A CD burner, CD recorder or CD writer is an internal or external writable Compact Disc drive that can be attached to a computer. It lets you write and read files from a computer on to compact disc media, and is standard equipment in most new computers. The burner describes the process of the laser burning the organic dye substrate in the disk, creating a nonreflective pit signifying a bit state.

Most writers can write to both CD-R and CD-RW media, CD-RW being able to be re-written and erased hundreds of times.

Burners can write CDs at multiple speeds. At 1x speed, for example, the CD spins at the same rate as the player reading it, taking 60 minutes to record 60 minutes of data. At 2x it will take half an hour, and so on. Modern burners are so fast that they can create an entire CD in three or four minutes.

See also

• Audio burner
• CDDA
• CD-R
• CD-RW
• Data burner
• DVD
• ISO image
• Nero Burning ROM
• Overburning

External links

• CD-Recordable FAQ
• ABCs of a clean burn.
• Burn CDs for backup.