Synchronise folder to DVD-RW Disc

[therock003]

In RW discs do you have control over individual files or do you have to delete and write from zero every time. There is a folder on my PC which i want to backup each month. Can i just add, delete and modify files directly or do i have to do it the hard way?

[dbminter]

You can do it either way, either dynamic or rewrite the contents on disc each time.  There are advantages to each method.

 

 

The dynamic way is to format the RW disc in Windows.  It will create, essentially, a giant floppy out the disc.  You can add files, delete them, rename them, basically anything you'd do in a folder in Windows/File Explorer on the RW.  The advantages are obvious.  You don't have create an entirely new disc each time.  The drawbacks are, well, I don't know if it counts anymore.  In the old days of UDF packet writing with software included in things like Nero, the discs were highly unstable.  If a file failed to write to the disc, and it happened all the time, ALL of the contents were destroyed.  I've never encountered that in the 2 or 3 years I've been using Windows formatted RW discs except on an ASUS burner that destroyed ALL rewritable discs it wrote to.  So, I don't know how unstable this method could be.  I've never encountered a problem, but that doesn't mean there can't be with this method.

 

 

ImgBurn can only create new discs each time.  So, each time you create a new image file, it must erase the table of contents on the RW so the space can be written to by the new image.  The advantage to this method is the track is closed each time the disc is written to.  It would be "stable" versus the potential for problems IF they exist with the first method.  The disadvantages, of course, are you must create a new image file each time and the file must be entirely written to the disc.  This method, naturally, takes more time than the first.

 

 

If I were to choose in your case, I'd go with the first method.  I've only ever encountered that issue I mentioned doing it that way and that was the fault of the ASUS burner, not the method.

 

 

To format the disc, insert the RW into a drive and open Windows/File Explorer.  Right click on the drive containing the RW and choose Format.  Make sure, of course, you're formatting the RW.  You don't want to format a hard disk drive or a thumb drive by accident.