DVD back ups

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andrew Wilson
  • Start date Start date
A

Andrew Wilson

Having saved files to floppy disk successfully for a number of years I am
trying to do the same with DVD's but am having some problems using the 'Send
To' command and was looking at other ways.
1) Do I need any special software such as Nero?
2) It seems that if I have saved a file on DVD-RW named e.g AJ I can't
overwrite it as I can with floppy disk but have to give it a new name such
as AJ1 - is this correct?
3) It is possible to delete individual files on the DVD-RW as you can on
floppy disk or does the entire disk have to be wiped/formatted.
Many thanks
Andrew
 
Andrew said:
Having saved files to floppy disk successfully for a number of
years I am trying to do the same with DVD's but am having some
problems using the 'Send To' command and was looking at other ways.
1) Do I need any special software such as Nero?
2) It seems that if I have saved a file on DVD-RW named e.g AJ I
can't overwrite it as I can with floppy disk but have to give it a
new name such as AJ1 - is this correct?
3) It is possible to delete individual files on the DVD-RW as you
can on floppy disk or does the entire disk have to be
wiped/formatted.
Click to expand...

CD/DVDs are not floppy diskettes. They are essentially write once/read
many. -RW and +RW media does exist, but (as you asked) - in order to 'treat
them *more* like floppy diskettes' - you need special software - "packet
writing". Although - you may never get the features like floppy diskettes
you are seemingly wanting and in many cases - until you mark the CD/DVD as
closed (closing the session) - other CD/DVD drives on other computers may be
unable to read the data.

What I suggest for replacing your floppy diskettes is USB drives or "Flash"
drives (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32GB sizes are common - with some larger sizes
available in relatively small physical packages.) Those will act more like
you desire without any other software required. You can get many on sale
(especially this time of year) for extraordinarly cheap prices. Given that
3.5" common floppy diskettes were 1.44MB in size and 1GB USB thumb/flash
drives can usually be had for under $6 each - sometimes far under if bought
in multi-packs - the amount of storage you get in comparison is
phenomenal...

http://www.buy.com/prod/imation-1-4...mb-floppy-disk-595828/q/loc/101/10289882.html
... compare to this list ...
http://www.buy.com/umerch/q/store/1...torage Devices, Flash Memory Devices/1GB.html

50 floppy diskettes is less than 75MB total for $28. One $6-8 USB
thumb/flash drive of 1GB in size - or 1024MB. Will work in just about any
computer with a working USB port to plug it into and an OS that can read
whatever file system the drive is formatted with... (Usually FAT32, which
can be read by *nix, macintosh and windows systems with no issue.)
 
windows has built in features for
writing to and from a disk.

just go to the explorer and move
files around between the folders
on the hard disk to the dvd or cd
media.

you may have to first format
the disk, however.

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Shenan Stanley said:
CD/DVDs are not floppy diskettes. They are essentially write once/read
many. -RW and +RW media does exist, but (as you asked) - in order to
'treat them *more* like floppy diskettes' - you need special software -
"packet writing". Although - you may never get the features like floppy
diskettes you are seemingly wanting and in many cases - until you mark the
CD/DVD as closed (closing the session) - other CD/DVD drives on other
computers may be unable to read the data.

What I suggest for replacing your floppy diskettes is USB drives or
"Flash" drives (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32GB sizes are common - with some
larger sizes available in relatively small physical packages.) Those will
act more like you desire without any other software required. You can get
many on sale (especially this time of year) for extraordinarly cheap
prices. Given that 3.5" common floppy diskettes were 1.44MB in size and
1GB USB thumb/flash drives can usually be had for under $6 each -
sometimes far under if bought in multi-packs - the amount of storage you
get in comparison is phenomenal...

http://www.buy.com/prod/imation-1-4...mb-floppy-disk-595828/q/loc/101/10289882.html
... compare to this list ...
http://www.buy.com/umerch/q/store/1...torage Devices, Flash Memory Devices/1GB.html

50 floppy diskettes is less than 75MB total for $28. One $6-8 USB
thumb/flash drive of 1GB in size - or 1024MB. Will work in just about any
computer with a working USB port to plug it into and an OS that can read
whatever file system the drive is formatted with... (Usually FAT32, which
can be read by *nix, macintosh and windows systems with no issue.)
Click to expand...
Many thanks for this. I was aware of USB Flashdrives (and will now consider
purchasing one/two) but thought that the piles of CD's/DVD's that I have
could be used as some sort of floppy but obviously not from your explanation
above. I will still use CD's/DVD's to save things permanently and back ups
however.
Thanks again
Andrew Wilson
 
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