call up the formatted disk, copy & paste or drag the photos onto the disk, close the session & eject. Is that the correct way to do it? Are the photos on the disk permanently or are they just being placed there indefinitely? If there is an additional step, what is called burning, what do I do next?

 

[bp936]

I only have XP so the disc burning is a bit different.
As I can see in these instructions, Vista does the formatting by itself. I would follow instructions here step by step.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=539

According to this:

The first thing you need to do when burning a CD or DVD is get empty discs. But which discs do I need? Do I need CD-r, CD-rw, DVD-r, DVD-rw, DVD+r, DVD+rw? The most important is that you buy discs where your computer can write to. In other words, the discs have to be compatible with your computer. If there is in your computer only a CD writer you cannot burn DVDs.

 

[busygrandma]

Thank you so, so much! This answered all my questions!

 

[busygrandma]

Quick question - After reading the article that you recommended, am I correct in assuming that after I've downloaded my info on the CD disk, give the command to "close the session" & eject, because I am using Vista, it automatically burns the info onto the CD without me having to do anything else?

 

[lordsmurf]

I would suggest you use dedicated burning software, like ImgBurn.
Or any of these: List Free CD/DVD Burning Software

The "also does this" features of an OS are never that good. (defrag, IE browser, WMP, etc)
Better options exist.