How to Copy a CD Disk

By Tyson Cliffton

It's no chore to make copies of your compact discs.
i cd on cd image by Stephen Kirkby from Fotolia.com

It's always a good idea to make a physical backup of any important data. With CD-burning devices coming standard in more and more computers, making CD backups of data is a readily available way to back up valuable data. Personal computers (PCs) often have a CD-R drive and either a DVD-ROM drive or a CD-ROM drive. Macintosh computers come standard with a DVD player built in. Regardless of what system you're using, backing up data takes just a few steps.

PC: CD-R and CD-ROM

Place the disc you want to copy in the CD-ROM drive and place a blank disc in the CD-R drive.

Open "My Computer" and right click the drive icon for the disc you want to copy and select "Explore."

Highlight the contents of this disc and drag the contents into the CD-R drive.

Close out of the "Explore" dialogue box for the CD-ROM drive and return to "My Computer."

Right-click on the icon for the CD-R drive and click "Write these files to CD." The burn process will begin. Remove the disc when it's finished burning.

PC: CD-R

Create a new folder on your computer desktop.

Place the disc you want to copy in the CD-R drive. Right-click on the CD-R drive and click "Explore."

Copy the contents of the disc and paste them into the new folder you just created on your desktop. Remove the disc and place a blank disc in the CD-R drive.

Double-click the icon for the CD-R. An empty dialogue box for the CD-R should appear on your screen.

Copy the contents of the folder you created on your desktop into the empty dialogue box for your CD-R. When the files are done copying close out of the CD-R dialogue box. Right-click on the icon for the CD-R drive and click "Write these files to CD." Remove the disc when it's done burning.

Mac

Click on "Finder" in the upper left-hand corner of your screen and then click "Go," "Utilities," and "Disk Utility."

Insert the disc you want to copy into the computer's disc drive. The program does not copy audio CDs or copy-protected CDs. On the left side of your screen select the disc you just inserted.

Click "File" and "NEW." Next click the "Disc Image From" that has the name of the disc you just inserted after it. Enter a name and save location for your disc image.

Click on "Image Format," "Read Only," and then click "Save." When your computer is done creating the image remove the original CD and insert the blank CD. A new .dmg file be located in your Disk Utility folder. Double click the file and select "Burn."

Remove the disc when it is finished burning.

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