Optical storage over the past few years has lost a bit of ground, thanks to USB flash drives, portable HDDs, backup NAS devices and the like. However, sales haven't dwindled too much, as a DVD-RW even today remains one of the most inexpensive (and hence, popular) forms of backup available. When you consider that Blu-ray writers are appearing in larger numbers and now cost under Rs 10,000, it's clear that optical backup is not going away anytime soon.
While optical media has seen regular hardware changes, the software side is a different story. The domination of this segment by Nero Burning ROM has been so complete that just about every major OEM manufacturer ships with a scaled-down version of the program. While it is an excellent tool, it’s also a resource hog. Besides, the base edition allows only very basic operations; to access the more advanced features one needs to purchase a rather expensive upgrade. Thus the software quickly loses it charm.
Luckily enough there are enough freeware options available on the net that are not only able to match Nero in features, but use a fraction of the resources. Here are three such freeware/cardware applications.
Ashampoo offers quite a few packages in the DVD authoring sphere. While most of the software isn't free, in a surprising move the company has started offering earlier, feature-complete versions of its software suite for free. With the ability to burn to all known media, create compressed backup archives with password protection; split archives automatically across multiple CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray discs, and a host of other features, this suite is easily among the best choices available.
Get your free key here. The download link is here. Please note that the software download link is for the free trial, which can be upgraded to a full version from the first link.
I can definitely vouch for CDBuner XP pro though I have DeepBurner too. Over the last two years and two DVD writers, it has perforned in an excellent manner. I must have burnt atleast 300 DVDs (Writex) using it. Many of my friends have also started using it now.Just install it and kiss Nero goodbye...for good. 
