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Uvah
Uvah
Join Date 05/2006
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Question about DVD drives.

April 17, 2014 3:49:03 PM from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Bought DVD-RW discs for additional backups. My laptop has a DVD-RW drive and I checked with device manager and it says its working properly. I checked online for a driver update and it came back that the latest driver is already installed. I put a disc in it and first it didn't see it. After several tries it finally saw the disc and I was able to copy the installer packages I saved as backups. Then when I tried to copy other folders it came back saying the drive is a CD-ROM and not re-writable after I had already moved several folders to it. Now I tried to create a system image and put it on another disc. It formatted the disc and ran the backup. An hour later it came back saying Windows found errors on the disc and canceled the image. Now I insert a disc and it is not even being seen. I encountered this problem on other machines, not just my laptop. Why is this always a problem?

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Uvah
gevansmd
Join Date 12/2008
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Reply #1 April 17, 2014 4:14:02 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

What software are you using for the backups? m Or are you just doing a drag and drop with Explorer?

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Uvah
Wizard1956
Join Date 01/2008
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Reply #2 April 17, 2014 4:28:58 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

DVD-RW is a poor choice for backups. I know you are hoping to be able to use them over and over again but they are only good for a couple uses then they go bad. If you want to archive things on disc, DVD-R is a better choice. Buy a large bundle of them and they will be rather inexpensive and the odds of them working later are much better.(especially if used in another drive or machine.) Also, some brands tend to work better with some burners than others. so you may want to try first with single or 5 packs to see what works best with yours.

Better yet, save up your bucks and buy a cheap external drive to back up on. It will be far more reliable. If that is out of reach for now, buy a few flash drives. They hold far more than a DVD does, can be used over and over many times and will work when you need them to. A couple 16GB units won't cost much more than a stack of DVD's.

If making System Recovery Discs...NEVER use RW discs. You'll regret it later if you do.

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Uvah
AceMatrix
Join Date 01/2010
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Reply #3 April 17, 2014 5:14:28 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Also , in addition to what Wizard has stated , some disc burning software has an option box that you tick to close the disc so that new files cannot be added to it after the burn is completed. Make sure this option is NOT selected if you are using rewritable disks in the drive.      -- Ace --

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Uvah
kkunderwood
Join Date 10/2003
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Reply #4 April 17, 2014 5:31:21 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

I use an external 1TB hard disk and Casper disk clone software. Casper creates a bootable, incremental clone of your hard drive. Every evening I hook up the external hard drive to the SATA-3 USB port on my laptop. Casper automatically starts up and updates the clone. This typically takes only 10 minutes, but will take longer if I have installed a big package or the defragger has decided that my internal drive needs attention.

Cost: US$130 for the 1TB external hard drive, Casper 8.0 US$50

True, you have only one backup version, but it is bootable and I used it to upgrade my 2@750GB (raid0) HDD to 2@1TB (raid1) SSHD. I just updated the external clone, removed the hard drives, installed the hybrid hard drives, changed the BIOS setting from raid0 to raid1, connected the external clone and booted. Then I ran Casper and had the clone copied to the internal drives. Then I booted up on the internal drives.

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Uvah
Uvah
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #5 April 17, 2014 5:54:45 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Always thought RW discs were the way to go if I wanted to add stuff to it. Thanks for tips guys. Really appreciate it.

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Uvah
Uvah
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #6 April 17, 2014 5:58:53 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting gevansmd,
reply 1

What software are you using for the backups? m Or are you just doing a drag and drop with Explorer?

Right click and move to folder.

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Uvah
Jafo
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #7 April 17, 2014 6:46:55 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting Uvah,
reply 5

Always thought RW discs were the way to go if I wanted to add stuff to it. Thanks for tips guys. Really appreciate it.

One upon a time....sort of last century....yes.

These days...if it's not an external HD it's at least a USB flash drive.

CD RW and DVD RW are old tech not worth considering as they are somewhat 'fragile'...

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Uvah
Uvah
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #8 April 17, 2014 7:48:10 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Well...at least I can use them for storage if nothing else. Problem is when I insert the disc that I put all the installer packages, plus the backup skins on it takes like forever to read it and when it does come up it doesn't show anything I put on it. All it says is that I have 4.26 gigs free of 4.26 gigs on the disc. Why won't it read it? If I can't access the disc I lose all that. Damn!

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Uvah
BernieTime
Join Date 10/2009
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Reply #9 April 23, 2014 12:59:11 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Writable media like CD and DVD actually have a shelf life and will degrade over time depending on quality, storage, & handling.  I think a good quality CD/DVD is expected to last 7-ish years, so if you have things you want off of old media it might be time to move that data someplace else.

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Uvah
kona0197
Join Date 02/2003
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Reply #10 April 23, 2014 4:13:27 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

So how would i go about transferring a Windows installation disc to a different media, say a USB stick?

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Uvah
Gaspershooters
Join Date 08/2008
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Reply #11 April 23, 2014 4:35:14 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Pack it as .iso,you're are free to go. 

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Uvah
kona0197
Join Date 02/2003
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Reply #12 April 23, 2014 9:53:42 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

It's not bootable as an ISO is it?

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Uvah
Gaspershooters
Join Date 08/2008
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Reply #13 April 23, 2014 10:04:10 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

http://www.askvg.com/a-bootable-usb-utility-to-create-bootable-usb-drive-to-install-windows-vista-server-2008-and-7/

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Uvah
Jafo
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #14 April 23, 2014 10:23:27 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Had a go at bootable USB OS installs....

...had no luck....

...turned out to be bad ram....after hours of head scratching....

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Uvah
RedneckDude
Join Date 04/2009
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Reply #15 April 24, 2014 12:47:08 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting Jafo,
reply 14
Had a go at bootable USB OS installs....
I have had success installing Windows 7 onto a rig with no DVD drive by using a usb flash drive made bootable with Rufus.

 

Rufus does all the work, all you need is a install iso.

 

http://rufus.akeo.ie/ 

 

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Uvah
kona0197
Join Date 02/2003
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Reply #16 April 24, 2014 1:02:35 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

OK so what is the best program to use to make an ISO?

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Uvah
Gaspershooters
Join Date 08/2008
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Reply #17 April 24, 2014 4:11:20 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Googling it,genius.  

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Uvah
kona0197
Join Date 02/2003
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Reply #18 April 24, 2014 4:47:12 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Google will give me a list of programs that make an ISO. I was looking for others opinions. Google can't do that.

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Uvah
Uvah
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #19 April 24, 2014 5:58:14 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Google gives you options as to which program will create an ISO. Run down the list, choose a freebie if that's what you're looking for, but read the comments and what the proggie can and cannot do. Then pick one. I grabbed WinXDVD copy Pro when it was a freebie on BitsDeJuer (? spelling). It can create an ISO and burn it to disc. Good luck.

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Uvah
Gaspershooters
Join Date 08/2008
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Reply #20 April 24, 2014 8:49:54 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Thank you,Uvah. At least,someone did search than kept asking questions that can be found on the net. 

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Uvah
IROKONESS
Join Date 04/2007
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Reply #21 April 24, 2014 8:56:20 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

I'm so glad google doesn't say, "go see a human".    Then start laughing.

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Uvah
Uvah
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #22 April 24, 2014 9:04:46 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

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Uvah
Wizard1956
Join Date 01/2008
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Reply #23 April 24, 2014 9:32:24 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

ImgBurn

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Uvah
Jafo
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #24 April 24, 2014 9:42:04 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting IROKONESS,
reply 21
I'm so glad google doesn't say, "go see a human". Then start laughing.

Yes, but it SHOULD...

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Uvah
IROKONESS
Join Date 04/2007
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Reply #25 April 24, 2014 10:54:47 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Indeed. Not yet..  

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