Optical media for computers is a form of technology that everybody uses at the present time, be it for storing data, playing games and so on.

Data on optical media can be a pain to work with at times, especially if the disc starts to wear down with age, or gets accidentally pitted or scratched. That being said, here are 5 utilities you should have.

1. nrg2iso

Site: http://www.roland-illig.de/lang.delphi.nrg2iso.html (there is an English version on that page, just scroll down)

NRG is Nero’s version of an ISO. Although the vast majority of optical disc images are ISO these days, you may run into an NRG periodically. Some disc image mounting/burning utilities will “understand” NRG but most don’t. In that case you need convert it to an ISO. nrg2iso does this easily and quickly. Works in nearly all versions of Windows, including Windows 7. Once you convert the NRG to an ISO you can easily burn it to a disc.

2. bin2iso

Site: http://www.weethet.nl/english/download.php (scroll down and the download link is there)

This is another disc image format you may run into that you can’t burn or mount – especially if the CUE file is missing from it. Bin2iso will take care of this in short order (even without the CUE file) and convert the BIN to an ISO file. This software is really old and 32-bit only, but it does work.

3. Daemon Tools / Virtual CloneDrive

Site (Daemon Tools): http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/home
Site (Virtual CloneDrive): http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html

When working with ISO disc images that you want data access to without burning them to disc, you mount them virtually as a drive letter.

If using Windows XP, the best tool for this is Daemon Tools. If using Vista or Windows 7, the best tool is Virtual CloneDrive.

Both are easy to use. With Daemon Tools you right-click its taskbar icon to mount ISOs as a drive letter. With Virtual CloneDrive you can right-click an ISO and mount, or simply double-click and ISO to do the same thing.

4. ImgBurn

Site: http://www.imgburn.com/

ImgBurn works on any Windows (from 95 all the way to 7) including all 64-bit editions! It also works under Linux in WINE easily as well. When you want to burn a disc image, you need not look any further than this. It always works, never fails, is light and additionally will build images as well.

5. Nero 9

Site: http://www.nero.com/enu/nero9-introduction.html

This is a paid title but worth it if you’re desperate to retrieve data off a damaged disc.

Let’s say you have a disc but it is very scratched and pitted. The disc on insert does spin up but on any attempt to read the data, it won’t work. You’ve tried over and over again copy the data off the disc but your optical drive absolutely won’t do it. You know your optical drive is fine, but the disc isn’t “playing nice” with you.

Nero Burning ROM (included with Nero 9) may be able to help.

What most optical software utilities do is try a set number of times to retrieve data off a disc at the fastest speed possible. After a few attempts it will give up, citing the disc as unreadable. Nero Burning ROM on the other hand will slow down the disc reading speed – even to below 1x if it has to – and copy any bits of data it can retrieve even if it can’t finish a full copy. During the process you will see Nero spit out a bunch of read errors, but that’s okay because it will keep going until it finds the next readable part of the disc, copy and continue as best it can.

For example, if there’s a document file on a disc that has a section of the data that’s completely corrupted from physical damage, Nero Burning ROM will copy it anyway. We’ll say the document is 50 pages long. The copy Nero creates may have corrupted data between pages 18 and 25, but at least you got something. And that’s better than nothing. That alone makes the software worth its price.

Nero 9 carries a hefty price tag of $70, and while the suite of apps you get is large, it’s the Burning ROM program that saves the day because it can mean the difference between getting data back or having it lost forever.

In 2005 I started using GPS and my first GPS device was a Garmin StreetPilot i3 (I still have it and it still works!) After that I upgraded to the StreetPilot c340, then the StreetPilot c580 and then my current nüvi 270.

On a quick check of the Garmin automotive section of their site (I go by there every so often to see the newest offerings) there is not but a single StreetPilot series model left, that being the big-screen 7200 model. Other than that, all the rest of the models are nüvis.

The StreetPilot series is now one model away from the chopping block.

A few things to note about older "c" series StreetPilots (the most popular of the line):

Yes it can be upgraded to newer map sets, but there will inevitably come a point where you won’t be able to. The reason is because the map database will inevitably exceed the storage space inside a "c" series. (And it’s unknown whether or not you can use an SD card in the slot for future map database releases.)

The bright side is that current-gen nüvi 2xx and 2×5 models are pretty cheap these days. The nüvi 200 and 250 can be had for under 150 bucks easily. And with the nüMaps guarantee you can upgrade the map database free of charge.

Let’s say you’re a current "c" series owner and don’t feel like flipping out the cash for a nüvi or map upgrade. Is it still usable? Yes. And it will continue to be usable until a hardware failure (usually the touchscreen goes first) occurs. True, the maps will be a bit outdated but it will still get you where you need to go as it always has.

But let’s say you do think it’s time to switch over to a nuvi. Are there any utilities to copy your favorites from the "c"? YES. You can get the freely available Nüvi Editor. It connects up to StreetPilots via USB with no problems, downloads all your favorites, and then you can plug in a nüvi with USB and upload them all to the new unit, so you don’t lose a thing.

Either way you can still use GPS as you always have, but if you decided to upgrade to a nüvi, at least you now know you won’t have to re-save all your favorites all over again.