Mac OS X Unleashed

By John Ray and William C. Ray

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Introduction to Mac OS X
  • Chapter 1. Mac OS X Component Architecture
  • Chapter 2. Installing Mac OS X
  • Chapter 3. Mac OS X Basics
  • Chapter 4. The Finder: Working with Files and Applications
    • Using the Finder
    • Finder Status Bar
    • Finder Toolbar
    • Finder File Operations
    • Getting File Information
    • The Desktop and Finder Preferences
    • Burning CDs
    • Using the Dock
    • Customizing the Dock
    • Process Manager: Force Quitting Applications
    • Summary
  • Chapter 5. Running Classic Mac OS Applications
  • Part II: Inside Mac OS X
  • Chapter 6. Native Utilities and Applications
  • Chapter 7. Internet Communications
  • Chapter 8. Installing Third-Party Applications
  • Part III: User-Level OS X Configuration
  • Chapter 9. Network Setup
  • Chapter 10. Printer and Font Management
  • Chapter 11. Additional System Components
  • Part IV: Introduction to BSD Applications
  • Chapter 12. Introducing the BSD Subsystem
  • Chapter 13. Common Unix Shell Commands: File Operations
  • Part V: Advanced Command-Line Concepts
  • Chapter 14. Advanced Shell Concepts and Commands
  • Chapter 15. Command-Line Applications and Application Suites
  • Chapter 16. Command-Line Software Installation
  • Chapter 17. Troubleshooting Software Installs, and Compiling and Debugging Manually
  • Chapter 18. Advanced Unix Shell Use: Configuration and Programming (Shell Scripting)
  • Part VI: Server/Network Administration
  • Chapter 19. X Window System Applications
  • Chapter 20. Command-Line Configuration and Administration
  • Chapter 21. AppleScript
  • Chapter 22. Perl Scripting and SQL Connectivity
  • Chapter 23. File and Resource Sharing with NetInfo
  • Chapter 24. User Management and Machine Clustering
  • Chapter 25. FTP Serving
  • Chapter 26. Remote Access and Administration
  • Chapter 27. Web Serving
  • Part VII: Server Health
  • Chapter 28. Web Programming
  • Chapter 29. Creating a Mail Server
  • Chapter 30. Accessing and Serving a Windows Network
  • Chapter 31. Server Security and Advanced Network Configuration
  • Chapter 32. System Maintenance
  • Appendix A. Command-Line Reference
  • Appendix B. Administration Reference

Burning CDs

Burning CD-Rs or CD-RWs within the Mac OS X Finder is extremely easy and very similar to working with any other storage device. To make the process as transparent as possible, Mac OS X creates a hidden CD-sized temporary storage area on your hard drive. Applications, files, and folders that are added to a CD are actually copied to this location until the user tells the system to burn the CD. Only after the burn starts are files actually transferred to the CD media.

To write your own CD, first insert media into the CD writer. The Mac OS X Finder will prompt you to prepare the CD, as seen in Figure 4.29. Again, this doesn't actually write anything to the CD just yet, but it tells the computer what your intentions are for the disk.

Figure 4.29 Before you can start using a CD, you must tell Mac OS X what type of CD it will be.

Enter a name for the CD you are writing—it will appear with this name on the Desktop. Next, choose a format. There are three formats provided:

• Standard— An HFS+/ISO 9660 disk for storing Macintosh data and files.
• MP3 CD— A strict ISO 9660 volume, useful for cross-platform data and writing MP3s.
• iTunes Audio— A standard music CD to be used with consumer CD players.

Finally, click Prepare to start using the CD on your system. If you'd like to leave the CD in the drive but not prepare it (for use in another application, such as Roxio's Toast), click Ignore.

After a few seconds, an icon representing the CD will appear on your desktop. You can interact with this virtual volume as you would any other under Mac OS X. Copy files to it, delete files, and so on.

When you've created the CD layout that you like, you can start the burn process by choosing Burn Disc from the File menu, or by clicking the Burn toolbar shortcut. In addition, dragging the CD to the trash will also prompt for burning to begin. Mac OS X will display the dialog shown in Figure 4.30.

Figure 4.30 Choose Burn to write the CD.

Click the Burn button to start the process of writing the CD. This will take a few minutes, and will be tracked by the Finder must like a normal copy operation. If you've decided against writing the CD, click Eject to remove the media and erase the CD layout you've created.

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