Mac OS X Panther, Creating Multi-Session CDRs

Many Mac users have asked how to burn a multi-session CDR without having to purchase expensive CD burning utilities. Not surprisingly this can be done using Mac OS X 10.3’s Disk Utility that ships with your Mac OS X.

For those of you who are still scratching your heads, traditionally burning a CDR with even a minute amount of data will result in ‘closing’ of the CDR at the end of the burn, i.e. you can no longer add content to your CDR. Multi-session burning gives you the option to add data to your CDR thus enabling you to maximise the storage space on your CDR media.

Details inside!

Creating Multi-Session CDRs using Disk Utility

  1. Create a folder for the session and drag the items you want to burn into the folder;
  2. Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities;
  3. Select Images > New > “Image from Folder.” Then select the folder you created in the navigation window and click Open;
  4. Type a name for the image, choose a disk format, and click Save;
  5. When the disk image is complete, select it in the left column of the Disk Utility window;
  6. Choose Images > Burn or click Burn in the tool bar;
  7. Insert a blank CD in the optical drive;
  8. Select the “Leave disc appendable” checkbox. If you don’t see this option, click the triangle in the top-right corner to see this option;
  9. Click Burn.

To add more data to the CDR later, run through the steps described above to create a new disc image and burn it to the CDR.

A point to note is that when loading multi-session CDRs onto a Mac, Mac OS X displays each session as a mounted drive. So if you have 10 sessions burnt onto a CDR, you should see 10 CDRs mounted on your Mac OS X’s desktop although you have only inserted a single CDR into your Mac’s optical drive. Do not be alarmed.

Mack

In 1978, founders Matt and Hendricks were looking for a tech event to showcase their new startup. When they couldn’t find one that checked all the boxes they decided to host their own. As they were organizing things, they soon realized they needed somewhere to promote the conference, and that’s how newsweb.com was launched. It later became a blog and the result is what you are looking at right now.

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