Recovery DisK Problems

[DonW]

I'm using Retrospect 5.6, Windows XP-Pro, Dell 8200 with CD-ROM and DVD+RW. Disk formatter/creator is EasyCD 5.0. I have on several occasions attempted to set up a Recovery Disk using your information without success. I've inserted the Windows XP Installation Disk as instructed into the CD-ROM and attempted to create and ISO Image to my DVD+RW. The process starts well enough, but then it hangs and does nothing. Task Manager shows it to be running without any problems, but there is no writing to the disk beyond the initial process. The most I've gotten up to is about 162 files transferred with another 800MB to go - according to the dialog box.

 

Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

Also, when I've tried to create an ASR Disk using Microsoft's Backup the same situation happens. File transfer gets to a certain point and then it hangs and goes no further. Both of these scenarios cause me to perform a System Reboot, just to get the disks out of the trays.

[AmyJ]

Quote:

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I've inserted the Windows XP Installation Disk as instructed into the CD-ROM and attempted to create and ISO Image to my DVD+RW.

 

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What happens if you try to create the ISO image on your local hard drive?

[DonW]

And if I manage to create that image to my hard drive, then what? Copy that to my DVD+RW?

[DonW]

OK, that worked, although I'm not sure why. You'd think this would be more intuitive! I thought the whole idea of having a wizard step you through this would resolve most issues, but I guess not. It seems to me that the software should be able to burn either a CD/DVD as the source of the ISO Image, directly. Perhaps in future updates this can be considered. My only other issue with this software is its inability to see external drives such as my Maxtor 5000xt. Beyond these two areas, the software does what it says just fine.

[AmyJ]

Retrospect’s Disaster Recovery preparation wizard can save a CD image file which you can later use with CD-R authoring and recording software to create a CD. The file is an image of a CD in the ISO 9660 format, which all popular authoring software can use to record, or "burn," a CD. Though most authoring software has the capability to burn a disc from an ISO image, some programs do not have an intuitive user interface for this feature and some programs poorly document this feature. The following is documentation for the most popular CD authoring software, detailing how to burn a disaster recovery CD from the image file saved by Retrospect.

 

Easy CD Creator (Adaptec/Roxio): Start Easy CD Creator and cancel any wizard that appears. From the File menu, choose Open CD Layout. In the file selection dialog, change the shown file type from Easy CD Creator to All Files, navigate to the disaster recovery ISO image, select it, and click Open. In the CD Creation Setup window which appears, select your desired CD recorder, leave the write speed and options as they are, and click OK to begin recording your disc.

 

CD Extreme (Sony): Start CD Extreme. At the default CD Starter window, click on the CD Extreme button/combo box in the lower right to go into the full application. From the File menu’s New Job submenu, choose Global-Image or Other Image. Click the ’...’ button at the far right of the Disk Image File area. In the file selection dialog, change the shown file type to Other Image, navigate to the disaster recovery ISO image, select it, and click Open. Click the Burn button to begin recording your disc.

 

Nero Burning Rom (Ahead Software): Start Nero and close the new compilation window, file browser window, and any wizard that appears. Choose Burn Image from the File menu. In the file selection dialog, change the shown file type to All Files, navigate to the disaster recovery ISO image, select it, and click Open. Click OK if Nero informs you it does not recognize the format of the image file. Nero presents its Foreign image settings dialog, which should have default settings of Data Mode 1, block size 2048 bytes, other values zero, and boxes unchecked. Click OK to work with these settings for the ISO image. Nero presents the Write CD window. Click Write to begin recording your disc.

 

B’s Recorder GOLD (B.H.A.): Start B’s Recorder GOLD and close or cancel any assistant or wizard that appears. In the main window, drag the disaster recovery ISO image to the lowest of the three panes (which says it accepts Image files). Click Record at the top of the window to start burning the CD.

 

MyCD Pro (Veritas): MyCD does not have the ability to record discs from ISO image files, but MyCD Pro does. Start MyCD Pro and close the Starter window to get to the main screen. Click the New Global-Image or Other Image button on the toolbar. A Global Image Job Setup window appears in the Job Setup pane. Highlight your CD-R drive in the Drive Status pane and select it by clicking the Select/Deselect as Recorder button on the toolbar. A red arrow appears on the drive icon to indicate it is selected. Click the Browse button from the Job Setup window. In the file selection dialog, change the shown file type to Other Image, navigate to the disaster recovery ISO image, select it, and click Open. (The path to your image file appears in the Job Setup pane.) Click the Record button to begin recording your disc. (The MyCD Pro online help includes icons in its instructions and the icons may help you better understand the steps to burn a CD from an image. Follow the help’s links from Using MyCD Pro to Global-Image Job and scroll down to Recording a CD from a Global-Image File.)