How to Record a CD
CD-ROMs are long-lasting and CD-ROM readers are commonly available on a variety of computer platforms. A few advantages to CDs include: they endure long-term storage, make transfer of files between institutions easy, and are very useful in disseminating data.
Purchasing a Recordable CD-ROM
Recordable CD-ROMs, used at PSC, hold 650 Megabytes (or 74 minutes) and cost $10.00 on average. When supplies are plentiful, recordable CDs can be purchased from the Data Archive (at cost) for personal use. In addition, recordable CD-ROMs are available at many local computer supply stores and Ulrich's.
Recording Your CD-Rom
The CD-ROM recorder is attached to the Archive2 (archive2.psc.isr.umich.edu) machine in the archive work-study cubicle. This machine is also attached to a 2 gigabyte hard drive. Data archive staff have priority for use on this machine. If a data archive staff member is in the middle of a project which uses a large part of the hard drive, you will have to wait until those files are cleared to create your CD.
PSC uses the Adaptec Easy CD Creator software for writing CD-ROMs. The Easy CD Creator is a Windows-based program and fairly easy to use. The first step in recording your CD-ROM is to copy your files to the Archive2 machine's hard drive (D:). The data can either be transferred to the hard drive using FTP, or the files can be copied directly from Novell space (the H: or T: drives). Because CDs can only be written to once, make sure every file you want on the CD is on the D: drive. CD-ROMs can have as many subdirectories as you wish but no subdirectory can be more than 8 levels deep. Directory and filenames must conform to DOS naming conventions. Although it is not necessary, creating a CD is easier if all the information (files and directories) is stored in the same subdirectory. For example, if you want to record all the electronic files used in your dissertation on one CD-ROM, you may want to set up a subdirectory structure on D: similar to the example shown below:
D: |--- dissertation | |-- data | |-- litreview | |-- text | chpt1 | bib | appendix |--- analysis
Using Easy CD Creator
Place your blank CD into the CD-ROM recorder, which is the G: drive on the data archive machine. Start the Easy CD Creator program which is on the desktop.
When the Easy CD Creator window opens there will be two smaller windows stacked on top of each other. The top window will have the data CD tab active (default tab) and list all the local sources you have to choose files from. The bottom window, the CD image window, represents the contents of what your CD will contain, once complete.
Creating a CD is a simple series of selecting files from the source window above and dragging them to the right side of your CD image window below. Even though it appears like you should be able to include selections from drives such as P:, T:, etc. that is not true. All files you want to include on your CD need to be moved to the D: drive because of the need for a constant feed while writing the CD.
As files are added to the disc image, there will be a "ruler" that appears on the bottom of the window that will show how much data you have added to the disc image. Below this "ruler" you will see how many megs you have flagged for inclusion and how much space you have left on the CD to use.
Once you have all the files you want to include flagged, checked to make sure you have not exceeded the CD space, and have the structure of the CD finalized, you are ready to write the CD.
From the file menu choose "Layout Properties" and select the "Data Settings" tab. Change the file system setting from "Joliet" to "ISO9660" using the pull down menu. Within the "Properties" button, provide a volume name and activate the "Mode1:CDROM" selection. Click OK.
Now choose "Create CD" from the file menu.
Click the summary tab to make sure that the changes you made under the properties window are still correct. (Note: This program has been known to revert back to the default settings after exiting the properties window. Go back and correct if necessary.)
Under the "Advanced" tab, choose the "close disc" button. Finally, go to the "General" tab. Here you can choose to do a test run and then proceed writing immediately after, or go straight to writing the CD without testing. If you do decide to test before writing, creating your CD will take twice as long.
At this point, clicking the Ok button will begin the creation process. It is recommended that no other process or work run on this machine while the CD is being created. Doing so could can cause a hick-up on the machine that would render your CD unreadable.
Once complete, the new CD will be ejected. If any known problems occured during the write process, error messages will be displayed on the screen.
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