Burning Question (he he)

sara505

I'm using Burn4Free to burn DVDs of photos (which I also store on xhd). I had no problems creating many DVDs in the past couple of months, but yesterday, while attempting to burn only 4 or 5 disks, I had many "calibration, medium power" (can't quote exactly) error messages, relegating more than half of my disks to coaster status - well, who needs all those coasters, they went into the garbage.

There's one folder that I simply cannot burn - I went through 4 disks before I finally quit.

I'm using Sony DVD +R, which worked, for the most part, in the past. Even Staples brand has worked ok.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be gratefully received.

Thank you.

Art Scott

If you are using a Windows machine..have your tried their cd/dvd burning utility......I haven't used it in many years as I use Roxio creator.......
How old is your burner? Could be the lazer is getting weak or very dirty....have you ever cleaned it....I do mine before every session........are you doing othr tasks while burning, if so you may be pulling needed power away from burner......
I quit using sony disks many years ago and really only recommend MaM-A gold disks (used to be Mitsui gold).......have had way less than 1% failure with them........and I have yet to have one go corrupt.....I have several hundred combined sony, tdk, memorex, imation and others that are waiting for me to find the magic software to un-corrupt (recover) my photos............

Good Luck.

sara505

Art Scott wrote:

If you are using a Windows machine..have your tried their cd/dvd burning utility......I haven't used it in many years as I use Roxio creator.......
How old is your burner? Could be the lazer is getting weak or very dirty....have you ever cleaned it....I do mine before every session........are you doing othr tasks while burning, if so you may be pulling needed power away from burner......
I quit using sony disks many years ago and really only recommend MaM-A gold disks (used to be Mitsui gold).......have had way less than 1% failure with them........and I have yet to have one go corrupt.....I have several hundred combined sony, tdk, memorex, imation and others that are waiting for me to find the magic software to un-corrupt (recover) my photos............

Good Luck.

Thanks, Art. I'm on Windows, had problems with their burner, can't remember what the issue was, which is why I'm using B4F. Yes, possibly dirty, though this machine is only 1+years old.
I will try MaM-A gold disks - ay yai yai, your talk of corruption on Sony etc. makes my blood run cold. (my thinking I've covered myself by storing everything on xhd - I've had one xhd fail on me! - plus DVD suddenly fell through the floor)

Sara (constantly on the up-hill of her learning curve, it seems!)

Art Scott

Sara,
I try to keep a total of 3 hdd copies of everything including my "C" drive.....it woud be highly unlikely to loose all 3 at once or even 2 at once and I keep them in different locations as well as ALL my finished jpgs will be stored on private galleries on SM and of course the photos for sale and in my portfolio are in public galleries......in a worst case scenario (world war fought in the US) I could loose it all.....but my next worst case is loosing all my drives and back ups but SM would stil ahve all my FULL sized jpgs for me .......

If your post processing software has the ability to copyright your work by attaching a link to your storage site be sure to use it....in case you every loose all back ups of the original files (wheather they are raw file or jpgs)......I know I can do this with light room but not sure what other software allows this.....I have been following Scott Kelby's book "Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers" to get copyright info into ALL of my files old and new.......if only it could be done in my camera..........

Mam-a Gold disks are some ofthe more expensive out there and I cannot recommend a good place to purchase from......I still buy mine from a recording studio I used to work with....but since the price of hdd's are so inexpensive I have almost quit using optical media for storage or back up......Hdd's like the seagates with a 5yr warranty are the best bet at this time...............

sara505

Art Scott wrote:

Sara,
I try to keep a total of 3 hdd copies of everything including my "C" drive.....it woud be highly unlikely to loose all 3 at once or even 2 at once and I keep them in different locations as well as ALL my finished jpgs will be stored on private galleries on SM and of course the photos for sale and in my portfolio are in public galleries......in a worst case scenario (world war fought in the US) I could loose it all.....but my next worst case is loosing all my drives and back ups but SM would stil ahve all my FULL sized jpgs for me .......

If your post processing software has the ability to copyright your work by attaching a link to your storage site be sure to use it....in case you every loose all back ups of the original files (wheather they are raw file or jpgs)......I know I can do this with light room but not sure what other software allows this.....I have been following Scott Kelby's book "Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers" to get copyright info into ALL of my files old and new.......if only it could be done in my camera..........

Mam-a Gold disks are some ofthe more expensive out there and I cannot recommend a good place to purchase from......I still buy mine from a recording studio I used to work with....but since the price of hdd's are so inexpensive I have almost quit using optical media for storage or back up......Hdd's like the seagates with a 5yr warranty are the best bet at this time...............

IOW, instead of trying to back everything up on DVD, I should think about adding hard drives?

I have three Maxtors. one 100gb, bought a couple of years ago when I was still shooting jpgs. That one is full, plus everything is on DVD. My second Maxtor, 250gb, bit the dust a few months ago with a corruption issue. I came precariously close to losing two weddings, both of which I managed to pull off that drive before I lost everything (It was this experience that woke me up to the necessity of backing everything up onto DVD - I still practically break out into a cold sweat every time I look into my x-hd folder). Luckily, most of the photos on that drive were already posted to SmugMug, so all I lost were the RAW negatives. The files are all there, but unreadable. Someday I will either take the time to restore the files, or call it a day and reformat the whole thing and start over.
The third Maxtor - 500gb seems to be working fine so far. I am now rather diligent about keeping a hard copy of every photo, however, and I have enough memory cards so that I don't reformat a card until I have a copy of every image on both my drive and DVD.

So, given the news that my Sony and STaples DVDs are susceptible to corruption, I should be backing up my hard drives with other hard drives, I suppose. I will pursue this idea - I would feel very safe with 3 of everything. I actually live in two different places, so I could have two drives in one location, the third in the other location and transport it occasionally to update it.

I did find the Mam-a Gold, yes, pricey - 104.00 for 50, but sometimes in life, it's cheaper to shell out the bucks.

I also use LR - love it - will check out the copyrighting option.

Thanks, Art.

Art Scott

Sara,

Here is a run down on my way of backing up......only software that is running is on "c" drive, 1 more internal drive that is an exact clone of "C"....as I add more running software (permanent no trials are backed up unles they are there when I do a back up) I format and re-clone "c" (named c-twin), I am in the process of purchasing new MOBO so new drives will need to be SATA and all of my current internal drives are PATA.....I have 2 more externals that have all of my software and music on them (so far).....as for photography goes....I have as Scott K. calls it my working drive, on this drive I have all of my original RAW files and a working folder that I had run thru LR2 just to change to DNG (2 more clones of this external drive) and a drive for finished goods + 2 clones of this + all finished good will be in a private gallery on SM....so I have 3 drives working and 3 drives for finished work....if I need to go into PS I do it directlay after I finish in LR2 and open in PS then it goes to the finished drive.......it was a bit clumsy at first but then I did not have a real good system before and Scott put it into perspective with his directions on his work flow and archiving techniques.............

If you sell or give out cd/dvd's with your weddings or portrait work those Mam-a's will be perfect for that.......I am goingto buy a dedicated printer just for printing cd/dvd's and all my paper work, and Mam-a gold printable media.......

Good luck

sara505

Art Scott wrote:

Sara,

Here is a run down on my way of backing up......only software that is running is on "c" drive, 1 more internal drive that is an exact clone of "C"....as I add more running software (permanent no trials are backed up unles they are there when I do a back up) I format and re-clone "c" (named c-twin), I am in the process of purchasing new MOBO so new drives will need to be SATA and all of my current internal drives are PATA.....I have 2 more externals that have all of my software and music on them (so far).....as for photography goes....I have as Scott K. calls it my working drive, on this drive I have all of my original RAW files and a working folder that I had run thru LR2 just to change to DNG (2 more clones of this external drive) and a drive for finished goods + 2 clones of this + all finished good will be in a private gallery on SM....so I have 3 drives working and 3 drives for finished work....if I need to go into PS I do it directlay after I finish in LR2 and open in PS then it goes to the finished drive.......it was a bit clumsy at first but then I did not have a real good system before and Scott put it into perspective with his directions on his work flow and archiving techniques.............

If you sell or give out cd/dvd's with your weddings or portrait work those Mam-a's will be perfect for that.......I am goingto buy a dedicated printer just for printing cd/dvd's and all my paper work, and Mam-a gold printable media.......

Good luck

Thanks, ARt. You've inspired me to think less about disks and more about adding onto my hd arsenal. I very much appreciate your explanations, not that I understand every detail, but you've given me some good ideas. thanks!

sara505

Me again. I've begun instituting Scott Kelby's LR folder set-up instructions, and immediately have a problem - no preview for my G9's RAW files, which will make it complicated to organize my folders. LR import window shows only a gray square. I see this problem also discussed a while back over on the LR forum. (not sure what the solution is, or if there is one - seems to be a problem indigenous to Canon)
I'm disappointed. I don't have a problem with Canon's utility for my 40D and G9 - have grown accustomed to it, but rather liked the backup option being offered with LR.

sara505

Ok - so I can download off my camera to computer, then when I import from disk into LR I can utilize back-up option, and there is a preview when I do it this way.
I'll figure this out.

Help...my gadgets are holding me hostage...