May have to change my backup procedure: internal DVD to USB?

[Tschurin]

I have about 10,000 files [roughly 12 GB in total] in my Dell Optiplex 760 desktop [Windows 7] that I need to backup once a month to some medium which is then put in a storage vault. On my previous computer I had used imgburn and backed them up to DVD’s. But this computer has a DVD-ROM drive and while there are replacement DVD-RW drives for half-height used by the small-form-factor version of the 760; the desktop version has a full-height bay for which I haven't so far found a DVD-RW replacement drive to work with the 760. Can I (and do I need to) use imgburn to write the files to a USB thumb drive? Or should I get a USB external DVD-R drive instead? Although I'm able to use imgburn I obviously don't understand the technology underlying it. Thanks in advance for your help.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Tschurin

[Tschurin]

May have found a solution to my problem. Found a full-height DVD-RW SATA drive on E-bay that's supposedly compatible with the Optiplex 760 desktop. Am still curious how backing up using imgburn and dvd’s compares with backing up to a usb thumb drive. Speed? Simplicity? Reliability? File structure and file name preservation? Any insights for the ignorant?

Edited April 14, 2015 by Tschurin

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Any SATA drive will work with the 760 desktop case, it's a standard drive. The only thing you might need are special screws or something due to the quick release mechanisms the Dell cases use.

 

Personally, I'd probably back up to an external hdd using something like Acronis True Image.

[Tschurin]

Dear Lightning

 

Thanks for the comments. The off-site storage vault requirement precludes the use of the external hdd.

 

It would be slightly more convenient to put it all on a 16 gb thumb drive [which I also understand generally has a longer shelf life than a dvd] but my impression is the thumb drive would choke on all the files (actually more like 20,000) and complex directory tree.

 

Thank goodness for imgburn!

[dbminter]

What you could do in your case is write your image file with ImgBurn to HDD and then copy over the file to thumb drive as ImgBurn won't write directly to the thumb drive.  However, you'd need some kind of virtual optical drive emulation software like Virtual CloneDrive so you could mount the image file to access the contents.  Or get software like UltraISO to extract contents from the image file.

 

 

You might want to enable file splitting options for your image in case the contents are larger than the 16 GB thumb drive you mentioned.  Or just get a larger thumb drive. 

 

 

Dell's have quick release mechanisms for their optical drive bays?  My last Dell and my current one don't.  My 2009 PC had something like that.  Green bars that lined up with the screw holes and held the drives in place.  They were released by simply prying on a little lever.  I LOVED that. 

[Tschurin]

i'll keep the image copying in mind; so far I've never used imgburn to copy an image of the hard drive.

 

Typically, when I buy a new pc, I don't mind having to reinstall essential software; I view it as a fresh start and a way to say goodbye to any unwanted changes to the registry, et. al., that might have previously wormed their way into my pc. Besides which when I buy a new PC, it's often about the time I'm transitioning to a new operating system.

 

As indicated earlier, I'm not that tech savvy; just enough to ask newbie-type questions ;-)

[dbminter]

As Lightning said, if your goal is to copy your hard drive, you're better off with an imaging program like Acronis True Image.  Personally, I used to use that buy now I loathe it.    I recommend Macrium Reflect.

 

 

ImgBurn will make a copy of the contents but if you ever had a case where the PC wouldn't boot, an ImgBurn backup won't be of much use.

 

 

Plus, with imaging software, you can install all your new essential software, image the Windows partition after you installed it all, and if you ever needed to reinstall everything, you just restore the image.  I've been imaging my PC's for 20 years, starting with Drive Image.  I got tired of reinstalling everything when Windows needed a reinstall every month.