# CD Burning **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2002, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657 "2002-04-20T12:02:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/1 "2002-04-20T12:02:35Z")
1.0 Why is making a CD called “burning?” 2.0 Is there a CD burning program that is superior to Adaptec’s? (I want to do backups using a CD and I want to take data from my machine to read on others.) ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/2 "2002-04-20T13:24:39Z")
It is called burning because the laser burns tiny pits in the media I donot know about “superior” as that is quite subjective but there’s Nero and Record Now and others I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/3 "2002-04-20T13:41:26Z")
I like Nero best, so do most people I know that burn a lot. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/4 "2002-04-20T15:43:44Z")
What software depends on what type of drive you have as not all drives are supported by all programs. Ezcd is fine. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/5 "2002-04-20T17:09:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*It is called burning because the laser burns tiny pits in the media \*\* Not quite. Mass-produced CDs contain microscopic pits and lands but when you use a CD burner you’re actually, literally, burning the ink coating on the reverse side of the label to make portions of it non-reflective. As for CD burning programs, Adaptec (now Roxio) EZCD may be the easiest to use, but I prefer Ahead Nero Burning ROM. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/6 "2002-04-20T17:40:44Z")
I use Sony CD Extreme Build 2.0.723. I have never had any problems with burning CD-R or CD-RW media. It was free at the time I got it, but I don’t know about now. As a matter of fact, I cannot find a site that has it anymore. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/7 "2002-04-20T17:45:33Z")
Thanks for the inputs. Did Roxio buy out Adaptec? Have they improved the product in any significant way? ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/8 "2002-04-20T18:30:53Z")
either roxio bought out adaptec, or adaptec spun it off, not sure… roxio easy cd 5 is even simpler than adaptec easy cd 4 was. and it has something called Take Two (which i think even easy cd had) which will allow you to backup your hdd onto cd. ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/9 "2002-04-20T20:20:19Z")
Another vote for Nero. It seems a lot less bloated than Roxio. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/10 "2002-04-20T22:55:26Z")
Nero is fine too. Igot a few copies of it & ezcd cause I have bought so many cdr drives. One Nero I have only works on the TDK drive though. You can have multiple drives writing cds @ the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Plavacek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Plavacek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plavacek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/11 "2002-04-21T01:49:22Z")
For (cough) certain purposes, a program called CloneCD is vastly superior to Nero, Adaptec/Roxio, etc. I’ll let y’all find out why for yourself. For data transfer though, these days basically any software program out there can do it, and do it well. The write buffer on new drives is outlandishly large, I haven’t managed to drop it below 90%. At one point, I was burning from a network mount (dumb), which went south, and still produced a perfect CD. This was with Roxio. ---
**Author:** ![riserius1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@riserius1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/riserius1)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/12 "2002-04-21T06:49:58Z")
When I first got my burner it came with Nero. It works pretty good, but if I want my songs without the 2-second gap between them I’ll use MusicMatch which is pretty user-friendly. Chris W PS Anyone know how to set Nero so it doesn’t put that 2-second gap inbetween songs? ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/13 "2002-04-21T07:25:22Z")
I have problems burning from an enhanced CD. I can’t find the tracks on the CD to put on the new CD. I’m using the program that came with the CD burner. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/14 "2002-04-21T16:10:13Z")
Nero has many versions. On their website is a latest update. You should use it as it updates just about any old version. ---
**Author:** ![wooba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@wooba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wooba)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/15 "2002-04-21T16:17:47Z")
For the longest time I was using Adaptecs Easy CD Pro. Other than mixed audio CDs, it did everything you need and only about 2 megs or so. I saw friend with Easy CD Creator and it was so bloated with no extra features, I can’t understand why adaptec stopped making it. After switching to XP, I can no longer use it unfortunately, so now I’m using Nero which as you can see from the many other posts seems to be one of the better, if not best options. ---
**Author:** ![wooba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@wooba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wooba)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-burning/104657/16 "2002-04-21T16:20:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by riserius1 \* > \*\*When I first got my burner it came with Nero. It works pretty good, but if I want my songs without the 2-second gap between them I’ll use MusicMatch which is pretty user-friendly. > > Chris W > > PS Anyone know how to set Nero so it doesn’t put that 2-second gap inbetween songs? \*\* Don’t quote me on this Chris, but I believe if you use a cue file (is that what it’s called?) you can tell it to insert silence between each track. This is the file you need to make in order to produce a mixed audio CD. Although granted it would seem silly to use this time consuming method for a regular audio CD. It’s been a long time since I made a mixed CD, so as I said, don’t quote me on this…