Burn, as it relates to computers, is the process of copying data onto a storage medium such as a disc or flash drive. The intended purpose of burning is for archival or backup of important data, or for playing audio, video, or other multimedia files stored in the burned medium.
The burn process typically involves the selection of files to be copied, the choice of a specific burning device, the selection of a type of disc, and the selection of the burning speed. Most modern computers have built-in burning capabilities supported by an optical drive, making data burn convenient and easy.
Burning traditionally involved writing data to a compact disc or DVD, using either a rewritable disk or a write-once disk. The advent of affordable USB flash drives has made burn an equally useful process for portable storage. A USB flash drive is simply plugged into a USB port, and the data is immediately set to the drive.
Blank discs are available in a variety of storage capacities including single-layer single-sided DVDs which hold up to 4.7 gigabytes of data, and double-layer two-sided DVDs which can store up to 8.5 gigabytes of data. High-capacity 50 GB Blu-ray discs are becoming increasingly popular for burning data as well.
Burn can also refer to the physical process of transferring data to an optical disc. This physical process is also referred to as “burning” as it involves the use of lasers to etch the data onto the disc.
Burning is an essential process for backing up or archiving data and for playing various audio and video files stored in the burned medium. It is also an easy and reliable way to transfer data from one computer to another.
