CDs, DVDs & USB keys

CDs

The CD (Compact Disc) has become the standard format for the sale of commercial audio recordings. You probably have CDs in your home which play music by your favourite singer or band.

Playing a CD

You probably listen to your CDs on a stereo system or a personal CD player, but did you know you can also listen to CDs on your computer?

All you need is a piece of software known as a 'Media Player' installed on your computer (there are many available on the Internet that you can download for free), insert your CD in the disc drive and away you go!

Saving to a CD

CDs (Compact Discs) were originally developed to store music but are now also used to store data.

There are  two main types:

• CD-ROM, which you can only save to once

• CD-R & CD-RW which you can save to as many times as you wish.

To create your own CDs you will need Media Player software (such as Windows Media Player) and a CD Drive (also known as a CD burner) which may already be built into your computer or you can buy separately. Then, using your Media Player software, it's an easy 3 step process.

• Get the music that you want to put on your CD onto your computer by either
  - downloading music from the Internet
  - copying music from a CD you already have, this is known as 'ripping'.

• Make a list of the music you want to copy to your CD and put it in the order you want to listen to it (a 'playlist').

• Copy the music to your CD, this is known as 'burning' a CD.

Download Windows Media Player*

* Hampshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

DVDs

DVDs ("Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc" are very similar to CDs (see previous page) but store more than six times as much data which means that a DVD has enough room to store a full-length movie, as well as a lot of other information.

Watching DVDs

You may well have your own collection of favourite films on DVDs which you probably watch on a DVD player. But did you know you can also watch DVDs on your computer?

All you need is a piece of software known as a 'Media Player' installed on your computer (there are many available on the Internet that you can download for free), insert your DVD in the disc drive and away you go!

Saving to DVDs

Film, music, photos and most other types of data can be saved to a DVD.

Before you save any data to a DVD, you need to be aware of the different types of DVD there are:

• a DVD-ROM has data on it that can only be read but you cannot save to

• with DVD-R and DVD+R you can save data to them but only once, they are then the same as a DVD-ROM

• DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM can have new data saved to them as many times as you wish.

To create your own DVDs you will need Media Player software (such as Windows Media Player) and a CD Drive (also known as a CD burner) which may already be built into your computer or you can buy separately.  Then, using your Media Player software, it's an easy process.

• Get the data that you want to put on your DVD onto your computer by either
  - downloading it from the Internet
  - or copying it from CDs or DVDs you already have, this is known as 'ripping'.

• Copy the data to your DVD, this is known as 'burning' a CD.

Download Windows Media Player*

* Hampshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

USB Keys

A USB key is a portable storage device, they can also be known as memory sticks. You can use it to store and transfer files, pictures and information. USB keys can be used in place of CD's and DVD's

There are many types of USB keys on the market, and they all differ in size of storage. There storage typically range from 64 MB to 64 GB! You can also buy secure USB keys. These keys will might have a finger print recognition or will require a pin code.

It is advised not to store personal or confidential information on your USB key in case you lose or missplace it.