Are DVDs a reliable media?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dos-man
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dos-man

I'm always seeming to be having problems making backup copies of DVDs.
I start off by creating an ISO of the DVD image. Then I can burn that
ISO to another DVD (-R). Step 1 always seems to end with 98% done
followed by an error. Having problems with Linux and Windows burning
attempts.

Does anyone make copies of their DVDs? Why does it seem more
problematic than with CDs?
 
dos-man said:
I'm always seeming to be having problems making backup copies of DVDs.
I start off by creating an ISO of the DVD image. Then I can burn that
ISO to another DVD (-R). Step 1 always seems to end with 98% done
followed by an error. Having problems with Linux and Windows burning
attempts.

Does anyone make copies of their DVDs? Why does it seem more
problematic than with CDs?
Click to expand...

You need to research how to scan a burned disc for errors. For example,
they review an LG burner here, and seem to be using a Liteon drive
to scan for errors. If you have some way to scan the things you
burn, then you'll be able to test different media, and figure out
what is the best stuff to buy for your particular burner.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/review/1500...-Writer-Review/DVDR_RW-writing-performance-5/

Here is an opinion piece on archival media. This link is from a
Wikipedia article.

http://adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/30/how-to-choose-cddvd-archival-media

Paul
 
from my experience it's down to speed
if reading or copying it's better to do it at a slow speed and writing it's
best to do it at a slow speed. when it comes to writing dvds it's best done
slowly.

secondly you did not say the specs of you pc. plus how old is you dvd/cd
writer.
Click to expand...


It's a liteon DVD-RW drive using very high quality TDKs. Bought it at
Wal-mart a couple of years ago.
 
You need to research how to scan a burned disc for errors. For example,
they review an LG burner here, and seem to be using a Liteon drive
to scan for errors. If you have some way to scan the things you
burn, then you'll be able to test different media, and figure out
what is the best stuff to buy for your particular burner.
Click to expand...


Paul, these aren't getting to the "burned" stage. The burning programs
are crashing before they finish creating the ISO. The process gets
about 98% of the way done and then terminates pretty abruptly. K3b
abruptly termates with no errors, warnings, or status report.
Deepburner spits out a "burn failed" error.
 
Dos-Man 64 said:
Paul, these aren't getting to the "burned" stage. The burning programs
are crashing before they finish creating the ISO. The process gets
about 98% of the way done and then terminates pretty abruptly. K3b
abruptly termates with no errors, warnings, or status report.
Deepburner spits out a "burn failed" error.
Click to expand...

That is actually good information to have, because Windows has
a few situations where there can be interference with the burn
process. I wouldn't expect that in Linux. I've used K3B to burn
a few things myself, and had no problems getting the burn to complete.

I'd probably start by looking for some different media. I had one
Liteon burner, and noticed a bit of a difference between the
original firmware and the updated firmware I installed.

I don't burn that many DVDs, and the last ones I bought were some
Fujifilm DVD+R 16X. According to my records, I've been burning
those at 8X and they seem to be OK.

http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/lg_gh22lp20/image106.png

Paul
 
That is actually good information to have, because Windows has
a few situations where there can be interference with the burn
process. I wouldn't expect that in Linux. I've used K3B to burn
a few things myself, and had no problems getting the burn to complete.

I'd probably start by looking for some different media. I had one
Liteon burner, and noticed a bit of a difference between the
original firmware and the updated firmware I installed.

I don't burn that many DVDs, and the last ones I bought were some
Fujifilm DVD+R 16X. According to my records, I've been burning
those at 8X and they seem to be OK.

http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/lg_gh22lp20/image106.png

    Paul
Click to expand...


I would certainly expect windows to be doing things like that. That's
what it has become known for: working against you instead of assisting
you. However, I am a 98SE user, so I wouldn't expect the OS to be
sabotaging me. I am in the process of moving to linux right now. My
burner is also a Liteon. This is not a copyrighted DVD. It is a Live
Linux distro. I am trying to make "beater" copies of it.

I've never really had any problems burning anything or reading
anything with this DVD-RW drive (and that includes TDKs.) The only
problems seem to come in when you are trying to copy discs.
 
Dos-Man 64 said:
I would certainly expect windows to be doing things like that. That's
what it has become known for: working against you instead of assisting
you. However, I am a 98SE user, so I wouldn't expect the OS to be
sabotaging me. I am in the process of moving to linux right now. My
burner is also a Liteon. This is not a copyrighted DVD. It is a Live
Linux distro. I am trying to make "beater" copies of it.

I've never really had any problems burning anything or reading
anything with this DVD-RW drive (and that includes TDKs.) The only
problems seem to come in when you are trying to copy discs.
Click to expand...

The Liteon-specific tool for scanning media was KProbe.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/software/Diagnostic_-Utility/Karr-Kprobe/KProbe.html

http://www.cdrlabs.com/KProbe/

Nero has a scanning tool as well, and some of the Nero utilities
(not the main program) are downloadable for free. For example,
Nero InfoTool can be downloaded for free. I think the Nero
CD-DVD Speed tool (which has error scanning), can be downloaded
as well. Here are some screen shots of that one.

http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Nero-CDDVD-Speed-Screenshot-5984.html

http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/Nero-CDDVD-Speed_20.png

What I've found in the past, was a rising error characteristic
near the end of the media. Try scanning the source media, and
see what it looks like. If it still works, KProbe might be
preferable. At least, I liked using it, for the period of
time I had the Liteon.

Paul
 
Paul, these aren't getting to the "burned" stage. The burning programs
are crashing before they finish creating the ISO. The process gets
about 98% of the way done and then terminates pretty abruptly. K3b
Click to expand...

Any chance you're copying the iso file to a fat32 filesystem? They
are limited to 2**31-1 bytes, i.e. 1 byte less the 4 GB, for the
max file size. You have to use either ntfs or a linux filesystem
for larger files.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463

Regards, Dave Hodgins
 
Dos-Man 64 said:
Paul, these aren't getting to the "burned" stage. The burning programs
are crashing before they finish creating the ISO. The process gets
about 98% of the way done and then terminates pretty abruptly. K3b
abruptly termates with no errors, warnings, or status report.
Deepburner spits out a "burn failed" error.
Click to expand...

It may or may not be related to a problem I had quite some time ago. I
solved it, but for the moment I can't remember how. What I do remember is
that a burning process always crashed at about 20%. Then I did some
experiments with rewritable media and determined that the crash always
occurred after a certain fixed amount - not percentage - of data had been
burned. I know you said you never reached the burning stage, but there might
be some relation. I'll let you know if I can recall what caused it.
 
Any chance you're copying the iso file to a fat32 filesystem?  They
are limited to 2**31-1 bytes, i.e. 1 byte less the 4 GB, for the
max file size.  You have to use either ntfs or a linux filesystem
for larger files.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463

Regards, Dave Hodgins
Click to expand...


Ah. Yes, that explains it then. I'll have to find a workaround then.
Both of my hard drives are FAT32. I had never about that before.
Freaks.
 
Ah. Yes, that explains it then. I'll have to find a workaround then.
Both of my hard drives are FAT32.  I had never about that before.
Freaks.
Click to expand...


I tried putting in my other dvd drive and doing an "on the fly" copy
without using an image file. It got about 99% of the done and then k3b
hung and the window stopped responding. At least it didn't terminate.
Progress :)
 
I had one of those replaced it with a sata dvd-rw still had problems burning
dvds. So dvds are done at a slow speed x4 or x6 regardless of write speed..
cds are done at fastest speed. never had problems doing cds just dvds.

In your post you say you using linux which distro and what version of
dvd+rw=tools do you have.
Click to expand...

I am using Knoppix Live, versions 4,5,and 5.3. I was able to burn
versions 4 and 5 (5 is a DVD, 4 is just a CD.) Version 5.3 (a DVD)
unfortunately hangs k3b for some reason, but at least I got a backup
copy made of 5.1.

My advise get a new dvd-rw.
Click to expand...


Probably shouldn't be necessary. My system is kind of in an inbetween
state right now as I make the transition away from 98. I'll keep 98
installed on the hard drive for a few more months until I feel like I
am good enough with Linux where I won't need 98 anymore. Then I'll
start looking for a full linux distribution.
 
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