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Questions re DVD+RW (1 Viewer)

Surreybirder

Surreybirder

Ken Noble
Can anyone help me, please?
I bought a new pc recently which runs on Windows XP (home). It was one of the Dell on-line bargains (i.e. returned by another customer and only around £400 + cost of screen) so I wasn't too fussy about the specs.
The 'CD drive' is a Teac DVD+RW DV-W58E
I want to use this drive to back up all my files onto a DVD before I try installing Service Pack 2, just in case!
Questions: What types of DVD should I be buying? Would a rewritable DVD work; and is it worth the cost; and what exactly do I buy? Or is it best just to burn DVDs that are not rewritable (and presumably a lot cheaper); and do I buy DVD+R DVDs?
Sorry if this is all rather elementary ;)
TIA
Ken
 
Surreybirder said:
Can anyone help me, please?

Ken
Click to expand...
Not with that colour text ;)
I wouldn't have thought it would matter if you just want to archive, bit more felibility with RW. Just make sure you buy DVD+R or RW's and not anything else.
btw, I only use recordable DVD for home entertainment, so data may be a different kettle of fish.
regards,
Andy
 
Surreybirder said:
Can anyone help me, please?
I bought a new pc recently which runs on Windows XP (home). It was one of the Dell on-line bargains (i.e. returned by another customer and only around £400 + cost of screen) so I wasn't too fussy about the specs.
The 'CD drive' is a Teac DVD+RW DV-W58E
I want to use this drive to back up all my files onto a DVD before I try installing Service Pack 2, just in case!
Questions: What types of DVD should I be buying? Would a rewritable DVD work; and is it worth the cost; and what exactly do I buy? Or is it best just to burn DVDs that are not rewritable (and presumably a lot cheaper); and do I buy DVD+R DVDs?
Sorry if this is all rather elementary ;)
TIA
Ken
Click to expand...
WinXP has its own "roll back" program called "System Restore" so I doubt backing up is needed; SP2 is very safe to install. That said, it's imperative to keep important documents, etc. backed up and for that, either writable or rewritable are fine; writable usually write more quickly, that's all (and, as you say, are much cheaper).

If you are only backing up only documents, chances are you only need to write to a CD-ROM rather than the much more expensive DVD-R/RW as each CD-ROM will hold 700mb of data.

I would recommend buying a well-known brand such as TDK, Sony, Teac, etc., but, for CD-ROMs Aldi supermarket sell excellent 100% silver writable discs at less than £4-00 for ten.
 
Last edited:
scampo said:
SP2 is very safe to install.
Click to expand...

Beg to differ - it should be safe to install. Make sure the system is clean, that you have backed up all valuable data, disconnect from all networks. Use 'MSCONFIG' to disable all startups and any non-MS services (make a note of them to remind you to re-enable them immediately after the update and before you go online) - then reboot before running the update.
AOL9/SP2/ADSL can be difficult but there is a patch now.

Andy.
 
Last edited:
Surreybirder said:
Can anyone help me, please?
I bought a new pc recently which runs on Windows XP (home). It was one of the Dell on-line bargains (i.e. returned by another customer and only around £400 + cost of screen) so I wasn't too fussy about the specs.
The 'CD drive' is a Teac DVD+RW DV-W58E
I want to use this drive to back up all my files onto a DVD before I try installing Service Pack 2, just in case!
Questions: What types of DVD should I be buying? Would a rewritable DVD work; and is it worth the cost; and what exactly do I buy? Or is it best just to burn DVDs that are not rewritable (and presumably a lot cheaper); and do I buy DVD+R DVDs?
Sorry if this is all rather elementary ;)
TIA
Ken
Click to expand...

Will the drive write DVD-R disks, if so you may be better off using those, they tend to be cheaper. In general the DVD's which use the Ritek G04 dye or better are very reliable I bought 25 Ritek discs last Thursday for £8 +vat at www.aria.co.uk but I went in for them. If you have to have DVD+r discs then get a reputable disk if you can find Ritek discs those are the ones to buy.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I've got a lot of photos to back up so I think it will be worth using a DVD. I don't know if I can use DVD-R disks, so I'd better stick to DVD+R, I think.
Ken
 
Surreybirder said:
Thanks for all the suggestions. I've got a lot of photos to back up so I think it will be worth using a DVD. I don't know if I can use DVD-R disks, so I'd better stick to DVD+R, I think.
Ken
Click to expand...
You can't - you must buy DVD+R for your hardware, Ken.
 
Surreybirder said:
Thanks for all the suggestions. I've got a lot of photos to back up so I think it will be worth using a DVD.
Click to expand...
Why?

The photo's that my pro-lab put onto disk go onto a CD-R. At work we backup our software onto CD-Rs. You'll get 600+ jpeg on a CD -Rwhich is probably more than enough, particularly if you want to find them again.
 
walwyn said:
Why?

The photo's that my pro-lab put onto disk go onto a CD-R. At work we backup our software onto CD-Rs. You'll get 600+ jpeg on a CD -Rwhich is probably more than enough, particularly if you want to find them again.
Click to expand...
If I back up all my files it will come to about 1,200 MB, so it just seems easier to do it all on to one disk.
Ken
 
Just to report, I bought a pack of 10 DVD+RW (£9.99 from PC World) and I was able to back up all my files and photos in about 5 minutes.
I then installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 (which took about half an hour) and it all went smoothly. When I rebooted my pc, I was given the chance to make my McAfee software the firewall-provider. So far no problems at all!
Phew!....
(Although I see that you have to make some minor adjustment to enter sightings on the BTO's Birdtrack database.)
Thanks for everyone's help.

PS

I wonder if I could ask a couple of vaguely related questions while I'm 'on'?
I keep getting a file on my desktop which is just called ~. I've deleted it two or three times but it seems to come back a few hours later. What is it?

Secondly, my daughter is still running Windows 98SE on her pc and it's rather unstable (mainly because she's got about 10 Sims programmes installed). If I buy the upgrade to XP will that be as stable as my vesion of XP appears to be? Or is there likely still to be some incompatibility between the Sims and Windows? (She wants Sims II now!?)
Ken
 
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Have a look at www.blankdiscshop.co.uk
Their prices are amazing and their customer service second to none.
Give you an example - a couple of months ago I ordered a Pioneer DVD writer to upgrade my Mac. The cost was just about £50. Imagine my amazement when I received a phone call on my mobile to advise me that they were despatching the goods the next day!

Regards

John Fleet
 
John Fleet said:
Have a look at www.blankdiscshop.co.uk
Their prices are amazing and their customer service second to none.
Give you an example - a couple of months ago I ordered a Pioneer DVD writer to upgrade my Mac. The cost was just about £50. Imagine my amazement when I received a phone call on my mobile to advise me that they were despatching the goods the next day!

Regards

John Fleet
Click to expand...
You're right, John,... very good prices. though by the time you've paid postage I'm not sure you'd gain much on a small quantity of DVD+RW disks.
You managed to reply before I'd added the PS to my previous post!
Ken
 
Surreybirder said:
I keep getting a file on my desktop which is just called ~. I've deleted it two or three times but it seems to come back a few hours later. What is it?
Click to expand...
It's an Outlook Express file, it can be safely deleted but a fresh one will probably appear again - open it in Notepad.

Surreybirder said:
Secondly, my daughter is still running Windows 98SE on her pc and it's rather unstable (mainly because she's got about 10 Sims programmes installed). If I buy the upgrade to XP will that be as stable as my vesion of XP appears to be? Or is there likely still to be some incompatibility between the Sims and Windows? (She wants Sims II now!?)[/color]
Ken
Click to expand...
Sims can modify some behaviours in Windows. If the PC is unstable on 98, there is a good chance it will be worse on XP! You should really be looking at doing a format and clean reinstall of 98 (You could try XP; a BIOS upgrade for the motherboard if there's one available and it may be ok).

Andy.
 
Andrew Rowlands said:
Sims can modify some behaviours in Windows. If the PC is unstable on 98, there is a good chance it will be worse on XP! You should really be looking at doing a format and clean reinstall of 98 (You could try XP; a BIOS upgrade for the motherboard if there's one available and it may be ok).

Andy.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Andy.
I just did a reformat and install of Windows 98. It's a bit better than before.
I might see if I can find out about a BIOS upgrade.
Ken
 
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