Help with basic document backup

Hi guys,

Sorry if this sounds dumb. I'm having the hardest time backing up my Word documents to CD-RW. An hour ago I backed up a few documents to a brand new CD-RW, using Mac OS X's built in burn feature. Now, everytime I try to drag and drop a new file onto the disk I get a message telling me that "the item cannot be moved because Macintosh Backup (the name of my CD-RW) cannot be modified"

This is a CD-RW, so it's completely rewritable. I have a feeling i'm missing something basic here, just not sure what it is. Thanks for your assistance.

Thanks for the helpful info Cless.

Using the Disc Utility though, I can't get the "erase" button to activate.

I highlighted my CD-RW in the Utility, but both 'options' and 'erase' are greyed out.

Bump, b/c I can't keep using new CD-RW's everytime I want to save a word document on my mac.

Hi Guys,

Thanks again for your assistance with this issue. I must say i'm rather dumbfounded. If I may, i'd like to relate my experience trying to resolve this issue. My first step after posting was to search the web. I found this web page on multisession burning:

http://macs.about.com/cs/osxbasics/a/burn_sessions.htm

Aha! I thought, problem solved. I'll just follow the steps. I followed them, and created an dmg. file after moving all my word documents to a folder on my desktop. Ok, great. The disc burned and I choose the append later option for further burning.

Adding a second group of files, some of which were expanded copies of the original documents, proved to be very confusing. I had to create another .dmg image in disc utility. Another desktop folder was required for that. It didn't seem to want to let me use the original folder - i.e. I couldn't simply move new word documents into the folder I originally used for my first .dmg.

I went ahead and created a seperate folder, and the burn was successful. Putting the CD-Rw into Windows however, the entire CD looked to be blank. Putting the CD-RW back into my Powerbook, and my usual CD-ROM icon didn't appear. Essentially, it seemed like nothing was on CD.


I've always admired Mac hardware, but as a new user I must confess that I found this process obtuse and unintuitive. Not what I expected, after reading all the 'ease of use' endoresements for this computing platform.

By way of comparison - strictly so, I still am a big fan of Mac and I'm not trying to light any fires here - what I wanted to accomplish - rapidly and easily burn varying documents (as well as expanded and modified copies of original documents already on CD-RW) onto a single CD-RW with essentially a click and drag - took only 5 minutes using the Nero software I installed on a home built Asus Pundit-R. Going back and forth on the Mac took about 45 minutes.

A very perplexing issue for a new-comer such as myself. As a writer i'm creating many new documents every day on my Powerbook, and need to backup frequently and often. I may need to go into the Mac store in person to straighten this out. Is there any third party software out there that can simplify this process for new users like me? Thanks again.

Thank you for that suggestion. Could you recommend a particular brand of USB memory key?

Much appreciated guys, I'll check out those options.