3 Free Portable CD Burner Software as Nero Alternative

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3 Free Portable CD Burner Software as Nero Alternative

Posted By Raymond In Category: Computer

Feb
24
2010

I started using Nero Burning ROM ever since I had a CD burner. Nero used to be the best but after a few major updates, it has turned into a bloatware that has a larger installation footprint, comes with many unnecessary features that are not used by end users, or just generally use more system resources than necessary, while offering little or no benefit to its users. You might be surprised that until today I am still stuck with Nero because I am a person that doesn’t simply change stuff if the current one is working well. Of course during Nero installation, I pretty much uncheck most of the stuff that I don’t need so I get only the Nero burning tool. As for the free Nero 9 Essentials, you can forget about it because it can only burn data, copy disc, erase and analyze disc.
Nero Alternative
Recently I got my Dell Studio One 1909 desktop and I did a clean Windows 7 installation because I didn’t like all the software that was pre-installed. I felt like Windows 7 was loading a gazillion third party software that I probably never use! Anyway I was doing some testing and wanted to burn some ISO images to CD. I used a portable and small tool called BurnCDCC to burn the ISO image and after finished burning, the disc shows that its blank! Then I tried using MagicISO and UltraISO, both also failed to burn the disc. I panicked for a moment thinking that I might have a faulty CD/DVD burner (HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GA11N A102) on a NEW computer!

Then I tried installing the latest version of Nero 9 and it worked flawlessly. After testing a few more disc burning software, I now realized that NOT ALL CD burning software can support all CD/DVD writers.

The software below couldn’t detect my drive as a writer.

DeepBurner v1.9.0.228

MagicISO v5.5.0281

UltraISO Premium v9.3.6.2750

CDBurnerXP Portable v4.2.3.1110

BurnCDCC v2.00a

DeepBurner v1.9.0.228

I was very surprised and disappointed at the same time to know that the popular MagicISO and UltraISO didn’t support the DVD writer on my Dell computer. You might have heard of CDBurnerXP and DeepBurner before because they are free but they too don’t work on my drive. BurnCDCC not able to work is acceptable because it is outdated (last update was 4 years ago).

Other than Nero that worked on my computer, here are 3 portable disc burning software that I recommend to use. There are a lot of disc burning software, tons of them but unfortunately not many that are portable and free at the same time. I prefer portable tools so that the software doesn’t need to drop files on other locations and also add extra entries to the registry.

1. StarBurn
free nero starburn
- StarBurn is very impressive because it has tons of features such as burning data, audio and video. Other than that, it can build ISO images, grab audio CD and make them into MP3, compress WAV to MP3. There are 2 versions of StarBurn, free and paid. The only difference are you don’t get to record to remote CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD burner over TCP/IP and no support.
[ Download StarBurn ]

2. CDRTFE (cdrtools Frontend)
cdrtools frontend nero alternative
- CDRTFE is a frontend for the cdrtools (cdrecord, mkisofs, readcd, cdda2wav), Mode2CDMaker and VCDImager. This is one my favorite because both cdrtools and frontend are actively being developed, so the chances of supporting a lot of disc writers are pretty high.
[ Download CDRTFE ]

3. InfraRecorder
free download infrarecorder
- This tool is not being actively developed but it worked on my dvd writer. It can create custom data, audio and mixed-mode projects, supports recording to dual-layer DVDs, erase rewritable discs using four different methods, record disc images, and etc.
[ Download InfraRecorder ]

All this 3 software are free and portable which means they can all go into my USB flash drive. Very useful to test if its a drive, software, or “user problem” when my customer complains that they cannot write a disc or the disc couldn’t read after burning. Do let me know if I missed any “Free & Portable” disc burning software…

Free Genuine Nero BackItUp 4 and Nero 9 License Key for Lucky Subscriber

Uninstalling Any Nero Software

Official Nero 7 Premium Download Available

Remove Nero Scout from Nero 7

vhick

Sir may I know, based in your review is the ability of this portable burning software to verify data “after” burning? Before I use many burning tools to test to see if this function is available. Although I not test it now so I didn’t now if this is available now.

CDBurnerXP support this but for burning iso only.

Good alternative also is ImgBurn. To make this portable and completely stealth, you can read it http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=583 or browse to ImgBurn forum for more info.

Thanks sir Raymond.
http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

ImgBurn v2.5.0.0 supports the dvd writer on my Dell computer.
MacIOXL

Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 is also free for non-comercial use.
Simon Zerafa

Hi,

What is the make and model of DVD/CD drive on your Dell?

It’s either very old or in some way incompatible with modern software?

I have to say I have yet to come across an optical drive which CDBurnerXP does not work with.

In addition the portable version of that software you are using is very out of date. The current version is v4.2.7.1893.

Try using the full latest version of and see if you have better results.

Kind Regards

Simon
http://www.technoskillonline.com sudharsan @ technoskillonline

That’s really a nice software…
very useful
http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

Simon, I’ve already stated the DVD drive on my Dell computer is HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GA11N A102. Has the latest firmware and it’s a new computer, just bought it from Dell.

I installed CDBurnerXP v4.2.7.1893 and this time it worked, can erase and write. Would prefer if CDBurnerXP has an updated portable version.
ameer

StarBurn
force install (save tube) toolbar & disabled “Uninstall” feature!!

this is rude..
roy raay

thanks for the portables, guess i’ll stick with nero lite or micro!
Yohan Perera

I am using InfraRecorder and it brakes my hear to know that it’s not being actively developed. I would consider switching to StarBurn, if IR ever gives me a trouble.

I was using Nero Burner before I switched to IR… But it was a pirated copy and I wanted to stop using pirated software, in my PC…
OJi

Ashampoo Burning Studio Free 6.77 is free for commercial / business use also.
http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

@ameer: Portable……
Felix

I’m using ImgBurn http://www.imgburn.com/ at my Windows 7 Ultimate.. It’s free also…
lockpc

my personal computer have lots of viruses and tor gens and spy ware that’s reason my pc are slow and i spend lots of time to stopping unnecessary services and exe . my pc lots of file corrupted due to viruses that reasons i required bit-defender total security anti-virus 2010 key.
Corey

There is also the built in iso burner in windows 7. works great. just right click on an iso, and select the burn option.
Raj

Hi Raymond,

When I read your article, my immediate reaction was to recommend you to use Imgburn. And as I saw the replies to your posts, Imgburn has worked on your machine.

I have been using Imgburn for couple of years now and it is the best tool to create images and make copies of favorite dvds. It is not as intuitive as nero when making multisession dvds but it has an advantage over all other burning software : it is free!! plus it is reliable. I would firmly recommend it.
Balaji Neelakantan

Hi,

This is a very good article, but I have some comments on the software that you have listed.

Starburn’s interface kinda sucks. It doesn’t allow you to select multiple files when you try to burn a video DVD.

I never tried CDRTFE, so, I don’t have any comments on that.

Infrarecorder doesn’t detect all drives. It detects my dvd writer, but never burnt anything. Whenever I select something to burn, it just hangs. But, when I abort the process, the DVD becomes unusable.

I prefer the following freewares as alternatives.

1. Burnaware free (This is what I am currently using)
2. Free Easy CD & DVD Burner
3. Silent Night Micro burner
4. Totally Free Burner.

jetbee is also a good one, but the free version has some limitations which I forgot.

Thanks,
Balaji.
as hz

Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 is an excellent alternative.
AtOdds

I recently invested in some upgrades and fixes for my computer. One of the fixes was a new DVD+-RW (I think that’s what it’s called). Along with the drive came Nero. I thought “Oh Wow, Nero!” Shortly it was, “Oh Ugghh, Nero!” I never did get it to burn the CD so every time I turned on the computer I got a message about there being files waiting to be burned. Irritating enough by itself but something seemed to be running all the time too. Finally I uninstalled it. Magically my computer started acting the way I’d expected that it would when I brought it home from the shop. All speedy and effortless. Now, I’m using AShampoo to do burning. Much smaller. Easy to understand. Easy to use. Doesn’t take an age and a day. Burns the friggin CD as promised.
faizulhu

A lot of the people are recommending Imgburn and I would too (not portable but great app anyways) but for some reason, it cannot recognize my TSSTcorp TS L633A dvd writer on my laptop. The laptop is fairly new but the app works great elsewhere. Probably happened because I had to delete the upper and lower filters from the registry due to a non-detection problem and after that Imgburn just screams Unknown Device found!
Nick

I’m using,in last time, Explore&Burn,small and very good application!Also,freeware.
ss

@ameer, Why dont you guys ever click custom install the very moment u see this option?

This will do you no harm. At least then you will know what the installer is going to do and the options you are given.

You could have easily unchecked all this adware at installation time if you just clicked custom install. Similar complaints arise for Spyware Terminator even though it gives you options not to install adwares.
DC

Hey Raymomd, there is a portable verison of ImgBurn. There are also Power Lazer Express, Amok, Silent Night, Folder2ISO, LC Iso, but my favorite of the portable burners is by far Burnaware Free.
flashkidz

since nero became bloatware, I switched to ImgBurn this tool is such an awsome burning software specially at unicode support. but still I’m using nero 6 for other purposes… ^_^
http://www.greggdeselms.com Gregg DesElms

I see a mention or two of Ashampoo products among the comments. There are things about Ashampoo, as a company, which I despise… like, for example, that unless one is super-careful how they configure their Ashampoo account (which one must have in order to get serial numbers so the software will work), one receives multiple advertising emails from Ashampoo which, after a while, just start to feel like spam… just to name one. Then there’s the stupid company name (which I keep thinking must have a different meaning in German — it’s a German company — and so I just grin and bear it).

At any rate, all that said, ever since version 8 of ASHAMPOO BURNING STUDIO (and especially since version 9), I have become about as big a fan of that particular Ashampoo product as anyone could possibly be. (Truth be known, there are a few other Ashampoo products that I’ve tried, and it turns out they’re pretty amazing… but let’s just stick with burning software for the moment.)

While Nero and Roxio have been getting bigger and bloatier with every version; and while those two companies have long been offering freeware or trialware, feature-disabled versions for installation on new PCs from big makers like HP, Dell, etc., Ashampoo has been quietly concentrating on simply making the best little CD/DVD burner (and a whole bunch of other things, too) software in the world. Either version 8 or 9 of the commercial (fee-based) ASHAMPOO BURNING STUDIO products is heads-and-shoulders better than either Nero’ or Roxio’ fully-featured, top-of-their-respective-lines products.

No kidding.

But here’s the truly amazing thing: Ashampoo makes a version of its BURNING STUDIO product which is completely freeware. Only two or three features that most people would never use are missing. So even the freeware version of BURNING STUDIO is better, in most ways, than the fully-featured, commercial (fee-based) versions of Roxio or Nero. For that reason, I’ve long said that the big PC makers should be dumping the feature-restricted, barely-capable-of-very-much versions of Roxio and Nero which they include for free with their new systems, and they should be including the freeware version of ASHAMPOO BURNING STUDIO instead. It’s that good.

One freeware version of BURNING STUDIO, called “Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009,” has already been mentioned among these comments. Good suggestion.

However, the newer freeware version, “Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010,” adds the ability to burn LightScribe CDs and DVDs… which is nice if you happen to have a LightScribe-capable CD/DVD drive.

In either case, the “…2009″ or the “…2010″ versions should not be confused with “Ashampoo Burning Studio Version 9.x” which is the commercial, fee-based version.

The thing is, though, that the freeware “…2009″ or the “…2010″ versions are so good and feature-rich, that only the most serious CD/DVD burning user would ever really need the commercial version 9.x

And from my experimentation, any of these three Ashampoo versions will leave pretty much anything else mentioned on this page IN THE DUST.

And when I say, “in the dust,” I mean in an overall, well-rounded sense. Some of the products mentioned on this page do a certain one (or two) things maybe better than almost any others others, and if that certain thing is what one needs, then one should also the product which best does it. But as an overall, generalized, all-’round-good-performing and can-pretty-much-do-it-all sort of product, ASHAMPOO BURNING STUDIO is, in my opinion, at the top of the heap… again, at least since version 8, and especially since version 9. And since the “…2009″ version is little more than the freeware version of version 8.x, and the “…2010″ version is little more than the freeware version of the version 9.x; and since, in either case, there’s precious little which matters that the freeware versions can’t do which the commercial/fee-based versions can…

…I most STRONGLY recommend that anyone looking for a single CD/DVD manipulation software product that’s free, and reliable, and capable, and amazing…

…Google around until they find a copy of ASHAMPOO BURNING STUDIO 2010… and then enjoy!

Hope that helps.

_________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
http://www.winnipegexperts.com Winnipeg Web Design

Hi Raymond! I have seen issues with CDBurner not working on older drives sometimes. Almost any time there is an issue with burning CD’s it normally due to the firmware on the machine.

Just yesterday I had a dell dimension that would not work with CDBurnerXP but did work with Roxio. I went to the Dell website, Downloaded the firmware… It was almost 2 yrs old and applied it to my drive. The update takes a few seconds. I rebooted and CDBurnerXP Worked.

Hope this helps some people out there.
Jared
http://www.help4networks.com Leland

Please define actively developed? I notice you say cdrtfe is actively developed yet when I checked the last update was Feb 2009. Yet you say InfraRecorder is not actively developed yet it’s last update was in August of 2009. I like the review, but it seems the facts may be a bit mixed up.

Also, I like CDBurnerXP except it is now developed in .NET which means it could never truly be portable at least for now. It is however actively developed.

Another tool I came across lately is AstroBurn at http://www.astroburn.com/ I can not tell if it is portable though. This is from the same makers of Daemon Tools.

And lastly a bunch of burning tool and related are on Dirk Paehl’s web site at http://dpaehl.dd6338.kasserver.com/cdr/ These also look useful. Thanks for the excellent review.
Bob

I have used deepburner and portable with my cd/dvd burner without problems. This is a

HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H10N

I now use ashampoo burning 2010 but just because I got a free promo :)
konaygyi

thz .. raymond .. good work..
NigNag

StarBurn:
People say:
1. Adds skywebsearch toolbar to FireFox and IE browsers.
2. Changes homepage on FireFox and IE to http://www.skywebsearch.com
3. Changes browser startup settings to “Show my home page” (that is, its changed if you have it set to load all tabs and windows from previous session)
ss

@ NigNag,
LOL, Starbutrn only installs what u tell it to. No way its going to give you those things if u dont want. Who do u refer to for software reviews?
There is something in this world called custom install. Tell those people to always install using that option and they wont have adware at least through genuine softwares.
Please read my above reply to ameer who was complaining of something similar.
NigNag

McAfee Site Adisor
Mac

here’s the new portable version of cdburnerXP. version 4.2.7.1893.. http://cdburnerxp-portable.en.softonic.com/download
ss

I custom installed. Unchecked the crap so got none of that. Maybe either custom install option was missing earlier or people dont look when they install. That’s why the warning.
Cornjaco

Well, Dell hardware can be obnoxious and sometimes incompatible with 3rd-party hardware and software. Perhaps the problem lies there.
http://sacxtra.com Phil

One thing I noticed is NERO will burn a coaster, unless I close KIS (Kaspersky) first.

e.g.
cd C:\Program Files\Kaspersky Lab\Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
avp.com exit /password=password
exit
http://sacxtra.com Phil

I think it works also if you simply “Pause Protection” -IIRC sorry about that I gave the idea it has to stop above.
irjan

Thanks Ray…
Dien Ba Quang

Thanks, I really impressed by Starburn :D
Thomas T

I stopped using Nero instead turn to ImgBurn, very nice software not bloated at all.

I however still used old Nero Cd DVD Speed v4.7.7.16 to check my burned dvds.
Chris H

InfraRecorder still seems to be under development. Chrisitan has made several commits, recently – including this one from 27 February 2010:

http://infrarecorder.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/infrarecorder?view=rev&revision=149

More information here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/infrarecorder/develop
Kim

Imageburn 2.5 failed me on one occasion.. Tried the same burning operation with Ashampoo Burning Studio and the burn completed smoothly and successfully…
Stas

AstroBurn Lite (http://www.astroburn.com/) is a free tool that enables you to burn CD/DVD images with ease.
There are no problems to do with this application burning and writing discs quickly and conveniently
han

Infrarecorder combined with NEC 4550 burner toasted every CD-R (10+) and DVD (3x) even after reburning.
Also I’m used to use Nero 6, but the only down side is that I also prefer portable apps.
So will try StarBurn!

Raymond.CC Blog

3 Free Portable CD Burner Software as Nero Alternative

Posted By Raymond In Category: Computer

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