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Is it possible to burn a multi-session CD or CD-RW on an iMac running El Capitan 10.11.1

I have been unable to burn a multi-session CD or CD-RW on my iMac running El Capitan 10.11.1.

I know this was possible under older versions of the OS.

Is it not possible in El Capitan?

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Dec 7, 2015 12:45 PM

Reply
15 replies

Jan 2, 2018 2:38 PM in response to anf2res

Hi Guys - almost same topic, though I am trying as I have always had slow or beach balling issues and I think it is just Apple / Mac feature to push for cash and am over it. I have got 500 GB for 4 G or Ram which is good and still the computer is ******* slow.


I am trying to have multi sessions. One for web one for writing one for work etc. However it takes ages and beach ball and my hard drive has already been formated this is beyond crook work on Apple's part. What do I need to do fasten multi sessions? Beside the already slow issue and the fact my hard drive is indeed almost full bearing only a minimum which is super weird.


***

Cheers,


F

<Edited by Host>

Jan 2, 2018 2:43 PM in response to furniture77

I'm not sure you understand what "multi-session" means in the context of this thread. It has to do with burning a CD multiple times. You seem to be discussing a speed issue with your mac.


Slow beach balling is commonly caused by incompatible software or using High Sierra on a slow, rotational hard drive, especially with limited RAM.


You should start your own post asking how to speed up your Mac. You should also post the output of this Program on that post: http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Jan 3, 2018 8:54 AM in response to Barney-15E

Hi Guys


We are really running the wheel with the little validation from Apple, aren't we?


SO. I am running the obscure EtreCheck that probably only the EU has come up with to slow all us down.


It is beach balling frenzy on my side.

It is weird info from system, once there are no space left, once there are, once there are not once there are etc.

Even though I Cleared the god danm HD when I erased it all the first time because Apple and its people failed me and didn't work properly.


What now? It is weird with Apple I got to apologise even though I paid 2300 Euros a computer which is slower than my old black Mac, I mean "my" it is not really part of me the fact of wasting money and time. Not even sure PC is right for me.


Remember I am self employed and in France it means no water or food for months.


F

Dec 7, 2015 2:15 PM in response to MichelPM

I am using the software that is incorporated into El Capitan 10.11.1.

I know that Toast can accomplish multi-session burning, but it is expensive and seems especially so just to be able to burn a multi-session disc.

I know that older versions of the OS allowed for multi-session burning.

I am wondering if this function was inadvertently omitted when 10.11.1 was released?

Or, does the new version require a different procedure than the older versions?


anf2res

Dec 7, 2015 5:33 PM in response to anf2res

Since new iMacs no longer ship with a built-in optical drive, and Apple did away with iDVD maybe Apple didi away with a lot of optical disc burning functionality?

I never upgraded to Yosemite, did Yosemite do away with burning multi-seasion CDs/DVDs, too?

Toast has the advantage that if you do not have iDVD, for making custom DVD menus, Toast has its own set of custom DVD menus, too!

Plus, with new versions of Toast and a Blu-Ray reading and writing drive, you can create Blu-Ray content, as well as standard CD and DVD content.

If you own a Mac, then $99 for the non-Blu-Ray version isn't a big expense for DVD authoring software if you create a lot videos or audio discs or you do a lot of disc burning for different uses and applications, like for archiving.

I like Toast better for creating archival discs than using Apple's own disc burning options.

My opinion here, for what its worth.

Dec 7, 2015 5:34 PM in response to MichelPM

Thank you for your replies.

If Apple did do away with some of the burning function, I think it was a bad move.

I think most people who buy Macs also buy a SuperDrive or something like it.

I wonder how we would find out if they did do away with the multi-session function?

Apple Support was really of no help in this matter.


anf2res

Dec 8, 2015 12:08 PM in response to anf2res

This works pretty well: http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html


You can burn from the contextual menu in Finder, but unless that dialog offers the ability to leave the disk appendable, the only other way would to learn how to do it with the command line utility. The capability still exists in the unix underpinnings, but the GUI in Disk Utility doesn't offer any Optical capability.

Dec 8, 2015 12:07 PM in response to MichelPM

Hey Michel,

Some one recommended in the discussion that the software, Burn, could solve my problem.

I installed it and it works fine in El Capitan.

It is easy to use and does provide the multi-sessions function.

I am writing to send you you link in case you want to try it.

It is free (donation ware).

The link is http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html


Thank you again for your participation in our discussion and for your comments.


anf2res

Apr 15, 2016 2:41 AM in response to anf2res

Another disc burning utility that can burn multiple sessions under El Capitan is Disco:


http://www.discoapp.com/


However, like Burn, it's been discontinued. The last version seems to have been 1.0.3, dated Feb 2008, but its website says development was stopped July 2011. I think it originally cost $25, but the developers released it as a free utility when they stopped developing it. It has a nice, very simple interface, but it's got some decent options, so it might be fine for most people. The options for burning multiple sessions are in Disco's preferences window.


And yet another utility that can burn multiple sessions is X-CD-Roast:


http://alternativeto.net/software/x-cd-roast/?platform=mac


I haven't tried X-CD-Roast, but its description at the link I provided says it "tries to be the most flexible CD-burning software ever".

Apr 15, 2016 3:11 AM in response to John Sawyer1

I wish Apple Discussions would let you edit a comment for longer than about five minutes, or else I'd have removed the mention of X-CD-Roast from my comment above. I just looked at its home page, and it's not worth considering: its development was stopped in 2004, and it's an Open Source project whose developer did only limited testing on OS X, with no info in its readme file on testing past OS 10.3, and it doesn't install as an app with a graphical user interface, but rather as a Unix executable at /usr/local/bin/xcdroast, and so it requires the user to issue commands through Terminal, so it's probably not useful for very many people. It's also accompanied by a couple Applescript apps for launching it in X11, but these script apps work only on PPC Macs, or Intel Macs running an old version of OS X that supports Classic mode, so the main X-CD-Roast utility itself may not work properly with El Capitan either. But for what it's worth (if nothing else, for people running older versions of OS X, I guess), here's the link to download the Mac version (the link I provided in my first comment just brings you to a commercial software repository that contains a description of it):


http://www.xcdroast.org/xcdr098/xcdrosX.html


Though the description at the home page of the link I provided above says X-CD-Roast "tries to be the most flexible CD-burning software ever", that might have been partly true in 2004, but newer, simpler GUI utilities are more suitable for most people.

Is it possible to burn a multi-session CD or CD-RW on an iMac running El Capitan 10.11.1

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