I got most of my answers from Nero’s site (www.nero.com) and use Mitsui CD’s exclusively. In point of fact though, if you are using a verify feature with your burning software, you should be fine. Nero has free utilities that you can use to "scandisc" your CD rom and perform other benchmarks on both the CD player as well as the disc. Worth a looksee anyhow.
Peace,
Tony
I use Nero as well. I will check these features you were talking about. I have to choose between Samsung and Sony. I got so many of them cheap.
Cheap… How much is what your going to put on the disks worth to you? As you have lots of them, make two copies of each on EACH brand AND verify EACH burn.
Bill
The ‘verify’ feature can be used to check if ISO compilations have been written correctly on the CD. This may be extremely useful if you planned to backup your valuable data in order to be able to restore them after a fatal system breakdown. It would not be much fun to find out at this very moment, that the backup CD contains bad sectors or that the files have not been written correctly. However, if you use the Nero verify feature at the end of the burn process you can be sure that the CD is readable and that all the files have been written correctly.
All you have to do to activate the verify feature is to click on the "Verify Compilation" button in Nero’s burn status. That means you can still decide, if you need verification or not while the CD is being written.
Nero will eject and reload the CD after it has been written. Afterwards it will compare all files of the compilation and will check if the file has been written correctly. For multisession compilations, Nero will compare only those files that have been written at the last burn process and ignore all other files. At the end of the verification Nero will display a summary containing information on the number of identical files, the number of different files and the number of inaccessible files, that have been found during the verify process.
The ‘verify’ feature is currently only available for ISO9660 compilations and only, if the Nero driver is installed in the system. This driver is installed automatically during the Nero installation.
Bill…phew!!!Might have to do that
🙁 It will be so confusing though having 2 copies of everything.
Is there any problems with the length of the name if I have names like this-
n_3dMayafilesPlus_1
It depends on the mode you are writing in. When I produce CD’s for clients, they are always 8.3 ISO 9660; when I back up information I use "relaxed" restrictions, assuming that I will most likely always be in Windows or have access to legacy Windows OS’s to transfer info should I need to.
So, IMO, that type of naming convention is fine for your own use – it’s when you get into unknown environments (like distributing a CD) that’s it’s best to stay in ISO 9660.
Peace,
Tony
I thought that name is OK for ISO as well. Correct me if I am wrong. I think underscore is ok…..OR?
The name will be ok with relaxed ISO restrictions. But for cross platform use, 8.3 is what I’ve always used.
If you have a 30 char name with underscores, it’s okay with relaxed ISO Level 2, but when viewed in DOS for example, it will be truncated to 8.3.
I thought that name is OK for ISO as well. Correct me if I am wrong. I think underscore is ok…..OR?
I read up in the help docs. I don’t understand 8.3 or 8+3. What does it mean? 8 charecters long but what is the .3
or + 3?
the "3" is the three character extension. For example: myfile.ext is a 6.3 (6+3) filename.
Remember DOS? It only allowed 8 chars max infront of the period, and three behind the period. That’s 8.3;
Windows opened that up, allowing filenames to be 255 chars long. But CD Standards, specifically ISO 9660 Level 2 limit file names to 30 chars in front of the period and three behind it.
So if you take a ISO9660 level 2 recorded disc and put it in a DOS machine, the filename will have 8 chars and will look like this: myfile~1.ext
If its for your own use, don’t worry about it, but as far as I know, 30 chars will be the limit unless you want to obviate ISO 9660 rules altogether.
OK but what about a folder it does not have an extension…..
Just because it does not have one does not mean that it cannot have one. I have folders that look like this:
RawPSD.001
RawPSD.002
Perfectly legal, albeit uncommon.
All is clear. So i will stick with the current naming convention. As it is only for my backup.
Or maybe I should change it to strict ISO standard.
Who knows maybe one day Apple will have 99% of the PC market and then it will be easier to transfer my data 🙂
Len that^’s a good point. Indesign has.4. What happens then?
Nick,
Who knows maybe one day Apple will have 99% of the PC market and then it will be easier to transfer my data 🙂
You *could* do that but here’s my personal rationale.
If I ever go to a more limited OS or one that will not read my mission critical backups, I’ll know in advance. When or if that time comes, I’ll re-burn if necessary (although I doubt it will happen).
In the meantime, I have DESCRIPTIVE file names and folder names. Much better when I want to find things a year from now, and I can guarantee that I won’t be in a Mac this time next year <grin>.
Peace,
Tony
Windoze Folders CAN have extensions too. Even DOS Directories have been able to have them. But they don’t HAVE to have them. The space for it is reserved in the file name data block. If you don’t use an extension, it is empty space that was set up when the folder (OLDE TERM – Directory) was created.
* required disclaimer- The above is close enough to reality, even if perchance a small error or three snuck in, to explain what is going on. Hard core Operating System Programmers are free to add in comments IF it will help out someone who is rather new to this stuff**
* *Stuff: Noun used to replace a term that is not normally acceptable in this forum
Bill
Len that^’s a good point. Indesign has.4. What happens then?
Windoes 95 & up use a different method/methods of storing file/folder/directory names. I think 95 used a link table to the long file name. With FAT16 and up being able to store it all in one place up to a maximum 256 character length character name.
It is the operating system, NOT the program, that sets the maximum character limit.
Nick,
When I back up my files, I use ISO 9660 Level 2.
Basically you cannot write INDD files to a cd using strict ISO9660……The extension will be truncated to IND.
Thanks as usuall guys. Very informative.
I recommend ALWAYS burning 2 copies of every CD. I have a friend who goes one step further and keeps one set at work, another at home.
If your data is valuable to you, then you should take every precaution to protect it.
CDs are fragile.
And DON"T use a post-it note to label it temporarily. I did this and when I pulled it off, it tore a section of the foil with it. It made the CD useless and I learned a painful lesson, as I had no backup.
I normally put them in a CD book and put a label on the plastic sleeve.
There’s a free program called CDCheck that can be used to check a copy of a file, folder or disk against the original.
My burner doesn’t have the facility, so it comes very handy. Worth a try…
<
http://www.elpros.si/CDCheck/news.php>
I place an extra HD in the computer and back up to that. Also, I use USB to another HD backup and place that HD "offsite".
My burner software does a verify on the last disk of set of multiple copies. The program looks like it would be a good way to check the others. The CRC generation should allow checking CDs for degrade with time.
Thanks,
Bill
"The CRC generation should allow checking CDs for degrade with time"
So what they degrade as well? I thought as long as you handle them carefully they would last 20+ years easily.
I have started burning 2 of each. I verify them with my burning software. Then I re-verify by manually going through the CD and opening files randomly.
The 1st set would be kept in cold storage ie I won’t touch them. The 2nd set will be used for retriving files, textures etc etc.
Now if someone tells me to make 3 back up copies instead of 2… then I will have to shoot myself 🙂
Is sliding in and out of the plastic sleeves damaging for the CD?
God this is taking so long to backup.
Tell you what when everything is backed up I will regularly do backup of new stuff. Dont want to go through this ever again 🙂
nick: use joliet for long file name, it will leave your naming convention the way that it is.
As far as how long it took, I think your time must be worth at least a cheap HD that is hot swappable. I have dedicated HDs just for backup. I got so damn tired of stacks of CDs for backup, it was depressing.
I have dedicated HDs just for backup
I like that better than CD’s for backup; we’re going to firewire externals.
Hmm! Now you guys got me thinking even more. At present I have 2 internal HD’s on myPC and 20GB worth of data to back up. On each HD I have the same 20GB data duplicated. The HD’s are getting full + I though I should not take chance with my files.
Maybe I should go DVD or External HD route as well.
More ££$$!!!**!! I will need to install a firewire card as well.USB will be too slow…won’t it?
My wife would love me 🙂
I just spent tons of cash recently.
* *What happens when your external HD is full?:-) What happens if you get a virus in your external^backup data HD? With burnt CD/DVD atleast you know the datat is secure.
Check this out, the future 🙂
<
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1200791,00.asp>
OK I digress now. On my PC I have Athlon XP2000, 1.3GB+ of RAM, 2HD’s, DVD player, CD burner, Zip drive.
I am slowly getting into bit of video editing,effects, 3d animation. I don’t have firewire on my PC or a network card at this moment.
Now if I go the external HD route for backup then I will need the firewire card. My CPU’s runs pretty hot 56°. Now if I install firewire card + network card. I will probably install another fan in my case to deal with the extra heat.
I am not sure if my Power supply can handle all this action. What is the minimum I would need? I am not sure but currently I have a 250 or 300 watt PSU. (I will check when I go home)
On the other hand I was also thinking of getting a new PC in 6 months time and using the current one as a network render box.
This PC is 2+ years old. I am not sure whether I should throw any money on this PC. What would you suggest?
That’s a nice one. Too expensive for me though.
LaCie FireWire & USB Harddisks
* 500 GB Firewire Harddisk, LaCie BigDisk 10ms, 7200rpm, 8MB Cache
I am taking donations. Every little bit helps:-)
My account details -AnotherPoorArtist 2339 Credit Swiss.
In theory, you should do 3 (an odd number, anyway). 😉
No really! In that way you can do "best of 3" to determine the "correct" data. NASA insures data integrity in that way, actually they do "best of 5" (plus much more, I gather).
Having said all that, I do the same as you do. My "originals" are on gold/gold CDRs (purported to last 100 years) while the "working copy" is on a plain-vanilla silver CDR.
I shy away from both checksums and compression. If you do compression it’s advisable to compress each file separately, so if an archive is nuked you don’t lose all files in it.
Don.
—
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 13:06:52 -0700, nick/slickrenderer
wrote:
"The CRC generation should allow checking CDs for degrade with time"
So what they degrade as well? I thought as long as you handle them carefully they would last 20+ years easily.
I have started burning 2 of each. I verify them with my burning software. Then I re-verify by manually going through the CD and opening files randomly.
The 1st set would be kept in cold storage ie I won’t touch them. The 2nd set will be used for retriving files, textures etc etc.
Now if someone tells me to make 3 back up copies instead of 2… then I will have to shoot myself 🙂
usb 2.0 is as fast as firewire and a lot of the drives are coming out usb 2.o
I have USB-1 unfortunately and USB is not that fast compared to say Firewire 800..
Plus USB2 tranfer rate fluctuates a lot.
Anyway are firewire800 boards available for PC yet?
FireWire 800 PCI Board
by LaCie Compatible with Mac and PC operating systems, the LaCie FireWire 800 PCI Card offers fast installation with no software or drivers required. Simply attach a FireWire device to the card and begin downloading large amounts of digital data in mere seconds.
90$ not bad. Do they generate lot of heat?
<
http://www.macfriends.com/pages/products/pciupgradeboards.ht ml>
think about this… i’m thinking the life of a dvd in a case will be longer than a drive on a shelf in an antistatic bag…
RE: Power supply and temperature
Check the AMD site for temperature limits on the different chips. As best I can remember (I’m NOT at my house Photoshop machine and the people here think MS-PAINT is all we need.) I have the warning set at 70 C with 90 being "melt-down" on my AMD XP 1700+ machine.
Matrox 400-G
Sound card
Modem
USB-2
Ethernet-card
0.75 Gig PC-2100 memory
2 HDs
CD-R/RW
DVD-R/RW
ABIT mother board
The power supply seems borderline. I think 350 W is recommended. I’d be more worried about that than about the temperature you reported.
The USB-2 card cost me about $20 US and the specs for USB-2 put the data transfer rate above FireWire.
Bill
think about this… i’m thinking the life of a dvd in a case will be longer than a drive on a shelf in an antistatic bag…
And, if you drop a DVD to the floor it is still likely to work… don’t try that with a hard drive!
nick, if you are looking to get a new machine, then network the two machines and use the second one for BUs (mine also doubles as a phone fax machine).
viol8ion: you’d be surprised how much shock a HD can take (including dropping it from four feet several times), has a tendency to stop working after being hit by a bat and launched about eighty feet several times though.
OK just an update. I decided not to get the DVD burner or the external HD for now. I will just burn the bloody CD’s on Saturday. Actually I am about to start now. These are the options I have choosen in Nero under ISO>
ISO level-2 (max. of 31 Charecters)
Mode-1
ISO 9660
Joliet
Allow path of more than 8 charecters.
When I hit burn I get the message –
This compilation does not meet the ISO 9660 standard ie: it contains atleast one folder with pathdepth of more than 8 levels and /or pathname longer than 255 charecters. Are you sure you want to allow this?
Should I ignore this? message and burn. I burnt it and everything seems ok. Is there anything I am overlooking?
nick/
It should be okay, as long as you can access all info on the disc. All that error means is that your format does not meet ISO9660 standards. If a device that adhered to ISO9660 strictly were to attempt to read the disc, it might not see those files that are beyond the 8th directory level or 255 characters.
Thanks for the confirmation. I just saw your web site. You are one funky dude 🙂 Meant in the nicest way 🙂
