another newbie question!
 

Is it ok to burn a 2008 bmw map disk? My friend has the latest 2008 dvd map on his X5...can I use it and burn into a DVD?

theoretically of course, it may be possible to create an image from that disk, and then burn that image to another disk for back up purposes.

Yeah, you can burn it for your friend so he can have a back-up...

Talking like your going to burn something for purposes of sharing will get your thread locked down in a heartbeat, the forum doesn't condone such behavior. Or last I knew, it didn't...

But yes, with the correct equipment you could possibly do your friend a favor and make him a back up of his map-DVD, that way if his ever becomes damaged, he will be able to pop it out and pop in the back-up...

EDIT: Wait, if your going to try that DVD in your MKIV, for pure testing purposes, I don't think it will work. 2008 would be the new X5, right? With I-Drive?

If you look for a updated Map DVD for your MKIV system, the Map DVD's for the I-Drive vehicles are not compatible with the MKIV systems.

I hope all of that makes sense, and if I've got something wrong, someone chime in and correct me...

All kidding aside, I think it's worth using a back up in the hot trunk and keeping the original in a cool desk in case something happens to the back up.

I actually used to do that. However, the MKIV hates backup disks-- mine used to crash regularly. I tried burning it every possible way with different media and everything. I finally gave up and went back to the OE disk.

The moral of the story is, don't use a map disk copy in a MKIV. It works way better with an real disk. Search this forum, and you will find many folks with MKIV stability problems due to copied disks.

^ thanks for that tip, I was not aware of that...

I haven't had that problem, except about every 6 months, with both original and backup disks (but at that rate, it's hard to tell what the problem is - probably laser isn't aligned right or is dirty).