Image File System Limitations

[Maurice]

Dear Members,

 

I would like to make a backup on DVD's, of my Notebook PC's entire D-Drive contents. It's currently in the order of 18GB in size. My understanding is that I need to create an "image" first, which I should then be able to burn to DVD's afterwards.

 

Using IB, I set out to create such an image. Some time into the task, I was presented with an error message which informed me that the chosen image format viz. ISO, only supports a maximum of 8 directory levels. (My directory structure is quite hectic, something in the order of around 17 levels)

 

I then attempted to re-create an image, this time choosing the UDF file format instead however, the same problem was reported.

 

What I'd like to know is, does some kind of work around this problem exist, and how do I go about it ?

Does this mean I should resign myself to the fact that all the current image formats have a similar file system limitation, and that my expectation is therefore not viable at all ?

 

Any and all suggestions on solving the mentioned problem will be much appreciated.

 

Kind Regards

[mmalves]

You can get around that limitation by using only the UDF filesystem. And you don't need to create an image first: select Device in the Output menu and the current build will be burn straight to disc

 

May I suggest that you use an archiver program to do all the work? Something like WinRAR or 7-Zip would work fine. Both of them can split the archive in DVD sizes, which you can then use ImgBurn in Build mode to burn them (use UDF 1.02 as the filesystem). Your folder structure will be kept intact and you can even try using compression, although the more compression used, the more time it takes to compress and later extract the files/folders.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Or just tick the appropriate box on the Advanced -> Restrictions -> ISO9660 tab.

[Maurice]

You can get around that limitation by using only the UDF filesystem. And you don't need to create an image first: select Device in the Output menu and the current build will be burn straight to disc

 

May I suggest that you use an archiver program to do all the work? Something like WinRAR or 7-Zip would work fine. Both of them can split the archive in DVD sizes, which you can then use ImgBurn in Build mode to burn them (use UDF 1.02 as the filesystem). Your folder structure will be kept intact and you can even try using compression, although the more compression used, the more time it takes to compress and later extract the files/folders.

 

 

Hi mmalves,

 

Thank you very much for your advice. I finally got around to trying the first part out, and it all worked fine. However, I now face a new problem /challenge. (As mentioned initially, I am trying to burn 18GB worth of data to DVD's.) So when IB burnt my first DVD disk, it reported having insufficient space left for the remainder of the data (obviously). I expected IB to request the next fresh disk, but it didn't.

Before I started the burn, I went to "Settings > Build > Options > File Splitting", and selected the option size 4.7GB, thinking it'll match my DVD capacity. This feature didn't seem to work. Perhaps I understand the function all wrong ?

Is it possible to set IB up such that it'll split my archive to span several disks, and how exactly to I go about achieving it ? Your assistence will be much appreciated once again !

 

PS. I looked at your other proposals, but was unsuccessfull for the following reasons. 1) 7Zip only seem to allow one to select a single file for splitting at a time, and not an entire archive. So that didn't work. WinRar on the other hand, appears to be able to create volumes of a split archive. But the downside is that such Volumes are supported only by the RAR archive format. Also, one obviosly need to unpack all volumes before one can get access to the data.

 

Ideally, I don't wan't to get stuck with data in a proprietary file format or any such like. I don't need encryption, not do I want to do any compression of data. (I need ready and fast access if the need arises)

 

IB seems to be my best bet at this time, as I was able to directly access the data that was burned on my 1st disk. That's the way I want it. Only trouble now is, getting multi disk spanning to work nicely.

 

Any ideas and / or other suggestions

 

Kind regards

Maurice

[LIGHTNING UK!]

That's not what file splitting is for.

 

ImgBurn cannot span discs, you'll probably need a real backup tool for that.

[Maurice]

That's not what file splitting is for.

 

ImgBurn cannot span discs, you'll probably need a real backup tool for that.

 

 

Hi LIGHTNING UK!,

 

Thanks for your reply explaining the matter. You being a man of very vew words, I'd like to pose the following two questions briefly.

 

1) Do you foresee equipping IB with disk spanning capability somewhere in the future ?

 

2) Do you have a particular "real backup tool" in mind which you could recommend in the mean time ?. (Freeware preferably) Please bear in mind that I'd like to stay as far away from Proprietary file formats, encryption and compression as possible)

 

PS. If IB could do disk spanning, it would have been the ideal solution though !

 

Best regards

Maurice

[blutach]

I think the backup tool bundled with Windows (in the extras bit of the disc) has spanning capabilities.

 

Regards

[LIGHTNING UK!]

1. No, never.

 

2. Sorry, no. I've never needed such a thing.

 

If you think about it, you've already wasted a day or two looking for ways on how to do it. If this is just a 1 off thing, you could have roughly split the data yourself into 5 parts and burnt it by now!