Best Free Alternative To Nero
Everyone uses Ahead’s burning software Nero. I got my first taste of it in 2004 when Nero 5 was pretty much the standard application that all OEMs bundled with their products. It included a host of other utilities like a WAV file editor, a cover designer, a VCD/SVCD menu editor. And with every successive version folowed more add-on utilities like InCD, Showtime (a video player), Recode (for DVD-ripping), Scout (file-indexer) and so on. Consequently, Nero achieved the infamous bloatware status. The installation file for the latest version of the software, Nero 9, weighs close to 400 MB 
and I was really annoyed with the amazing amount of trash Nero had (considering the average user wouldn’t need all that). So I started looking out for alternatives to Nero and boy, was I amazed to find so many good ones!
My top 3 choices would be CDBurnerXP, InfraRecorder and BurnAware.
Being a sucker for neat interfaces, I decided to try out the free version of BurnAware. Sure it looked good; but it is just slow and often annoyingly non-responsive. I might try it out sometime later and update this article with a review (as development is very active). Then I jumped to InfraRecorder. It looked gorgeous and had the simplest interface which just gets the job done. But for some reason, it simply stopped working after I added a second hard-disk to my machine 
So that left with me with my last choice – CDBurnerXP. Though it doesn’t look as good as my two earlier choices, it works and well! Its got all the standard features that would satisfy both the average home user as well as power users (burning all types of CDs/DVDs and even HD-DVD & BluRay support, BIN>ISO converter, LightScribe support). Check out some screenshots and don’t forget to uninstall Nero and get one of these great freeware 
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Tagged as burn, nero + Categorized under Technology, Freeware | »
its not the problem with ur Hard disc da. Even I had the same problem. I think its with the application itself. I’m able to Burn only new CD’s. Think it wont support Multisession discs. Its really fast but whats the use if doesn’t Burn CD’s. I’ll stick with Nero Itself. Though its slow it gets the Job done
@Anand: Well if you’re gonna stick with Nero, you may wanna try the Lite version of Nero 9, a 50-something MB download
I agree that Nero is not acceptable after 6 (I have a limited version) or 7 (without 90% of it all!)
I agree on CD Burner XP, though it somethimes enterfered on my PC with different apps (when started I used to see a demand for an Office upgrade… or something) and lately it needs netframework upgrade which takes time. But after that it’s ok.
I will try the other two that you tested, though they doesn’t sound better…
I propose ImgBurn : it is desined to create and burn img-s but you can also burn any files or folders as if they were an image to burn – just by one or two more clicks.
Thank you for the clues — InfraRecorder and BurnAware — I’ll try them now! – they look fine!
But what do you know, I just found that the last version of ImgBurn has now a direct facility to burn files and folders on disk, beside the classic image-burn features. So, maybe ImgBurn is now the best free app in this category here!!
What do YOU think?
@CIPRICUS: I think ImgBurn has the most features in its class. But for me, the interface is a tad-overwhelming. Did you try it out?
In fact I did. Img Burn even burns blue ray. For me it is almost perfect, it just lacks, I think, the simple job of creating and exploring folders within the burnlist of the burner!…
But I also tried InfraBurner and Burnaware – free versions. Maybe I should have payed for them, but the free ones made a mess out of 3-4 DVDs in one day. I dare advise against those two. (I also “had issues” with DeepBurner… but there was only one dvd-victim… in one try! – I will retry it later, as I can’t help myself! )
But I am an old client of CDBurnerXP , and this is a completely different story: this program should not appear along the two above, although I resent being forced to wait tens of minutes for NET Framework to upgrade.
Very hard to find a reliable and complete alternative to Nero.
But CDBurnXP really looks like it. My favorite is ImgBurn and I am ready to bet on that one, if it happens to develop a bit more.
I want to mention a burner I tested, never stumbled until now
(time will tell) and looks to me simple and sturdy: Express Burn — if you don’t mind having to remove the bunch of links it puts your programs list.
@cipricus: Wow! Only a 390KB download?
I’ll try it soon! Meanwhile, do let me know how it has fared!
I’ve been using Nero for years but I’ve switched to CDBurnerXP because I’m constantly having to re-install client PC’s and they often don’t want to pay for Nero.
Using CDBurnerXP myself as well allows me to support them better… less cost for them… less cost for me (I’ve multiple machines) so it’s all good
CD burner XP was good at first but then it started giving problems for me. I recommend AmoK_DVD_Burner, its free. The size is less than an MB and it supports CD/DVD, multisession and also ISO formats.
A free version of Ashampoo 6 is available
http://www.brothersoft.com/ashampoo-burning-studio-6-free-78465.html
you receive by mail a free serial from the Ashampoo site after install, the mail is in German, but the serial is visible.
Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 was also made available for free for a time, maybe still is, try googling for it.
hello!
For all I know, and after using imgburn and nero all this time I can reconfirm IMGBURN as the best burner software, be it free or not. as second option cdburnerxp.
The rest I tested showd some issues after a few days…
It seems to me that in this area, like in that of media players – I mean apps like Foobar2000, VLC Player, or the KMPlayer – the free stuff is already the best there is!