For some bizarre reason I can’t get Win XP to copy files to my DVD drive anymore. Probably some gift pack left over from Starforce.
At any rate, does anyone have some low overhead software they use to write to a DVD drive? I don’t like Nero anymore as it borked my system last year. Thanks!
One thing you should do is check the access mode for the drive in Device Manager. One of the things Starforce is known to do is throw your optical drives into the slow & crappy PIO mode, which destroys write times and may prevent burning altogether. If your drive is not showing DMA access and you can’t get it to do so, remove the drivers for that ATAPI channel and let XP re-install them. Worked for me.
Nero clone - CD BurnerXP
Alcohol 120% clone - DVD Decrypter
If you just want to burn an image file (iso, bin/cue, img, ccd/img, etc.), use either ImgBurn (from the creator of DVD Decrypter) or Burnatonce. Both are very good, lightweight apps.
All listed are free.
ImgBurn “for the win”. The newest versions (2.x) even have a creation mode, where you can make cd’s or dvd’s (even dvd-video)- It’s not just for burning disc images any more!
Seriously, it’s gotta be the lowest-overhead-per-feature app for burning cd/dvd’s on a windows machine at this point… and the price is awesome, too (free).
Mini-hijack, but I figure it’s as close as I’ll get using the search, and it saves creating a new thread.
Can someone recommend a DVD drive (for burning video files)? Can be internal.
Actually, a lot of “tweaking” apps have an option to disable or enable the built-in Windows XP burning features.
Was difficult to find as I had to go through a ton of settings, in the bus relations settings of my secondary IDE channel it’s using uDMA mode 2. For some reason the normal Pioneer DVD entry in device manager is void of almost any info.
In reference to the choices above, I wasn’t interested in DVD copying, I just needed to copy files from my HD to a blank DVD so I can clean up that drive. Will each of those programs do that?
Kunikos - any specific tweaking apps you can point me to?
For copying individual data files (NOT video for a DVD player) you really should be using DVD-RAM. That’s what the format was designed for. Your DVD recorder might already support it.
I’ve been using Lite-On drives, but one of the three I’ve owned stopped reading/writing CD’s after 4 months or so. Honestly, I wouldn’t spend more than $50 on one, so if it craps out, you won’t feel too bad about replacing it.
ImgBurn. It’ll do it.
For some reason ImgBurn could not do it. It’s just a folder with about 4 Gig of files in it. But since it kept looking for certain types of files, ir wouldn’t work with adding a folder. Any idea what I might have been doing wrong?
tromik - CD BurnerXP worked great, and that’s how I finally got it backed up.
You most likely did not have it in “Build Mode”, which is listed under the Mode menu. That will open up a window area where you can either drag&drop the files you want to burn, or click the “Browse for a Folder” or “Browse for Files” buttons to add your respective folders/files (selecting a folder will add its entire contents). After you’ve added your files, look under the Output menu and make sure you have it set for Device (unless you are wanting to make a disc image file, which I doubt). Then, once you’ve made sure you’ve got everything straight, you should be able to click the big “Write” button and have it do it’s job.
If that sounds like too much work or hassle, just stick with that CD BurnerXP thing.
Thanks so much mlatin - I would have never figured that out on my own - and it’s definatley not too much hassle. Thanks!
Dannimal:
One of the best DVD burners on the market is here for $29:
It produces higher quality burns than many of the Pioneer, Sony, NEC, Lite-On and Samsung drives. This is especially true for DVD-R media. I consistently check my dvd quality using various quality check programs, and this recorder consistently has the lowest PIE and PIF errors.
Why are these drives so cheap now?
Why are these drives so cheap now?
Well, the one I linked to is an OEM model, so you get no burning software. That same model sells (or did sell) at Best Buy for $79.99. I spent a few weeks researching at CDfreaks and Afterdawn before buying the LG model. To be honest, I bought LG and a Pioneer drive. Both burn excellent DVD+R discs, but DVD-R quality is significantly better on the LG.
No bloated software bundle is fine. It saved me alot of money. All I’ve ever needed is freeware:
CDBurner XP Pro 3
DVD Decrypter
DVD Shrink
jpinard-
One other comment about DVD burners. The type of media you buy is just as important as the burner itself. I’m not just referring to the +/- media standard, but the actual manufacturer. Some drives work better with Verbatim. Some work better with taiyo Yuden or Sony.
If you buy LG or Pioneer, you’ll get excellent compatibility from Verbatim DataLifePlus. Here is a great price for 50 discs:
-DataLifePlus is a higher quality than standard verbatim. One uses AZO, one uses metal AZO.
-I personally recommend + media over - media.
For the BEST of the best DVD-R media, you could go this route with significantly more expense:
Thanks for the imgBurn recommendation. That program is freakin awesome. The batch mode and build modes are great! About the only thing missing now is bin/cue support.
It’ll burn bin/cue stuff… you just don’t need the cue file. Either set it to associate with .BIN filetypes in the settings, or just simply drag/drop the BIN file into the sucker, should work just fine. Beyond that, what specifically would be the benefit of creating specific bin/cue files anymore?
OK, I’m having trouble trying to burn the Win Vista iso. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to add variables to imgbrn to make the DVD bootable, or what. But I keep getting invalid media messages and I don’t understand why. Here’s what I’ve setup:
Thanks a ton for the help!