How to copy a CD

[mallomarz]

I need to make copies of CDs that contain my medical records (radiology images). The CDs were apparently created with Altamont Software, which I assume is some sort of special medical record program.

My health care lab refused to give me more than one set of CDs. I anticipate needing to send copies of the CDs to more than one medical facility.

I have cognitive problems, so I haven't been able to to figure it out by following the standard instructions.

My first question: Can I copy the contents of a CD onto a DVD? Or do I need to get some blank CDs? I'm guessing I need CDs, which I should be able to easily get.

I was trying to copy the contents of the original CDs to my computer hard drive, and then burn a new disk from the hard drive onto the computer's built-in burner. Would it be easier to try to copy from one CD/DVD drive to another? I do have a portable external CD/DVD drive that I could hook up to my computer, if that would be simpler.

Not sure what else is relevant. I'm using Windows 10 on a desktop computer. Lots of space on the hard drive.

I would be very grateful if someone could give me very explicit directions. This stuff is very difficult for me. If you need more info from me, I can probably supply it.

Thanks in advance.

[dbminter]

You probably don't need CD-R's and can use DVD-/+R or BD-R.  The only time you'd need CD-R/RW is for Audio CD's, which I highly doubt these medical records discs are.

 

With that said, you could either create disc images and burn those images to whatever media you want or use Build mode to copy the contents.  However, this may miss hidden files and folders that may be on the disc, so I'd recommend reading the discs to image files and then burning those images.

 

You could use two optical drives to copy on the fly, but I don't recommend it.  You could use File Explorer, but, as I said, if there are hidden files or folders, you may miss those.  You're better off reading to image files first.  Particularly with copying on the fly, if it fails at any point, you have to start all over again.  If you read to disc image files first, you'll use a little extra time, but if there's a problem, it saves time in the long run.  And I prefer investing a little extra time to make sure.

 

To copy the discs to image files and then burn them to recordable discs, here's the Guide (It actually links to 2 separate Guides.):

 

[mallomarz]

Belated thanks for the instructions. I finally worked up enough nerve to give it a shot, and I just finished the process successfully.

Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.