Burning large files using free DVD burning software

I had to burn a ~12GB file today on Vista, not a trivial task unfortunately.

Of course, I opted for burning the file to 3 DVD-Rs. First I made 3 files that matched maximum DVD-R size using WinRAR (if you don’t need compression I strongly suggest using Fastest mode which is really fast). Then I had to burn those three files to 3 blank mediums. At this point the problems started. Which burning software should I use? I don’t consider Nero anymore because it is bloated and I had an odd experience with it, plus it isn’t free. Note, that I don’t need fancy features, just burn the selected file(s) or ISO image.

I looked at David’s list of free burning software and picked DeepBurner first, I installed it, run it, picked first file (~4.5GB) and started burn process. It was finished in 2 minutes. Wow, that was fast! But the problem was the fact that it burned just ~400MB of file for some odd reason No errors were reported, just the file wasn’t there. Entirely at least. Later I discovered in their forums that DeepBurn has problems writing large files. Go figure, bad luck of choice.

Next, I picked InfraRecorder. Amazingly, it has a similar problem. It has written a bigger part of the file though. And again, no errors reported.

At this point I opted for Vista’s easy burning feature. This time it won’t even try to burn the file. And yes, no errors reported, just the click on Burn Files to Disk button doesn’t do a thing. Argh.

Finally, after several ruined DVDs, I tried ImgBurn and it worked. Huraaaa, at last. I had to set UDF mode though.

So, the winner is: ImgBurn! A good choice if you have to burn really large files. The other software mentioned just acts oddly when burning such large files. What is even worse is the fact that no error is reported. OTOH if you need an easy to use burning software for writing not too large files I would recommend InfraRecorder – it is more friendlier than ImgBurn.