With services like Dropbox out there I find myself barely ever needing to burn a CD or DVD anymore, but the need still arises from time to time. These days most utilities like Nero are so overkill and bloated for what I need to do that I gravitate towards apps that are much simpler... and free. In the past my app of choice was CDBurnerXP, but 7Burn is also a great alternative.

My favorite CD/DVD burning application is definitely CDBurnerXP. It's always been free, has an enormous number of features, and I've never really come across something I've wanted to burn that it wasn't able to handle. The only thing that keeps me from recommending this app to everyone is that the interface can be overwhelming for casual computer users.

Hard drive performance is something a lot of people never think twice about. What would your response be if you were asked what the read/write speed of your hard drive was?

I take all kinds of videos from cameras that save the movies to a single file that is difficult to share with people who aren't overly comfortable using a computer. When that happens I try to burn the videos to a DVD that they can watch it using any standalone DVD player, but this can be quite a pain depending on the original format of the video.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about.

I received a tip from Mark over the weekend that NeoSmart had posted their Windows 7 recovery disc ISO images just like they did when Vista was released. These discs are extremely handy to have especially if you didn't receive any installation media with your new computer, which is a common occurrence when purchasing from a majority of manufacturers including Dell and HP.

Coming across some free software is nice, but what's even nicer is finding an app that you typically have to pay for that's available at no cost for a limited time. Do you like the sound of that? If so you may want to check out the currently free (until the end of October) WinX DVD Ripper Platinum that is being given away compliments of Techweenies.

Looking for a way to back up your old DVDs onto your hard drive? Want to watch your purchased DVD movies on your iPod? You're certainly not the only one. For some reason however, developers are not very keen on developing tools that do this. Luckily, HandBrake has stepped up to the plate with a free tool that lets you take control of your media.