How do I remove a few files from a burn folder?

Question

Level 1

41 points

How do I remove a few files from a burn folder?

I cannot believe I have to ask such a simple question; WHY is everyhting so difficult and complicated with Macs?! I have a DVD in the Mac; I put a number of files into the 'burn folder' which appears automatically. It tells me there are too many files to burn (I have no way of calculating the exact amount to fill the DVD, so have to use trial & error).

On a Windows PC there would be a little button saying 'remove'; you simply highlight a few folders at a time & click 'remove' - & bingo - they vanish from the folder to be burned. But it seems I have to actually send these 'alias' files to the trash in order to get them out of the burn folder? I saw another discussion on here that suggests this will delete the original files? HOW stupid and badly designed is that?!! I tried sending some to the trash but this takes forever; it does not seem to have deleted the originals, but I would like someone to confirm this please - and please can someone tell me how to delete the contents / some of the contents of a burn folder if I've made a simple mistake in what I've added to it? There HAS to be some way of getting rid of files without deleting the originals - surely?!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Sep 21, 2013 7:25 AM

Reply

Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Sep 21, 2013 11:13 AM in response to AliWonder

Click on the Desktop->Finder->Help->MacHelp->search for burning CDs and DVDs and peruse the hits. Once you put aliases from the DVD into the burn folder, assuming one SuperDrive, how do you expect to burn them to a new DVD if they're only aliases. It seems to me that you need to copy the items from the DVD to the computer, create a burn folder, and then drop those saved items into it. This is just a WAG, but since no burning mavens popped in, I thoughjt I'd give you a starting point.

Reply

Answer 2

AliWonder Author

Level 1

41 points

Sep 21, 2013 11:59 AM in response to baltwo

Thanks, but this means nothing to me (what are WAG & burning mavens..?..!).... Look; I did what I think has worked for burning disks before:

1) Insert DVD; it appears in the Finder;

2) Click on it; it opens a window called 'recordable DVD';

3) I open a second Finder window; find the files I want to burn & drag them into the 'recordable DVD' window.

4) They appear as 'alias' files, but normally if the files don't exceed the DVD size I just hit 'burn' & it burns the files to the disk.

The problem I'm having is removing excess files that exceed the DVD size.

Reply

Answer 3

Sep 21, 2013 12:47 PM in response to AliWonder

Pardon me for jumping in, but in my experience deleting an alias from a burn folder (or elsewhere) leaves the original intact. I don't know why deleting the alias files takes so long on your system - on mine, a mid-2011 mini with 8GB RAM running 10.7.5, it happens pretty immediately. I didn't initially like the Burn Folder concept, but since I've gotten used to it, it's OK - although it seems to add some unnecesary complexity if I want, for example, to move some (but not all) of the files in a folder onto a CD/DVD.

To delete aliases of files that I don't want burned, I (right-click) (control-click) (two finger tap) on the alias, then select "Move to Trash". That's not the only way it can be done, of course.

As baltwo used it, I think "WAG" is supposed to indicate a sort of guess. A "burning maven" would be a person with extensive knowledge of burning CDs and DVDs on a Mac. Since none have weighed in, there must be some sort of maven convention going on.

But, yes, what you've described should work fine. If you're super concerned about files being deleted when you delete an alias to them and don't have an up-to-date backup, just make a copy of the file (not the alias) in a different folder.

Good luck

srb

Reply

Answer 4

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Sep 21, 2013 1:00 PM in response to AliWonder

As Steven mentioned, WAG = wild arse guess and he amply described what mavens means.

Reply