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Back Up Hard Disk Data To CD-R on Windows XP

A highly effective way to make backup of a single folder on a server or workstation is to copy that folder to a CD-ROM using the CD burner in a desktop computer. A major advantage of this technique is that any file put on the CD may be access later by any computer with a CD drive.

Windows XP has a built-in CD burning capability that may be used for this type of backup. The way this backup capability works is by copying files from your PC or file server to the PC hard drive. Those files are stored in a special cache directory that is accessed by clicking on the CD drive icon. After you are done loading the cache the CD Writing Wizard is used to physically write those files on the CD.

An important limitation of this backup procedure is that it only allows up to 700 Mb of data to be backed up at a time. If you need to create a single backup job that spans more than one CD-ROM a specialized backup program is required.

Please follow these steps to perform a backup of your data:

• Launch Windows Explorer by clicking on Start then My Computer.
• First clear any files present in the CD drive cache by clicking on the CD Drive, selecting any files shown and hitting the Delete key.
• Open another Windows Explorer window and navigate the root of the folder you wish to back up. For example, if you want to backup all the files that belong to a particular user of the computer go to "c:\documents and settings\username" .
• Check that the files to be backed up will fit on a single CD. Do this by right-clicking on the folder(s) you wish to back up and selecting Properties. The files must use less than 700 MB of disk space in order to fit on one CD-R.
• If the folder is too big you must go into the folder and select a subset of the folder's contents.
• To initiate the backup process use Windows Explorer to right click on the folder to back up, expand the Send To menu, then select the CD Drive. This will copy the files to the local cache; this process may take several minutes.
• During the file copy process some dialog boxes may pop up indicating that some or all of a file's contents may not be copied. In all cases choose either OK, Skip or Continue to allow the file copy process to continue. The most common cause of these messages to appear is that a file is open for editing, the file name is too long to be compatible with the CD file system, or there are extra file descriptions that the CD file system cannot accommodate.
• While the files are being copied to the local cache Windows XP may pop up a balloon notification saying "You have files waiting to be written to the CD". Click on this balloon to show the CD cache and the task bar. In case the balloon does not appear the CD cache window may be accessed by clicking on Start->My Computer and then double-clicking on the CD Drive.
• In the CD cache window the main portion of the window will show the files waiting to be written to the CD. On the left side of the window is the task pane there will be a "Write These Files to CD" option. Click this option to launch the CD Writing Wizard.
• When the CD Writing Wizard starts click Next. Then place a fresh CD in the drive and the burning process will begin.
• When the CD Writing Wizard is complete make sure the "Delete temporary files" option is selected to clear your local CD cache.