Burn CDs and DVDs

If your Mac has a built-in optical drive, or if you connect an external DVD drive (for example, an Apple USB SuperDrive), you can burn files to CDs and DVDs to share your files with friends, move files between computers, or create backup files. Discs you burn on your Mac can also be used on Windows and other types of computers.

Insert a blank disc into the optical drive.
If you see a dialog, click the pop-up menu, then choose Open Finder. Select “Make this action the default” if you want to open the Finder every time you insert a blank disc.
The disc appears on your desktop.
Double-click the disc to open its window, then drag the files and folders you want to burn to the window.
Aliases to the files are placed in the disc’s window. The original files are not moved or deleted.
Note: If you want to burn the same files to discs multiple times, use a burn folder.
Arrange and rename the files.
When the disc is burned, the items on the disc have the same names and locations that they have in the disc window. After the disc is burned, you cannot change the items.
Choose File > Burn [disc], then follow the instructions.
The files that the aliases point to are burned to the disc. In addition, if the folders you add to the disc contain aliases, the files those aliases point to are also burned to the disc.
Note: If you eject the disc without burning it, a burn folder with the items you copied to the disc is created and placed on your desktop. To complete the burn process, click the burn icon next to the folder in the Finder sidebar, or hold down the Control key as you click any disc, then choose Burn Disc from the shortcut menu.

To burn a disc image (.dmg file) to a disc, Control-click the disc image file, choose “Burn Disc Image [disc name] to Disc” from the shortcut menu, then follow the instructions. You can also burn audio and video files from your iTunes library. For instructions, see Create your own CDs and DVDs.

Tip: To erase the contents of a rewritable disc, Control-click the CD or DVD drive in the Finder sidebar, then choose Erase Rewriteable Disc from the shortcut menu.