DVD Back-Ups

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Bennett
  • Start date Start date
T

Terry Bennett

Having recently acquired a new (Sony) laptop with DVD writer I had hoped
that this would make back-ups of data easier.

The My Documents folder on my C Drive is c 2.5Gb in size (quite a number of
digital photographs) and although I have an external Hard Drive onto which
it is easy to copy data/pics, I do like to keep a further copy off-site just
to guard-against the worst case scenario of theft/fire. With my old
laptop's CD writer this was never fully possible as the data to be copied
significantly exceeded the capacity of a CD-ROM.

With the new machine I was initially able to copy everything I needed to a
DVD+RW re-recordable DVD with 4.7Gb capacity. When I come to update this,
however, it will not allow me to do anything:

- copying new files across generates a message about not supporting this
CD-RW format
- trying to erase files on the DVD tells me that they are Read-Only and
can't be deleted
- trying to erase the whole DVD also fails

I don't really want to create a new DVD every time I do a back-up.

What am I doing wrong?!

Thanks.
 
- copying new files across generates a message about not supporting
this CD-RW format
- trying to erase files on the DVD tells me that they are Read-Only
and can't be deleted
- trying to erase the whole DVD also fails
Click to expand...

You need to format the DVD for packet writing (AFAIK - at least that's what
you need to do on a CDRW), the DV is not RW until you do that.
 
Windows XP's own CD writing software is just basic. When i am copying files
to a DVD or CD for that matter I use Roxio Easy CD and DVD creator. This
includes an application called Drag to disc, which allows you to use the DVD
just like a floppy disk (only with far more space). However, before you can
do this the DVD or CD has to be formatted. This, incidentally can take
anything up to an hour. But once done you can cut and copy files from the
hard drive directly to the DVD with ease.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this post. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this post..
 
Formating a cdrw or a dvdrw is not required if you are not using packet
writing software. You can write to a cdrw or a dvdrw the same way you can a
cdr or a dvdr. The difference is that you can erase the cdrw and the dvdrw.
 
Terry I find Roxio far more accomodating than Nero, even though some say
Nero is the best. Nero have recently sent me a copy of their Nero 7 premium
software and i was disppointed to find that their InCD software (similar to
Roxio drag and drop) is not installed by default but has to be installed
seperately. And after all that trouble of installing it the damn thing
doesn't work!

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this post. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this post..
 
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