Burning a CD with Windows XP

Windows XP has built-in support for CD burners.

The CD you burn can either be a CD-R (a CD you can only burn once) or CD-RW (a CD you can burn over again and again). We recommend CD-Rs because they are cheaper and more reliable than CD-RWs. They also allow for faster burning. The only disadvantage of CD-Rs is that you can't write over them.

Remember that they are very cheap these days, though, so there's no need to worry about spending the money on burning a fresh CD (and it may cost more to reuse a CD-RW anyway if your time is valuable and you don't want to wait for the CD-RW to be erased).

Step 1: Insert a blank CD into your CD burner

If Windows asks what you want to do with the CD after you insert it, simply click on “Take no action”, make sure that “Always do the selected action” is checked, and then click on OK.

This dialog box may or may not come up. It depends on whether or not you have some sort of other CD burning software on your computer. In this lesson, you will be shown how to use Windows XP's built-in CD burner support. You will probably find it to be sufficient for most of your CD burning needs.

Step 2: Choose the files you want to burn

Go to the location of the files you want to burn. For example, you may have documents in the My Documents folder (located on the Desktop or via the Start Menu), the P drive (located via My Computer, which is either on the Desktop or on the Start Menu), or the N drive (accessed via My Computer as well).

Step 3: Double click on your CD burner in My Computer

In this step, you will be accessing your CD burner. To do this, go to My Computer and then double click on your CD burner. When you do this, you will see a blank window come up. This is perfectly normal because there is nothing on the blank CD yet.

Step 4: Drag the files you want to burn into the CD burner window

Select the files you want to burn. The easiest way to select them is to left click on your mouse and draw a box around the files you want. Then drag and drop them into the blank window that came up after you accessed your CD burner. Windows XP makes a copy of the files you want to burn before the burning process begins. The original files will stay where they are at now. Please wait until the copying process finishes before heading to the next step.

Step 5: Start the Windows XP CD Writing Wizard

Under CD Writing Tasks, click "Write these files to CD" to start the Windows XP CD Writing Wizard.

When the wizard starts, you will have a few options to choose from. By default, the “name” of the CD is today's date. Feel free to change it to something else (the limit is 16 characters).

If you don't plan on burning more than one copy of the CD, you may check the box that says “Close the wizard after the files have been written”.

Step 6: Wait for the CD to burn

The CD may take 5 to 10 minutes (or more) to burn. This depends on the speed of your burner and how much space your files take up.

If you receive an error message while the CD is burning, insert a new blank CD and try again.

Step 7: Close the Windows XP CD Writing Wizard

You may burn the same files to another CD if you wish. Otherwise, click on Finish and then Windows XP will delete the temporary copy of the files placed on your machine for the burning process.

The CD burning process does not delete files from the original source. If you need extra room on your network drives, or if the hard drive on your computer is running out of space, consider making two copies of your files before deleting them.

The CD you burned with these files on it should be stored in a jewel case or sleeve in a safe place. While CDs are supposed to last “forever” (50 years or so), this is only if they are stored properly. Proper storage includes not exposing the CD to high temperatures and making sure you don't scratch it.

If you have any further questions, please contact the Service Desk.