How to re-start an interupted multi - CD burn

August 29, 2005 12:34 PM

While burning an audiobook to CD, I crashed. This is about a 12-15 CD burn. I have completed 4 of the CD's. Is there a way to get Itunes (Max OS X) burning to pick up where it left off, i.e., start with burning CD 5? I don't see a way to tell it to skip 1, etc. I also have Diskblaze, but have never used it, having seen no advantage to do so. But if it will allow such interruptions, I'd switch, as this has happened before when I've had to quit such long burns in mid-process. Thanks.
posted by rabbus to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I don't know your software, but can you get it to create ISO images? Maybe let it 'burn' to files on your hard disk, and then only Burn the ones you need?
posted by pompomtom at 3:16 PM on August 29, 2005

Do you have a separate audio file for each CD?
posted by jjg at 4:11 PM on August 29, 2005

You could go into the playlist and delete the tracks from it that have already been successfully burned. Deleting a track from a playlist doesn't delete it from your computer or the iTunes Library; it will still be there to listen to later if you like.

Then select the playlist and hit the burn button.

(I feel like there's something I'm missing from this question...)
posted by bcwinters at 5:55 PM on August 29, 2005

I think we're talking about a single audio file 15-20 hours long. Apparently iTunes will split that up onto multiple CDs for you if you command the program to burn it. Not having any files that long in my collection I can't say for sure, but it's what seems to be implied.

In this case you MAY be able to set the properties for the audiobook so that playback starts, say, four hours into the file. I believe that burning will then begin at that point. You will of course want to check to see how much actual audio is on the first four discs to figure out what the start point of the fifth disc would have been.

If that turns out to be wrong, well, just start over again. Given a 24X burner, you're out 10-15 minutes of your time and four CDs, and CDs are basically free these days.
posted by kindall at 6:13 PM on August 29, 2005

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification, Kindall.

If it IS one big file, another option would be to open the file in Quicktime Player and trim it down there. This only works if you have Quicktime Pro, though, which isn't free.

I believe that the retired MP3 program Audion also does mp3 trimming. It's free now, so that might be worth a shot.
posted by bcwinters at 6:28 PM on August 29, 2005

Audacity can also split MP3 files and save them as separate chunks.
posted by odinsdream at 6:36 PM on August 29, 2005

Another free splitter is XMP3SPLIT -- It will divide the entire thing into individual tracks of whatever length you specify. If you did this, you just start buring at whatever track is closest to where you left off.
posted by crapples at 6:37 PM on August 29, 2005

Oh, and what kindall said. Go into the Get Info screen of the MP3 file in iTunes, and set the start time to where the 5th CD is supposed to start. This will cause iTunes to only burn beyond that point. I used to do this all the time to make clean cuts between songs when I burned them, cutting off dead silence and whatnot.
posted by odinsdream at 6:38 PM on August 29, 2005

Thanks, all. I tried odinsdream's method, and it worked! :)
posted by rabbus at 8:22 AM on August 31, 2005