Hi All, I have re-written some Nero tutorials that I did some time ago now so you can update the old ones with this one for your reference. I have written up two articles in this tutorial. I will write a couple more soon. Article 1: How to copy a music CD to a blank CD. Article 2: How to copy your personal data files to a blank CD. *. You have a CD which you would like to make a second copy of!. *. You would like to copy personal files from your hard drive to the blank CD Lets take a look at how we might go about the first question. This is my solution and the tools I use for the job is as always, "Nero". This can be either Nero 6, 7 or the latest version 8. I just like Nero as I find it the easiest to use and most solid in its work. I know everyone does not have Nero and some might even have a cut down version of Nero in the form of Nero Express". I will post a tutorial written up by one of our listers here some time back in which they outline the steps they used to burn a CD using Nero Express. I have to say I have never used Nero express myself. When you install Nero 6, 7 or 8, you should have an icon in your programs menu which has lots of sub menu choices. In here is a further icon called "NeroBurningRom". This is the item we are looking for in the nero package which will in turn give you all the choices you require in order to answer the above questions. What I always do here iss add a shortcut to this icon so that I can bring up the nero functions screen from anywhere. You can do this by revisiting an earlier tutorial we had here on the list outlining the steps for creating a shortcut key to applications. Note: We will now assume that we have all of the above tools in place. That is that we have the versions of nero I mentioned and that we have created the shortcut key to the icon in nero 6, 7 or 8 that launchs the Nero functions. So now we can move on. (Copying a CD from another Cd using Nero) 1. I will press the keys, "alt + control + letter N" to launch my copy of nero. Note: if you don't have a shortcut key assigned like I have here then just go into the "start menu, programs, and arrow down to Nero." Right arrow in here and look for the following Icon: Nero Burning Rom. Press enter on this and wait for the Nero screen to come up. 2. This brings up a list of 12 items, which basically contain multipble choices of burning. 3. Now I will arrow down to the "Copy CD" option. Note:This tells Nero I wish to Copy a music CD directly from the original CD onto a blank. 4. Once I have made a selection such as in the previous step, I now press the tab key 2 or 3 times till I hear jaws say "Burn tab". and I have the following choices to look at: *. Determine maximum speed, "checkbox not checked". You can leave this as it is. *. Simulation "checkbox not checked". You can leave this as it is. *Write, "checkbox checked". You can leave this as it is. *. Write Speed, "Maximum". Note: This is an important item here. Some of us have stereos that range from old to the more modern. Because of this the writing speeds are important. For example, I have two stereos, one is quite a few years old while the other is just new. While the new stereo can play a CD I have copied using Nero at the maximum speed which is the fastest copy Nero can do, my older stereo cannot play music I record with Nero set to this high a recording speed. I have to choose something less like for example, "16 X or 8 X" I find will usually do the trick. So if you find that after recording a audio CD using the max speed of Nero and it won't play, then try recording again using a lower speed. Also note that older stereos won't play CD's recorded on "CDRW's". That is CDRw is a blank CD which you can copy files too and then if you no longer need them you can erase it and copy new files to it. So remember a rule of thumb is to jus use "CDR, single write only" CD's for copying music. *. Number of copies, "1". If it's just one copy of a music CD you wish to burn then leave this as it is. *. Superlink, "checkbox checked". Leave as it is. *. Use multiple recorders, "You can choose to have more than one CD burned at a time if you have more than one CD writer installed on your PC." *. Copy button, "now use the spacebar to begin copying the CD." Note: Be patient with this process as depending on the speed you have previously chosen and the actual speed of your burner the process can take some time. When it is completed the CD write door will pop open and you should now remove the original CD and insert your blank CD. Close the door and Nero will auto detect the new CD then begin to burn the songs from the original onto the blank. When it has completed this action, again give it its time the CD write door will pop open and you can now remove the finished CD, close the write door and close Nero. (End of Item, move onto the next lesson below.) (Copying files from the Computer hard drive and burning to a CD) You can use Nero 6, 7 or 8 for this process. What I do to copy files from the hard drive is as follows: 1. While on the desktop, Go into windows explorer and choose the folder where the files are stored. Note: Many people tend to store their files in different places on their computer. I tend to create a folder in "My Documents" and place the files I intend to copy onto a CD in there for when I get round to it in the future. It's a good idea to Consider working out a system like tis as it helps keep files neat and tidy and somewhere you can easily remember where they are. This way you can go into that folder and copy them onto the CD all at once if you like. Now read on. 2.Go into the folder and copy some or all of the files in the usual way you have always selected files in windows. Use keys "control + letter A" to select all the files and use "control + C " to copy to the clipboard. Note: You can also just copy individual files if you wish. 3. Open up Nero in the way we discussed way back in the first lesson using either the shortcut key or going into the menus and hitting enter on Nero burning rom. 4. When you bring up the Nero window with all its options in a list of 12 items, the correct option we want will be already selected so just tab to the "new" button pressing spacebar on it. Note: Nero will move onto the next screen and present you with an empty window list which is where you paste in the files you copied earlier to the clipboard. Use "control + letter V" to paste. If you feel you are not in an empty list view then just use the tab key slowly till you arrive in one. 5. Now you have copied in the files to Nero for burning, just press keys "control + letter B" to open up the burning window. You can generally skip and not worry about any of the options presented here as they usually suit all our needs unless it is something complex we want to do. 7. Press keys, "alt + letter B" to begin burning your files to the blank CD. Note: This process like any other burning process takes time so do not interrupt it while it is working. I also find that it is not such a good idea to carry out other tasks on the computer while a CD is being written. 7. When the burn process has completed the CD writer door will pop open and you can remove your CD. Hit the spacebar on the "OK" button and then close Nero to finish. (End of item) ******************************************************************** NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments is confidential and may be privileged. 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