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DVD R/W INT IDE 4X DVD+/-RW KIT DRU510A


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INT IDE 4X DVD+/-RW KIT DRU510A

Anyone know if this works with Retrospect 6.5?

 

It is not in the list but many models here in Australia don't seem to be available here.

 

Thanks.

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  • 1 month later...

Can anyone provide a current (7/29/03) update on how well (or not) the Sony DRU510A DVD writer works with Retrospect? Also, if you've tried this, how long does it (actually) take to fill a 4.7 GB disk at the 4X speed, assuming a contemporary (3.0 GHz) system?

 

Thanks.

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I have a 2.8 GHz P4 with 1 GB of memory running Windows XP Pro SP1. A full backup of my

 

system resulted in 8.5 GB of data across two 4x DVD+R discs. I believe that it took about

 

36 minutes to write the data, not including the time to verify it afterwards. A note on one of

 

the support pages indicated that with the DRU-510A DVD+R gives significantly better

 

performance than DVD-R so this is why I chose to use DVD+R media.

 

 

 

The full backup worked flawlessly unlike all the other backup programs I have tried. I was

 

also able to make a Disaster Recovery CD-R and this worked fine also. The manual

 

configuration of the drive with DVD+R, DVD-R, and CD-R worked fine. In my opinion

 

Retrospect is superior to every other product I have tried (NTI Drive Backup 3.0, Acronis

 

True Image 6.0, PowerQuest Drive Image 7, Sonic BackupMyPC, Sonic SimpleBackup,

 

Nero 6 BackItUp).

 

 

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I think you like Retrospect smile.gif, as do I!

 

Thanks for the detailed info on using it with the DRU-510A. As this is a new addition to my test and production systems which I'll be installing this week, I've been trying to set my expectations.

 

I assume, since your backup spanned 2 DVDs, that you had to switch discs -- did Retrospect Compare the first disk before having you change to the second, or, after both discs were written, did it then require you to re-insert both discs for the Compare?

 

confused.gif[Hey, Dantz guru -- if this is how Retrospect works with DVDs, as it did with tapes, why can't it do the compare phase while each disc of the set is loaded, rather than requiring two full reloadings of all media?]

 

Ah, well -- we ALWAYS want more capacity than a single backup drive media supports -- that's the way of the world. tongue.gif

 

Any other good info you have to pass along on the DRU510A?

 

Jeff

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Yes, I had to manually configure the drive. This is a very nice feature of Retrospect. I initially made the mistake of only

configuring it for DVD+R thinking that I could go back and add other types later. I found out when I needed to create

the Disaster Recovery Disc that when it manually configures a drive you have to do all the media types you want to use

during the same configuration session. No big deal, I just redid it with DVD+R, DVD-R, and CD-R. It had no problem

writing to DVD+R or CD-R. I have not tried DVD-R yet, I only configured it so that if I were to run out of DVD+R

discs I could use a DVD-R in a pinch.

 

I really like the DRU-510A. I have had no problems with it so far and it seems to be well designed. I wish I could say

the same for the Matshita drive in my ThinkPad. I have been trying to for 2 days now to get that drive to manually

configure with Retrospect and have had no success.

 

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Very interesting, if surprising. Does this mean, as I think you're saying, that if I "ever, might, possibly" want to backup to the plethora of formats, then I need to have one each of the following media before I can configure the drive to work with ANY of them?

 

DVD+R

DVD-R

DVD+RW

DVD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

 

Sigh -- and no one seems to sell a "sample pack" with one-each of the four different DVD media types. frown.gif

 

confused.gif Hey, Amy -- might Dantz have a configuration file hidden away that will let this increasingly popular, top of the line drive work without each of us having to go through this? If not, can you shed some light on when it might realistically be available?

 

Also, if I WERE to configure the drive for, say DVD+R and DVD+RW, is there any way to add the other two formats when needed (even to the point of somehow 'forgetting' the configuration I previously did, and then having to re-configure it with all four media types? confused.gif

 

Thanks to all -- this has proven to be an exceptionally helpful forum.

 

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Hi

 

Unfortunately you cannot add different media types to you driver after it has been created. As a rule it is not a good idea to mix your media in a backup set anyway. Your best bet is to make a guesstimate about the media you will use and configure the driver accordingly. You can always recreate the driver later if you like. As a workaround you can make a couple drivers and drop them in as needed. (Retrospect drivers have the .RDI extension)

 

Dantz doesn't publicize device support until a driver is released so it is hard to say if this device will get rolled into a driver update.

 

Nate

 

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Quote:

JeffH said:

Can anyone provide a current (7/29/03) update on how well (or not) the Sony DRU510A DVD writer works with Retrospect?

 


 

It's been acting balky for me - I have yet to successfully complete a backup. Retrospect would not auto-configure the 510A from a fresh DVD+RW - I had to erase the DVD+RW in Nero and then restart Retrospect to get it to accept the disk. The DVD+RW auto-configuration then seemed to go OK, but Retrospect would not accept a subsequent blank CD-R for auto-configuration.

 

Now that the drive has been configured (for DVD+RW only), Retrospect allows it to be selected as a backup destination. However, it won't actually write to DVD+RWs; when a disk is inserted, the status of the drive changes to "unknown status" and the erase function is disabled (you can click on it, but you just get a message that says something like 'cannot erase - unknown status'). It seems to do this whether the disk is fresh, pre-erased, or fully ISO-formatted with contents.

 

I've tried installing the latest 510A firmware (1.0c) and Retrospect driver pack, but that did not seem to change anything. This is all under XP Professional with the latest updates. As far as I can tell, there is no software running that's waiting to latch onto disks as they are inserted other than XP itself. The 510A works fine outside of Retrospect.

 

Anyone see this behavior before?

 

Thanks,

Garth

 

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Quote:

Hey, Amy -- might Dantz have a configuration file hidden away that will let this increasingly popular, top of the line drive work without each of us having to go through this? If not, can you shed some light on when it might realistically be available?

 

 

 

Also, if I WERE to configure the drive for, say DVD+R and DVD+RW, is there any way to add the other two formats when needed (even to the point of somehow 'forgetting' the configuration I previously did, and then having to re-configure it with all four media types?

 

 

 


 

 

 

The DRU510A drive is not natively supported in Retrospect. If the auto-configurator can build a driver for it successfully, it will be supported. When the you use the auto-configurator, the drive is put through a series of tests and the results are used to build the driver. It is not possible to edit the driver once it has been created, which is why it is important to run the configurator for all media types at one time. It may be that some media types work with a given drive, while others don't - and it's better to find this out before attempting to backup or restore.

 

 

 

The auto-configurator was designed so that we could support many more of the hundreds of drives on the market. We don't have the bandwidth to personally test each and every one - as much as we'd like to. This is our first release with the auto-configurator and it may not work with every drive.

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Thanks for the forthright and forthcomming response Amy.

 

I certainly understand resource limitaitons, but as a suggestion, Dantz might want to put that time into specifically supporting those new drives that hit the market with unique, desireable features (such as 4X +R and +RW writes, in the case of the DRU510A).

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Quote:

AmyJ said:

Quote:

The DRU510A drive is not natively supported in Retrospect. If the auto-configurator can build a driver for it successfully, it will be supported.

 


 

It's perfectly reasonable that a drive might not be supported, either directly or indirectly. However, as I described above in this thread, I seem to be in a state where Retrospect does successfully build a driver (though not one that includes CD-R) but does not successfully use that driver in practice. Is this a known problem? Is there any additional information I could provide to assist with debugging?

 

Thanks,

Garth

 

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Hi

 

Can you clarify a couple of things please:

you said:

Quote:

Now that the drive has been configured (for DVD+RW only), Retrospect allows it to be selected as a backup destination.

 


You shouldn't be able to choose a device like this as a destination - Are you saying that you can create a CD/DVD backup set and Retrospect will write to those disks?

 

What is the DVD writing program that you usually use to write to DVD RW disks? Do you always have write access available to your DVD disk or do you have to start a program manually to do that?

 

Thanks

 

Nate

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Quote:

natew said:
you said: 'now that the drive has been configured (for DVD+RW only), Retrospect allows it to be selected as a backup destination.' You shouldn't be able to choose a device like this as a destination - Are you saying that you can create a CD/DVD backup set and Retrospect will write to those disks?

 


 

Oops, sorry - yes, that's essentially what I mean, but substitute "will not write" for "will write".

 

I can auto-configure the device so that it is recognized as a valid DVD+RW device by Retrospect. And I can create a CD/DVD backup set. But when I go to actually back up to that backup set, Retrospect will not write to DVD+RWs. It recognizes the DVD drive as the appropriate drive and prompts for media to be inserted, but when the drive tray is closed, Retrospect complains that the drive has "unknown status" and that the media therefore cannot be erased.

 

The problem can be reproduced more directly by going to the Configure->Devices window and trying to erase a DVD+RW there. The drive does appear in the device list because it has been successfully autoconfigured. But inserting a DVD+RW makes Retrospect give that same "unknown status" message.

 

Quote:

natew said:

What is the DVD writing program that you usually use to write to DVD RW disks? Do you always have write access available to your DVD disk or do you have to start a program manually to do that?

 


I have successfully used Nero Burning ROM 6, although I uninstalled Nero because I feared it might be interfering with Retrospect. Truth be told, I mostly bought the drive to use with Retrospect. I figured it couldn't be too different from the 500a. My bad. :-)

 

I'm using Windows XP, which does have some kind of built-in CD-writing software. I'm not sure if it works on or affects DVDs. I don't use it directly, but perhaps it is interfering somehow. Windows does frequently bring up a "what should I do with this DVD" window when media are inserted, even though I always click the "do nothing" and "always take this action" options.

 

Garth

 

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Hmmm

 

well, we have a few things to try:

1)isolate the drive on the bus making it a secondary master device with no slave

2)install ASPI 4.6 and then upgrade it with the download from Adaptec

3)Swap IDE cables

4)Make sure you have the latest drivers for your hard disk controller installed

 

It has to be a communication problem of some kind so I would try to work at it from that angle. Let us know what you find

 

Nate

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Installing the latest chipset driver and version of ASPI seems to have done the trick. At first it didn't seem to have helped, but when I started over and reran the autoconfiguration process, everything worked smoothly and I was able to back up without any problems. I was able to add a CD-R configuration as well.

 

Thanks for your help!

Garth

 

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I have discovered an interesting factor which dramatically affects the speed of a backup with the DRU-510A. My first backup set went VERY quickly, almost 300 MB/minute, but when I started a new backup set this morning it was going very slowly. I discovered that the difference was that after completing the first backup set I had reconfigured my DRU-510A for DVD-R and CD-R as well as DVD+R. This resulted in Retrospect using a different driver to write to my DVD+R discs. The original driver was Sony DVD+R -RDI (1.56) but after I reconfigured with DVD+R, DVD-R, and CD-R the driver became Sony DVD+R -RDI (TAO) (1.56). I assumed that the TAO was for only for CD-Rs but apparently it applies to all 3 media types because with that driver Retrospect was backing up at a rate of 95 MB/minute. As soon as I noticed this I stopped the backup and reconfigured the drive with only DVD+R media which caused the driver to go back to the non-TAO one. I then started a backup and the speed was back to 300 MB/minute. All these rates are with NT passthrough since I have not installed ASPI on this system.

 

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Quote:

markgunning said:

I have discovered an interesting factor which dramatically affects the speed of a backup with the DRU-510A. My first backup set went VERY quickly, almost 300 MB/minute, but when I started a new backup set this morning it was going very slowly. I discovered that the difference was that after completing the first backup set I had reconfigured my DRU-510A for DVD-R and CD-R as well as DVD+R. This resulted in Retrospect using a different driver to write to my DVD+R discs. The original driver was Sony DVD+R -RDI (1.56) but after I reconfigured with DVD+R, DVD-R, and CD-R the driver became Sony DVD+R -RDI (TAO) (1.56). I assumed that the TAO was for only for CD-Rs but apparently it applies to all 3 media types because with that driver Retrospect was backing up at a rate of 95 MB/minute. As soon as I noticed this I stopped the backup and reconfigured the drive with only DVD+R media which caused the driver to go back to the non-TAO one. I then started a backup and the speed was back to 300 MB/minute. All these rates are with NT passthrough since I have not installed ASPI on this system.

 

 


 

I have also noticed a similar result above with my DRU-510A. I've attempted to backup to DVD-RW and the initial auto-config setup with the TAO driver, took an hour to format, then 2.5hrs to backup 4.5GB. When i inserted a CD-RW, it reconfigured with the 1.56 driver and the backup speed was very good. I'm about to go out and buy some DVD+RW media and see how it configures it but the TAO driver is wwwayyyy to slow. frown.gif

 

An ETA's on when a driver will be written to incorporate all the formats of the Sony DVD Drive?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Please excuse my ignorance, but what does TAO stand for?

 

I wanted to configure my drive for CD-R and DVD+R, but it became TAO, and thus I opted to go back to DVD+R for the performance.

 

The reason I wanted to add CD-R was because it seems to be implied from a previous post in this thread that Retrospect would itself write the Disaster recovery boot CD if you configured the drive to support CD-R. However, when I tried to create the disaster recover disk, all it did was make a 900MB (isn't that a bit too big) CD image file. Retrospect would not burn the disk itself. Is it supposed to be able to do it if properly configured?

 

I've been unable to burn a CD with that image file (using Roxio Easy CD creator.) I'm able to burn up to 99% before it indicates a buffer under-run. So I'm wondering if it's the large size of the image file or something else (I've wasted a lot of CD-Rs.)

 

Bob

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Hi

 

TAO stands for Track At Once. It is the method that Retrospect is using to write your CDs. Normally Retrospect uses packet writing but some drives do not support it. In those cases it uses TAO.

 

Retrospect cannot burn a DR cd but it can create the image. Your image burn is failing because the 900MB image will not fit on a 700 MB disk.

 

What OS are you on and what version of Retrospect is this? Can you create a DR image from another snapshot?

 

Nate

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