How can I transfer my collection of 2832 .jpg photographs to a DVD?

Question

How can I transfer 2832 .jpg photographs from my hard disc to a DVD?

I'm an old man (77) and not too familiar with the workings of my computer, so please be patient with me when replying:

Please let me know of a free programme that will let me transfer my collection of photographs to a blank DVD.

An alternative free programme, would be very useful to me, just in case.......

Can you also, give me a simple 'run through' of the steps I have to take to make the DVD.

Will be so grateful.

Answer 1

The following links will take you to downloads of various CD/DVD burning programs, and they're all free. (I'm sure that if you want to take your time and look, you'll find more programs that you could use too.)

Once you've downloaded whichever program you fancy using, you may need to extract it from a .zip file. (If you're not sure how to do that, send me an email, and I'll talk you through it.) You then double-click on the .exe file to install the program. Some programs will want you to reboot your computer to finalise the installation.

When your computer is up and running again, click on Start (bottom left of your desktop) and move your cursor (pointer) over to where it says All Programs. To the right, you will see the name of the program that you've just installed. Click on it. That will start the programme running. You may be asked what type of CD/DVD you wish to burn. Select data DVD.

Place a blank DVD into your DVD writer (burner), and then you'll need to show the program where the .jpg files are situated on your hard drive. (If you need help with that, let me know which program you've downloaded, and I'll do the same. I can then talk you through what to click on, etc.)

The easy bit comes next. You click on Burn or Write, whichever the program tells you to do, and sit back. When it's finished writing (burning) the DVD it may automatically eject the draw of your DVD drive. That's it! Before you delete the files from your hard drive, however, it always pays to check that your DVD can be read by your computer, or that of anyone else you propose to share your pictures with.

Best of luck, sir.

Answer 2

If you're using Windows XP and have a DVD burner, all you need is a blank DVD that will work in the player. There are a couple of different formats so you should get the information (maker and model number) and have someone at Best Buy or CompUSA get you the right kind of DVD.

Steps are pretty easy. Put the blank DVD in the burner. Drag your pictures over to the DVD. When you go to eject the DVD, it'll ask you if you want to "close" the session. Say "yes". After a few to several minutes the DVD will be ejected and the pictures will be there.

You may have to break apart the sessions (copy half of the pictures for example) if the pictures exceed the maximum of about 4 gigabytes of space. If they're all in one directory, just drag half or a third over to the DVD. Keep dragging pictures over until it complains and then eject the DVD. When it's done burning, put in a new DVD and start where you left off. Eventually you'll have them all burned to the DVDs.

Warning: Make sure you try the DVD out on another system if you plan on deleting your pictures from your system when you're done. Just because it said it worked, doesn't necessarily mean it'll work everywhere. Plus there's such a thing as "bitrot". Your recorded DVDs will last about 10 years before you need to burn them again. Professional ones (like music or video CDs/DVDs) will last 20 years or so but have the same problem.

Good luck.