Burn CD/DVD for Free With ImgBurn

ImgBurn

Today I will be introducing you all to a program that you might not have heard about, this program is called ImgBurn. Some of you might be familiar with DVD Decrypter, supposing you are, this program is from the same programmer, only difference is that the DVD Decrypting stuff has been removed and a really excellent burning program remains.

If you have ever searched around to find a program to burn some sort of image file such as BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG or PDI you know that it can be a hassle. Burning an image or any other file becomes more of a problem when you are using a computer that does not have Nero or some other commercially accepted burning solution installed. Let us also face the facts that the Windows burning utility just does not provide any options for burning anything other than just plain files.

So what are you to do? Well the answer is simple, give ImgBurn a try, the interface is clean and friendly. ImgBurn also provides an intuitive design but also has more advanced options available when you need them.

Using ImgBurn is much like any other burning program with only minor differences between how they all operate. Supposing that you have a CD image and you are out of CD’s, ImgBurn will take that disk image and burn it to a DVD without any errors of any sort, and it will work, I have done this with custom Windows XP SP3 images and have never had a problem.

Now follow me through my screen shot paradise of burning random ISO’s to disk.

ImgBurn Interface

When you start up ImgBurn you will see a splash screen with the ImgBurn logo, once that is done it will then scan for supported hardware. Most CD and DVD drives are supported by ImgBurn but there are some odd occasions where the drive is not recognized. If a drive is not recognized you will be out of luck but I have never come across one that did not work.

Once the splash screen fades you will be introduced to an interface that looks like the one depicted on the right. At this interface you can choose what you would like to do by the self explanitory options listed although I will be continuing on to burn my image to a disc.

Preparing to burn an image

Once you have chosen the “Write image file to disc” option you will see this interface to the right. At the top left section there is a group that says Source and click on the folder icon to choose your disk image that you would like to burn.

At this point you can set some of the other options like the speed and the number of copies. I like to make sure that the verify option is checked to make sure that the image that was written to the disc is exactly what the file was to start with. Verification can be especially helpful if you are burning install media, like I am now, or if you are burning backups that you want to make certain are correct for when and if you do ever need them.

Now that everything is set up and ready to go all you have to do is press the image of the disc with the green play button to start the burn process.

Burning Progress

When the burn process starts it brings you to yet another interface where you can additionally change some more options as you wait. If you had missed the opportunity to check or un-check the verify box you can do so no as well as set up the CD tray to eject when done, delete the image, close the program, or shutdown the computer.

Also at this point ImgBurn will give you detailed information about the speed that it is burning at and estimated time that it will take to complete. On the bottom window it will also give detailed information about the logging and where problems may have occurred if you encounter one. Most times I have noticed that burning problems happen more often when you are on a shared computer on a managed network but have never had an issue on my home computers.

Verify the disc contents

Once the burning process is complete, if you have checked the verify check box, the CD tray will cycle and the process of checking the newly burned disc will start. When the disc checking starts it is recommended that you let it finish to make certain that you have an exact duplicate copy of the image or files that you started with. This is especially helpful when you are taking important backups of files.

After the disc checking has completed if you have also checked the eject tray option the tray will open and a short sound file will play letting you know that the backup process is complete.

Completed Backup

Finally when it is done you can eject the disc or continue on to make more copies of the disc. Again there are more advanced features of ImgBurn with more to be added in the next major revision. For the time being ImgBurn works wonderfully to burn image files to disc or to create images from discs. All in all I feel that ImgBurn is an indispensable tool that can be used by the masses to replace programs such as Nero, Windows Burning Utility, or Sonic. Sure some of the other packages have more features, as some of them should, ImgBurn is meant to be lightweight and to work on most computers.

So go on, get out there, and take a look.

The ImgBurn homepage can be found here.

The ImgBurn v2.4.2.0 direct download link can be found here.