LG-Electronics GSA-4160B dual-layer DVD writer compatibility

[Paul Bourke]

I recently purchased the above model LG-Electronics DVD writer drive. I have updated the drive's firmware to LG-Electronics' latest issued firmware version.

 

Products such as Roxio's Easy-CD & DVD Creator and Nero support this drive in all its writing modes without a problem.

 

I understand that Retrospect interfaces with hardware in a different manner from those products.

 

I downloaded the trial version of Retrospect Professional 6.5 and the latest drivers update.

 

Having attempted unsuccessfully to custom configure my writer for use with Retrospect and DVD+RW media (which works perfectly under the aforementioned burning products), I get the impression that my writer is not currently compatible/supported (it's certainly not on the supported list).

 

When I attempt custom configuration of this writer, I click on Configure>Devices>Environment. I find my writer listed as "Devices visible using ASPI..." It's the master drive on the 2nd IDE channel. Right-clicking and selecting "configure", I then insert DVD+RW media into the drive. Retrospect says "Custom Configuration In Progress Blanking disc..." but shortly afterwards, it says "Retrospect was unable to configure this drive with the inserted CD-RW media. Would you like to try again with a different disc or media type (e.g. CD-R, DVD+R)?"

 

It's odd (to me) that Retrospect's latter message refers to CD-RW media, when it was DVD+RW media that was actually inserted (though this may be only a minor point).

 

When prompted, I elected to send the error report to Dantz engineers.

 

I then tried custom configuration again, using CD-RW media in the drive. This time, the "Blanking disc..." message stayed up for much longer, about 20 minutes, after which I saw "Checking writing method...". Retrospect then ejected and reloaded the disc, then it said "Verifying the test data written..." then "Trying to append test data..." then another eject/reload operation, then more "Verifying the test data written..." and finally a success message.

 

So CD-RW media seems to be accepted by Retrospect with this drive, but I was disappointed that DVD+RW media seems to be a no-go at this time.

 

I suppose I'm wondering - how often does Dantz release driver updates which (hopefully) will eventually include my hardware? I realise my hardware is "fairly new" in that dual-layer DVD writers have only just come on the market here (in Australia) in the last few months so naturally the Retrospect team needs time to include support for this hardware... but I need a backup solution ASAP (!) and other than this "minor detail" of the fact that my hardware isn't supported, Retrospect looks like a terrific product (!)

 

Also I read something in the knowledgebase articles that mentions having software such as DirectCD installed can cause problems for Retrospect. I do have this installed and I wonder if getting rid of it could enable Retrospect to accept DVD+RW media? Though I tend to doubt this because the CD-RW test appears to have worked without a problem.

 

Thanks for any insights people may have to offer here.

 

Paul Bourke

Sydney, Australia

[natew]

Hi

 

Uninstalling EZ CD creator and running the autoconfiguration wizard is worth a try.

 

What brand of DVD+RW media did you use for the configuration? Be sure to use good quality media, otherwise you can have bad results. Have you tried DVD+R media? That may work as the write method will differ from that of RW media.

 

Unfortunately its anyone's guess as to when drives get native support.

 

Hope that helps

 

Nate

[cvisual]

Hi

 

I have this drive too, (and a registered/legal copy of Retrospect 6.5.350 Win), and winXP SP2. Nero works fine, but retrospect don´t recognize this device.

Even on Configure>Devices>Environment I don´t get this device listed (only my HD Drives).

Maybe a ASPI error - (how can I install ASPI devices for it?)

How can I turn around this problem?

 

 

Best regards (and sorry my poor English)

 

Antonio

[natew]

Hi

 

You can install ASPI with the ASPIINST.exe installer in the Retrospect program folder.

 

Does this device show up at all in the configure->devices->environment window?

 

Thanks

Nate

[cvisual]

Hi Nate

 

First, thanks for your reply...

 

I already install ASPI drivers and with ASPICheck I get this log:

 

LOG0166: *****************************************************************

LOG0167: Starting ASPICHK installer on Thu Sun 09 11:52:51 2004

ASPICHK0492: OS = Windows NT (5.01.2600)

ASPICHK0499: Platform = INTEL

UPGRADE0626: c:\windows\system32\wnaspi32.dll dated 09/10/1999 12:06:00, 45056 bytes.

UPGRADE0687: c:\windows\system32\wnaspi32.dll version 4.6.0.1021

UPGRADE0626: c:\windows\system\winaspi.dll dated 09/10/1999 12:06:00, 5600 bytes.

UPGRADE0687: c:\windows\system\winaspi.dll version 4.6.0.1021

UPGRADE0626: c:\windows\system32\drivers\aspi32.sys dated 09/10/1999 12:06:00, 25244 bytes.

UPGRADE0687: c:\windows\system32\drivers\aspi32.sys version 4.6.0.1021

UPGRADE0626: c:\windows\system\wowpost.exe dated 09/10/1999 12:06:00, 4672 bytes.

UPGRADE0687: c:\windows\system\wowpost.exe version 4.6.0.1021

ASPICHK0639: ASPI is properly installed and is fully operational. A total of 2 host adapters have been detected.

LOG0249: Closing installer log on Thu Sun 09 11:52:52 2004

LOG0250: *****************************************************************

 

 

 

But nothing happens, on retrospect -configure->devices->environment window my LG isn't listed... Any Idea?

 

Oh - I have one onboard IDE interface (where LG is plugged - ASUS P2BDS mainboard) and one Promise Ultra100 TX2 where the HDs are plugged) - (only HDs are listed ono Retrospect Devices).

 

 

Thanks and best regards

 

Antonio

[natew]

Hi

 

OK, lets try this:

 

Launch Retrospect and type CTRL + ALT +P +P at any screen. On the "execution" heading, select "use NT SCSI passthrough" click OK and restart Retrospect. Any better?

 

Thanks

Nate

[BillIrwin]

This is the exact model of DVD-RAM drive I'm using, with the exact same symptoms. I haven't tested any CD media because that would be useless for me to use. I've tried with Memorex DVD+RW and Fujifilm. Thinking that pehaps the interactive nature required something better, I bought a pack of three Memorex DVD-RAM discs for C$15. Surely at $5 each these would make Retrospect happy ... same result.

 

I have Nero installed and I need to have it installed because I use my DVD-RAM for more than just backups. If uninstalling it long enough to allow Retrospect to do a custom configuration on my drive will solve it, and work after Nero's re-installed, then I'll go to the time & trouble of doing this.

 

In the meantime, I've tried using Disk backup type on formatted DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. I can get a backup, but then be told that the member isn't available when exiting. Or, with over 3GB of free space, when I try to use it I'm prompted for the 2nd member of the backup set. I can get around both of these issues by going into Configure > Backup Sets, select the 1-DVD-1 member (which shows its location as H:\) and browse to the same He: drive. After OK out the member is used properly. This consistently resolves this problem.

 

However, if I restart the computer and leave it not logged in, the next morning the backup has always failed because it's waiting for 2-DVD-1

 

I've even tried using File backups on the DVD drive and the catalog is always becoming corrupted, which requires an hour to rebuild. Then I get one or two backups before it's corrupted again. Besides, I want to be able to store the catalogs on hard disk for searching purposes.

 

The symptoms I've described with the Disk backup type sure looks like a bug in the program.

 

Bill

[natew]

Hi

 

 

 

For clarification: You cannot use DVD RW media with a disk backup set. It will cause problems. If you want to use DVD R or DVD RW media please use a CD/DVD backup set.

 

 

 

DVD RAM can be used with disk backup sets.

 

 

 

If you intend to use DVD RAM make sure you tell Retrospect to ignore the DVD drive in the configure->devices->environment tab.

 

 

 

How are you formatting your DVD RAM discs?

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Nate

[BillIrwin]

Nate:

Thanks for the reply. I can't use CD/DVD backup set with my DVD+RW because the drive isn't supported and the customization won't run. The only choice I have is Disk backup set (or File). Too bad the InCD packet writing won't support Retrospect's use.

 

I bought three DVD-RAM discs but I got the same anomalies using them as with the DVD+RWs. That is, I'd be told that 1-DVD-RAM-1 isn't available. Then, after pointing to the same drive in Backup Set Configuration, it would see the media as available. The next unattended backup after a restart would fail because it was asking for 2-DVD-RAM-1, even though the first media was nowhere near full.

 

I formatted the DVD-RAM by a right click in Windows Explorer and selecting InCD Format, then either quick or full format ... neither worked with Retrospect.

 

I've now swapped the LG DVD-RAM drive for a Pioneer DVR-108, which is supported, to see if I can get stable results. It doesn't look good because the first attempt to have Retrospect erase the disc resulted in error -100 drive rejected command, so I'm now doing a full erase with InCD before I give it back to Retrospect.

 

I would prefer to use DVD+RW over DVD-RAM because they are 1/5th the cost, but if I have to use DVD-RAM to get stability, I'll pay the premium.

 

Bill

[natew]

Hi

 

The InCD format is likely the problem. Try formatting the disk as UDF or NTFS. I suspect you will have better results.

 

What brand/type/speed of media are you using with the 108? Error 100 means the device choked on a command for some reason. There are a lot of things that can cause that. One of which is media failure.

 

nate

[BillIrwin]

How do I format a DVD+RW in UDF or NTFS? Does Windows XP have some native formatting tool for optical media?

 

One of my DVD+RW discs is Fujifilm and the other is Memorex. I don't see a speed on them. The one producing error -100 was the Fujifilm (but I didn't try the Memorex). I resolved it by turning on NT SCSI Pass-through. I don't know why this helped an XP system but I was able to get Retrospect to erase each disc and use each for a small test backup. Then I put 1.6 GB on one without an error. It's looking promising.

 

Further testing with the LG drive will have to be done remotely on a server I support, as that's where I swapped with the supported Pioneer drive. I have pcAnywhere access to the server but I don't have a disc in it currently.

 

What is the difference with a DVD-RAM disc, and why are they better ... and a lot more expensive?

 

Bill

[natew]

Hi

 

You cannot format DVD R/RW media as NTFS or UDF.

You can format DVD RAM as NTFS or UDF.

 

DVD-RAM works like a zip disk or cartridge drive. It does not require any special Retrospect drivers to use it. The OS handles all read write operations to the drive.

 

DVD R/RW works like a regular DVD disc. Retrospect needs a special driver to write to the disc. If you plan on using R/RW media DVD+R/RW is best.

 

nate

[BillIrwin]

With the DVD-RAM disc, using Windows Explorer, the only format option I was given was FAT32. Other than using InCD, this is the only method of formatting I know of. I can't test this any longer because I returned the three DVD-RAM discs I'd bought to test and got my $30+ back.

 

However, are you saying that a DVD-RAM disc can be formatted UDF, FAT32 or NTFS and used with a Disk backup set on a drive that isn't supported by Retrospect? If so, that's what I was trying to accomplish. Only I wasn't able to figure out how to format the disc NTFS or UDF. If I get my hands on a DVD-RAM disc I'll test this on that unsupported drirve, that's now installed in a server.

 

Now that I'm using DVD+RW discs in a supported drive (Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108) I'm seeing the drive being accessed when Retrospect isn't running, or if it is running but inactive. A check of the Processes in Task Manager shows that incdsvc is active. I suspect it's trying to determine what type of disc is in the drive, or trying to mount it. This morning the drive light was active and I heard sounds coming from the drive for over 15 minutes until I got Retrospect to take over and stop InCD.

 

If I go to Conf > Devices in Retrospect the devices scan pauses on that ID and eventually (after a minute, or so) the drive activity stops and I see my media member named correctly. It appears I should disable InCD until I need to use some DVD/CD RW media outside of Retrospect, but I haven't been able to see if that's possible without uninstalling it.

 

Thanks for your suggestions. My backups are reliable using this supported Pioneer drive and DVD+RW media, with DVD backup sets.

 

Now, any ideas on getting Retrospect to ignore "C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService" and "NetworkService" folders? These areas generate the only sharing violation errors I get and it's always the same four files in each profile. They appear to be system created profiles and I've defined them every way I can think of in my Selector to be ignored, yet they keep being included in my backups and generate the -1020 errors.

 

I'd love to get to where I can do a complete backup without any errors so that even a single error would indicate a problem that should be reviewed ... but I suspect that's being optomistic.

 

Bill

[natew]

Hi

 

The sharing violations should not occur if you are using Retrospect 6.5 on Windows XP and your hard disk is formatted as NTFS. What disk format are you using? Do you have the open file backup option turned on?

 

Selectors likely will not help because Retrospect will still try to access the files during snapshot creation.

 

Thanks

Nate

[BillIrwin]

I've opened a new thread for this under "Selector won't exclude LocalService and NetworkService profiles ".