Image burning is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to save large amounts of data to DVD or CD.

Images are increasingly popular on torrent sites and other download portals because they allow users to download high volumes of data in a relatively small file. What's more, it's instantly ready for DVD or disk burning. ImgBurn is an ultra-lightweight CD/DVD/HD/DVD and Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit. It has several 'Modes', with each one performing a different task.

These include "Read" which reads a disc to an image file; "Build" which creates an image file from files on your computer or network; "Write" which writes an image file to a disc and "Verify" which checks whether a disk is 100% readable. With this last option, you can also ensure that the data is correct by asking ImgBurn to compare your disk against an image file. Finally, you have "Discovery" which puts your drive to the test to find just what kind of speeds and disk types it can support.

If you are experiencing any burning problems, it may be that your drive is not fast enough to handle the settings you have configured or that you are using the wrong kind of disks.

A very lightweight an powerful image burner that requires little experience but will ensure all your images are burned in a flash.

Download ImgBurn 2.4.2.0 in Softonic

Nero is a mammoth multimedia solution that does just about everything from CD and DVD burning to audio and video editing. This latest version is a bit of a disappointment as it doesn't really bring anything drastically new from version 7. The main improvements are an updated design and reinforced security. Let’s look around at the features available in Nero 8.

This latest version is Windows Vista certified and if you have Microsoft’s latest OS installed you’ll be able to enjoy the Nero sidebar gadget and sleek, clear Vista interface, such as the “Glass” window for StartSmart. Nero Home, the multimedia manager with a DVD menu-like interface, has been slightly improved. Apart from handling all your photos, videos and songs it can also play radio stations and, if you have a TV card set up, play and record TV stations. Furthermore, Nero can stream content to your brand new Xbox 360.

The StartSmart interface is your gateway to all the Nero tools. You can select the individual applications from the left sided menu or choose the file you want to work with (data, audio, photo and video or backup) from the main menu. It’s best to choose the disc type, CD or DVD from the drop-down menu at the top to get the most relevant possibilities. Even though StartSmart gives quick access to all the Nero applications, we found the whole interface too small and cluttered. The window can’t be resized and you need to scroll through to find the tools you need. RSS feeds added to version 8 feel a bit clumsy. They don't show items in a proper feed list and only seem to link back to the Nero help and support pages.

Before it became a full multimedia suite though, Nero was renowned for its burning tools, essentially due to its flagship program, Nero Burning ROM. With it, you can adjust the disc type, set restrictions and control the writing speed. SecurDisc technology has also been added in the latest version to encrypt your CDs or DVDs. If you don’t want to get bogged down in the details, use Nero Express instead to burn your project and design your own disc cover quickly.

Another of the classic Nero apps that has been improved is Nero Showtime. This DVD player boasts support for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, and will save you from upgrading when these formats become the norm. Just use Nero InfoTool beforehand to check if your system can handle these new formats. The program has also seen the introduction of AVCHD playback and authoring technology used in camcorder videos. Support for Windows Media Format DRM is also part of the deal and you can encode videos to play on your iPod, mobile or PlayStation Portable (PSP) thanks to Nero Recode.

Nero’s strength lies in the wealth of multimedia tools it offers to users. You can do just about everything from managing your media to burning CDs and DVDs or editing and watching high quality videos. The latest release has added a number of significant improvements to handle all the latest technological advances like Windows Vista, iPods or the Xbox 360.

Ironically, Nero´s power also contributes to its downfall. Nero packs so many applications into one package that it’s very easy for the common user to get lost in the menus. The size of the suite(600 MBs) and its draining of PC resources also means that you’ll need a high-spec PC to run it smoothly.

It's a bit surprising that Nero decided to jump to version 8 as there's nothing really that new in this latest outing. Once more, Nero will cater to those users looking for a full multimedia suite and not worried about eating up their PC's resources.

Download Nero 8.3.6.0 in Softonic

Alcohol brings a new meaning to the word multimedia! It is without a doubt a leader in it's class, bringing the ability to emulate and record CDs and DVDs together into one amazingly easy to use software program. Using the latest technology, the program is constantly being developed and improved to add new features, allowing it to maintain it's position as a leading software package.

Imagine being able to store your most used CDs as images on your computer and just call them up at the click of a button! And then run them at 200x the speed of some CD drives and without requiring the CD itself! How about being able to make a backup of that CD onto another CD either using the CD itself or just using the image you have created? This is what Alcohol allows you to do and much more.

Download Alcohol 120% 1.9.6.5429 in Softonic

As video goes the way of the good old cassette tape, DVD has become universally adopted as the format of choice for watching movies. Of course, the medium is not infallible, and DVDs are as prone to scratching or damage as VHS tapes were to getting chewed by the machine. CloneDVD represents one of the easiest ways to back up your movies to disk, ensuring that even novice users don't have to worry about loss or damage of their favorite films.

The interface is wonderfully simple to use, allowing you to select your source location and destination through an obvious wizard-style menu system. The beauty of the program is that it gives you a number of options for cloning to help you compress the file size without compromising movie quality. For instance, you can choose to omit certain extras from your DVD such as foreign language subtitles or theatrical trailers. Copying speed is among the fastest around, allowing you to copy to an ISO file on your hard drive or directly to recordable DVD in a flash.

Although the application doesn't allow you to clone copy-protected media, this is of course, illegal anyway, and if you want to perform such operations then there are alternative applications available that can be used alongside CloneDVD. If it's simplicity of use and speed that you require then CloneDVD is more than capable.

Download CloneDVD 2.9.1.9 in Softonic

Copying or cloning CDs has become increasingly difficult with copyright encryption getting more and more sophisticated.

However, there are always a few programs out there that seem able to crack just about anything and CloneCD is certainly one of them. CloneCD gives you the option to clone as much or as little as you want from not only CDs but DVDs as well. Why the developers chose to keep the name CloneCD is a mystery because this program is more than capable of both.

The utility can compress extensive footage at high speed due to what the developers call "advanced transcoding technology" and it allows you to select both the audio and language you'd like to use from DVDs. The program works very well with ISOs and UDFs and is particularly useful to "unblocking"copyrighted disks - i.e. those CDs or DVDs which are copyrighted and won't play in your CD player. However, it should be noted that copyright laws vary from country to country and that you should not be using this program to break copyright laws or decode commercial disks - it's entirely for your own use.

For unblocking or copying locked or heavily encrypted DVDs or CDs, CloneCD is an incredibly powerful application.

Download CloneCD 5.3.13 in Softonic

When all you want to do is just burn a CD or DVD, huge suites like Nero are certainly not the most suitable solution. Instead, you should look for a simple recording application such as InfraRecorder.

This easy tool features everything you need to record both CD and DVD. It supports data and audio burning, dual-layer DVD and also disc images. It works with rewritable discs and can burn copies on the fly as well. Results are very satisfying, with just one small complaint: I'd like to have a sound normalizer for song compilations.

But the best thing about InfraRecorder is undoubtedly its simplicity, in every sense. It launches in a few seconds, enables you to drag and drop files, features very intuitive menus and even includes a reduced version (InfraExpress) for last-minute recordings. However, if you want to record MP3 files into audio CDs you'll need to download the decoder by yourself and copy it to the Program files – InfraRecorder – Codecs folder.

InfraRecorder is a simple and efficient tool for quick CD and DVD recording.

Download Infra Recorder 0.45 in Softonic

WinISO is a CD-ROM image file utility that can convert BIN to ISO, extract/edit/create ISO files directly, make bootable CDs and as a BIN/ISO converter/extractor/editor. It can process almost all CD-ROM image files including ISO and BIN. With WinISO, you can add/delete/rename/extract files within image files. You can convert image files to the standard ISO format and you have the ability to create ISO image files from a CD-ROM.

Download WinISO 5.3.0.125 in Softonic

PowerISO is a powerful CD/DVD image file processing tool, which allows you to open, extract, create, edit, compress, encrypt, split and convert ISO files, and mount these files with the internal virtual drive. It can process almost all CD-ROM image files including ISO and BIN.

Download PowerISO 4.2 in Softonic

LC ISO Creator creates ISO files from CD/DVD-ROM.

Download LC ISO Creator 1.1 in Softonic

CyberLink Power2Go is a simple and complete CD/DVD burner that includes drag and drop and extra support. It features:

• Burn your data onto double-layer DVDs and Blu-ray Discs
• Author videos and photo slideshows onto DVDs with Dolby Digital audio
• Extract audio tracks from video files and create Audio CDs from MP3s
• Drag-and-drop files on desktop express icons for super-easy data burning
• Upgrade your Express skins and DVD menu templates online

Download CyberLink Power2Go 5.50.16 NextGen in Softonic

Copying DVDs (for your own use, of course) is becoming increasingly difficult as manufacturers improve the security encoding on DVDs. AnyDVD however claims to be able to crack any DVD encryption code and judging by the number of downloads, Softonic users are certainly endorsing it too.

The beauty of AnyDVD is that it simply works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it's inserted into the drive. In this way, it can decrypt data without actually saving it to your hard-disk. You can watch the DVD at the same time or just insert a disk and let AnyDVD do its stuff. When you insert a disk, you are automatically prompted whether you want to decrypt it. When it has finished inspecting the disk, the program prompts you to backup the DVD using your preferred backup tool such as CloneDVD or Power DVD Copy.

The programme goes much further than this though. A handy bonus is that you can also remove the RPC region code, thereby making the movie region free and viewable on any DVD player. This is especially useful for those who buy many of their disks abroad or travel a lot. If you want to create a stripped-down version of a DVD, it can also remove unwanted movie features, including subtitles and extras for example. The programme also moves beyond decryption and allows you to control the speed of your DVD drive. This is useful if you’re having trouble playing a DVD properly or if the noise of your drive is causing annoyance. Finally, there’s also an option to display the frequency of your monitor for both NTSC and PAL displays although you probably won’t use this unless you’re having serious display issues.

The only drawback of AnyDVD is the number of daily updates that are released. Whilst this is obviously a good thing in terms of keeping it up-to-date with the latest encryption methods, the update alerts can be rather annoying and are prone to slowing your computer down.

However, this is a small price to pay for a programme that seems able to crack all but the toughest disks and for anyone who likes to create backups of their favourite DVDs, it’s an essential addition to your software collection.

Download AnyDVD HD 6.4.5.6 in Softonic

ISO Recorder is a tool for Windows XP, 2003 and now Windows Vista, that allows (depending on the Windows version) to burn CD and DVD images, copy disks, make images of the existing data CDs and DVDs and create ISO images from a content of a disk folder. ISO Recorder was conceived during Windows XP beta program, when Microsoft for the first time started distributing new OS builds as ISO images. Even though the new OS had CD-burning support, it did not have an ability to record an image. ISO Recorder fulfills this need and has been one of the poular Windows downloads ever since.

With an advent of Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 version 2 of ISO Recorder has been released, which intorduced some new features including ISO creation and support for non-admin users. Finally, in Windows Vista it became possible to address another long-standing request and provide DVD burning capability.

Since the very beginning ISO Recorder has been a free tool (for personal use). It is recommended by MSDN download site along with Easy CD and Nero and is used by a number of companies around the world.

Download ISO Recorder in Softonic

Clony XXL is a program that will detect the copy protection on a CD. All you need to do is insert the disc, and hit scan. Clony will scan the CD, report back to you what protection it has and how hard it will be to copy the cd. Clony XXL has unlimited options which you can pick to scan a CD for accurate results. It can also detect all known copy protections to date in about 20 seconds. This is a great utility for those who wish to make successful backups of protected CD's. Don't forget, you have to install CloneCD to use it.

Download Clony XXL 2.0.1.5 in Softonic

This utility is used to burn an ISO file to a CD/DVD disc. Many new systems come with a limited CD/DVD software package which lacks the ability to burn ISO files. Thanks to BurnCDCC you can now enjoy the advantages to being able to backup ISO files to your CD or DVD. As an added bonus, the software is free.

Download BurnCDCC 2.0a in Softonic

Express Burn is aimed at making the burning process as fast as possible. It's a simple case of drag and drop to click and burn.

Although speed is the key attraction here, what's even more useful is that it can convert files into another format if required - excellent if your recording music data that's not in mp3 format. Although the process of preparing a CD to burn is very quick, the burning process will depend on your hardware but Express Burn supports high speed drives.

The developers hope that Express Burn users will be so impressed that they upgrade to Express Burn Plus which includes Video DVD authoring, Data DVD burning and even HD-DVD disks and Blu-ray. The Express version also includes the ability to create ISO images and support for a far wider range of file types. However, since most people have their music in Mp3 format and few people are burning HD and Blu-Ray disks, there's not much motivation to do this.

Express Burn burns your CD's quickly and with minimum fuss. The fact that it coverts files to Mp3 to saves lots of time and if the free version only supported more formats, this would be a first class piece of software.

Download Express Burn Freeware Version 4.08 in Softonic

The CoverFlow graphic interface is certainly a nice tool to browse your albums, either in your Apple handheld (iPod Touch, iPhone) or on iTunes itself. But it doesn't look that cool when most of your album covers are missing, does it?

iArtWork can fix this problem for you. This iTunes add-on searches for covers for all the albums in your iTunes library. The only requirement for this little app to work is that you have your music properly tagged, as these tags are the keywords iArtWork uses to look for covers on the Internet.

Found covers are displayed on the program's interface, from where you can import them directly into iTunes. In case there's more than one cover available for the same album and you want to change the one that iArtWork has chosen, double click on the album title and a Search tool will open up. From this same tool you can also search for new covers that the program hasn't been able to find, though most of the times it won't be necessary.

With iArtWork you'll be able to fill in the visual gaps in CoverFlow, provided that you have your music collection perfectly tagged.

Download iArtwork beta in Softonic

Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical DVD drive, although it only exists virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD software can be “inserted” into the virtual drive from your harddisk or from a network drive and thus be used like a normal DVD.

Download Virtual CloneDrive 5.4.0.3 in Softonic

Rescue lost files from a bad or trashed CD or DVD! Save important documents, precious pictures or video from the family, your only system backup...IsoBuster can do it all!

IsoBuster is a highly specialized yet easy to use CD and DVD data recovery tool. It supports all CD and DVD formats and all common CD and DVD file-systems (set of files and folders). Start up IsoBuster, insert a CD or DVD, select the drive (if not selected already) and let IsoBuster mount the media. IsoBuster immediately shows you all the tracks and sessions located on the media, combined with all file-systems that are present. This way you get easy access, just like explorer, to all the files and folders per file-system.

Instead of being limited to one file-system that the OS picks for you, you have access to "the complete picture". Access data from older sessions, access data that your OS (e.g. Windows) does not see or hides from you etc. Combine this all-revealing functionality with far better read and recovery mechanisms, scanning for lost files functionality, workarounds for a wide range of drive and software bugs, limitations or shortcomings and you have an enormously powerful data recovery tool. IsoBuster is must-have-software for every PC user and offers a solution for everybody.

Download IsoBuster 2.4 in Softonic

MultiCoverPrint is a freeware program for printing CD/DVD/VHS covers to fit a standard media case. Also includes an Internet Search for your covers, simply specify what cover to find either being CD, VHS, DVD etc. and type the cover title/name and an internet window will open with the results.

Download MultiCoverPrint 2.42 in Softonic

If you've ever needed to backup a DVD, then it can be quite a time consuming and complicated affair depending on what's on the disk. Easy DVD Clone backups your DVD's on another DVD or on your hard drive in just a few clicks. Your DVD backups can either be the complete disk with all the extras, or you can choose to backup just the main movie with selected audios and/or subtitles.

The most important thing to judge such a program on is the speed of the backup plus the video and audio quality of the final backup. The program supports backups DVD to DVD, DVD to Hard Drive, Hard Drive to DVD, Hard Drive to Hard Drive, and also allows you to burn existing DVD files to DVDR directly. I particularly liked the fact that you can shrink DVD's easily reducing 9GB DVDs onto a 4.7GB DVD without a big loss of image quality. Alternatively, you can split the content of a 9GB DVD onto two 4.7GB DVDs with absolutely no loss of quality. The program is also regularly updated so that the program can handle the latest codecs and compression ratios.

A powerful and easy to use program that makes DVD backups a breeze.

Download Easy DVD Clone 3.0.16 in Softonic