The CD duplication process allows you to create an exact copy of a CD, by burning another one with the mirror image created for the original. Thanks to the technology used, the CD’s that will be created will be exact replicas of the original CD, matching it as far as quality is concerned as well. The duplicated CD’s will receive a print which will be either thermal or inkjet.

Duplicating a CD is possible through the means available to you at home, but you have to waste a lot of time if you want to create a large number of them.

CD Replication vs CD Duplication

Duplication and replication of CD’s are two different things, though people tend to confuse them. In both cases, the result is an exact copy of a DVD or a CD, but the method is different. The CD duplication method allows you to create hundreds of CD’s in a shorter period of time. If you need more than 1000 copies, the replication method is a better choice. When you’re considering whether you should go with CD replication or duplication, you should make that decision by looking at the quality you need, at the desired turnaround time and the number of copies you need.

The CD duplication method involves using a master disc, from which the data is transferred or burned, on a high quality blank disc. Once the transfer is complete, the original and the copy are compared. If the comparison shows that they’re the same, it’s accepted. The speed at which the disc is burned will vary, based on the type of data which is being copied. For example, if you’re creating a music CD the speed needs to be slower in order to keep the quality at a high level.

As for the CD replication process, it involves creating the glass master for the CD, after which replicas are created based on it, made from polycarbonate. These CD’s are printed with either screen printing or offset printing machines. The CD replication method is useful mostly when you need to make a lot of copies.

DVD Duplication

The same process used to duplicate CD’s is also used for DVD duplication. The basic technology remains the same, even though the medium that is used has changed.

DMG files are disk image files used by Macintosh OS for backing up CDs or DVDs.

They are specific to Apple computers only. In order to view this file extension you need a Mac OSX system. DMG files are used to store all types of data like pictures, movies, documents, software etc on a virtual drive and the file transfer is very easy.

You might want to take under consideration that the only OS capable to read all files like real disks is Macintosh.

If you’re on Windows, you should use dmg2iso software to convert DMG files to ISO files and to be able to run on your computer. Macintosh OS X is the one who creates them with its feature called Disk Copy and is able to read them as normal true CDs.

After converting to ISO, images can be easily burnt to a CD using any burning tool or they can be mount as virtual drives with apps like ISO Hunt or Daemon Tools (and there are many more).

To open .DMG files you can also use the IsoBuster program and you can convert the files into ISO files after you perform the extraction of the files. As a general fact, some DMG files can be protected via password and cannot be mounted through additional software.

Unlike ISO files, DMG files cannot offer a medium for storage and the information can only be transferred on CD or DVD or directly on the Internet. The image is mounted on the system and then the operating system will create a drive icon on the sidebar of the desktop.

Burning a DMG file can be easily done by dragging ad burning the image and the result will have similar format as the original image. To un-mount the DMG files you can only click on the eject image on the desktop. The short keyboard command for this is CMD E, but if you want to benefit of the latest upgrades when using this function, it is very simple to upgrade your entire operating system.

The DMG files can be erased from system but there is the possibility of reinstalling and even store them. To do this, it is not compulsory to have the original CD as you may find residuals in the hard drives.

Also, DMG files have different formats, so a special software is required to mount them, such a program would be TransMac. This type of file is used by Oracle Export and Import Utility.

One of the methods used to retrieve and store the complete data from a CD or DVD is to create an image file of that disk using software that has this feature, be it paid or free. One of the file types for such image files is the BIN file. This means that the file has .BIN extension. This is able to store large amount of data, in a format exactly the same like the one in the original disk. In order to use this image file, you must use an application that can burn the images to other disks. For this, a CUE file is also needed; this one contains all the general information about the BIN file, including its full name.

Access to the contents in a BIN file can be obtained by loading the BIN file into a program that provides this kind of support. This means that a virtual drive will be made available and the image contents will be loaded in it, exactly as if you had a CD or DVD and put it in the optical device.

A BIN file can be used in more than one way. Besides replicating the contents of CDs and DVDs, there are other situations in which these are present. For example, the printers’ drivers use BIN files and Windows itself uses bin files for Simple Network Managing Protocol (SNMP).

Another important use for the BIN files is the storage. As online gaming becomes more and more popular these days, storing games and game settings can be a problem of space and accessing speed. Using a smart archiving system, BIN files can be stored in .ZIP files and, after unpacking the package, these are restored to their initial and full size and formats.

BIN file type is only one from several types to describe the usages mentioned above. There are also ISO, NRG and CUE files that have the same properties of replicating, storing and restoring the data from CDs and DVDs. Generally, the software that creates the image files is also able to burn them on new disks. Nero is one such program, very common and easy to use, produced by Ahead Software. Some other software, like Magic ISO, allows you not only to create, burn and load the image, but also to access and edit it.

In order to mount these images (to restore them as if they were actual CDs and DVDs, software like Magic ISO, Nero or Daemon Tools can be used.

A good method of backing up the data from CDs or DVDs is creating and manipulating UIF files, which are a slightly improved version of a more known ISO file. Unlike the ISO, the UIF (universal image format) file provides a few advanced features, like storing multi session disk images in the same file and can be, at the same time, password protection and encryption as well. Therefore, the UIF files are basically very compressed exact images of CDs and DVDs.

In order to get the job done, it is important to know how to manipulate UIF files. The first thing you must know is that it’s a file format that is proprietarily used by Magic ISO software. Given the fact that this software is not free, you can either buy it directly from magiciso.com or download a free trial version from the same website. These are the only two options you have if you want to manipulate (open, use) UIF files, because this file format is supported only by the Magic ISO for the time being, meaning that no other software can do that yet.

Fortunately, the free trial of Magic ISO allows you both to open and / or convert the UIF files to a more common format, let’s say ISO format, but only of a size smaller than 300 MB. The ISO format is very popular because it can be used by almost all image manipulating software available.

Another option of using the UIF files is to mount them to virtual drives, using a software at your choice from a lot of free ones available on the internet, such as Magic Disc. Just chose the Mount Image option from the software menu and point to the UIF file location and that’s really all about it. If converting the UIF files to ISO ones, other software can be used as well (Daemon Tools, Power ISO, etc).

Files with WPS extension are specific to Microsoft environment and represent a Microsoft Works document. Unfortunately, these documents are not very well supported and dealt with by Microsoft and are to be avoided to work with. However, if you do get stuck with WPS documents, there are two important ways of manipulating them: the first is trying to convert them to a Microsoft Word document – which also gives you the possibility of editing it – or, should this not work, try to get a WPS viewer software.

If choosing the software download, you can locate and get the Word Viewer 2003, which allows you only to view documents and not to edit them, but would work just fine with documents of many extensions beside the WPS one, like DOC, WPD, RTF and XML. Concerning the Microsoft Works documents, it will serve you well for versions 6 and 7 of the software.

If this alternative doesn’t suit you, for any reasons, you can go for a Microsoft Works 6 to 9 File Converter, which allows you to bring the WPS files in a DOC format. But this is only suitable in situations in which the WPS document is generated by MS Works versions 6 to 9, of course. If it is older than that, an older WPS File Converter must be found and used, like the one that bring the file in a Word 2000 readable format.

However, there is a third way that is possible only in the newest Microsoft Office versions, that of using MS Word itself to open the Works format. This works, because Microsoft implemented the needed functions to achieve that and make the use of Works files easier. Basically it automatically downloads the conversion functions to match the WPS file you would want to open and use.

Frequently digital cameras use a cryptic format for saving photos, but without any description. For example the files like images or videos saved from the Internet are the same.

With Panda Batch Renamer File you can rename music, photos and general files due to its intuitive interface. You can add files with the browser or from clipboard and then shown with original final file name, file name and the folder path. The options displayed by the menu gives the possibility to remove and add features from the table.

The program will renew the final file name each time renaming options are edited, added or removed.

There are four pulldowns: Indert, Remove, Replace and Other.

You have the possibility to add, remove or replace text but also to update information from meta tags.

Various renaming options can be made and positioned. You can operate drag and drop. With Insert menu you can choose locations for every renaming option.

Every change is automatically displayed and after can be used for certifying the changes immediately.

Panda Batch Renamer File gives the possibility for saving renaming patterns so they can be use later. It is a very interesting and unique application because of the ability of utilizing file meta tags and the capacity to keep renaming patterns.

[download from developer site]

Wanting to have a clean and minimum size mailbox, we have the habit to erase emails which we may no longer need. There are some cases in which we may need those deleted emails and we try desperately to recuperate them. We we have emails for a long period of time there is the possibility that the mails are automatically removed, due to the configuration of email server administrator.

It is very easy to recover email which have been deleted using Delete key or Delete button. Are emails erased from the Deleted folder or with “Shift+Delete” combination possible to recover?

If you’re using Microsoft Outlook these are the steps for recovering the mails:

1. Microsoft Outlook 2010

Choose the folder that contained the deleted emails, like Deleted Items, Inbox. Using the Folder tab select the button Recover Deleted Items. A different window will appear containing a list of emails recovered. Select the emails you want recovering and then press the envelope button to recall the email

2. Microsoft Outlook 2007

Choose the folder that contained the deleted emails, like Deleted Items, Inbox. Using Tools from menu press “Recover Deleted Items”. A window with email recovery will be displayed with recoverable emails. Select the emails you need recovering and then press the envelope button to recall the email.