Here's an unusual scenario that is a constant PITA for me, where my DVDA projects get deleted. I have no idea if this is your problem too:

I have a large drive with folders for DVD renders. Each folder holds one project, and inside each folder are the usual VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders. Since this is how I organize my renders, to be able to burn DVDs later as needed, I like to keep DVDA's .dar files in the same folder. But DVDA deletes the file! So you have to remember to save it after every DVD burning session.

--Ethan

I think DVDA wants to keep that folder clean because if you were to copy the .dar file to the DVD it would not work. I archive my projects much like you do but I create a folder and name it after the project, and in that folder I put the .dar file and a sub-folder named "render" in which I put only the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders.

^^^ Understood, but DVDA needs to copy only the two DVD folders to the burned disk. So why would it even care if a DAR file or other files are present? Further, DVDA leaves an SPREPARE.SPSS file there, so deleting other files seems silly.

--Ethan

Acknowledged. But I am taking an educated guess from my experience. I use ImgBurn to burn my DVDs from the DVDA's files. If I forget to delete the SPREPARE.SPSS file from the folder and ImgBurn puts it on the DVD, it will not work in my player.
Now DVDA knows where it puts that SPREPARE.SPSS file. So let me ask you, does it put that file on the DVD? (not being sarcastic - I really don't know). If not, maybe the program is written to ignore that file and to delete all other files it finds in that folder.
If I were you I would try my suggestion and see if it works. It's simple enough to do and could possibly solve your problem. I would be interested in knowing the outcome.

Here's an unusual scenario that is a constant PITA for me, where my DVDA projects get deleted
---------------
You need better organization. DVDA will always create a new prepare folder, so anything that *you* put in that folder will be lost.

In my projects I have a folder named DVD Files where the MPEG2 and AC3 media files go, plus where the DAR file, and image files and my PSD menu files are stored. That's all that needs to be archived. (Actually more than needed because the Vegas project that made the MPEG and AC3 files are stored elsewhere). I have a subdirectory of the DVD Files folder simply named: "DVD". This is what I use for the DVDA prep folder. It's not unusual for me to take this folder to another PC to burn DVD's on an older version of DVDA, but it doesn't need to be archived.

Steve Mann

DVDA will always create a new prepare folder, so anything that *you* put in that folder will be lost.
-------------------------------------
Guess I was over thinking it.

> DVDA knows where it puts that SPREPARE.SPSS file. So let me ask you, does it put that file on the DVD?

No, only the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO _TS folders are written to disk.

--Ethan

> You need better organization. DVDA will always create a new prepare folder, so
> anything that *you* put in that folder will be lost.

LOL, I'm the most organized person in the world.

This brings up an interesting side point. Why should I be forced not to work the way I prefer? There is no reason to delete anything in the upper folder. Now, I can see why extra files inside the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders are a problem and shouldn't be written. If the DVDA programmers felt the need to delete extra files there I'd understand. But no harm is done by having extra files in the upper folder. So I have to ask what they were thinking when they wrote code to purposely delete files that, for whatever reason, I prefer to keep there.

--Ethan

If by "upper folder" you mean the folder the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders are in, then the programmers probably want nothing else in that folder because they wrote the code to copy it's contents to the DVD. I guess they could have written it to just look for and copy the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders but for whatever reason they didn't.
Did you try my suggestion from post #4? I think it will solve your problem.