DVD formatted on Vista not seen in XP

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General Mailbox

Greetings,
I have spent a couple of hours reading about how DVD's are manufactured, and
how long to expect them to last, but for my older desktop with a DVD ROM,
I'd like to make a FULL backup onto DVD using Acronis. Acronis made two
files under 4.0GB each and I transferred them to the Vista laptop for DVD
burning onto DVD+RW disks. After burning with the defaulted "Live File
System" format, I discovered that my desktop DVD ROM couldn't see anything
on the disk. I placed new unformatted disk and burned using "Mastered"
format. Again all copied to disk but could not be read by the DVD ROM.
Trying again, I formatted the disk using the lowest UDF version offered in
Vista (which is 1.5) with the same results. I would've checked version UDF
1.02 but it wasn't available.
I did not wish to buy a DVD burner for the old desktop tower (HP 8700
series), but wish to use DVD disks as last resort restoration, as I've
already had a falling with my external hard drive purchased a couple of
months ago.

Also, I was thinking of installing Roxio Creator 6 on the Vista laptop to
burn the DVDs as it might have a recognizable format that the desktop would
see. I do know that Roxio Creator 6 and Acronis Home 10 do not mix on the
same machine. Acronis can't find any hard disks with Creator 6 installed.

Any thoughts on how I can store on DVD for the older machine to read it?
Thank you!
Kevin
 
General Mailbox said:
Greetings,
I have spent a couple of hours reading about how DVD's are manufactured,
and how long to expect them to last, but for my older desktop with a DVD
ROM, I'd like to make a FULL backup onto DVD using Acronis. Acronis made
two files under 4.0GB each and I transferred them to the Vista laptop for
DVD burning onto DVD+RW disks. After burning with the defaulted "Live
File System" format, I discovered that my desktop DVD ROM couldn't see
anything on the disk. I placed new unformatted disk and burned using
"Mastered" format. Again all copied to disk but could not be read by the
DVD ROM. Trying again, I formatted the disk using the lowest UDF version
offered in Vista (which is 1.5) with the same results. I would've checked
version UDF 1.02 but it wasn't available.
I did not wish to buy a DVD burner for the old desktop tower (HP 8700
series), but wish to use DVD disks as last resort restoration, as I've
already had a falling with my external hard drive purchased a couple of
months ago.

Also, I was thinking of installing Roxio Creator 6 on the Vista laptop to
burn the DVDs as it might have a recognizable format that the desktop
would see. I do know that Roxio Creator 6 and Acronis Home 10 do not mix
on the same machine. Acronis can't find any hard disks with Creator 6
installed.

Any thoughts on how I can store on DVD for the older machine to read it?
Thank you!
Kevin
Click to expand...
******* update *******
Can you believe it? My daughter may have come up with a good answer. May be
the DVD-ROM cannot read rewritable disks. Hmmm.. So I looked up the manual
online:
Manufacturer Hitachi

Model Number GD-7500 DVD-ROM

Drive speed

DVD-RAM 2X (ZCLV)

DVD-ROM

Single Layer 12X max. (5 - 12X Full CAV)

Dual Layer 8X max. (3.3 - 8X Full CAV)

DVD-R 2.5X max. (1 - 2.5X Full CAV)

CD-ROM 40X max. (17 - 40X Full CAV)

CD-R 40X max. (17 - 40X Full CAV)

CD-RW 24X max. (10 - 24X Full CAV)

CD-I/VIDEO CD 10X max. (4.3 - 10X Full CAV)

CD-DA (DAE) 20X max. (8.6 - 20X Full CAV)

CD-DA (Audio out) 10X max. (4.3 - 10X Full CAV)

Could that be it? I've only used the drive to watch movies with on rare
occasions.

If this is the case, if I were to buy DVD-R disks, should they be formatted
with Vista Live File System and with which UDF version? Or should it be
Mastered formatted?

Thank you for any comments or suggestions.

B.rgds,

Kevin
 
If that compatibility list is complete and accurate, your DVD ROM cannot
read any form of DVD+R or RW discs so you never had a chance with them.
Switch to DVD-R for discs you intend to use in that computer. Assuming that
the burner in the new computer doesn't have problems with DVD-R/RW discs.

When burning the data the discs shouldn't be formatted at all. RW discs
aren't as secure or compatible as ordinary writable discs and your
compatibility list doesn't include re-writable DVDs anyway. For maximum
compatiblitity just burn the files straight onto a DVD-R and finalize the
disc.

Generally you need to install at least the reader software for the
version/brand of UDF software you used to burn the discs with onto the
computer you want to use to read the discs. XP has some integral UDF reading
capability but generally, the different formats (brands) of UDF software
tend to be incompatible with each other, sometimes very badly so. Sometimes
even same-brand updated software may only have read-only backwards
compatibility with older versions of the same product.
 
Thank you, Ralf.
I hope the version of UDF on the laptop burner will be the type that can be
read on the older machine. I'm presuming it will ask me again which format
to burn the DVD-R disk with. If it does, I'll select the 1.5 version an d
see what happens. Unless you're talking about me aborting the format and
let the burning software do the type selection.
Kevin
 
RalfG said:
If that compatibility list is complete and accurate, your DVD ROM cannot
read any form of DVD+R or RW discs so you never had a chance with them.
Switch to DVD-R for discs you intend to use in that computer. Assuming
that the burner in the new computer doesn't have problems with DVD-R/RW
discs.
Click to expand...

The compatibility list is about what you got for a drive of that vintage.
They seldom mentioned DVD-RW disks, but that didn't necessarily mean that
they wouldn't read them. The reflectivity of a DVD-R disk is very close to
DVD-ROM disks (~90%). The reflectivity of DVD-RW disks as about that of
CD-RW disks (~30%). The reflectivity of dual layer DVD-ROM disks is around
90% for the first layer and around 30% for the second [1].

In practice when you inserted a DVD-RW disk, the drive initially tried to
read the disk as a ROM or R disk and would fail because the reflected signal
was too small [2]. The drive would then up the read gain and attempt to
read the disk as a CD-RW and fail as the disk isn't a CD. Here drives would
take two routes. Some would give up and do nothing else, but some would
actually try to read the disk as a DVD with the read gain turned up and
succeed in reading the DVD-RW. This was not always an intentional feature
of the firmware but just the way the algorithm panned out.

[1] The reflectivity of the second layer is much smaller for DL DVD-R (or
DVD-R9) disks and most older drives will read the first layer but not the
second. Virtually no older drives will read DVD+R9 disks even though they
will read DVD+R disks.

[2] Virtually all (but not all) drives will read CD-ROM disks using the DVD
(orange/red) laser. They also use this laser to read CD-RW disks, but some
CD-RW disks are marginal and a switch will take place to the CD (infra red)
laser if required. CD-R disks cannot be read with the DVD laser and these
are always read using the CD laser.
 
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