backups to DVDs

[Jeff]

I have to help a friend to setup a backup system and she does not want
to buy an external HD. She has a CD/DVD burner. There are many messages
about backup to either tape, external HD (which is what I use) or CDs.
With her options limited to CD or DVD I was wondering if DVDs, with
their greater capacity can be used for backups of standard PC files or
if DVDs are only for video files. I know it is a basic question but I am
not up on burning DVDs as I have never done it.

Jeff

 

[Xandros]

Yes DVD's can be used for backup like CD's providing of course that your
burner is a DVD burner. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) XP's native
burning software will not burn to DVD. You need third party software like
Nero or Roxio or one of the many freeware programs that will do this. Use
the DVD Data copy option. However DVD's sometimes have trouble with reading
multi session burned files so you do a Disk At Once burn.

 

[peter]

As Xndros stated XP does not natively burn to DVD you will need an external
program.If you are using the XP Backup Utility you can back up to a folder
on your/her HD and then burn that file to a DVD...providing the file is not
larger than the capacity of the DVD.
peter

 

[HeyBub]

I have to help a friend to setup a backup system and she does not want
to buy an external HD. She has a CD/DVD burner. There are many
messages about backup to either tape, external HD (which is what I
use) or CDs. With her options limited to CD or DVD I was wondering if
DVDs, with their greater capacity can be used for backups of standard
PC files or if DVDs are only for video files. I know it is a basic
question but I am not up on burning DVDs as I have never done it.

Sure. With DVD capacities in the neighborhood of 4Gb, to backup an 80Gig
drive, she'll need, let me see, mumble-mumble, carry the two, ah, about
twenty DVDs and maybe six to ten hours.

Depending on the breaks.

 

[Poprivet]

I have to help a friend to setup a backup system and she does not want
to buy an external HD. She has a CD/DVD burner. There are many
messages about backup to either tape, external HD (which is what I
use) or CDs. With her options limited to CD or DVD I was wondering if
DVDs, with their greater capacity can be used for backups of standard
PC files or if DVDs are only for video files. I know it is a basic
question but I am not up on burning DVDs as I have never done it.

Jeff

CD - DVD; same thing except one holds a lot more data than the other. Since
she has a CD/DVE burner it's capable of burning DVDs; you just make a data
DVD same as you would for a CD.
Assuming you have the burning software of course.

A DVD holds realistically about 4 Gig of data each. So, depending on how
much space her files take up, it might require several DVDs and a lot more
CDs to hold a complete backup.

Depending on the size of data she has to backup and how often she wants to
do it, the cost of the media might well pay for an external drive in a year
or so, not counting the very considerable amount of time it would also save.
External drives have gotten very cheap lately, esp the smaller ones. An
external drive should be about 4 times as large as the drive it's backing up
in order to hold more than one or two backups at a time plus incrementals,
IF she wants to go that far.
But if all she's looking to back up is the operating system stuff or just
her data, DVDs should work fine for most less than heavy users. It's kind
of a balancing act.

Personally, I use an imaging software that makes a full backup once a
month and incrementals every night, plus I leave a DVD in the drive for
instant-backups of my most critical data I've been working on. But that
could be serious overkill for her situation; she'll have to decide and
probably later, not now, if she isn't sure. Not unusual. Start with the
DVDs and think about an external drive later if it becomes too much hassle.

HTH

Pop`

 

[Panic]

Backing up to CD/DVD presents many problems. Since she won't buy an
external hard drive how about a USB flash drive? They're getting very cheap
and some have quite a bit of capacity. Today's paper has a Fry's ad selling
a 4GB flash drive for $37.99 with a $20 mail in rebate so it's just $17.99.
A DVD has 4.7GB capacity so a flash drive could be her answer. If she
doesn't back up that much data I see a 1GB flash drive selling for $11.99
with a $5 mail in rebate for a final cost of $6.99.

Cheap...handy...and fully useable with no problems at all.

 

[Lil' Dave]

I have to help a friend to setup a backup system and she does not want to
buy an external HD. She has a CD/DVD burner. There are many messages about
backup to either tape, external HD (which is what I use) or CDs. With her
options limited to CD or DVD I was wondering if DVDs, with their greater
capacity can be used for backups of standard PC files or if DVDs are only
for video files. I know it is a basic question but I am not up on burning
DVDs as I have never done it.

Jeff

Seems to me it depends how you burn to DVD, and how you intend to read the
DVD later when restoring the data. Windows backup cannot/will not backup
directly to DVD.

If the data is extremely important, you should use ISO 9660 format. This
can be read from any PC that can read a data DVD. The filesize limitation
is just under 2GB in this format. Use this for a true archiver, not for
rewriting modified data files previously saved. The effort here is save to
external media important files the user never wants to lose. Do not use
multi-session option as some PCs can't read anything but the last session on
such DVDs.
Dave

 

[Poprivet]

Seems to me it depends how you burn to DVD, and how you intend to
read the DVD later when restoring the data. Windows backup
cannot/will not backup directly to DVD.

If the data is extremely important, you should use ISO 9660 format. This
can be read from any PC that can read a data DVD. The filesize
limitation is just under 2GB in this format. Use this for a true
archiver, not for rewriting modified data files previously saved. The
effort here is save to external media important files the user
never wants to lose. Do not use multi-session option as some PCs
can't read anything but the last session on such DVDs.

Until the files are "closed" out and set to play on any player. Such choice
usually pop up when the disk is ejected. Whether single or multi-session,
the only diff is how/when the disk is closed.
Check your documentation for specifics.

 

[E. Barry Bruyea]

Seems to me it depends how you burn to DVD, and how you intend to read the
DVD later when restoring the data. Windows backup cannot/will not backup
directly to DVD.

If the data is extremely important, you should use ISO 9660 format. This
can be read from any PC that can read a data DVD. The filesize limitation
is just under 2GB in this format. Use this for a true archiver, not for
rewriting modified data files previously saved. The effort here is save to
external media important files the user never wants to lose. Do not use
multi-session option as some PCs can't read anything but the last session on
such DVDs.
Dave

I use DVD's to back up files; just burn them as data files and make
sure the disk is closed.