How to burn a CD with Windows XP

Submitted by pcsnpixels on December 6, 2005 - 10:09am.

Floppy disks are slowly disappearing from the computer landscape. In fact, more and more companies are not including floppy drives as standard equipment. I say good riddance except for one thing...they were easy to use. Computer users felt comfortable copying and backing up information to these slow, yet convenient drives.

 

For quick and roomy storage today, I recommend flash memory drives (click here for a tip describing these).

However, almost all computers now come with a CDRW drive...a CD drive capable of creating (burning) CD's. Capable is the operative word in this sentence because many computer users still feel daunted by the task of  'burning a CD'. Windows XP aims to  help simplify the process and does a reasonably good job at it. Here's how to burn a CD with Windows XP:

  1. Go to the folder containing the files you want to copy to a CD (usually My Documents)

  2. Find the files or folders you want to copy and RIGHT click on them (remember you can use Ctrl+Click to select multiple files or folders)

  3. Click the Send To option, then your CDRW drive letter (may be D or E in most cases)

  4. Repeat this process for any files and folders you want to copy (keeping in mind that the maximum storage available on a CD is 650-700 megabytes)

  5. When you are finished, insert your blank disk (or previously copied disk)

  6. Click 'cancel' on the windows that appears

  7. Click Start ---> My Computer

  8. Double-click your CD drive icon and a window will pop with the files and folders you selected. They will be in a section called "files ready to be written to CD)

  9. Click the "write these files to CD" link in the left hand task panel and follow the on-screen wizard.

You can repeat this process over and over until the CD is full...yes, you can write and rewrite to a CDR using this method.

You will not be able to backup directly to this drive using only the Windows software. To backup financial or other info to a CD, first save it on your desktop or some other designated place and then follow above steps.