ImgBurn

Popular programs in CD & DVD

What is ImgBurn

Designed as a powerful disc-burning and disc-imaging software application, Imgburn manages data storage needs, using an optical disc burner to physically record data on DVDs and CDS.

Although many of us use the cloud or hard drives to back up data, there is still a great sense of comfort in making backups of irreplaceable photographs, documents and videos on physical media. Additionally, CDs and DVDs continue to persist as the popular standard for experiencing entertainment, at least for the moment, and a disc-burning tool can easily create copies of music and movies for playback on familiar household devices. This is the purpose of Imgburn, to digitally and physically translate data from a computer hard drive on to a DVD or CD. The latest version of the program even has the capacity to store huge amounts of digital information on Blu-ray discs.

The program may be small, occupying a few megabytes on a computer hard drive, but it is an invaluable tool for those wishing to transfer large amounts of data to a disc, assuming a computer is outfitted with an optical disc drive. The layout of the interface allows users of contrasting skill levels to work contently without being drowned in detail. It may be plain looking and technical, but the many menu entries allow finite control through dozens of settings options. Fortunately for novices, there is the EZ mode GUI, a display consisting of large, friendly icons that can guide any technophobe through the main functions, meaning a user unfamiliar with disc-burning utilities can soon pop out a working disc full of data by selecting the relevant entry and following the on screen instructions. Those entries cover the burning of discs, the reading and copying of data, and the creation of an ISO image file, a special format designed for disc recorders. The last option, Discovery, inspects and tests the installed optical drive to ensure it's up to the task of burning data.

Stick to the easy to select modes or get under the hood of the program, tinkering with hundreds of settings to maximize image file creation and format compatibility. The options allow confident and savvy types to alter the speed of the disc burning process and to verify recently recorded discs, thus ensuring integrity of precious disc content. There are even options to reverse the workflow, ripping the contents from an already full DVD or CD, creating an image file of the contents that can act as a backup in case the disc is scratched or damaged. Imgburn is free to download and use.

Pros

• Free software
• Lightweight and fast
• Reads and writes a comprehensive range of image files
• Supports CD, DVD and Blu-ray burning
• EZ mode interface is designed for first time users
• Many complex settings can be adjusted

Cons

• The software is Windows only
• Complex settings may be off-putting for novice users
• Plain looking