Non-Closed DVD Back-Up

[bman2005]

Afternoon.

I have just finished backing up a stack of images using Nero 6.x. The back-up was done on DL discs. The back-up format intentionally leaves the discs un-closed so files can be added (differential / full / incremental etc. etc.). The machine and DVD burner that did the work has no problem reading the discs / opening / modifying etc.

The question:

Is there any way to get my DL DVD burner on my second machine to read the discs because the drive currently will not. I am lead to believe that since the discs are not closed that some machines will not read the discs.

Both machines are running XP. Both drives are DL+R.

I guess all I need to know is should this be possible or should I quit trying to get my other machine (with a newer DVD drive) to read the back-up discs? (and by read, I mean fire up under explorer).

There is nothing wrong with the drive. It reads all other discs fine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Bman.

 

[korrupt]

Don't take my word for this, but I was under the impression that "open" disks were only readable by the burner they are made on untill they are finalised (verified). Howerer, I am not 100% certain. Check if it will play in any other drives.

EDIT: I think this only applies to DVD's, not CD's.

Regards,

Korrupt

 

[pcaceit]

Generally speaking Disks that are left open (Cd or DVD) will have the unused space available to all burning apps. Its the type of backup file that is usually only readable by the app that created it, although there are some backup programs that will read multiple backup formats.

Explorer will be able to access the disk but will not generally open the backup file's contents. however if you have nero installed the machines that you intend to read the backup file from then you will have access to the files in the backup.

there are also Various File systems used by some burners which will mean that you may not be able to access the disk whether open or closed.

example... UDF File system, where you will have to have udf reader installed on your system to access the disks written on this format (although i believe that xp supports udf but i'm not 100% certain).

so if you have nero installed on your other system then you should be able to access the backup regardless of the cd/dvd drive being newer.

 

[bman2005]

Thanks for the replies.

Windows explorer is not recognizing the disc, period. The disc spins, the activity light blinks.... it just never catches and recognizes itself.

The drive is a Samsung SH-162L. I have updated the latest firmware.

I noticed that this drive reads DVD-RAM under windows...versus say...
DVD-RW drive. Is there something that is not set up right via windows or BIOS that is causing this drive to read as such? Seems to me is should read DVD-RW like the drives on the other machine.

The data on the disc...although a backup is not compressed. It's not a backup file perse. The data can be read on another machine / another drive... SO - it's somehow related to how this drive is setup.

The drivers for each machine are the same - generic windows XP....

Any other thoughts?

 

[pcaceit]

Dvd Ram

Your Samsung is a dvd ram drive..... so it will be displayed in explorer as such.

Yes that drive supports DVD RAM Disks, these disks work like a hard drive, you can add and delete data without having to erase the disk to reclaim the unsued space.

There are some Issues with these new Drives and windows xp. search windows knowledge base use "dvd ram drives" as your site search keywords and check if your Samsung is on the compatability list and instructions on how to use it.

I have an LG and it works perfectly.

might not make any difference but right click on the drive in explorer and select properties, then select Recording. tick "Enable CD recording on this drive". If it is already enabled then disable it and see if it makes any difference.

Reason is: If you were using a DVD RAM DISC you would have to have this option disabled so that windows can access write to the DVD RAM DISC, strange i know. but try it anyway.

Note: sometimes it will show up as Just a CD Drive.

 

[bman2005]

Interesting. I noticed that if I wait for the drive (5 minutes or so) it will read the disc! What's up with that? So, it will read the disc but it takes a looooonnnnnnng time. Could that be something with the quality of the burn ?

Or could it be the incompatibilities that you note... ?

Thanks for the help!

 

[pcaceit]

Could be all those things.

Could also be the quality of the Disc or the speed of the disc, reducing the burn speed will prevent some burn errors.

The type of Data on the disc is also a factor in how quickly the system reads the disk. Dont forget that the autoplay function will also slow the reading down a bit as well.

There's also the loading of icons if you have a lots of icons on the disc.

So is it working to some satisfactory level at the moment?

 

[bman2005]

It's working satisfactory in that at least the disc (over time) is being read.

I truly believe it's now just a matter of burn speed / incompatibilities etc. The reason being is that at least the disc is recognized eventually.

However, I can put the same disc in another drive (on the computer that burned the disc...but a different drive) and it is recognized in the same amount of time as the original burring rom. So I can say that the type of data (.jpegs) and icons aren't slowing down the process too much.

I have tried other discs - DL, +/-R etc and they all read just fine in the DVD-RAM that is having issues. This leads me to the only conclusion that it's how the DVD was burnt - speed...maybe a glitch during the burn.

Here is another thing throw in to the mix... the back-up volume is two discs. The DVD-RAM drive will spool up disc 2 faster then disc 1....(30 seconds versus 2 minutes)... (on the other drives...6 or so seconds)

That's it...this computer is going out the window... jk.

 

[pcaceit]

No need to throw it, these things happen, eg.. two drives with identical burning specs but different manufacturers will still work differently, the read cache sizes might be different so there's another thing. theres a lot of angles to this.


One more thing!
If or should i say when you start to use DVD RAM Discs, you will have to format the disk before you use it, Disable the recording on the drive and format the RAM Disc FAT32 file system. then you can read, Write, Delete, Cut and paste just like on your hard drive.


glad to have been of some help.

 

[bman2005]

Yeah - just learn to deal with it..and learn from it. Thanks for the help.

regarding DVD-RAM discs... how managble is a DVD-RAM really? I mean, is it fast enough to actually work? I find it hard to believe that and optical drive can keep up with my Raptor

 

[pcaceit]

Naaaaaa wont trouble raptor in contest.
But they are amazing, I've been using two Makes "Datasafe and panasonic" the datasafe has no specs on it and the panasonic says it's a "2~3Xspeed"
wierd? i think the datasafe is faster, ive dropped 20MB files on it and was waiting for it to write but it was done already, and when you delete a file its almost as quick as hard drive.... I'm quite impressed with them. i'll time a full 4.7g data write and post results.

 

[bman2005]

Whoa!

You make it sound nice...or at least better then what I expected.
I really should give it a try. I mean, the only thing I think that I need more storage for (ie another HD purchase) is for non memory intensive things like music files and pictures. The DVD-RAM would more than happily manage that type of data with little trouble.

I will give it a try. Let me know what the results are of your 4.7.
I will buy a disc next time I'm at the store. Does everyone carry DVD-RAM ? BB / Ccity etc?

 

[pcaceit]

i dont know those stores, but they are widely available, i'm in uk and even TESCO sells them, so usual pc places will have them.