Archiving Architect files

charlibob wrote on 3/4/2009, 2:09 PM
I would like to free up some drive space. Is there an easy way of archiving architect files to DVD, I thought of "saving as" to my DVD drive, but then I think that if I try to open the project from the DVD, the .dar file will point to the old location on my hard drive. I am reluctant to simply copy a project DVD using Nero, for fear of degradation.

Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, but I am pretty new to all this.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 3/4/2009, 6:37 PM
When you say archiving files, what files are you wanting to archive?

If you're wanting just to archive the DVD files created by a project, that's as simple as burning a DVD.

If you just save your Architect project files then, as you said, you'll have the markers but none of the media, so that won't do you much good.

And I suppose you could save all of the media files as well as the Architect files but, unless your media files are already MPEGs, they probably won't fit on a single DVD unless you create the final DVD anyway.
charlibob wrote on 3/4/2009, 7:07 PM
What I am looking for is a way to reburn a dvd from a completed project once it has reached the point where I have alread burned a DVD. I was hoping not to have to save the raw avi files as well, just be able to open and burn from files on an "archive" DVD. I am not sure what of all the files are required in order to do this, and how to organize them.

But if the original avi files are required, then it is hopless to fit them all to a backup DVD. I will have to settle for copying an existing copy. I just want to get some of this stuff off my hard disk.
musicvid10 wrote on 3/4/2009, 7:30 PM
"What I am looking for is a way to reburn a dvd from a completed project once it has reached the point where I have alread burned a DVD."

When you burned your first disc, DVDA prepared the dvd to a folder on your hard drive. Assuming you have not deleted that folder, it contains everything that is on your dvd.

Assuming also that you are satisfied with that output, and do not wish to edit further, then you can delete your avi's and burn subsequent DVDs from the previously prepared folder on your hard drive.

All you have to do is go back into DVDA and choose the option to "burn from a Previously prepared folder." You don't have to save anything else in order to do so. Is this what you want to be able to do?

bStro wrote on 3/5/2009, 7:29 AM
I guess I haven't quite figured out if you want to archive your DVDA project (DAR file and media items) so that you'll have the ability to make changes to that project (change menus, add media, put in more chapters, whatever) or if you just want to have a copy of the final, finished, prepared DVD so that you can make more copies of the DVD itself.

If the latter, you don't need to do anything special. Just use DVDA to burn a copy of your prepared project and put it somewhere safe. You can then make copies from that using Nero or some other program that copies DVDs. There won't be any degradation. It's not like copying a tape where you're re-recording an analog signal -- you're just copying files bit for bit.

Rob
Chienworks wrote on 3/5/2009, 9:15 AM
"I am reluctant to simply copy a project DVD using Nero, for fear of degradation."

What degradation are you fearing? It's a direct digital-to-digital copy.
charlibob wrote on 3/5/2009, 9:16 AM
"All you have to do is go back into DVDA and choose the option to "burn from a Previously prepared folder." You don't have to save anything else in order to do so. Is this what you want to be able to do?"

That is exactly what I want to do, but I wanted to know if I could burn the folder to a DVD, and then use that as the previously prepared folder? I tried that, but on opening the .dar file, it tried to point to the folder on my hard drive instead.

I think this idea is getting too complicated. I will stick with bStro's suggestion of copying using Nero. The thing that through me previously about doing a copy was a bunch of parameter choices Nero gave me. Now I realize that I was looking at the tool for copying a commercial DVD-Video, not the simple Copy DVD, which is straight forward.

Thanks


musicvid10 wrote on 3/5/2009, 11:05 AM
"That is exactly what I want to do, but I wanted to know if I could burn the folder to a DVD, and then use that as the previously prepared folder?'

I suppose you could do what you are asking if you have two DVD drives on your machine. You would probably have to slow down the burn speed to prevent buffer underflows. I haven't tried it.

If what you really want to do is duplicate a DVD, I suggest, as others have, using an application that is designed for that task.

You can use the files that DVDA copied to your hard drive to burn additional discs. They don't take up any more space than the DVD itself because they are identical.

For more help, consult the DVDA Help Files or one of the tutorials available online (do a search in Google).
Videoimpressions0622 wrote on 3/24/2009, 6:11 AM
I always save each DVD project to an ISO file on one of my hard drives, the ISO file of which is a mere fraction of the size of all of the raw elements (media files, dar file, etc.). I have one hard drive dedicated to only ISO file storage, and with the relative low cost of hard drives these days I can just remove and replace such hard drives when full!

Rich