Good news is: This is no longer necessary. All the arranging of files and folders for an extensive multi-disc burn job is now handled by a software. DiscFit basically turns a set of files and folders into optimized sets ready for burning.

When you start the portable program you are presented with a minimalistic interface. A click on File opens a menu with options to add files or folders that should be included in the burning job.

All files and folders are displayed and their sizes are calculated. This can take some time depending on the selection.

the Target Media menu at the bottom of the screen can be used to selected a specific media type, e.g. DVD, Blu-Ray or CD. The file capacities of the selected disc type are then used to calculate the resulting sets.

It is also possible to set a custom disc size if a custom disc size is needed for a job. A click on the pack button runs rearranges all files and folders so that the least amount of discs are needed to burn all files.

Files inside a folder are kept together, while individual files and folders may be moved around to make optimal use of the disc space of each disc.

There is also an oversized tab for files or folders that are to large to be burned on one disc.

All the user needs to do know is to drag and drop the folders of each set to the disc burning program. This works with popular burning programs like ImgBurn or Nero. Users do however need to make sure that the file selection screen of the burning software is the target of the drop.

DiscFit is a free portable software program for the Windows operating system. Users can download the latest version from the project’s Sourceforge page. (via)

UsefulUtils Discs Studio is another lightweight disc burning software. The 500-something Kilobyte download will install a utility that can perform most disc burning operations on the computer system. It can burn data, audio and video disc and supports the most popular disc image formats as well including iso, img, bin, mdf and nrg.

The process is a little bit easier than in our favorite burning software ImgBurn. The explorer-like interface can be used to select files and add them to the queue. It is possible to burn the disc right away or configure some of the parameters before doing so.

Here is a list of supported features:

• SCSI, ATAPI, Parallel port, USB (1.1 and 2.0) and FireWire (IEEE 1394) devices support
• OverBurning (in UUDS – HyperBurning) support
• Supported BUP (Buffer Underrun Protection)
• Bootable discs burning
• Multisessional discs burning
• Support of MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, FLAC (if codecs are installed), WAV formats
• Support of ISO, UDF, IMG, BIN, MDF, XMF, NRG, BWI, B5I, CDI, PDI formats
• Audiotracks ripping with converting to: WMA, MP3, OGG, FLAC. FreeDB support

UsefulUtils Discs Studio is a free and lightweight disc burning software program for most Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The website is showing up in Russian by default. A click on the British flag will change the language to English.

This can be very annoying if a file generally distributed as an ISO, such as an operating system, has to be burned on a computer without essential software, for example at the house of a friend, who only uses the default disc burning tool.

ISO Recorder is a tool for Windows XP and Vista which provides a simple wizard to burn an ISO disc image onto a CD (and, in Vista, onto a DVD).

The software, whilst closed source, is free (as in beer). It is also quite reliable, although it does seem to freeze somewhat more than commercial pieces of software such as Nero.

There are 3 versions of ISO Recorder available: v1, for Windows XP and XP SP1; v2, for Windows XP SP2; and v3 for Windows Vista. A command line version also exists, which operates on XP, 2003 and Vista.

Version 1 allows ISOs to be burned by admins, Version 2 allows ISOs to be made and burned by admins and non-admins whilst Version 3 adds DVD support.