burning data cd

[twiggyelf]

hi im a mac newbie :) i used to be a pc user and i have a question about burning cd's. i have a data cd (an educational cd) that opens in windows..i havent tried to open it in mac..i dont think it would work. but my question is can i burn it anyways through the mac burner or not? and how? again im a newbie so please dont laugh at me...

Thanks!

[jsw]

I'm not sure what you're asking - are you asking if you can copy info off of it onto your Mac and then burn it onto a different CD? If so, yes. Here's how:

Open up Applications->Utilities->"Disk Utility".
Insert your CD.
Click on the CD's icon in the left-hand column in Disk Utility.
Click on the "New Image" icon.
Pick an image format of "CD/DVD Master".

Now you have an image you can burn onto other CDs.

Is that what you were wondering?

[jsw]

Or, if it's nothing fancy, just data on a CD, you can just copy it onto your Mac, insert a blank CD, drag it to the CD's icon, and eject the CD - when you eject it, it'll ask if you want to burn it - just say "Yes" or "Burn" or whatever the button says.

[twiggyelf]

ok, lets put it this way... hypothetically, lets say i have a microsoft office cd for windows that i want to burn onto blank cd using my mac.. can i do that? and will it still open on my pc even though i burned it through a mac? thank you so much for your help so far.

Twiggy

[jsw]

I can't advocate piracy. Even of Windows software. The steps mentioned above will either work or not, and beyond that I can't - and won't - help.

[twiggyelf]

i'm not asking you to help me pirate a cd..........it was a hypothetical i thought would help you better understand what i was trying to say. im not trying to burn ms office, im trying to burn a medical information cd distributed by my employer. sorry if i offended you...it was a bad example. regardless, thanks for your help.

[Horrortaxi]

What jsw described is the way you copy a cd or dvd. You will make an exact copy of the original disk, whatever is on it.

[jsw]

i'm not asking you to help me pirate a cd..........it was a hypothetical i thought would help you better understand what i was trying to say. im not trying to burn ms office, im trying to burn a medical information cd distributed by my employer. sorry if i offended you...it was a bad example. regardless, thanks for your help.
Sorry. I was a bit touchy. Must've been tired, and I'd seen a lot of pro-piracy posts yesterday. I wasn't personally offended at all - I just don't like helping people steal software - at least not blatantly - which you're not doing.

Honestly, my ethical opposition to software piracy is limited to cases where people steal software (or music, or other things) that they would have bought otherwise and/or which they give to others. If people pirate software which they would not have purchased, which they use recreationally, and which they do not share, then I don't really object, though of course I should. My feeling, though, is that there is almost always an open source version which you can legally use.

Anyway, I hope your CD burning works!