Hi guys

I have been backing up my DVDs for a while and after the initial troubles of getting the right media for the job, I am pretty pleased with the copies I have made. Now I decided to use DVDs to back up my data, rather than CDs and that's where the trouble starts. So far, I haven't been able to produce a backup that actually works. It doesn't matter if I use +r, +rw, -r or -rw media, nothing really works. The last batch of media, TEAK DVD+R (CMC) give me pretty decent PI/PO results with K-Probe (PI < 30 and PO < 0.5) but almost any file on the discs is unreadable or corrupt. When I use Nero 6 to burn the discs, the verify run stops rather instantly with errors, usually because of not accessable files. I also used CopyToDVD to write the discs but with no luck. Even varying the write speed doesn't make a difference, actually burning at a slower speed results in worse K-Probe scans.

Is there anybody out there who has managed to get a working backup done with the 411s? If so, what media did you use and what's the trick? I am rather desperate to get things going. I have just finished to store my entire CD collection (> 500) as MP3s on my server and I'd hate to see the two weeks of work disappear into the Nirvana if anything happens to the harddrive that holds the MP3s.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
DaMista

mine worked fine. used datasafe g04 -r, datasafe ricohjpnr01 +r and ridata ritekr003 +r without any CRC errors or unreadable stuff. Note that with the r003, u get better kprobes with the 811.

I'm using el cheapo Datastream +RW discs for my data backup and have had no problems what so ever, the verify works fine. I also use Richo +RW and Verbatim -RW no problems there either, I am using the latest version of Nero 6.3.1.10 and as yet all my data backs are fine. I actually did a restore of 4Gig of quake 3 files just the other day and no probs what so ever.

Thanks guys, I'll go out and look for different media. It seems to be a bit hard to get decent media here. Usually I use TDK, Imation, Verbatim or TEAK in + and -r and they do a good enough job for Movies. It's just the data backups that are stuffing me around.

Cheers
DaMista

well a file is a file so i am not really understanding why ifo and bup files are fine and other files are not.

what do the kprobes look like of your data disc?

The KProbe scans look quite ok. The discs of the latest batch TEAK +R (CMC) comes back with PI < 30 and PO < 0.5.

I don't really understand the problem myself but I discovered something interesting this afternoon. I went down to BigW to see what discs they have and bought a TDK -RW and an Imation -RW to sample them. I backed up ca. 2.5GB on both of them and on a Verbatim +RW. Nero wrote the discs without a problem but stopped the verify run after only seconds with the same error report every time: 217 Files on disc, 20 different and 197 inaccessable. That I thought was a bit weird, so I decided to write one of the discs with CopyToDVD. What do I see? I can access files on the disc. I can even copy the whole disc onto the harddrive. Now that to me looks like a Nero problem. Sure I can't verify the disc using CopyToDVD but I can get the files off the disc. I started using Nero because I use it for CDs and Video DVDs get better KProbe results when they are written with Nero rather than CloneDVD for example. Now with data DVDs it seems to be that Nero (6.0 btw.) isn't the best choice. I'll keep testing for a while...

Mista

When you`re burning data files to dvd make sure the settings are iso level 2 and that the file names are`nt being changed so that you only get part of the name and then they all look the same which confuses things.

Ok, I did a few more tests and it seems to confirm my suspicions regarding Nero 6.0. Out of the three discs I tested, all three failed the data verification in Nero and were also (partially or completely) unreadable. Writing the same content using CopyToDVD was more successful. The Verbatim DatalifePlus DVD+RW 2.4x (MCCA01) and the TDK DVD-RW 2x (TDK502sakuM3) were readable and their content could be copied from the DVD onto my HDD. I tested a few files (ZIP archives and executables) and they seem ok. The third disc, an Imation DVD-RW 1x (OPTODISCK001) failed miserably, so I take it that the medium is just crap. As happy as I am with Imation + and -r media for movies (CMC), I will keep my fingers off the RW versions.

What bugs me is, why discs fail when they are written with Nero and yet, writing Video DVDs, Nero beats everything I used before when it comes to KProbe results. ANybody got an idea? I'll have to see that I upgrade 6.0 to 6.3 in the hope things have changed.

Mista

Just added some KProbe scans of the discs after they were written with CopyToDVD. Please note, that the scan of the Verbatim isn't complete. KProbe came up with a "servo error" at 99.8% or something, so I interrupted the run. It's close enough to the end anyway. The results for the Imation disk are pretty shocking I'd say

damista
I would try the upgrade of nero to version 6.3.1.10 and see how you go, there have been a lot of bugs fixes since version 6.0 came out,if you want to check out whats been fixed here is a link to neros release notes.

http://ahead.de/en/632011181528025.html

Go for YUDEN000T01 +R if you can ... these work very good with the 411S but are rather expensive.

And as a former owner of a 411S, I would advise you to get rid of that drive ... it's a decent reader, but the general LiteOn writing quality isn't up to par.

And don't take K-Probe scans too serious ... the LiteOn drives (being good readers in terms of tolerance to low-level errors) do not suffer that much (in terms of producing PI errors/ PI failures) from low-level errors like Jitter and Asym ... other drives surely will.

Im keeping my 411s due to the fact that everything i burn plays on my ps2 and dvd player and to avoid buying crap blank dvds that people tend to blame liteon for poor write quality.

Hi guys

I got hold of a batch of Taiyo Yuden (TYG01) DVD-R today for a pretty good price(A$68 for a spindle of 50) and tried to make a backup. Guys, I am happy This disc has the best KProbe scans I have ever seen (PI=19.6, PO=0.0). It copys beautifully back onto the harddrive, programs work and zipped archives are ok as well. Looks like these discs are top quality. I must add though, that I have upgraded Nero from 6.0 to 6.3, so that may make a difference as well.

cheers
Tom