I know I'm behind most folks when it comes to burning their poser files to DVD. Up until this time I was still using CDs for backing up my poser purchases. Well, now I'm doing the same but using DVDs now because of the amount of data you can put on one.

What is puzzling me is when I burn a DVD I want to keep it open, or a multi session DVD, so I can add more files later  but my burning software, Nero 6 using smart start, will advise me that I'm selecting to burn a multi session  disc and that the disk may not be readable by other DVD players other than the one I have in my computer. I've never had this happen with CDs so why is this a problem for multi session DVDs? Is this a general warning or if my DVD combo takes a crap I will not get the data off the DVDs I've burned?

I use a 16x , DVD -R disc.

Thanks!

That's the media I use for my backups and I don't have any problems reading the DVD's in my laptop or on my son's computer.

FWIW - I use NTI's DVD/CD Maker software, version 7.  I get the same warning but it doesn't seem to matter.

Generally older DVD drives have issues with reading open media, as do DVD players. Also some media doesn't like being left open, typically the cheaper generic ones and can give you unreadable discs with open media. So do some experimentation before you commit to it.

You may also wanna look at RW disks...

Is the drive DVD-R or just the discs you're using? If it's the drive then no amount of pleading will get you the multi-session burning you want cause it just ain't up to the task, if it's the discs then the same thing applies & you should do what tekmonk suggested.

My drive us a dual 18x DVD+RW/-RW/CD-RW (48x/24x/48x),18x DVD.
I will use Teon, Verbatim media. Thanks folks!

nice drive, bit on the slow side but nice all the same ;)

Be careful of the Verbatim media, I had some problems with their discs, burnt stuff only to have the drive refuse to even read them a week later.

With the current low price of portable hard disks you should consider using this instead. With 4 GB DVD's and a 250 GB hard disk you have to do the calculation and you might find the hard disk being a cheaper solution (with less problems and longer data retention).
I have found cheaper DVD's to become unreadable after 2 years.

I've never had a good experience with Verbatim media so now I use Sony DVDs and CDs and haven't had any problems.

Do you have a cataloging program to use with them? I use Whereisit? as I have so many discs, I can never remember whats on half of them & this saves me hunting for hours.

I love Whereisit? ... it's a life-saver when I go looking for something I've archived to disk.

The main issue with HDDs is that even though they are cheaper on the whole, they are much riskier. If a DVD gets too scratched or the dye gets messed up, at most you will lose 4 GB. If OTOH your HDD goes, depending on the the way it fails it may take a 50-100x the amount of data with it. And HDDs by their very nature are much more fragile then even the cheapest optical media. Strong mag fields, too much shock, too much humidity/heat/cold, even an electrical surge can all nuke an HDD much easier then an optical disk. I have actually lost one because i left it in a drawer somewhere and spiders made a home in it LOL.

Plus you can get inexpensive disks that are good quality also. Just get a few named brands and find which ones work best for you. Then run those through a tool like DVDIdentifier which will tell you which media is actually under the brandname. Some companies rebrand media and mark up the price, so you can often get that actual media for cheaper then the branded one with the same quality.

DVD Identifier:

http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/

I use a rewritable DVD to back up my pz3's and image files so I can add to it as I go along rather than leave them on my PC until I have enough for a complete DVD.
Once my Rewriteable is full I'll copy it to a Write Once DVD and store it.
The rewritable is then erased to use again!

My runtimes are backed up to XHD once a week!

The info at the WhereIsIt site says that the shareware version of the program is limited to 2 Gb info on a disk, so a full 4.7 Gb disk won't be fully indexed.

Another freeware program, Catfish, doesn't have that limitation.

Quote - The info at the WhereIsIt site says that the shareware version of the program is limited to 2 Gb info on a disk, so a full 4.7 Gb disk won't be fully indexed.

Another freeware program, Catfish, doesn't have that limitation.

Can you post a link?  I have the full version of Whereisit? but others might like to check out Catfish.

TIA

Here you go

Catfish

I'm going to try it out myself although I also have the full version of Whereisit.

http://www.equi4.com/catfish.html

The paid version of WhereIsIt is supposed to lift the 2 Gb limit.  Catfish is free and that's always nice. It's not perfect, but it does a nice job of indexing disk contents.

Mmmm catfish rolled in cornmeal then deep fried to perfection Oh yeah! Can't forget the hush puppies Smacks lips

I know this is a pain to do, but ideally keeping two copies of things, on two different media may be the best.  I only had one, and between things not backed up, and archived CD's not being readable, I lost a lot of data couple of years ago... including 80% of my renderings between 1998-2005 sniffle

...off to check out whereisit, sounds really neat! Thankls for sharing that info!!!!

Great so I guess I need to dish out more cash on a bigger external HD I guess (lets see cash out for new computer, cash out for new tires for car, cash out for oil so we don't freeze...hmmm running out if cash here) as it seems that after few years DVD's seem to go the crap. I have CDs I burned 4 years ago that are still readable mean to tell me DVD's are less reliable? I have a 40gig external drive actually it's an IDE internal drive I use as an external to back up my entire poser programs runtimes and all. But I don't keep  many things I don't use so my Runtimes are small. I do, however, back all the stuff I've bought on CDs.

Oh well, off to Newegg to see if I can find a RELIABLE external HD. Last time I went on a search for an external HD I was not too impressed by the customer ratings on most of them.

My two external hard drives are both Iomega and they've worked perfectly through 2 motherboards and 2 cpu's ... no data loss at all.

guess I'm an over achiever - I back up to a 2nd internal hard drive, then an external, then across my network to a 2nd computer, then monthly to DVD.

Doug

I'm doing like sturkwurk does, more or less ! 

It is a good idea to archive to a DVD or CD, and I use both types.  Here's my logic: if my CD gets damaged, I lose only 600MB of data, while if my DVD gets damaged, I lose 4GB of data.  So I pick and choose, depending on the data.

I prefer to close my DVD or CD after burning.  Less complicated if using it on different readers.

For cataloguing, I use WincatalogLite.  Reads my DVDs without problem.  Transportable data files, and you can select your own data folder; which means I can update and synch my catalogues across my notebooks and/or desktops.

Once I saved all my stuff to a single CD, but it ended up getting damaged. I lost A LOT of irreplaceable files on that CD (too many email changes to count). So now I have two copies of every CD I burned, one for use, and another one as a back-up.

I would like to burn a single DVD, and save all my files to that one. but it is risky.
Sigh! Too bad there isn't free online storage here on Renderosity. :(

My experience of the actual DVD drives is that they don't last if the computer interior isn't well ventilated. It looks as though the write-laser pushes limits. Look at fitting a drive-bay cooling fan, or other extra cooling.