Add Files to a Disc Later: Multisession in InfraRecorder

A multisession disc is written more than once: you burn some files today, leave the disc “open”, and add more files next week. InfraRecorder 0.53 can import session data from multisession discs and add further sessions, which makes it a practical tool for running backups and archives that grow over time. Multisession also has real traps — discs that appear to lose files, players that only see the first session, space silently consumed by session overheads — so this guide explains how sessions work, how to add files safely, and when to finally close the disc.

You need a disc that was started as multisession (or a blank disc for your first session), a burner, and InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page. The program is free under GPL v3, built for Windows 2000 to Windows 7; it is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, though many users run it there — see InfraRecorder on Windows 11 for those notes. Note that adding sessions after the fact only works on media written with the session left open; a finalised disc cannot accept new sessions.

How Multisession Works

Each writing pass on a multisession disc is a session. Every new session carries its own table of contents, which — crucially — can point back at files recorded in earlier sessions as well as the new files just written. That is why the disc normally appears to hold everything at once: the latest session’s index lists the complete, current set of files. When you “delete” a file while preparing a later session, the file’s data is not erased from the disc (recordable media cannot erase) — it is simply dropped from the newest index, so it disappears from view. Earlier versions of a file you replaced remain physically present in their old sessions, hidden by the newer index entry. Two consequences matter. First, multisession is not a secure-deletion tool: sensitive files dropped from the index can still be recovered from the disc with the right tools. Second, every session costs overhead space for its lead-in, lead-out and index, so many small sessions waste noticeably more of the disc than a few large ones.

Step by Step: Adding Files to an Existing Disc

1. Insert the multisession disc in the burner — the same disc you started earlier, which was left unfinalised. Wait for the drive to read it.
2. Open InfraRecorder and start a data project in the usual way.
3. Import the previous session. Use the project’s option to import session data from the disc (InfraRecorder reads the last session’s index). This step is the heart of the process: importing tells the new project which files already exist on the disc, so they stay visible and only your additions are written. If you skip the import, the new session’s index will list only the new files, and the earlier files will appear to vanish — the classic multisession accident.
4. Confirm the existing files appear in the project listing, shown as already on the disc. If the listing is empty when you know the disc holds files, stop and re-import the session rather than continuing.
5. Add the new files to the project. You may also remove entries from the listing to hide files in the new index, remembering the warning above: hiding is not erasing.
6. Watch the capacity meter. The free space is what remains after all previous sessions and their overheads, not the disc’s original capacity. Version 0.53 adjusts the space meter automatically when a blank DVD is inserted; for a partly used multisession disc, trust the imported session’s accounting of what is left.
7. Decide: leave open or close. In the burn settings, leave the disc open for further sessions if you plan to add more later — or close/finalise it if this is the last addition. Closing writes the final lead-out and makes the disc readable in the widest range of drives; see the next section before choosing.
8. Burn the new session at a moderate write speed, with verification enabled where offered, and wait for completion without interrupting.
9. Eject, reinsert and check. Reinsert the disc and confirm the file listing shows old and new files together. This thirty-second check catches a missed session import while the lesson is still fresh.

When to Close the Disc

Leave the disc open only while you genuinely intend to add more. A disc left open can be awkward elsewhere: some older drives, standalone players and other operating systems read only the first session, or fail on unfinalised media altogether — which is why an unfinalised backup disc sometimes looks “empty” in another machine. When the disc is full, finished, or needed by someone else, close it. InfraRecorder can fixate/close discs by writing the lead-out, and on rewritable media the erase guide explains the related unclose option that reopens a finalised RW disc. For anything destined for an archive shelf or another person, a closed single-purpose disc — or a copy made with the disc-copy function — is the safer deliverable.

Risks and Good Habits

The recurring multisession failures are procedural, not mechanical: forgetting to import the previous session (files appear lost — they are not, but a later session written after that mistake complicates recovery); adding so many tiny sessions that overhead eats the disc; and trusting an open disc as a finished backup. Guard against all three with simple habits: always import and visually confirm the existing files before burning; batch additions into fewer, larger sessions; and treat the disc as a working copy until it is closed — at which point, verify it, label it with the closing date, and consider imaging it with the disc-to-ISO process so the finished archive also exists as a file. Finally, remember that a multisession disc’s newest index rules: back up or close important discs promptly rather than letting them live for months in the fragile open state.

Related Guides

New to burning generally? Start with burning an ISO file for single-shot image burns, and the ISO imaging guide for preserving finished discs as files. On rewritable media, multisession pairs naturally with the erase methods in erasing a CD-RW or DVD-RW — including erasing only the last session when an addition goes wrong.

Create a Bootable CD or DVD with InfraRecorder

A bootable disc carries, in addition to its files, a boot image that a computer’s firmware can load before any operating system starts — the mechanism behind rescue discs, installers and diagnostic tools. InfraRecorder 0.53 supports creating bootable data discs using the El Torito standard, which is the boot specification used by CDs and DVDs. The burn itself is easy; the part people get wrong is the boot image. A folder of files, however complete, is not bootable unless a valid boot image is included and correctly configured — this guide explains the requirements and walks through the process.

You need InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page, a blank CD or DVD, the files for your disc, and a suitable boot image. InfraRecorder is free under GPL v3, written for the Windows 2000 to Windows 7 era — which matters here, because El Torito booting belongs to the legacy BIOS world, as explained below. The program itself is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, though it generally runs there; see InfraRecorder on Windows 11 for those notes. The age of the target machine matters more than the age of the machine doing the burning.

What Makes a Disc Bootable: El Torito and the Boot Image

Under the El Torito specification, the disc contains a boot catalogue and one or more boot images. When a compatible computer starts from the disc, the firmware reads the catalogue, loads the boot image as if it were a floppy disk or hard disk, and hands control to it. The boot image is therefore a real, bootable system in miniature — historically a floppy-disk image containing DOS or a loader, or a hard-disk image, or a “no emulation” image that loads its own code directly, which is how most operating system installers work. InfraRecorder’s part in this is to embed the boot image you supply, with the emulation and load settings you choose, into the project it burns. It cannot create a boot image from ordinary files, and it cannot make a non-bootable set of files bootable by ticking a box.

Where do boot images come from? Typically from the same place as the files they boot: the publisher of a rescue tool or operating system supplies either a ready-made bootable ISO — which needs no work at all, just the image-burning process — or a boot image file to use in a project like this one. You can also extract the boot image from an existing bootable disc or floppy, but modifying an image’s boot parameters without understanding its loader is the fastest route to a disc that boots to a black screen.

A Necessary Note on BIOS, UEFI and Modern Machines

El Torito booting is a legacy BIOS mechanism. Computers from the era InfraRecorder was written for boot from it directly. Modern machines use UEFI firmware: many still offer a legacy or CSM (Compatibility Support Module) mode that can boot El Torito discs, but some have dropped legacy booting entirely, and Secure Boot can also refuse unsigned boot images. Practically: a bootable disc you make with this guide is intended for older, BIOS-based machines and for UEFI machines with legacy mode enabled. Do not expect it to start a modern UEFI-only laptop, and do not blame the burn when it does not — test on the class of machine the disc is actually for. For modern installer media, the publisher’s own ready-made ISO, burned as an image, is almost always the correct route.

Step by Step: Building the Bootable Disc

1. Gather the contents. Collect the files that belong on the disc and the boot image file in known folders. Decide the disc’s file system as InfraRecorder’s project options present it — UDF and ISO 9660/Joliet are the filesystems it supports — keeping in mind the boot image itself sits outside the normal file area.
2. Insert a blank disc in the burner. A CD is enough for most rescue and DOS-era tools; use a DVD when the file set is large.
3. Open InfraRecorder and start a data project. Bootable discs begin as data projects; the boot configuration is added through the project’s properties.
4. Add the files. Add all the ordinary files and folders that should be visible on the finished disc, arranged as their programs expect to find them.
5. Open the project properties and find the boot settings. In the advanced/bootable options for the project, enable the bootable-disc option. This is the step that turns a data project into an El Torito disc.
6. Point to the boot image. Select the boot image file you prepared. Then set the emulation mode to match that image: floppy emulation for a floppy image (in the size the image was made for), hard-disk emulation for a hard-disk image, or no emulation when the image’s own documentation says so — most modern installer loaders use no emulation. Mismatched emulation is the most common reason a correctly burned disc refuses to boot.
7. Check load settings if offered. If the project exposes load segment or sector-count settings, leave them at their defaults unless the boot image’s documentation specifies values — the defaults suit standard images, and an installer ISO’s own parameters are already correct in the ready-made-image route.
8. Check the capacity meter so files plus boot structures fit the inserted media, then confirm the recorder.
9. Set a moderate write speed and burn. Bootable discs earn their keep on bad days; burn them carefully, with verification enabled where offered, and close/finalise the disc — use a single session rather than leaving it open for multisession additions, because boot discs should be finished, self-contained media. Session behaviour is explained in the multisession guide.
10. Test on a suitable machine. Boot the target-class (BIOS or legacy-mode) computer from the disc: set the optical drive first in the boot order or use the boot-menu key, and confirm the disc starts its loader. Testing is not optional — an untested boot disc is just a data disc with ambitions.

If the Disc Will Not Boot

Work through the causes in order: the machine is UEFI-only or legacy mode is off (change the firmware setting or use a suitable machine); the disc is not first in the boot order (use the boot menu); the emulation mode does not match the boot image (reburn with the correct mode); or the boot image itself is not bootable (return to its source — InfraRecorder cannot repair it). A disc that boots on one older machine but not another modern one has usually demonstrated that it works; the difference is firmware, not the burn.

Related Guides

If your source is a finished bootable ISO, skip project-building entirely and burn the ISO as an image — its boot structure is already embedded. To preserve a bootable disc you already own, imaging it to ISO keeps its boot information intact, and copying it via an image reproduces it faithfully.

Burn a DVD-Video Disc from a VIDEO_TS Folder

InfraRecorder has supported DVD-Video projects since version 0.42, and version 0.53 can burn a proper DVD-Video disc — but only from a finished DVD-Video structure: the VIDEO_TS folder produced by an authoring program. That distinction matters, and this page states it plainly: InfraRecorder does not author video DVDs. It cannot take MP4, MKV or other video files and turn them into a DVD with menus, chapters and the VIDEO_TS structure a DVD player expects. If you already have a VIDEO_TS folder, InfraRecorder will burn it correctly, and this guide shows how. If you have loose video files, skip to the final section for what to use instead.

For the burn itself you need InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page and a blank DVD. The program is free under GPL v3, written for Windows 2000 to Windows 7; it is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, though many users run it there — keep the verification step in this guide switched on either way, and see InfraRecorder on Windows 11 for the platform notes. InfraRecorder does not burn Blu-ray discs at all; for high-definition discs you need different software, as the last section explains.

Check Your VIDEO_TS Folder First

A playable DVD-Video disc has a strict structure. The VIDEO_TS folder should contain .IFO files (disc and title information), .BUP files (backups of the IFOs) and .VOB files (the actual video, audio and subtitles). An empty companion folder named AUDIO_TS is also conventional — players do not require files in it, but its presence is part of the standard layout. Before burning, open the folder and confirm the IFO and VOB files are present and the VOB files have realistic sizes — hundreds of megabytes to several gigabytes in total, not zero bytes. If the whole structure fits in far less than the length of the film suggests, it is incomplete and no burn will fix it. Size also decides your media: under 4.7 GB fits a single-layer DVD; larger structures need a dual-layer disc, which InfraRecorder supports, or proper re-authoring to shrink them — burning alone cannot compress a VIDEO_TS folder to fit.

Step by Step: Burning the VIDEO_TS Folder

1. Insert a blank DVD of the right capacity in the burner and wait for it to be recognised.
2. Open InfraRecorder and start a DVD-Video project. Choose the DVD-Video project type from the welcome screen or the new-project options, rather than an ordinary data project — the project type is what makes the program lay the files out as a DVD-Video disc instead of a plain data disc.
3. Add the VIDEO_TS contents. Point the project at your VIDEO_TS folder so its IFO, BUP and VOB files go into the project’s VIDEO_TS directory, keeping their names and structure exactly as authored. Do not rename the files or drop them loosely into the disc root — players look for the standard structure.
4. Include an AUDIO_TS folder if the project does not create one automatically and your source includes one, to match the conventional layout.
5. Check the capacity meter. Version 0.53 adjusts the space meter automatically when a blank DVD is inserted. Confirm the project fits the inserted disc; if it overflows, switch to dual-layer media rather than deleting VOB files, which would break the film.
6. Set the write speed. Pick a moderate speed. DVD-Video discs are often played on fussy standalone players, and a steadier burn reads more reliably in them than a maximum-speed one.
7. Burn the project. Start recording from the Actions menu or the burn button, confirm the drive, and let the write and finalisation complete. Finalising matters here: an unclosed disc will not play in most standalone players.
8. Enable and await verification if offered, then test the finished disc in a real standalone DVD player or a television’s player — not only in the computer. A disc that plays on the PC but not on the set-top player has a layout or finalisation problem, and the player test is the only one that counts.

What InfraRecorder Cannot Do With Video

To repeat the limit clearly: InfraRecorder burns an existing VIDEO_TS structure; it does not create one. It will not convert MP4 or other video files to DVD format, design menus, add chapters, or encode video to the MPEG-2 format DVD-Video requires. Dropping video files into a data project produces a data DVD — a computer can play the files from it, but a DVD player will not treat it as a film disc. Likewise, InfraRecorder does not burn Blu-ray discs in any form; its feature list for Blu-ray extends only to displaying whether a drive supports Blu-ray in its device information.

If You Have Video Files, Not a VIDEO_TS Folder

For turning everyday video files into a playable video DVD with menus, or for burning Blu-ray, you need authoring software built for that job. Our InfraRecorder alternatives guide collects the current options, explains what each does that InfraRecorder cannot, and is the right place to compare tools for video-to-DVD and Blu-ray work. Once any of those tools has authored and produced a VIDEO_TS folder for you, you are welcome to come back and burn that structure to disc with the steps above — authoring and burning are separate jobs, and InfraRecorder handles the second one well.

Related Guides

For images rather than folders, see burning an ISO file to DVD — many VIDEO_TS distributions circulate as ISO images instead. To back up a DVD you own by saving it first, creating an ISO image from a disc and copying a disc via an image cover the two preservation routes.

Burn a BIN/CUE Image with InfraRecorder

Not every disc image is a single ISO file. A BIN/CUE image splits the job in two: the .bin file holds the disc’s raw data, and the small .cue file — the cue sheet — describes how that data is organised into tracks. InfraRecorder 0.53 records both ISO and BIN/CUE disc images, so it can burn these images directly, as long as you give it the pair intact and point it at the right file. Most BIN/CUE failures come from mishandling the cue sheet, not from the burning itself, and this guide explains how to avoid them.

You need InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page, the complete BIN/CUE pair, and blank media large enough for the image. The program is free under GPL v3, written for Windows 2000 through Windows 7. It is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, although many users run it there; the notes in InfraRecorder on Windows 11 about verification are especially relevant when burning images you cannot easily recreate. If your image is a single .iso file instead, follow the simpler ISO burning guide.

The Role of the Cue Sheet

The BIN file alone does not know where its tracks begin and end. The cue sheet is a plain-text file that names the BIN file it belongs to and lists each track with its type (data or audio) and starting position. When you burn the image, InfraRecorder reads the cue sheet first and uses it to lay out the disc correctly. Three practical consequences follow. First, always select the .cue file when burning — not the .bin — or the track layout will be wrong or the burn refused. Second, keep the two files together in the same folder, with their original names: the cue sheet refers to the BIN file by name, and renaming the BIN without editing the cue breaks that reference. Third, never delete the cue sheet after downloading an image, however small and unimportant it looks; without it, a multi-track image in particular cannot be reconstructed reliably.

You can inspect a cue sheet safely by opening it in Notepad. A typical one begins with a FILE line naming the BIN file, followed by TRACK and INDEX lines. If the FILE line names a file that does not match the BIN sitting next to it — a common result of careless renaming — that mismatch is very likely your problem, and fixing the name (or the BIN’s filename) to match is the cure.

Step by Step: Burning the BIN/CUE Image

1. Check the pair. Confirm the .bin and .cue files are in the same folder, and that the BIN’s file name matches the name inside the cue sheet. Make sure the BIN is fully downloaded — its size should match the source listing exactly.
2. Insert blank media. Put a blank disc of sufficient capacity in the burner. A BIN file can be slightly larger than the disc’s nominal data capacity because it holds raw sector data; trust InfraRecorder’s size check in the burn dialog rather than the Explorer file size alone.
3. Open InfraRecorder and choose Write Image. Select the write-image action on the welcome screen, or use Actions > Burn Image.
4. Select the cue file. In the file picker, choose the .cue file. If the dialog filters by image type and you cannot see the cue file, set the filter to show disc images or all files. Selecting the cue is what tells InfraRecorder to use the track layout; it will open the BIN automatically through the cue’s reference.
5. Check the burn dialog. Confirm the recorder is the drive with your blank disc, and review the image information — track count and total size should look plausible for the disc you are reproducing. A single-track data image and a many-track audio image read very differently here.
6. Set the write speed. Choose a moderate speed rather than the maximum, as with any image burn. Version 0.53 fixed a bug where maximum speed was used instead of the selected speed for DVDs, so the speed you pick should be honoured — still, moderate speeds produce more reliable discs on marginal media.
7. Enable verification. Tick the verify-after-writing option. A BIN/CUE burn that is wrong is usually wrong in its structure, and verification plus a quick test of the finished disc catch that immediately.
8. Burn and wait. Start the recording and let it finish uninterrupted. When it completes, test the disc for its intended purpose: install from it, play it, or browse its files.

Common Errors, Hedged Honestly

The most frequent problem is the broken pair: the cue sheet names a BIN file that is missing or renamed, and the burn cannot start or cannot find its image. Restore the original names and folder arrangement first. The second is selecting the BIN directly, which bypasses the track information the cue exists to provide — for a simple single-track data image this may appear to work, but for multi-track images, especially audio and mixed-mode discs, the result will be wrong. The third is a truncated BIN from an interrupted download: the burn may start and fail part-way, or verification may fail at the same point each time. Re-downloading and comparing the file size fixes it. Finally, treat single odd errors cautiously — an unfamiliar message with a healthy, correctly paired image is often media- or speed-related, so try fresh media at a lower speed before assuming the image is corrupt.

Related Guides

Single-file images are covered by the guide to burning an ISO file to CD or DVD, and making images of your own discs — in ISO form — is covered in creating an ISO image from a CD or DVD. To duplicate a physical disc end to end without handling image files yourself, see copying a disc on the fly or via an image.

Erase a CD-RW or DVD-RW: Four Methods Explained

Rewritable discs — CD-RW, DVD-RW and DVD+RW — can be erased and used again, and InfraRecorder 0.53 blanks them using four different erase methods. The methods differ in how much of the disc they clear and how long they take, and picking the right one saves either time or trouble. A quick erase makes a disc reusable in seconds; a full erase physically overwrites the whole surface and is the right choice before sensitive data changes hands or when a disc misbehaves. This guide explains each method and walks through the erase itself.

You need a rewritable disc, a burner that supports erasing it, and InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page. The program is free under GPL v3, designed for Windows 2000 through Windows 7; it is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, though many users run it there — see InfraRecorder on Windows 11 for the compatibility notes. One warning before anything else: erasing is permanent. Once a method that overwrites data has run, the previous contents cannot be recovered with InfraRecorder, so double-check the disc in the drive is really the one you intend to wipe.

Before You Erase: Is the Disc Really Rewritable?

Only RW media can be erased. A CD-R, DVD-R or DVD+R is write-once: no software can blank it, and any guide claiming otherwise is mistaken. Check the label printed on the disc itself — RW media is marked CD-RW, DVD-RW or DVD+RW — rather than relying on memory. InfraRecorder’s disc information display can also help: the program scans the drive and shows detailed disc information and device capabilities, including whether the inserted media is erasable. If the erase option is unavailable for a disc you expected to reuse, the media is almost certainly write-once.

The Four Erase Methods

InfraRecorder offers four blanking methods, from fastest to most thorough. The exact wording in the dialog presents them as progressively more complete ways of clearing the disc:

• Fast / quick erase (minimal blanking). Clears the table of contents and session information so the disc appears empty and can be written again immediately. The underlying data is not physically overwritten, which is why it takes seconds — and why it is not a secure wipe. Use it for your own discs that you are about to reuse.
• Erase the last session. Removes the most recent session from a multisession rewritable disc while leaving earlier sessions in place. Useful when the last burn went wrong but the earlier content is still wanted. Session handling is covered in more depth in the multisession guide.
• Unclose / unfinalise the disc. Reopens a closed (finalised) rewritable disc so it can be erased or written again. A finalised RW disc can refuse further changes until it is unclosed; this method reverses that state without wiping everything at once.
• Full erase (complete blanking). Physically overwrites the entire recording surface, which takes as long as writing the disc did. Use it when a disc has become unreliable — full erasing often restores marginal RW media — and whenever a disc containing personal data will leave your hands, because it is the only method that actually removes the data rather than just the index to it.

When in doubt between quick and full for a disc you are keeping, choose quick — you can always erase again. When a disc has produced failed burns or verification errors, go straight to a full erase before the next attempt; writing over a merely quick-erased surface preserves whatever made the disc flaky.

Step by Step: Erasing the Disc

1. Insert the rewritable disc in the burner and wait for the drive to recognise it.
2. Open InfraRecorder and let its device scan find the drive and disc.
3. Open the erase function. Use the menu: Actions > Erase Disc (the blank/erase action on the welcome screen leads to the same dialog).
4. Confirm the drive. If you have more than one optical drive, check the dialog names the drive holding the RW disc.
5. Choose the erase method. Select one of the four methods described above — quick for routine reuse, full for problem discs or privacy, last-session or unclose for the specific situations they address.
6. Start the erase and wait. A quick erase finishes in seconds. A full erase takes minutes, roughly as long as a full burn; let it complete without opening the drive or starting other heavy work.
7. Confirm the result. When the dialog reports completion, the disc is blank (or its last session removed, per your choice) and ready. You can write to it immediately — for example by burning an ISO image or starting a new project — or eject it for later use.

After Erasing: Getting Good Reuse From RW Media

Rewritable media has a finite life — RW discs are rated for roughly a thousand erase/rewrite cycles, but real-world discs often become unreliable far sooner if they are scratched or stored badly. Keep RW discs in cases, out of sunlight, and retire any disc that repeatedly fails verification even after a full erase. Remember, too, that compatibility is narrower than write-once media: some older players and drives read RW discs poorly or not at all, particularly audio players faced with CD-RW. For anything you intend to keep or distribute, burn to write-once media; keep RW for drafts, tests and temporary transfers, which is the role it suits best.

Related Guides

With a freshly erased disc in hand, the natural next steps are burning an ISO file, making an audio CD, or copying another disc onto it. If you erased only the last session or unclosed a disc so you could add more files, read the multisession guide first — it explains how sessions are imported and when a disc should finally be closed.

Copy a CD or DVD: On-the-Fly vs Disc Image

InfraRecorder 0.53 can copy a disc in two ways: on the fly, reading the source and writing the copy at the same time, or via a temporary disc image, reading the source to a file on your hard drive first and then burning that file. Both produce the same finished disc when everything goes well — but they differ in speed, reliability and hardware requirements, and choosing the right one avoids most failed copies. This guide explains both methods, when to use each, and then walks through the copy itself.

You need InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page, a source disc, and a blank disc of at least the same capacity. InfraRecorder is free under GPL v3 and was written for Windows 2000 to Windows 7; it is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, though many users run it there — the honest notes in InfraRecorder on Windows 11 apply to copying just as much as to burning. For the image method you also need free hard-drive space equal to the size of the source disc.

The Two Methods Compared

On-the-fly copying needs two optical drives: a reader for the source and a burner for the blank. Data flows directly from one to the other, so it is the fastest route and uses no hard-drive space. Its weakness is that the burner depends on a perfectly steady stream of data. If the source disc is scratched, the reader slows down, or the computer stutters, the write can underrun or fail — and you have lost a blank disc. On-the-fly works best with clean, healthy source discs and a capable computer.

Copying via an image works in two separate stages, so each stage can retry and recover without endangering the other. It works with a single drive: InfraRecorder reads the source to an image file, asks you to swap in the blank disc, and burns the image. It is slower overall and needs temporary disk space, but it is far more forgiving of marginal source discs and older hardware. It also leaves you with an image file you can burn again later — effectively a backup as a by-product. If in doubt, use the image method. If you want to keep the image permanently rather than as a temporary step, follow the dedicated guide to creating an ISO image from a disc instead.

Step by Step: Copying a Disc

1. Prepare the discs. Check the source disc for scratches and clean it gently from centre to edge. Choose a blank disc of the same type and at least the same capacity — a dual-layer source needs dual-layer media, which InfraRecorder supports burning.
2. Insert the discs. For on-the-fly copying, put the source in the reading drive and the blank in the burner. For the single-drive image method, insert only the source disc for now.
3. Open InfraRecorder and choose Copy Disc. Pick the copy action on the welcome screen, or use Actions > Copy Disc from the menu.
4. Set the source drive. Confirm the drive shown as the source is the one holding the original disc. On multi-drive systems this is the setting most often left wrong.
5. Choose the copy method. Select on-the-fly copying if you have two drives and a clean source, and set the burner as the destination. Or select the disc-image route, choose where the temporary image will be stored, and let the single drive handle both stages.
6. Set the write speed. For on-the-fly copies, avoid the maximum speed — the reader must stay ahead of the burner for the whole disc, and a moderate speed gives it margin. The same advice applies to the burning stage of an image copy.
7. Enable verification. Tick the option to verify after writing if offered. A copy that has not been verified is an assumption, not a backup; verification reads the finished disc back and compares it with the source data.
8. Start the copy. Confirm and let the process run without launching other demanding programs. For the image method, swap the source disc for the blank disc when InfraRecorder prompts you, using the same drive.
9. Wait for completion and test. When the copy and any verification finish, test the copy the way you would use it: install from it, play it, or open its files. Keep the original until the copy has proven itself.

Single-Drive vs Dual-Drive: Practical Advice

Most laptops and many desktops now have one optical drive or none, which settles the question: the image method is the only option, and it is a good one. Owners of two drives should still prefer the image method for any disc that matters — archival copies, one-of-a-kind home recordings, discs showing early signs of damage. Reserve on-the-fly copying for quick duplicates of healthy discs where speed matters more than resilience. Whichever method you choose, do not copy a disc while the computer is busy with other heavy work; both methods reward an idle machine.

When Copies Fail

Failures during the reading stage almost always mean the source disc is damaged or dirty — clean it, try the other drive as the reader, and use the image method so retries are safe. Failures during writing point to media quality, write speed or an interrupted data flow: use fresh branded media, lower the speed, and close other applications. A copy that burns but fails verification should be discarded and remade; do not trust it because it “mostly works”. Discs that cannot be read at all need the gentler approach described in the imaging guide, and patience — error correction on a weak disc can be slow without being stuck.

Related Guides

For a permanent archive rather than a quick duplicate, create an ISO image from the disc and store the file safely. To burn an image you already have, see burning an ISO file to CD or DVD. And before reusing the blank media in a failed attempt, remember that rewritable discs can be wiped clean — the guide to erasing a CD-RW or DVD-RW explains all four erase methods.

Rip a CD to MP3 with InfraRecorder (With the MP3 Plug-In)

Ripping means saving the tracks from an audio CD as files on your computer. InfraRecorder 0.53 can save audio tracks as .wav, .wma, .ogg, .mp3 and .iso — with one catch that confuses almost everyone the first time: MP3 encoding is not built into the main program. Because of historical MP3 patent licensing, the MP3 encoder ships as a separate plug-in, a small file called lame.irc. Install that plug-in once, and MP3 ripping works like any other format. This guide covers both the plug-in install and the rip itself.

You need InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page and the separate ir053_mp3_plugin.zip package. Both are free; InfraRecorder is open source under GPL v3, written for Windows 2000 through Windows 7. It is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, though many people run it there successfully — see InfraRecorder on Windows 11 for the honest compatibility picture before you troubleshoot problems that are really platform quirks.

Part 1: Install the MP3 Plug-In

1. Download the plug-in. Get ir053_mp3_plugin.zip using the MP3 plug-in link: download the MP3 plug-in from SourceForge. It is a small file (387,083 bytes). Note the name carefully — some third-party pages wrongly call the codec lame_enc.dll; the real InfraRecorder codec file is lame.irc.
2. Extract the zip. Open the downloaded zip in Windows Explorer and extract its contents to a temporary folder. Inside you will find the LAME codec file lame.irc (the package includes builds for win32 and x64) plus a readme.
3. Pick the build that matches your InfraRecorder. If you installed the 64-bit version, use the x64 lame.irc; if you installed the standard 32-bit version or the portable build, use the win32 one. A mismatched codec will not appear in the program.
4. Copy lame.irc into the codecs folder. Find your InfraRecorder installation folder (typically under Program Files) and open its codecs subfolder — the same folder that already holds files such as vorbis.irc and wma.irc. Copy the matching lame.irc into it. For the portable version, the codecs folder sits next to the portable executable instead.
5. Restart InfraRecorder. Close the program completely and open it again. Codecs are loaded at startup, so a restart is required before MP3 appears as a saving option.
6. Confirm the codec loaded. Proceed to the rip below: when you save tracks, MP3 should now be listed among the available output formats. If it is not, see the troubleshooting notes at the end of this guide and the dedicated page on the MP3 plug-in not showing up.

Part 2: Rip the CD

1. Insert the audio CD in your optical drive and open InfraRecorder. Wait for the drive and disc to be recognised.
2. Open the track list. InfraRecorder reads the disc and lists its audio tracks with durations. Check that the number of tracks and the total time match the disc — a mismatch usually means the drive read a previous disc’s information or the CD was not yet settled when the program started.
3. Select the tracks to save. Tick the tracks you want, or select all of them for a full album rip. The track-saving workflow is the same whether you save one track or twenty.
4. Choose MP3 as the output format. In the save dialog, pick MP3 from the format list — this is the option the plug-in adds. If MP3 is missing, the plug-in is not installed or not loaded; return to Part 1.
5. Choose the destination folder. Save into a clearly named music folder, organised by artist and album if you are ripping a collection. Ripping many discs into one flat folder becomes unmanageable very quickly.
6. Start the rip and wait. InfraRecorder reads each track and encodes it to MP3. Damaged or badly scratched discs may retry on difficult sectors; a clean disc rips quickly and without pauses.
7. Play the results. Open a couple of the finished MP3 files in your media player and listen to the start and end of each. Check for skips, truncated endings or the wrong track — the faults that matter are obvious within a few seconds.

The Other Formats: WAV, WMA, OGG and ISO

MP3 is the most compatible choice, but it is not always the best one. Choose WAV when you want a perfect, uncompressed copy of the track — for archiving, for editing, or as the source for burning a new audio CD later, since WAV involves no quality loss at all. Choose OGG (Vorbis) for good quality at small file sizes in an open format. WMA is Windows Media Audio, mainly useful if your other tools expect it. Saving to ISO treats the disc as an image rather than individual songs — useful for data discs and exact backups, as covered in creating an ISO image from a CD or DVD. Note also the x64 caveat: the 64-bit build ships without the libsndfile codec bundled with the 32-bit build, so a few decoding paths differ between builds; encoding to MP3 with the correct x64 lame.irc is unaffected as long as the codec matches the build.

If MP3 Does Not Appear

Work through the plug-in steps in order: the correct lame.irc for your build, placed in the codecs folder of the installation (or portable folder) you actually run, followed by a full restart. Copying the file while InfraRecorder is open, or into a different installation’s folder, are the two most frequent mistakes. If MP3 still does not appear, reinstall the plug-in files from a fresh download of the zip and check you did not rename the codec — the program looks for lame.irc by name. Our troubleshooting page on the MP3 plug-in not showing collects the remaining causes in one place.

Burn an Audio CD That Plays in Any Player

A true audio CD follows the Red Book standard: uncompressed stereo audio that any CD player — in a car, on a shelf system, or in an old portable — can play without knowing anything about file formats. InfraRecorder 0.53 creates audio and mixed-mode projects as well as data projects, so you can build a proper audio CD from your WAV files and burn it to a CD-R that works everywhere. The key is understanding the difference between an audio CD project and a data disc full of MP3 files — only the first one plays in every player.

Start with InfraRecorder 0.53 from the download page. The program is free under GPL v3 and was written for Windows 2000 to Windows 7. It is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, although it generally runs there; the notes in InfraRecorder on Windows 11 explain what to watch for, and the verification advice later in this guide matters on any system. You will also need a CD burner, a blank CD-R, and your music in a suitable source format.

Audio CD vs MP3 Disc: Choose the Right Project

An audio CD stores music as uncompressed PCM audio and holds roughly 74 to 80 minutes, regardless of file sizes. A data CD holding MP3 files can fit many hours of music, but only players that explicitly support MP3 discs can read it — many car stereos and virtually all older players cannot. If your goal is “plays in any player”, you want the audio CD project type. InfraRecorder also supports mixed-mode projects, which combine a data track with audio tracks, but for a universally playable music disc the plain audio project is the correct choice.

Source files matter too. WAV files are the ideal input because they are already uncompressed CD-quality audio, so nothing is lost on the way to disc. InfraRecorder decodes supported audio files when building the project, but the 64-bit build has a known caveat: it ships without the libsndfile/sndfile codec that the 32-bit build bundles, so some audio decoding paths differ on x64 and MP3 decoding in the x64 build has historically been problematic. If a file refuses to import on the 64-bit version, converting it to WAV first — or using the 32-bit build — is the practical workaround.

Step by Step: Creating the Audio CD

1. Insert a blank CD-R. Use a CD-R rather than a CD-RW: many audio players, especially older ones, cannot reliably read rewritable media. Wait for the drive to recognise the disc.
2. Open InfraRecorder and start an audio project. From the welcome screen, choose the audio disc action, or create a new audio project from the File menu. The project window shows an empty track list and a capacity meter for the disc.
3. Add your audio files. Add the WAV (or other supported) files you want on the disc. Each file becomes one track, in the order you add it.
4. Arrange the track order. Move tracks up and down the list until the running order is the one you want. Track order is written into the disc’s table of contents, so check it now — it cannot be changed after burning without making a new disc.
5. Mind the total time. Watch the capacity/space meter as you add tracks. Stay within the disc’s rated length (typically 80 minutes for modern CD-Rs). Version 0.53 adjusts the space meter automatically when a blank DVD is inserted, but for audio CDs the limit is minutes of audio, and exceeding it will fail the burn.
6. Check the gaps between tracks. Audio projects insert a standard short pause between tracks by default, which suits most albums. Review the project settings for the gap behaviour before burning if you are making a live recording or a continuous mix, where gaps of silence between songs would be unwelcome — set the project up so tracks run together where the material demands it, and leave the standard gaps for ordinary track lists.
7. Set a moderate write speed. Audio CDs are especially sensitive to poor burns because players have less error-correction headroom than computer drives. Choose a mid-range speed rather than the maximum your drive offers.
8. Burn the disc. Start the recording from the Actions menu or the burn button, confirm the recorder and speed, and let the write finish without interruption. Keep verification on if offered, so the data written is read back and checked.
9. Finalise and test. An audio CD must be closed/fixated to play in standard players — InfraRecorder writes the lead-out as part of finishing the disc. Test the finished CD in the most ordinary player you own, not just in the computer that burned it.

Getting a Disc That Really Does Play Everywhere

Three habits separate reliable audio CDs from frustrating ones. First, media: use decent-quality CD-Rs, because reflectivity varies and older players are picky. Second, speed: slower, steadier writes produce pits that marginal lasers track more easily. Third, patience with format: if a track started life as a low-bitrate compressed file, burning it to an audio CD will not restore the lost quality — the disc will play everywhere, but it will sound like its source. For best results, start from lossless files wherever you can. If your music is currently on another CD, ripping that CD first — to WAV for burning purposes — gives you the cleanest sources.

Common Problems

If the finished disc plays in your computer but not in a car or shelf player, the usual causes are CD-RW media, an unfinalised disc, or a burn the player cannot track. Reburn on CD-R at a lower speed and confirm the disc was closed. If a file will not add to the project, it is likely a codec issue — particularly on the x64 build, as noted above — so convert the file to WAV and add it again. If the burn itself fails part-way, treat it like any other recording problem: fresh media, lower speed, fewer programs running.

Related Guides

To preserve an existing music CD before it degrades, see creating an ISO image from a disc for data discs and ripping a CD to MP3 and other formats for track-by-track saving. To make an exact second copy of a finished audio CD, copying a disc on the fly or via an image is faster than rebuilding the project by hand.

Create an ISO Image from a CD or DVD

Turning a physical disc into an ISO file — often searched for as “CD to ISO” — is the safest way to preserve it. Optical discs scratch, fade and eventually fail, but an ISO image is a bit-for-bit file you can back up, store on a hard drive or NAS, and burn back to a fresh disc whenever you need it. InfraRecorder 0.53 can do both halves of that job: it saves data and audio tracks from a disc to files, including the .iso format, and it can burn an ISO back to blank media later. This guide covers creating the image, choosing the right options, and checking the result.

You will need InfraRecorder installed — version 0.53 is available from the download page — plus enough free hard-drive space for the image: up to about 700 MB for a CD and up to 4.7 GB (or 8.5 GB for dual-layer) for a DVD. InfraRecorder is free software under GPL v3, written for Windows 2000 through Windows 7. It is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, though many users run it there; the compatibility notes in InfraRecorder on Windows 11 are worth a quick read first, because read-back problems on newer systems can affect imaging as well as burning.

Before You Start: Clean and Check the Disc

Imaging copies what the drive can read — it cannot invent data from a badly damaged disc. Hold the source disc up to the light and check for scratches, fingerprints and cloudy patches. Wipe it gently from the centre outward with a soft, clean cloth; never wipe in circles, because a circular scratch runs along the data track and is harder for error correction to handle than a radial mark. A disc that still plays or installs correctly will almost always image cleanly. If the source is an audio CD rather than a data disc, the steps below still apply for saving tracks, but also read the dedicated guide to ripping a CD to MP3, which covers per-track formats such as WAV, WMA and OGG.

Step by Step: Saving a Disc as an ISO File

1. Insert the source disc. Place the CD or DVD you want to preserve in your optical drive and wait for the drive to settle. Close any autoplay window that appears.
2. Open InfraRecorder. Start the program. Its device scan checks the SCSI/IDE bus and lists the drives it finds, along with the disc you just inserted.
3. Open the copy/read options. From the welcome screen choose the copy action, or use the menu: Actions > Copy Disc. In the copy dialog you can choose whether the copy goes directly to another disc or to a disc image on your hard drive.
4. Choose the image destination. Select the option to copy to a disc image rather than on the fly to a second drive, and set the image format to ISO. If you are asked for a read drive, make sure it is the drive containing your source disc.
5. Pick a file name and folder. Give the image a clear name — the disc title plus the date works well, for example family-photos-2011.iso — and save it in a folder with enough free space. Avoid saving to the same removable media you are imaging from.
6. Start the read. Confirm the dialog and let InfraRecorder read the disc sector by sector. A full DVD can take several minutes. The progress display shows any read retries; a disc in good condition should read through without a long stall.
7. Wait for completion. When the read finishes, InfraRecorder reports success and the ISO file is complete on disk. Do not cancel part-way and reuse a partial file — a truncated image looks plausible in Explorer but is missing its end sectors.
8. Check the image size. In Windows Explorer, compare the ISO size with the used capacity of the original disc. They should be very close. A dramatically smaller file suggests the read stopped early or only one session was captured.
9. Test the image. The surest test is to burn the image to a blank disc later using the burn image function, or to mount/open the ISO with a tool you trust and confirm the files are all listed. Keep at least one backup copy of valuable images on a second device.

Data Discs, Audio Discs and Multisession Discs

For a normal data CD or DVD — files, installers, photo archives — a single ISO captures the whole disc, including its file system (ISO 9660, Joliet or UDF, as used by the original). Audio CDs are different: they hold raw audio tracks rather than a file system, so InfraRecorder saves audio tracks to audio files such as .wav, .wma, .ogg or .mp3, or to an .iso where the track-saving workflow offers it. If your goal is music files for a media player, per-track ripping is the better route; if your goal is an exact backup you can reburn as an identical audio CD, keep the track files together with a note of the original track order.

Watch out for multisession discs — discs that were written in more than one sitting, common with home backups from the 2000s. InfraRecorder can import session data from multisession discs, and when imaging one, make sure the final session is the one being read, because earlier sessions may hide files that were later replaced or deleted. Our guide to multisession discs explains how sessions work and what to check before you archive one.

If Reading Fails or Stalls

Long stalls and retries point to a disc the drive is struggling to read, not necessarily a hopeless one. Try the disc in a different drive if you have one — drives vary noticeably in how well they handle marginal media. Clean the disc again, and let a retry run rather than cancelling quickly, because error correction can take time on a weak sector. If one disc consistently fails while others image fine, the media itself is degrading; copy what you can and prioritise imaging the rest of that collection soon, because disc rot does not reverse.

What to Do With the Image Afterwards

An ISO you never test is only a hope, so verify valuable images as described above, then store two copies on different devices. When you need the physical disc again, follow the companion guide to burning an ISO file to CD or DVD, which covers write speeds and verification. And if you simply need a second physical copy right away, copying a disc directly — on the fly or via an image — may suit you better than archiving first.

Burn an ISO File to CD or DVD with InfraRecorder

An ISO file is a complete disc image — a single file that holds the file system and contents of a CD or DVD. Burning it correctly means writing that image back to a blank disc so the disc boots and reads exactly like the original. InfraRecorder 0.53, the final release from 2012, handles this job directly: it records both ISO and BIN/CUE disc images, supports dual-layer DVDs, and can verify the disc after burning. This guide walks through the whole process step by step, including the write-speed and verification choices that make the difference between a reliable disc and a coaster.

If you have not installed the program yet, get version 0.53 from the InfraRecorder download page first. InfraRecorder is free and open source under the GPL v3 licence. It was written for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7. It is not officially supported on Windows 10 or 11, although many people run it successfully there — if you are on a newer system, read the notes in InfraRecorder on Windows 11 before you start, and always use the verification step in this guide so you know the finished disc is readable.

What You Need Before You Start

You need three things: a CD or DVD burner connected to the computer, a blank disc that matches the image, and the ISO file itself saved somewhere easy to find, such as your Downloads folder. Size matters here. A standard CD holds about 700 MB, a single-layer DVD holds about 4.7 GB, and a dual-layer DVD holds about 8.5 GB. Check the ISO file size in Windows Explorer before you choose media — an image that is larger than the disc simply will not fit, and InfraRecorder will stop rather than truncate it. Dual-layer burning is supported, so a large image can go on a DVD+R DL or DVD-R DL disc in a drive that supports dual-layer media.

It is also worth checking that the ISO file is complete. If you downloaded it, compare its size with the size published by the source, and use a checksum when the source provides one. A truncated or corrupted image will burn without complaint in some tools and then fail when you try to use the disc. Burning a verified source image, and then verifying the finished disc as described below, closes both ends of that risk.

Step by Step: Burning the ISO Image

1. Insert a blank disc. Put the blank CD or DVD in your burner and wait a few seconds for Windows and the drive to recognise it. If a Windows autoplay prompt appears, close it — you do not need it for this task.
2. Open InfraRecorder. Launch the program from the Start menu or desktop shortcut. The main window shows your drives and a welcome screen with common actions.
3. Choose the burn image action. On the welcome screen, select Write Image. If the welcome screen is not showing, use the menu instead: go to Actions > Burn Image. Both routes open the same file picker.
4. Select your ISO file. Browse to the folder that holds the image, select the .iso file, and click Open. InfraRecorder reads the image and shows the recording dialog with information about the image size and the disc in the drive.
5. Check the target drive. If you have more than one optical drive, confirm that the recorder shown in the dialog is the drive holding your blank disc. Burning to the wrong device is a common and avoidable mistake on multi-drive systems.
6. Set the write speed. Open the speed list and choose a moderate speed rather than the maximum — see the advice in the next section. For most combinations of drive and media, half of the disc’s rated speed is a sensible starting point.
7. Enable verification. Tick the option to verify the disc after writing (sometimes labelled as verifying the recorded data). This adds a few minutes, but it reads the finished disc back and compares it with the image, which is the only way to be sure the burn is good before you need it.
8. Start the burn. Click OK or Burn and wait for the progress bar to complete. Do not run heavy programs, and do not open the drive, while writing is in progress. The drive buffer needs a steady flow of data.
9. Let verification finish. After writing, InfraRecorder ejects or re-reads the disc for verification depending on the drive. When verification passes, the disc is ready. Label it with a soft disc marker, not a ballpoint pen, and store it out of direct sunlight.

Choosing a Write Speed That Works

Maximum speed is tempting because it finishes sooner, but it is the single most common cause of marginal burns. The dye layer in recordable media is more forgiving at moderate speeds, and older drives — the kind most likely to be paired with a 2012 program — track better when they are not pushed to their limit. Version 0.53 specifically fixed a write-speed detection issue and a bug where the maximum write speed was used instead of the selected one when burning DVDs, so the speed you pick in the dialog is the speed you should get. If a burn fails or verification reports errors, reburn the same image on fresh media at a lower speed before you suspect the image file.

Media quality matters as much as speed. Branded discs from a reputable maker fail far less often than unbranded bargain spindles, especially for dual-layer DVDs, where the layer break makes writing more demanding. If you only burn occasionally, buy small packs of good media rather than a large spindle that will sit ageing for years.

If the Burn or Verification Fails

A failed burn usually comes down to one of four causes: poor or damaged media, too high a write speed, a corrupted source image, or another program interrupting the write. Try a fresh disc from a different batch, lower the speed, and close other applications. If verification fails on Windows 10 or 11 in particular, be aware that inconsistent verification and burns that complete yet read back blank have been reported by SourceForge users on those systems — one more reason the verification step is not optional there. Reburning the same image on a Windows 7-era machine, or checking the disc in a second drive, helps separate a media problem from a system problem.

Related Guides

Working in the other direction? The guide to creating an ISO image from a CD or DVD shows how to save an existing disc as an image file in the first place. If your image came as a pair of files rather than a single ISO, see how to burn a BIN/CUE image instead — the process is similar, but the cue sheet plays a role you need to understand. And if you are making a disc that a computer should boot from, the bootable disc guide explains the extra requirements beyond a plain data burn.