Writing to optical disk

[DanL]

Dumb question here. When I mount an optical disk to write a file or folder onto it, I just drag the file or folder to the disk icon and burn. When I do that, the file or folder appears on the disk window before burning as a link. The file or folder seems to get written fine. But I've been told that, nope, to do it right, you actually have to copy the file or folder to the disk, as in OPTION-drag. Then the file or folder appears in the disk window as a real file or folder. That takes a while for the file or folder to be completely copied. THEN, you can burn.

So is there any advantage to doing it the latter way? Takes longer.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

I used to just drag the files/folders etc onto the optical disc icon in Finder then open up the disc which is a burn folder with the 'Burn' button in the window up in the corner somewhere. Then I'd just click that button to commence the write sequence.

My iMac doesn't have an optical drive but that is pretty much how I'd do it.

 

[DanL]

My point is that if you just drag a file or folder, what you get in the optical disk icon is a POINTER, not a true file (with a little arrow on the icon). If you OPTION-drag, you actually really copy the file or folder.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Yes I understood your point, actually copying the file/folders is a form of backing them up because afterwards they will still need to be deleted. IMHO one would only need to do this if they were unsure or overly cautious about the process.

It's important to note that you must take care not to delete anything in a burn folder as it will in turn delete it/them from your hard drive if the burn folder contains an alias.

 

[DanL]

OK, I guess the point is that when you create a burn folder in the optical disk icon, it is fine to populate that folder with pointers/aliases to files, and not the files themselves. The burn will proceed in the same way either way. But that's a good point that deleting the pointer or alias would delete the original as well.

 

[MightyGem]

It's important to note that you must take care not to delete anything in a burn folder as it will in turn delete it/them from your hard drive if the burn folder contains an alias.

Not on my Mac.(MBP, Sierra)