Best free CD/DVD burners
Free .ISO file burners from Microsoft
If you download a CD or DVD image as an .ISO file, perhaps for a Linux installation, you need a quick way to burn that image to a disk. CDBURN.EXE and DVDBURN.EXE are two command-line utilities that are about as simple as they come, and they're part of Microsoft's free Resource Kit tools for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. Also check out ROBOCOPY, an incredibly powerful file copying and backup tool, in the same package.
http://tinyurl.com/6csco (microsoft.com)
How to automate your CD ripping
My review of free CD rippers in issue 129 [1] prompted regular contributor Craig Vollmar to write, "Gizmo, I agree totally with your ripper recommendations but would like to add one more product, Riptastic!. Riptastic! [2] has a "Batch Ripping Mode" feature that truly differentiates it from all other rippers. In this mode Riptastic! will automatically cycle through all of the CD/DVD drives in the computer and rip each disc. This feature, paired with multiple CD changer drives [3] allows nearly an unlimited number of discs to be ripped in an unattended fashion. This enables you to rip CDs while you are sleeping or at work! In addition to the Batch Ripping Mode feature, Riptastic! is an excellent general CD ripper with multiple audio format support, Internet CDDB support, flexible encoding and file naming options, impressive ripping speeds, advanced audio processing features, and more! Riptastic! does cost $19.95, but it is truly worth every penny, especially if you have a need for the batch ripping feature." Nice suggestion, Craig. I don't have a multi CD changer so I couldn't try the batch mode feature but I must say that Riptastic! performed very well in straight ripping, though no better than the free rippers I mentioned in my original review [1]. However, I do agree the batch mode will certainly appeal to many users. The author offers a full featured trial version good for 300 minutes of ripping so you can try before you buy. Shareware, $19.95, all Windows versions, 3.3MB.
[1] http://techsupportalert.com/issues/issue129.htm#Section_6.2
[2] http://www.riptastic.com
[3] http://www.riptastic.com/nakamichi.htm
The best free CD burning software
Locating quality freeware burning applications for this review proved challenging, even though there are plenty of contenders. My short list included: AVS Disc Creator, burnatonce, Burn to the Brim, CDBurnerXP Pro, CDR Tools Front End, CommandBurner, DeepBurner Free, Easy Burning, Express Burn, and HT Fireman CD/DVD Burner. I was also attracted to two other programs, Burn4Free and Artisan (a.k.a. Sun), but they were packaged with adware and/or spyware and were discarded. Of all the products, the most impressive was CDBurnerXP Pro [1]. It possesses all of the core features you need including an intuitive interface, the ability to author data discs, create audio CDs playable in a regular CD player, create bootable discs, copy discs, and create and burn image files (e.g. ISO). It passed every test I was able to throw at it including adding to a multi-session disc created on another drive with another burning application and creating a functional slip-streamed Windows XP installation CD! In addition to the core features, CDBurnerXP Pro also has a several additional features including: customizable boot disc options (lacking in DeepBurner), integrated cover printing utility, integrated audio player and audio, and the ability to rip audio CDs to various formats including MP3 (with CDDB lookup). Lastly, those familiar with Nero will be right at home as CDBurnerXP's interface is very much like Nero's. All up, CDBurnerXP is a good choice for both basic and advanced users. DeepBurner Free [2] is a close second to CDBurnerXP Pro. If you don't author bootable CDs or care about the additional multimedia features, then DeepBurner Free might be the one for you. It has all of the core functionality, but is a much smaller download package and has a smaller installation footprint. It also offers a portable version that can be run stand-alone from a USB drive. In addition to these products, there are several free burners that are extremely small and specialize in just one or two features. For example, Burrrn [3] is for authoring audio CDs, CreateCD [4] and CommandBurner [5] offer command line burning capabilities, DVDShrink [6] is meant for creating DVD backups, and ImgBrn [7] and ISO Recorder [8] are for burning images to disc with a couple clicks of the mouse. For general users, though, CDBurnerXP Pro or DeepBurner Free are the clear winners. Editor's note: many thanks to regular contributor Craig Vollmar for taking the time to prepare this excellent review.
[1] http://www.cdburnerxp.se/ Windows 98 and later, 11.02 MB
[2] http://www.deepburner.com/ Windows 98 and later, 2.60 MB
[3] http://www.burrrn.net/ Windows 98 and later, 2.02 MB
[4] http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/CreateCD.htm Windows XP and 2003, 63 KB
[5] http://www.commandburner.com/ Windows NT and later, 2.71 MB
[6] http://www.dvdshrink.org/ Windows 9x/2000/XP, 1.06 MB
[7] http://www.imgburn.com/ Windows 98 and later, 860 KB
[8] http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm Windows XP and 2003 (64-bit available), 320 KB
The best free CD ripping software
Over the Christmas period I started the long task of ripping my 1200 CDs to my hard disk. I knew it was a huge job and one I certainly wanted to do only once. So, before I started, I was determined made sure I did it right.
There are lots of rippers available. All media players including Windows Media Player can rip. There are also some great freebies plus a host of commercial rippers. Most will rip to WAV, MP3 and usually several other formats.
After a lot of experimentation I ended up with three rippers to evaluate in detail: CDEX [1], Exact Audio Copy [2] and AudioGrabber [3]. All are free.
If your CDs are like mine then some will be scratched or have lots of finger-marks. These can cause pops and crackles in the ripped file.
Rippers vary greatly in their ability to handle these problems. Some will simply get stuck; others will skip forward over the problem or even create a silent gap. The best programs will try repeatedly to fix the problem with no audible effects.
Of the three products I tested, one product was outstanding in its ability to handle CD imperfections. That product was Exact Audio Copy.
I'm now two thirds of the way through my ripping exercise. Of the 800 or so CDs ripped I've only had 7 tracks that EAC couldn't rip perfectly. Given the condition of some of my CDs, that's a mighty impressive performance.
EAC can rip to WAV, MP3 (using the excellent LAME encoder), OGG, FLAC and APE.
CD rippers interact strongly with your CD hardware so it's possible EAC may not work with your particular CD drive. If that's the case, try CDEX and AudioGrabber. While their performance with scratched CDs is not as good as EAC they are both outstanding freeware products.
[1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdexos/ (1.91MB)
[2] http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ (1.18MB)
[3] http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/ (1.6MB)