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Can I backup to CD-R media?


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This is probably a very easy question...

 

Version 7.0 on Windows XP. I have a CD/RW burner (Maxtor ??) on a Dell Dimension PC.

 

I'd like to backup to the CDROM burner. I have CD-R media (write once) but just realized

Retrospect may want CD-RW media? ie.. Retrospect needs to write to the media once to

add it to the set, then a second time to send the data to it? I should have brought CDRW

media right?

 

RMinNJ

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I don't think Maxtor makes cd burners so you probably have a diferent burner. You'll need a burner a supported burner. If your burner isn't supoprted, Retrospect should prompt you to attempt to configure the drive to work with it.

 

Retrospect will allow you to write to CD-R's more than once because it uses packet-writing to write to the disc. This leaves the disc open so that Retrospect can repeatedly back up to the disc until it's full.

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The only issue with CD-R media, make sure you have a plan if one or two CDs go bad. The frequency of this depends on a number of variables (media quality, media life, phase of the moon, if the drive likes that dye, etc.) In general, I'd try to keep two backup sets, perhaps replacing a set once every quarter or so, more or less frequently depending on your setup.

 

I'm still at the fine-tuning phase, as I'm using DVD media for my backups... and I'm using quite a good number of blanks. So far, the incidence of coasters is very low (knock on wood), but I'm still backing up to an external hard disk, then copying the disk backup set to multiple DVD sets just to be sure. In any case, I always try to do a verify pass, unless its stuff I have copies of, and just need to move off the hard disk's backup set to free up space.

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  • 8 months later...

If it keeps writing to the cd-r and it is left open, can you see the contents of that drive before it is closed? I have a user who uses this and the set up is to burn to cd-r. When she comes in the morning, it says the job was successful and the cdr looks like it's been burned to, but when she tries to read from it, the computer doesn't show anything.

 

Thanks for any input.

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