File name considerations

You have to keep in mind some of the file naming conventions. Mac OS has a file name length limitation of 31 characters. This includes the dot and the three-letter name extension required by Windows and UNIX. Therefore, if you prepare your files on a PC or UNIX/Linux machine make sure that the names of you files are 31 characters or less if you're going to burn them on a Mac.

You useable file name length is 31-4=27 characters then! If you attempt to copy files with names over 31 characters in length from a remote server volume or PC formatted disk you will end up having problems:

- If you copy files from removable media such as ZIP or JAZ your file names will become truncated and capitalized to DOS style 8.3 names or even garbled which will kill your file links in html or Power Point projects.

- If you attempt to copy the files from a server volume, you will not be able to copy them at all and receive cryptic errors: "The file can't be copied because it exists", "The file can't be copied due to a disk (or System) error". Mac OS is not aware of the situation and will not tell you precisely that the names are too long. It is just simply unable to deal with long file names and it may even crash.

If you created the files and folders on the Mac you have to make sure that they do not contain characters that are illegal in Windows. They will not be readable in Windows. Just like Mac OS can't deal with long file names, Windows can't deal with these characters and will give you cryptic errors. These characters can't be used in Windows file and folder names:

\ / : * ? " < > |

Computer viruses

Please be sure to scan your files for viruses before burning a disk. Viruses have become a real problem recently and there is nothing worse than giving someone a CD infected with viruses, worms or Trojan horses. Just because you're burning a CD on a Mac it doesn't mean that you're safe. You can still burn Mac and PC viruses to Mac or PC disks. There are some useful links at the bottom of this page.

Several types of disks you can burn

Mac OS CD (Standard Mac OS CD) is the basic Macintosh CD-ROM that is readable by all Macs. This disk is not readable by PCs and UNIX machines unless they have third party software installed. This format preserves the Mac file attributes: icons, custom icons, type and creator types of the file and folder layout.

Mac OS Extended CD-ROM uses the new HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) file format to save space on the disk but it's only readable by PowerMacs running Mac OS 8.5 or higher. The advantage of HFS+ is that it uses smaller allocation blocks. The benefits are only seen if recording large numbers of small files (few k in size). If you burn large files there is little or no benefit.

Mac OS and PC (Hybrid) CD is an ISO-9660 disk or HFS/ISO 9600 that is readable by some/all Macs and all PCs. It uses two data sources: a Macintosh volume (disk image, temporary partition) and a group of files/folders that you select as ISO data. There are two types of hybrid disks: HFS/ISO Hybrid and Custom Hybrid.

Mac OS Extended and PC (Hybrid) CD - just like the Mac OS and PC (Hybrid) CD but it uses the Extended (HFS+) file format for the Mac part of the disk.

Video CD is a video disk containing MPEG(1) a/v tracks. It's playable on some CD drives and most DVD drives as well as some home DVD players. The quality of Video CD is lower than standard VHS tape. We will not cover this kind of disks.

MP3 disk is a Mac or ISO 9660 disk containing mp3 sound files. We will not cover this kind of discs.

DVD disk holds data and/or MPEG2 audio/video files. Data DVDs are readable by computer DVD drives (Mac and PC). Video DVDs are readable by computer DVD drives and home DVD players. DVD uses UDF (Universal Disk Format) as opposed to HFS or ISO 9660 and is readable on PowerMacs running MacOS 8.5 or higher and Windows 98/2000/ME/XP. They are not readable on Windows 3.x, 95 and NT. DVD standard is defined as 4.7 GB. However, due to file system overhead, you can store a maximum of 4.2 GB of data on a single 4.7 GB DVD Disc

Disk image is a file that contains a complete mirror image of a disk. It preserves the disk layout. It can be mounted on the desktop as a virtual disk or recorded to CD-R(W) or DVD later. A temporary partition is also a disk image.

Mac volume is the same as a basic Mac OS CD.

ISO 9660 is a native CD format for PCs running DOS and Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP operating systems. It's also readable by Linux, UNIX and Macs. However, it's not recommended for Mac specific files because it does not preserve Macintosh file attributes. It's a good way to burn cross platform files such as Word, Power Point, TIFF, JPG, etc. You have to remember about adding appropriate filename extensions so PCs can recognize the files. The most common are: .DOC (Word document), .PPT (Power Point presentation). .XLS (Excel spreadsheet), .TIF (TIFF image), .JPG (JPEG image), .GIF (GIF image), WAV (wave sound file), .AIF (Macintosh AIFF sound file). Remember that some files are Mac specific and they can never be opened on a PC.

Audio CD is the regular CD that contains digital audio tracks in CD Audio format. They can be played back on any CD player, DVD player or computer CD or DVD drive. You create an Audio CD from AIFF or WAV sound files.

Copy CD will copy the contents to the hard disk and then burn an exact copy of the disk. It essentially creates a disk image first and the burns it to a recordable media.

Device copy. It used to be called SCSI Copy. It works only on machines that have standard CD-ROM or DVD drive and a CD burner. It copies the CD directly block by block regardless of the kind of the disk. This method will copy virtually any kind of CD including all Mac, ISO and even game console disks (Sega, etc.). This method requires a fast CD or DVD drive that can play back CDs at at least 16X and a fast computer with fast SCSI or IDE bus.