How to Burn From Your Hard
Drive

1. Open your burner program. All
   of them have some kind of Explorer interface, usually
   with a tree on the left, a file list on the right, and a
   pane at the bottom. On the left side of the screen in the
   top portion, find your folder with the songs you want to
   cut. Opening that folder will place all the song names in
   the right hand pane. Select, just as you would in
   Explorer, with the Shift and Control keys performing
   exactly the same functions as in Explorer. Click on the
   green + (Add) to add songs to the layout. As they’re
   added, they’ll pop into the bottom portion of the window,
   with a progress bar (different color for each song)
   showing how much you’ve used, and how much is left. Don’t
   worry about the messages at the bottom. It seems Adaptec
   hasn’t caught on to 80 minute CD’s yet, and it will warn
   you that you are over time in minutes and seconds. This
   is a warning about being over time on a 74 minute CD! As
   long as the last song you choose does not go over the 80
   minute limit, it will burn fine. Once you’ve selected and
   added an appropriate number of songs to your layout,
   click on the Create CD button.
   CDRWin has a more difficult interface (IMHO), you must
   add songs one at a time, or you can drag and drop them
   from explorer, but it’s just not as friendly.
   Nero has a Wizard that really helps when just starting
   out, and can make life so much easier. It too, has the
   familiar Explorer interface as well, if you’re more used
   to that. I prefer Nero for burning both audio and data.
   Nero will also only burn audio tracks that meet specific
   minimum requirements (14400kbit stereo), so you don’t end
   up with lousy tracks (especially if you got most of your
   stuff from Napster).
2. Now comes the part that most
   people mess up. I mentioned above to make sure you had
   all the songs you want to burn, all in their own folder.
   If you try to cut a multi-session CD, that is, songs from
   different folders, at different times, you’ll get a
   coaster, or only the songs from the first session will
   play, the rest won’t. Sure, it will play fine on your
   computer’s CD-ROM, but not in the car. This is the single
   most important step, and the one that most people don’t
   understand. An audio CD, to be burned so it works in
   almost any CD player, must be burned in one session!
   Check the Advanced button or properties, and make sure
   you are burning at a speed recommended by your burner’s
   manufacturer. Also make sure that you are burning a
   "Session at Once". Your burner program may give
   you a message about being "Disk at Once", this
   is fine. Do NOT attempt to burn this CD using "Track
   at Once". I know it sounds silly, because you’re
   cutting audio "tracks", but it’s just not so.

How to Burn From Another
CD "On the Fly"

1. This is the easiest way to
   duplicate a CD, other than a "cloning" program.
   Some systems just don’t have the power or a fast enough
   CD-ROM, or the burner (CD-RW) is on the same channel as
   the CD-ROM, but if you’ve installed your burner as I
   recommend above, this should work.
2. Adaptech has CD Copier, Nero
   and CDRwin as well, and these are both self explanitory.
   Insert the CD to be copied, insert a blank CD, and go.
3. Most software has a
   "Test and Burn" option. I suggest you use it,
   at least the first time, to make sure your system can
   burn on the fly.

How to Burn From Another
CD Using an "Image"

1. This is exactly the same as
   Burning from your Hard Drive above, with one added step.
   You must first make the image of your music CD onto your
   hard drive. The three programs I’ve mentioned will all do
   this, but if you don’t use the Copy CD option, you don’t
   get any track or artist info. A personal choice.

Brands and Colors

1. I always recommend using a
   brand name CDR. Buying the cheapest thing at BestBuy is
   not always the "best buy", and you could end up
   with more than your fair share of coasters. I like the href="http://www.maxell-data.com/cdr/">
   Maxell
   CDR’s, the jewel cases are nice and thin, and don’t take
   up near as much room as the standard cases. Something to
   consider when packing them from house to car, or anywhere
   space is a premium.
2. I’ve also had more luck with
   the teal bluish colored CDR’s. Don’t ask me why, but I’ve
   ended up with more coasters from any other color than
   this.

Drive Letter Reassignment.

Your CD-ROM was probably the next logical letter in sequence, and
this has changed with the addition of the burner. Here’s how to
put it back to it’s previous letter, and get the burner to take
the next letter. eg. Your CD-ROM used to be drive E, and now it’s
F. You want the burner to be F, and your CD-ROM to be E again, so
all your games will work without reinstallation.
Open Device manager, select CDROM, and click the + sign.
Highlight your burner (CD-RW), and click the Properties button.
Now click on the Settings tab. At the bottom of this window, it
mentions a Start and End Drive letter. If it’s currently E,
change it to F, or any other letter beyond that. Some people like
to make the burner X or Z, and the CD-ROM W or Y. Personally I
like W for Writer, and R for Reader. It’s up to you. Next open up
the Properties of your CD-ROM, go to the Settings tab, and make
the Start and End Drive letter E (or any other as mentioned
above, but beware, you’ll have to reinstall any programs that
directly access your CD-ROM!).

Cheers, and Happy Listening!