Burning Guide to Roxio Toast

This article outlines how to use Roxio Toast on Mac OS X to burn data, audio, and video CD and DVD discs

Introduction

Roxio Toast is one of the most popular pieces of software that allows you to burn both CD and DVD discs from your Mac. When the program is first opened, there is a menu on the left side of the application that provides you with a choice of what kind of disc you’d like to create: Data, Audio, Video, or Copy.

Burning Data

If you would like to create a backup of files from your Mac OS X computer, select the Data button in Toast, and choose the “Mac & PC” subheading to ensure compatibility across all types of computer. From here, click the “New Disc” button located on the bottom of the application window. This will prepare the software to create your disc, and allow you to name your project. After this step, click the “Add” button to browse your computer for the files you’d like to burn, or simply drag and drop files and folders from the Finder. When you are satisfied that you have selected all the files you want to backup, click the red burn button in the bottom right corner of Toast, and insert your disc when prompted.

Burning Audio Discs

The process for creating an Audio CD is very similar. Click the Audio button on the left side of the application window, then choose “Audio CD” if you would like to create a disc that can be played in a standard CD player. Now, simply click the “Add” button to browse for your music files, or drag and drop them from Finder. If Toast detects a non-music file, it will notify you, but continue to load the audio files. Once you have prepared your selection of music tracks, you can click and drag songs to reorder them. When you are finished ordering the songs, click the red burn button to create your disc.

Creating a Video DVD

The Video function of Toast allows you to create several different types of video discs, but the most common of these types is DVD-Video. Select DVD-Video from under the Video button on the left side of the application. In the lower left of the application window, you will be presented with a selection of different menu themes. When you drag your video files into the window, Toast may prompt you to re-encode the videos into DVD format. When this is complete, you can burn the disc.

Copying a Disc

Roxio Toast’s Copy function allows you to create a copy of a disc by either directly reading and writing using two DVD-ROM drives, or by creating a temporary image file on your Mac’s hard drive then writing to a blank disc. Toast also allows you to burn an existing disc image to either a blank CD or DVD.

Conclusion

All in all, Roxio Toast provides an easy and effective method for creating backups of your files!