COMPUTER CD-R ABCs

A CD-R (Compact Disk-Recordable) is a special type of CD which is coated with a photosensitive organic dye which allows a user to record information to a special type of cd for backup and duplication purposes. Once the CD-R disk is placed within the computer, the recording process begins; the laser heats and the dye reveals the areas to diffuse light just as a regular CD would. The CD-R drive does not actually create pits on the CD, instead the burner creates reflective sections on the CD causing the computer's CD-ROM laser to interpret it as a pit. Because of this method of creating a CD, CD-R drives are only capable of recording to the CD once. This unfortunately means if you encounter errors or do not complete the recording process, the CD may become useless.
CD-Rs are a low cost solution for backing up software. Each CD-R can cost from $3.00 to $10.00 and are capable of holding up to 650 MB per CD-R disk (74 minutes of music / up to 99 audio tracks) or larger. While tape drives are a low cost solution per MB when compared to a CD-R disk, tape drives are linear-access devices which can become time consuming if you wish to only recover one / few files. With a CD-R, you can browse the CD and choose individual or multiple files and restore them immediately.
Once a CD-R disk is finished recording, the CD will be able to be used in any standard CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD drive. There were issues with reading CD-R disks in the first revision of DVD.