 "Top 3 Free CD Burning Programs")
Optical storage over the past few years has lost a bit of ground, thanks to USB flash drives, portable HDDs, backup NAS devices and the like. However, sales haven’t dwindled too much, as a DVD-RW even today remains one of the most inexpensive (and hence, popular) forms of backup available. When you consider that Blu-ray writers are appearing in larger numbers and now cost under Rs 10,000, it’s clear that optical backup is not going away anytime soon.
While optical media has seen regular hardware changes, the software side is a different story. The domination of this segment by Nero Burning ROM has been so complete that just about every major OEM manufacturer ships with a scaled-down version of the program. While it is an excellent tool, it’s also a resource hog. Besides, the base edition allows only very basic operations; to access the more advanced features one needs to purchase a rather expensive upgrade. Thus the software quickly loses it charm.
Luckily enough there are enough freeware options available on the net that are not only able to match Nero in features, but use a fraction of the resources. Here are three such freeware/cardware applications.
Ashampoo Burning Studio
Ashampoo offers quite a few packages in the DVD authoring sphere. While most of the software isn’t free, in a surprising move the company has started offering earlier, feature-complete versions of its software suite for free. With the ability to burn to all known media, create compressed backup archives with password protection; split archives automatically across multiple CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray discs, and a host of other features, this suite is easily among the best choices available.
Get your free key here. The download link is here. Please note that the software download link is for the free trial, which can be upgraded to a full version from the first link.
__PAGEBREAK__
CDBurnerXP PRO
CDBurnerXP Pro offers is a well-written program that offers a comprehensive list of features and a very intuitive GUI. It offers full support for CD-DVD authoring including data, audio and multisession with HD-DVD and Blu-ray support, cover printing for jewel cases, image burning capability (both NRG and ISO) and supports every major Windows OS from Win 98 upwards.
Some of its more salient features include a surprisngly powerful command line version tool, full support IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives and low memory usage. Check it out here.
__PAGEBREAK__
DeepBurner
DeepBurner is another well-written piece of software. Apart from supporting every known CD/DVD format, it allows you to create and burn ISO images, customize your CD/DVDs as it is, create and print labels etc. The software also supports for all kinds of writers, such as USB, Firewire and virtually all internal drives. You can download it here.
 "Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty")
 "Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched")
 "Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?")
 "Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House")
 "Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty")
 "Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched")
 "Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?")
 "Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House")
