Backing Up sims

[ness]

Hi

I am new to all this. I have read the FAQ's but I am still having trouble. I have all the expansion packs of the sims and would like to make back up copies. Ok my burner is a hewlett packard cd writer plus - 7500 series. I am using nero burning program. I have copied my original sims disc onto my hard drive and i have then downloaded the patch and done all that and then i burnt my cd but when i went to put it in to see if it works nothing comes up . Does anyone have any ideas. I have gone through and read every post i can regarding the sims and have so much info in my head at the moment that i am confusing myself I have downloaded clonyxxl but am not sure how to use it. Any ideas at all would be much appreciated.

thanks
vanessa