OT: And sort of a dumb question about DVD burners

westside wrote on 6/23/2003, 7:35 PM

I just purchased an external DVD firewire drive. I know DVDA is used to make Video DVDs....... but if I just want to make some data backups what works???? I use NERO for CD's but it doesn't seem to support DVD's.....What do you guys use for DATA?

Comments

bcbarnes wrote on 6/23/2003, 7:52 PM

Roxio has something called "EZ CD Creator" (I think...) that can create data DVDs.

kentwolf wrote on 6/23/2003, 9:59 PM

If you're doing data...

I have both; Roxio Easy CD Creator and the latest version of Nero, which supports DVD's.

Easy CD Creator has problems with data in that once you exceed so many directories deep and/or file name length restrictions, the data will not back up. It *looks* like it IS backing up the data, but when you are all done, there are many empty directories. Also, this issue has been addressed many times in the Roxio forums...no answer from Roxio. I know for a fact that the directory depth and file name length restrictions are the issue. Roxio tries to ensure you have an ISO #### (9001?) compliant data DVD. Even though you have the directory depth/file name issues, instead of just not doing the backup, it goes thrrough all of the motions and you think you think you have a good backup. You don't. There are no alerts or anything to let you know you have issues.

On the other hand:

Nero will alert you to these Non-ISO compliant directory depth/file name issues, BUT give you a chance to either abort the backup or ignore the NON-ISO compliant issues and backup anyway.

When all is said and done, Nero DOES make a good data backup.

The only time you would have to worry about the ISO complaince is if you were sending your data DVD around to other computers and multiple operating systems. ISO compliance ensures all OS's will be able to read the DVD data structure. If you are just doing the backups for your own use on your own computer, the data backs up fine, reads fine, and can be recalled fine. If it was backed up on a WinXP computer, even though it's non-ISO compliant, it should stil read fine on any NTFS computer.

Be VERY wary of Roxio data backup. Nero works excellent. Roxio IS great for compiling music CD's and making labels. Nero is the king for data backup.

I have 6-120 GB hard drives and have a LOT of data, programs, etc arranged in a very hierarchal format...all for easy recall. Fortunately I also back up to an OnStream 30 GB tape drive. Had I relied on just the Roxio data backup, I would have been burned. Nero works just great.

Roxio Easy CD Creator data backup = F
Nero data backup = A+

Thank you.

westside wrote on 6/23/2003, 10:40 PM

No Thank You......I must update my version of Nero!!!

Very informative