burn folders

Mac OS X allows you to make a burn folder for the purpose of authoring a CD or DVD with files from your computer. You can do this with the finder, or from the terminal. If you use the terminal, all you have to do is give a folder an extension like this:

mkdir myburnfolder.fpbf

or if you already had a folder that you want to use as a burn folder...

mv oldfolder oldfolder.fpbf

As you drag files or folders into a burn folder, the OS creates aliases to those items instead of moving or copying them. For this reason, burn folders can take up virtually no space.

After you burn the contents of a burn folder, the disc is “verified.” This means that file by file, byte by byte, what was written on disc is compared with the original. If any byte is different, you get an error.

Sometimes bad media is to blame, or a computer glitch beyond the threshold of the buffer overrun protection. However, the most common problem on a Mac happens to be the hidden .DS_Store files. The reason this is a problem is that a person might open, close, or do some other action to a window containing the contents of the burn folder - while the disc is being created. Any time you do any of these things, such as moving or closing a window, the active folder's .DS_Store file is changed. This file could have already been written to the disc, so when the time comes to verify the data, it won't match and you get an error with the impression that your disc is now unreliable.

To avoid these problems, do this:

• create or move the burn folder to your Desktop
• close all Finder windows, including the burn folder
• highlight the burn folder on your Desktop and go to File → Burn “XXX” to Disc…
• don't open the burn folder or navigate into it from another place while the disc is being written

You could also open the burn folder, click burn, and don't touch anything, but I prefer the above method.