Back-Up to CDs

[JH]

Before I started the back-up process, I inserted a new,
blank CD-RW disk into the CD writer drive (E Drive). Then
I started the Back-Up wizard. When I tried to select the E
Drive to store the back-up files, the wizard would only
permit me to use the floppy disk drive. Why is that? Also,
before I can write to a brand new CD_RW disk, do I need to
format it? If so, what is the procedure?

Thanks,

JH

 

[Mike]

Your looking for a "DLA" driver (Drive Letter Access)
from your computer manufacturer. Go to their website, do
the search, install the driver/software. It will give
your the option of having the CD act just as a normal
hard drive. I use it this way to back up my Quicken
files.

 

[Darrell]

Normally, to write to a CD you need to do so either through a CD burning
program like Nero or EZ CD Creator or WinXP's Explore.
You can't do it from a backup program. Unless.... you prepare the CD for
"packet writing" with a program like Direct CD. That uses up some of the
room on the CD for the formatting and you would need to have Direct CD on
any computer you put the CD in. Until you are finished writing to that CD
and "finalize" it to be read on any PC.

 

[NobodyMan]

Normally, to write to a CD you need to do so either through a CD burning
program like Nero or EZ CD Creator or WinXP's Explore.
You can't do it from a backup program. Unless.... you prepare the CD for
"packet writing" with a program like Direct CD. That uses up some of the
room on the CD for the formatting and you would need to have Direct CD on
any computer you put the CD in. Until you are finished writing to that CD
and "finalize" it to be read on any PC.

Even if you place a UDF program on your system, then format your CDR/W
to use it, you won't have any luck using the MS backup program. It
won't recognize the CDR as a valid backup media.

I've used some backup programs that would (third party stuff), but
some of them didn't span CDRWs, so that didn't work either. Some
utilities will work with CDRW, AND will span. YMMV. Do a google
search to find what you are looking for.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Before I started the back-up process, I inserted a new,
blank CD-RW disk into the CD writer drive (E Drive). Then
I started the Back-Up wizard. When I tried to select the E
Drive to store the back-up files, the wizard would only
permit me to use the floppy disk drive. Why is that?

Two reasons - the inbuilt burning does not work in the mode that allows
a CD-RW as output medium from any program (see
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm). You would need third party software
for that.

And in any case the NTBackup does not recognise CDs as being removable
media so it will not span a set of them - it is essentially tale
oriented and tapes (and floppies) are the only removable media it knows
about

 

[Clavin Schwindt]

I just solved that problem for $30! Go to www.handybackup.com. This is
'shareware' that will backup the "XL" system to disks. I just did it. Of
course, individual files/folders can also be written to CDs. I did have to
go to "support" when the program would not work, but the problem was
recognized immediately and a solution provided (a new driver). CGS

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

WinXP's NTBackup does not recognize CDRs or CDRWs as valid backup
media. By design, it will only write back-ups to tape drives or
another physical or logical hard drive. Many people back-up to a
spare hard drive, and then burn the resulting file to a CD, as a
work-around. Another option, of course, is to use a 3rd party backup
solution.


Bruce Chambers

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[Alex Nichol]

I just solved that problem for $30! Go to www.handybackup.com. This is
'shareware' that will backup the "XL" system to disks.

There are lots of programs that will do it - if you pay. Depending on
whether you want a file oriented backup for data I suggest BackUpMyPC
from www.stompinc.com; or if you want to back up an exact image of a
partition, I use BootIT NG, from http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware
- 30 day full functional trial) which is also a complete partition
manager