dbminter

Happened again! Had to restore a daily backup from yesterday to fix it! Am going to add a shortcut for a daily Scheduled Task job for me to check this every day after the backup runs.

Have you used these discs before? Or is this your first time trying to use them? I'd blame it on the quality of the discs themselves. Princo is a notoriously cheap brand of media manufacturer. I once purchased a DVD from Amazon.com that turned to be a DVD-R that was made by Princo. I made sure to make a backup copy on a good quality DVD-R right away. Put one of these CD-RW's from Princo into a DVD burner drive and open ImgBurn in Write mode. From the pane of information on the right side, what is listed under Disc ID under the line that says Physical Format Information? Looks like LUK answered while I was typing.

I was also having 2 other issues I discovered while using the USB HD as my tempdir. Sometimes, ImgBurn would be burning to a DVD-R and then just stop. The write speed would drop to 0.0x, but, the drive activity still continued. The drive wouldn't stop spinning until power down, even after restarting Windows. The other was a minor issue writing to 24x CD-RW using image files that were stored on the USB HD. A window would pop up during the write that said something about a read error, but the write would continue until end of burn, even if I didn't close the error dialog window.

My answer to that is that time period is stating Jon Pertwee's run. So, Pertwee is not a Time Lord.

Here's another amazing Doctor Who time discrepancy! http://westfieldcomics.com/comic-books/Doctor-Who-Colony-in-Space-DVD/11101083 Instead of saying Jon Pertwee's run as the Doctor was from 1970-1974, it says he's STILL the Doctor and will be until the amazing year 9174!

I submitted this for the back of PC World magazine, where they publish web site errors and goofy software error messages. (e.g. The software failed to installed. The operation completed successfully! which I believe is one from the current issue) They're going to publish it in the December issue!

Discovered another limitation of the drive that is making me a little wary about it. First had a difficulty in getting the drive recognized when I first partitioned it. It would NOT be detected when connected to the USB port that my old 1 TB USB HDD used to run on. It would be detected on one of the PC's front USB ports and when I eventually swapped around USB cables connected in the back, got it detected. But, I think it's a problem with that particular port or in Windows because my keyboard also wasn't detected when connected to that port. What I've discovered now is if I use one of the partitions for temporary files, like ImgBurn disc read image files, ImgBurn target image files, DVDShrink output, and for temporary files in general, the output is inconsistently corrupt. For instance, some DVD target files created by DVDReMake work and sometimes they freeze up PC DVD playing software. Not when those files are burned to the internal SATA HDD. So, I won't use one of the partitions for its intended purpose: to store Windows temporary files, my DVD temporary work files, ImgBurn temporary files, and the like. It just means adding one extra step to setting up a new PC, instead of just plugging in the USB HDD and changing the drive letters around. For my own future notes, for testing on future new PC's, I was using Doctor Who: Earthshock as the source for DVDReMake. When VIDEO_TS.IFO is loaded in Windows Media player, there is NO freezing of the DVD playback after playing the BBC logo. Plus, there was one major drawback to using the USB drive for temporary files: the read/write speeds. ImgBurn writing to HD was significantly slower than SATA HD, which makes sense.

I've not had any issues with Ritek media either. I've used several kinds ranging from Office Depot CD to DVD media. It's just I've heard a lot of people apparently outside of the US have had quality control problems with Ritek. As I said, I didn't have any issues even with their DVD+R DL that was TDK branded from Office Depot. (No longer made, it seems. I still use Verbatim MKM as my primary source of DVD+R DL, though.) I've used Optiarcs for several years now. I don't know if Optiarc is even still a brand actually. They may all be branded as Sony drives now. I know when I do searches for them on NewEgg, I usually use the term Sony Optiarc. Or sometimes just Optiarc. I violate even my own systems.

Got some Sony DVD-R's and they've started using Ritek as their manufacturer. The MID used to be SONYD16 or something like that; it is now RITEKF1. I've not had problems with Ritek, even using TDK Ritek DVD+R DL. But, I know some people have had trouble with Ritek before, so, I'm passing this piece of information along.

I don't know what build mine was beyond what they called it: Windows 8 Developers' Preview. As I said, it worked once and then it didn't work; typical Microsoft software behavior. I have to install it over my primary partition and then restore the daily backup in order to try it out. I've done it like 3 times thus far, and that's enough as far as I'm concerned!

The funny thing is, when I tested the Developers' Build the first time, there WAS a button on the start menu for the Desktop. My other 2 installs of it did NOT have said button. So, go figure. Typical Microsoft behavior.

Actually, believe it or not, Windows 7 is actually a version of Windows I'd recommend. It's the first time I've ever actively endorsed a flavor of Windows. In a stunning turn of events, Microsoft combined the good parts of Vista, which were few and mostly cosmetic in nature, and fixed the parts that were wrongly implemented or just plain wrong for Windows 7. Of course, there IS that Blu-Ray size issue in Windows 7, but...

Downloaded and installed the free Windows 8 Developer Preview to get some first impressions of what the upcoming OS might be look. From what I've seen, be afraid. Be VERY afraid! It seems like Microsoft purposefully designed Windows 8 so that once basic tasks take more clicks or are totally eliminated from the OS. For instance, to access the log on screen, you HAVE to click off on a screen saver page. I could only access the Desktop by first selecting Control Panel from the obviously designed to be a smartphone start page. Then, I had to select More options from Control Panel in order to get the Desktop to appear. Once I got to the Desktop, imagine my surprise when the Start Menu is totally gone! How are we expected to get applications to work? Now, granted, this is a preliminary release of the OS and some things may be fixed. For instance, I hope for Windows to support/ZoneAlarm to support Windows 8, which neither currently do. But, I don't like what I've seen, which just backs up some things I had read. Like the likelihood that the Start button would be removed from the interface. You know, I didn't test to see if the Windows key on the keyboard opens the Start menu. I'm not about to reinstall it just to test that!

For half a year, I've been a fan of Lightscribe discs. Now, though, I have to issue a new opinion on them and not recommend them. I have had discs that weren't even burned 6 months ago at the latest, and the labels are already starting to fade on some of them. So, the premium attached to the price for Lightscribe discs is not worth it.

I have discovered one drawback to this Seagate USB 3 3 TB drive. DVDShrink cannot write to any of the partitions I created on the drive. For whatever reason, it returns the error: DVDShrink encountered an error and cannot continue. Failed to write file FILENAMEHERE The parameter is incorrect. If I write to the SATA HD inside the PC, it writes, so, it must be the drive as none of the partitions will allow write in DVDShrink. The C: is NTFS as are all the USB partitions. There is plenty of free space for the targeted output. Go figure.

Does anyone know of a good alternative to the DVD reauthoring software DVDReMake? I have DVDReMake Pro 3.6.3, but, it hasn't been updated in 4 years and they weren't too keen about implementing a fix to one DVD I had that epically failed with the software. Had a 2nd DVD that epically failed. Even with no edits, the output from DVDReMake for this DVD wouldn't even properly play the FBI and copyright warnings. Pressing Play on the main menu played NO part of the movie at all! I posted on the DVDReMake forum, but, since the software is all but officially dead, I don't expect much of an answer. So, I'm looking for an alternative. Anyone got any? Thanks!

http://www.bbcshop.com/doctor-who/doctor-who-ride-in-dalek/invt/kapdr/

Look at where the nipples are! http://www.bbcshop.com/daleks/doctor-who-dalek-costume/invt/dalekcost/&temp=enlarged&layout=empty

http://www.oldies.com/product-view/35632M.html

It's not the burning that smells. It smells even out of the package, unburnt.

I would guess what you'd see is the same sort of "temporary" "residue" you'd see if you used some kind of 90% isopropyl alcohol that you'd get if you used it to clean off the data side. As far as I'd know, there would be no particles because the actual label that is being burned is contained underneath that top clear layer on a Lightscribe disc.

Another thing that concerns me about those scent particles. Would they eventually start collecting within the container holding the disc? If so, if they start to get to the bottom of the disc, could they corrupt the data surface?

I am NO longer the Lightscribe convert I once was! It's not even 6 months and the labels are already starting to fade on my Lightscribe discs! What use are the labels if they fade away?

I use the Sony/Optiarc AD-7260S. Have used it for a few months now. The last external drive I had, well, still have it, was a Sony DRX drive.

Discovered another reason why I would have needed to switch away from Acronis Disk Director. DD Version 11 Build 2121's boot disc does not recognize the 3 TB USB 3.0 Seagate GoFlex HDD; Partition Master does recognize it.