Thinkpads Forum

I'm looking for recommendations for CD-writing software.

I don't care for bloat, wizards, skins, etc.; and I don't need all that "library management" crud.

What I do want is software that provides for control and configuration of all underlying hardware and filesystem parameters, has a clean interface, and does its job properly. I.e., makes high-quality writes.

A computer that I used about 5 years ago had EZ CD Creator on it, and I thought that was an atrocious piece of crap, fwiw.

I haven't had or used a CDRW in a few years, so I'm way behind on what programs are out there now, and which ones are the 'best'.

Prefer open-source and/or freeware, vs. commercial/consumer glitz stuff.

fyi, I run Win2K, and will be using the cdrw for backups, making bootable CD's for OS-installs and diagnostics, and also for burning audio CD's that are collections of individual tracks (i.e. not just image copies of entire audio cd's).

thanks much!

dozer wrote:I'm looking for recommendations for CD-writing software.

I don't care for bloat, wizards, skins, etc.; and I don't need all that "library management" crud.

What I do want is software that provides for control and configuration of all underlying hardware and filesystem parameters, has a clean interface, and does its job properly. I.e., makes high-quality writes.

A computer that I used about 5 years ago had EZ CD Creator on it, and I thought that was an atrocious piece of crap, fwiw.

I haven't had or used a CDRW in a few years, so I'm way behind on what programs are out there now, and which ones are the 'best'.

Prefer open-source and/or freeware, vs. commercial/consumer glitz stuff.

fyi, I run Win2K, and will be using the cdrw for backups, making bootable CD's for OS-installs and diagnostics, and also for burning audio CD's that are collections of individual tracks (i.e. not just image copies of entire audio cd's).

thanks much!

I like Nero OEM v.6

It is simple and very cheap; you should be able to find a copy for about five or six bucks. Install only "Nero Express," not the other "crap," to use your term.

Under no circumstances buy v.7, the current version. It is among the worst pieces of unstable crapware I have ever seen and during its brief life on my desktop it scrambled my related file associations, something I've not been able to spend the time fixing since I removed it. This was in spite of indicating on the installation that I did not want to associate any file extensions with that POS software.

I use Nero Version 6 also. Unfortunately, for those who eventually migrate over to Vista, I think Version 6 isn't compatible. I'll have to decide what to do then.

Another vote for Nero 6.

Vote Nero V6 Too! Very stable.

stable is good.....i like stable.

thanks for the responses so far.

given that Nero is a 'big name' in the field, I'm kinda surprised not to see any others mentioned. I would've thought there'd be a good open-source cd-writer app out there by now...

I'm the oddball here...I prefer NTI CD Maker 6.0 to any of the other programs. Nero is ok, but Roxio is the worst piece of crap software I have ever used....aside from WinME (hehe)

dozer wrote:I would've thought there'd be a good open-source cd-writer app out there by now...

Hey, don't be so cheap! Get Nero 6 on eBay for several bucks.

tfflivemb2 wrote:I'm the oddball here...I prefer NTI CD Maker 6.0 to any of the other programs. Nero is ok, but Roxio is the worst piece of crap software I have ever used....aside from WinME (hehe)

Roxio is the 'new' brand name for EZ CD Creator isn't it?

The version I used was 5 yrs ago, but I agree 100%....it was just terrible software. No configurability....no meaningful error messages when something went wrong....really weird flow of windows to get something done....not to mention just plain buggy as hell in general...

piano: "cheap" isn't germane. The issue for me is having software that lets me configure and control every underlying parameter....that is put out by someone I can actually get in touch with and get an answer from....that comes from someone with a reasonably short report/repair cycle...

In my experience, those criteria have been far more likely to be satisfied by an independent and/or open-source program, than by a big-name consumer 'brand' package.

And besides, I never said I wasn't going to try Nero....I only expressed surprise that nobody had mentioned any other programs. In a field like CD-writing, where there are literally hundreds of programs, I had expected to hear several names.

thanks again to all for the responses so far.

I used Nero v5 and I didn't like it at all. Now using NTI CD Maker v7 and it's great... it's fool-proof, which evidently is what I need.

dozer wrote:Roxio is the 'new' brand name for EZ CD Creator isn't it?

Yes, and I think Roxio and Sonic have merged.

well, under *nix the open-source standards are "mkisofs" to make the image, and "cdrecord" to do the burning. The former
is a "kitchen-sink" program, with *plenty* options. Maybe you can compile them under the Cygwin suite, to run on windows.

Another vote for Nero.
Nero Express 6 came with the DVD/CD-RW combo drive I bought some years ago.
Have used it on both W2K and XP without a hitch.
Nice simple interface and does the job.

I haven't had any problems with Sonic RecordNow! which came on my T30 but I prefer Nero (which is only on my desktop machine).

try this i use it for making images, its quick and easy to use as well as the above

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

Nero 6 works for me as well. See no real need to upgrade to Nero 7.

Had Nero 6, loaded Nero 7 ESSENTIALS. Only difference I found was an additional Play DVD function. Developed many problem with my Sony internal CD drive in my desktop. Uninstalled version 7 and back to 6.
BTW, version 7 loaded a ton of other stuff.
I don't know about the naming convention, but Nero was put into Program Files with the title AHEAD.

I second Nero 6 as well.
If you are really (and I mean REALLY) cheap, get the free CDBurnerXP Pro By Stefan Haglund
http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/detai ... id=1988956

RRHODY wrote:Had Nero 6, loaded Nero 7 ESSENTIALS. Only difference I found was an additional Play DVD function. Developed many problem with my Sony internal CD drive in my desktop. Uninstalled version 7 and back to 6.
BTW, version 7 loaded a ton of other stuff.
I don't know about the naming convention, but Nero was put into Program Files with the title AHEAD.

I found that version 7 OEM added no new functionality over version 6, had things it refused to do (such as copy disks and make disk images), screwed up my file associations (a continuing problem as I type this), loaded options I specifically checked that I did NOT want, and was basically akin to intentionally loading a virus on my machine. I paid $5 for it and I'd have paid $5 not to have ever received it.

Nero 6

Nero 6.

Easy CD Creator 5.

What can I say? I like using old stuff .

I don't even know where I picked up the program but it's on my Gateway tower system and has always been faithful in burning disks. Sure it probably doesn't handle all of the latest drives but there have been several program updates which I've used to get mostly current.

Locate an .ISO file with Windows Explorer. Double-click the file and it launches ECDC5 and asks you to confirm writing. Click OK and it's done.

Disk copy mode is simple. Load source disk in CDROM. Load destination disk in CDRW. Launch the program and select "copy" mode. Click another button and it starts. Come back in 10 minutes (I've got a slow burner ) and remove disks.

Using drag-and-drop, you can take data files and folders from the directory tree in ECDC5 and assemble the disk image. A graph at the bottom of the window tells you how much room you've used and what's left. Click the "burn" or "write" icon and off it goes.

With the "audio" mode, you simply drag .MP3 files from your disk's folder structure down into the area associated with the CD burner. It performs the conversion to Red Book format (standard audio CDs) when the songs are burned onto the disk.

The only problems I've had with it (and it's really not the program's fault) is that I've created coasters when burning specific .MP3 files. If the file has a glitch in it, sometimes ECDC5 will halt or lock up. Each time that it has happened, if I listen closely to the song, I can detect a "stutter" or "pop". Re-ripping the original generally solves the problem.

I used to work with nero and easy cd creator and other of that sh*t.
I switched to Cd burner xp pro (freeware) and never went back. It does everything I need. No 5324 sorts of disks you can burn but just 3 options which represent them all.

(It doesn't however have an option to just drag and drop the files "straight" like easy cd creator has, but I just don't often burn a cd so no troubles there)

I used Cd Burner XP Pro, however, the software has issues when it comes to burning dvd iso images. I tested it on two PC's and still could not burn the DVD image.
It always says that the dvd is not empty, even though I am inserting a blank cd.
For those whoe wish to you burning software that is as compact as possible I recommend http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/

Ken Fox wrote:I like Nero OEM v.6

It is simple and very cheap; you should be able to find a copy for about five or six bucks. Install only "Nero Express," not the other "crap," to use your term.

Ken, or anyone else who knows, I bought a copy of Nero OEM Suite vers 6.6 on ebay for $1.78 and it arrived today. I only have a CD-RW/DVD drive and I wanted to use the Nero Express like suggested as my CD writing software. But the CD rom has on it "For DVD-Rewriters Only". So do you think I cannot use this on my CD-RW? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I think I have software I may not be able to install, as mine drive is not a DVD rewriter. If this is the case, I have this brand new CD-rom I can give away to someone if they want it. I am looking for software ONLY for a CD-RW drive. Thanks for your help.

Purcy wrote:

Ken Fox wrote:I like Nero OEM v.6

It is simple and very cheap; you should be able to find a copy for about five or six bucks. Install only "Nero Express," not the other "crap," to use your term.

Ken, or anyone else who knows, I bought a copy of Nero OEM Suite vers 6.6 on ebay for $1.78 and it arrived today. I only have a CD-RW/DVD drive and I wanted to use the Nero Express like suggested as my CD writing software. But the CD rom has on it "For DVD-Rewriters Only". So do you think I cannot use this on my CD-RW? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I think I have software I may not be able to install, as mine drive is not a DVD rewriter. If this is the case, I have this brand new CD-rom I can give away to someone if they want it. I am looking for software ONLY for a CD-RW drive. Thanks for your help.

I think that is just marketing nonsense (those OEM disks are supposed to be sold with hardware, not by themselves).

If you go to the Nero website you should be able to download the latest update (presumably the last update ever to be made) which I believe is version 6.6.1.4; when you use this to update your installation you will have the latest version which will most definitely burn optical disks on CDRW drives.

I believe a disk like that is what I used on all my Thinkpads, at least one of which now still has only a CDRW drive, although to be honest I had so many copies of that disk that I threw a couple of them away. They've come bundled with many optical drives I've bought in the last couple of years.

Good luck.

Wow, thanks for replying so quickly Ken. This thing says vers 6.6, INCD4 (whatever that means) I will go and update to the latestest ver 6 on their website. I'm hoping this will do the trick.

Have a good evening.

Purcy wrote:Wow, thanks for replying so quickly Ken. This thing says vers 6.6, INCD4 (whatever that means) I will go and update to the latestest ver 6 on their website. I'm hoping this will do the trick.

Have a good evening.

Once again, I'd recommend ONLY installing "Nero Express." INCD is Nero's packet writer software (akin to the Sonic DLA that comes preinstalled on most or all Thinkpads); don't install it. Like all packet writing software it will possibly make your system unstable and offers nothing you need in 2007.

You could checkout www.goldenhawk.com for CDRWin and CDRDOS. I've used it on and off for more than a decade with good results. I used the DOS version on a SCSI CD-R for years and really liked it. CDRWin has worked well, most of the time. I can't remember what, but I did have a problem with it doing something, just can't remember what it was. Might have been user error.

CDRWin is vastly different from Roxio or Nero in the user interface. It's been several years since I downloaded a new version, but the website suggests it is still in development. Some of the DOS products are freeware.

A different burning program, K3b, works really well in linux. When using linux, I usually use GNome as the desktop, but always install K3b which is from the KDE desktop.

1. Yeah, but is Nero 6 compatable with Win'Vista?

2. Does Nero 6 support the higher data capacity DVD-R such as 4 GB ones?

Hi

I vote Nero v6.6.0.1 but as I know it will work only in Vista 32.

If you're looking for freeware try CDBurnerXP Pro. It's free and quite good.

Regards