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CD-RW restore: same drive needed, or will another do?


rhaytana

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I'm a new Retrospect 6.5 user, backing up a Win XP Pro system to a Yamaha CD-RW FIZEN drive. I've done a couple of partial restores with the back-ups I've created; all seems to be well.

 

But, for future reference: can Retrospect back-ups made with one CD-RW drive be read by another CD-RW drive? (Assuming that the second CD-RW drive is on Dantz's supported list.) Or should I count on having the Yamaha around if the hard disk goes and I need to do a full restore?

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I don't know for sure, but based on my experience with putting CD-RW CDs into various devices and trying to read them, it has not worked well for me unless the proper drivers are installed.

 

If your system is completely wiped out or you are putting a new blank drive in, the drivers will not be there yet. You are depending on the BIOS to provide boot capability from the CD.

 

What I am getting at is that I think it depends more on whether you have created the CD on a CD-RW or CD-R media.

 

In fact, a couple of my systems have one CD drive, which happens to be CD-RW. I created the disaster recovery CDs on CD-R media. I had to do a complete restore a couple weeks ago and it went without a hitch. I think if the data were on CD-RW I would have been out of luck.

 

Hope this helps,

Wayne Scott

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Quote:

I don't know for sure, but based on my experience with putting CD-RW CDs into various devices and trying to read them, it has not worked well for me unless the proper drivers are installed.

 

If your system is completely wiped out or you are putting a new blank drive in, the drivers will not be there yet. You are depending on the BIOS to provide boot capability from the CD.

 

What I am getting at is that I think it depends more on whether you have created the CD on a CD-RW or CD-R media.

 

In fact, a couple of my systems have one CD drive, which happens to be CD-RW. I created the disaster recovery CDs on CD-R media. I had to do a complete restore a couple weeks ago and it went without a hitch. I think if the data were on CD-RW I would have been out of luck.

 

Hope this helps,

Wayne Scott

 


 

Unless there is a problem with the drives, or media, most any CD-RW drivedcan read such media.

 

A more likely problem lies in the software used to write and read the media.

 

You may find that, e.g., Roxio software might create media not readable by Ahead software, or vice versa.

 

If you will need to boot from the CD-RW (or CD-R), make sure that the media is recorded using only ISO 9660 format, otherwise, you may need to find a way to install the Roxio/Ahead/etc. drivers in order to read the media.

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Quote:

I don't know for sure, but based on my experience with putting CD-RW CDs into various devices and trying to read them, it has not worked well for me unless the proper drivers are installed.

 

If your system is completely wiped out or you are putting a new blank drive in, the drivers will not be there yet. You are depending on the BIOS to provide boot capability from the CD.

 

What I am getting at is that I think it depends more on whether you have created the CD on a CD-RW or CD-R media.

 

In fact, a couple of my systems have one CD drive, which happens to be CD-RW. I created the disaster recovery CDs on CD-R media. I had to do a complete restore a couple weeks ago and it went without a hitch. I think if the data were on CD-RW I would have been out of luck.

 

Hope this helps,

Wayne Scott

 


 

If you have a CD-RW drive, either CD-RW or CD-R media could be used at boot time, assuming your hardware is capable.

 

However, you would need to have an ISO 9660 conforming file structure recorded on the media.

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