Adapted From: The Flat-Screen iMac For Dummies Book, By Bob LeVitus
Your iMac can actually record CDs, however it cannot burn CD-RW discs from the Finder. If the disc is marked CD-R, then it's a recordable blank - you can record to them up only once. If the disc is marked CD-RW, then don't use it unless you have a burning utility like Toast, or your read and carefully follow our instructions in "CD-RW".
But you can also buy slightly more expensive blanks that are CD-RW, which stands for rewritable. You can re-record these discs, using one CD as a backup disk that you erase and re-use over and over again.
Either way, the process couldn't be simpler:
... by holding down the Eject button on your keyboard.
It's the up-arrow key at the upper-right corner of the whole keyboard. Press for about two seconds, until the white, capsule-shaped door, right smack on the front of your iMac's base, snaps down and open like the entrance to the Bat Cave, and the black CD tray shoots open with considerable power. (Oh, and don't forget: First remove any Styrofoam cups of coffee that you may have placed directly in front of the computer.)
Handle the CD by its hole and its edges; never touch the underside. The disc goes label side up.
You can either push its front edge until it closes automatically, or just tap the Eject key on your keyboard again.
If you've inserted a new, blank disc, you see this message
Type a name for your backup disk and then click Prepare. (Or press the Return key. Remember that any blue, pulsing button on your screen can also be "clicked" by pressing Return.) In any case, a shiny CD icon appears on your desktop.
Red-tape alert: If it's a CD-RW disc that you've used before, you have to erase it before you can re-use it. To do that, open the Disk Utility program, which is in the Applications folder, inside the Utilities folder. When the Disk Utility screen appears,
Wait a few minutes, and then quit Disk Utility. From now on, the disc will behave exactly as though it's a blank, which it is.)
Drag it, using the little "home" icon in the title bar as a handle (circled in the following picture), onto the CD icon.
(Don't start dragging until the little house icon turns dark.) That's it.
The Mac begins copying your Home folder onto the blank CD.
On a Macintosh, making a copy of something is as easy as dragging it to the disk you want it copied onto. You can also drag something into the disk's window (instead of onto its icon).
Nor should you feel limited to backing up your Home folder; you can drag folder icons from anywhere on your hard drive onto the CD icon.
From the File menu, choose Burn Disc. In the confirmation dialog box, click Burn.
(Alternatively, eject the CD by choosing Eject from the File menu, or by dragging its icon onto the Trash icon on the Dock; the iMac will ask you if you want to burn it before ejecting it.)
Burning the CD takes a few minutes. When the progress bar indicates that the job is complete, you've got yourself a backup. You can open the CD to confirm that your files and folders are really there, or just take it out of the iMac (press the Eject key on your keyboard again). Remove the CD carefully, avoiding touching the bottom, and label the top with a magic marker. Your data is safe - for now.
Burning CDs is also great for taking files and folders from one place to another, or for distributing files to other people. In fact, the CDs you make this way even work on Windows PCs.
You can make as many copies of a file as you want without ever experiencing a loss of quality. You're digital now, kids.