If you can't burn files on a recordable disc, see if the surface of the disc is smeared or dirty. Clean the disc with a soft, damp cloth and try again. If the disc is scratched, try another disc.

If you still can't burn a disc, either you don't have an optical drive that can record discs, or your disc may already have files on it and can't be used again.

Check to see what type of disc you have. If your disc is CD-R or DVD-R, you can't erase files contained on it or burn more data on the disc. If the disc is CD-RW, be sure to erase the information on the disc before burning data on it again.

To see if your computer has a recordable optical drive:
1. Open System Profiler, located in Applications/Utilities.
2. Select ATA in the Hardware list and select the optical drive in the ATA Device Tree list on the right.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the lower-right section of the window to see more information about the drive.

A combo drive is listed as "CD-RW/DVD-ROM" and a superdrive is listed as "CD-RW/DVD-RW." If you don't see CD-RW or DVD-RW in the description, your hardware does not have a built-in recordable drive.

An external drive is listed under USB or FireWire in the Hardware list, depending on how it is connected to your computer.