-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Burning question--Lil
- From: "Sammi" <sammi@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 19:23:39 -0600
Gman, does this mean that you already had 2 drives and then you got the
enclosures (housings?) and put the drives in that? And these drives are
USB2? Your mention of 500Gs made me drool, : ) As do 2 new memory sticks,
both at 1G which would give me 2Gs.
I have replaced and installed bad and larger drives in my old pc, as well as
modems, memory of course, a floppy drive and a CD RW drive. I'm not afraid
of getting under the hood, so to speak. It's some of the other things I am
unsure of, like is this pc capable of running another internal drive? It
appears to me that there is an empty bay. And how do I determine these
things? And external for just backups sounds just like what I think I would
like to have. I think that the memory is capped at 2Gs.
The idea of a 1 button approach is inticing. I'll head on over to NewEgg
soon and check those out; I figured you weren't knocking Tiger Direct. A
years ago I bought some things at NewEgg; I had forgotten that. Also at CDW
and PC Zone...boy that seems like a very long time ago.
Again, thanks for the new information,
Sammi
Gman wrote:
> Sammi,
> There are two manufacturer approaches to the type of external you
> should
> consider. One of them is simply an internal drive mounted into an
> external
> enclosure. You basically treat these as you would any other drive,
> except
> at a slower access speed if you use any connection other than eSATA
> (which
> many systems still don't support). The other type is an external
> that is
> dedicated solely to backups. These come with their own software that
> allow
> you to press a button (often right on the external) to have your
> system
> backed up without further assistance from you. I bought two regular
> external enclosures and put in my own drives.
>
> I'll also add that I often find better prices (sometimes free
> shipping,
> too) when I order through NewEgg. I am a customer of both, so this
> is not a
> knock on TigerD.
>
> Peace,
> G
>
> "The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask!"
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sammi" <sammi@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 7:24 PM
> Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Burning question--Lil
>
>
>> Hey Gman,
>>
>> I understand what you mean with this information. And it is good
>> advice, I think as soon as I am sure my newly burned disks are
>> working correctly, I do
>> as you suggest with those older ones that are still good and copy
>> them anew.
>>
>> BTW, that CD had a label on it from when I was entranced with what
>> the program could do. I never did it again, thankfully. I think that
>> printed adhesive label might be part of the problem, like you said.
>> I could see little flaws in the material of the burning side of the
>> CD, too. I have always used Sharpies, but now I see from you guys
>> that is bad, too. I'll have to get some of the CD/DVD safe pens.
>>
>> Here is what I did last night with the one that said it was zero
>> bytes: I fired up my old W98 and put in the disk that was in
>> question. I could hardly
>> believe my eyes!! It showed up on that machine. So I thought I would
>> copy the CD contents to a newly created shared folder on the old
>> machine. But, the CD drive was only able to copy about half of them.
>>
>> Hmm. Then I used some mild handsoap and cleaned and dried the CD.
>> Rebooted the XP machine, put in the CD and holy cow...there were the
>> files. But it couldn't access all of the files, I kept getting a
>> error that it couldn't read from the source. And one about a
>> redundancy check problem. Between the
>> two computers, I just kept trying and trying until I was finally
>> able to copy the files to a folder on the XP. Then I reinstalled
>> EZC-6 from the folder. I use Total Commander
>> (http://www.ghisler.com/) for transfering files from one pc to
>> another, works great!
>>
>> I appreciate the info on the eternal hard drives; I looked at Tiger
>> Direct this a.m. and will be looking around more I figure I would
>> like at least the
>> same or a bit more as the hard drive I have now, and it is 145
>> capacity. I saw one that was about $125 but now I can't remember
>> which was which. CRS! I
>> would like to stay at around $90 to $125 max. I realize that no media
>> lasts
>> forever, nor will I! Ha-hah. But it is good to be reminded that I
>> should back up what I have worked so hard to find and that which I
>> have created. I
>> am really leaning on getting an external hard drive.
>>
>> Thanks so much,
>> Sammi
>>
>> Gman wrote:
>>> Two things, Sammi.
>>>
>>> First, CD blank media does not last as 'lifetime' as the earliest
>>> marketing
>>> of that medium reported. The 'pressed' ones (retail CDs & DVDs)
>>> last a long
>>> time, but the ones we burn ourselves are burned onto a different
>>> type of
>>> film (it's typically a metal foil sandwiched between two clear
>>> layers). The
>>> 'pressed' ones also use actual hills and valleys created by the
>>> pressing,
>>> where ours are nowhere near as deep or tall (burning only melts the
>>> foil and
>>> it can only move so much as a result). Consequently, writable disks
>>> (CD-R,
>>> DVD-R, DVD+R) should only be trusted for several years before being
>>> replaced
>>> (copy the contents back to the drive and re-burn them onto a new
>>> disk). All
>>> Re-writables were never meant for long term storage and shouldn't be
>>> trusted
>>> for more than a year.
>>>
>>> Since you have found a disk that used to be good but is now showing
>>> as blank, you may want to try running a recovery utility on it to
>>> see if any of
>>> it can be recovered. Unfortunately, I have never tried any of
>>> these, so I
>>> don't have a specific app to recommend. Still, here are some you
>>> might want
>>> to consider. Just keep in mind that it's an old list. :O)
>>>
>>> CDCheck
>>> CD Data Rescue
>>> CD-R Diagnostic
>>>
>>> The second thing I wanted to mention is that the price of hard
>>> drives, including externals, has really dropped a lot recently so
>>> it may be more
>>> affordable than you're thinking. I tend to do the math to determine
>>> the
>>> size that's cheapest in $/GB (cost per GB) and the sweet spot is
>>> still the
>>> 500GB models. I'm about to order my second 500GB drive which will
>>> cost me
>>> about $90 US. Depending on your space needs, you could go with
>>> something
>>> much smaller than that for less. The external models tend to go for
>>> about
>>> $10 more, so you'd be getting a $20 enclosure for half price. Just
>>> make
>>> sure it uses the best connection method your system can handle
>>> (eSATA runs
>>> at the same speed as an internal but still rare on systems, Firewire
>>> is next
>>> and not quite as rare, USB 2.0 works fine for most systems and USB
>>> 1.x is
>>> way back in last place and almost too slow for regular use). If you
>>> know
>>> your specific needs/wants, let us know and we'll locate you some
>>> good prices.
>>>
>>> Peace,
>>> G
>>>
>>> "The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask!"
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Sammi" <sammi@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 11:36 PM
>>> Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Burning question--Lil
>>>
>>>
>>>> Not to worry Lil, I was late replying to your message! And yes,
>>>> there were a
>>>> bunch of msgs to download. I haven't been online the past couple of
>>>> days since I am trying to better organize my files.
>>>>
>>>> I am still having some problems, but not as severe as they were. I
>>>> was going
>>>> to reinstall EZC-6...I dove into my big "pc" box where I have lots
>>>> and lots
>>>> of old programs, floppy diskettes, books and all-around OLD pc
>>>> stuff. I found my backup copy CD for it, but I have not yet found
>>>> my original. Oh well, I thought...I'll just pop this backup I made
>>>> a long time ago. I did and I was surprised that it showed there was
>>>> nothing on the disk! I know I used it when I first got this pc, so
>>>> at one time it was OK. Now I'll have to
>>>> go out to the cold garage and see if I can find my original.
>>>>
>>>> You asked if I had deleted the original files, no I didn't do that.
>>>> I'm hoping to save them before something horrid happens. In my big
>>>> pc box, I did
>>>> find some CDs that I made with EZC-6 over 2 years ago on this pc
>>>> and they are good! A few of the files have no extension, but the
>>>> file size is right;
>>>> I copied and pasted one onto my desktop and added the .jpg...wow,
>>>> it worked!
>>>> I opened it with ACDsee and it was gorgeous. Only the ones with 0
>>>> bytes are
>>>> not good.
>>>>
>>>> I understand completely about your dogs...and cats, too. We have 2
>>>> dogs, one
>>>> is an American Pit Bull Terrier and I will tell you that we have
>>>> had *many*
>>>> dogs over our 46 years, but he is the sweetest, smartest most
>>>> well-mannered
>>>> dog we have ever had. He is nearly perfect! Gentlemanly but funny,
>>>> too. Bad
>>>> owners, bad breeders and the media have given the properly raised
>>>> dogs a bad
>>>> name. Our two cats were already established, and they taught him
>>>> manners early!
>>>>
>>>> The bull mastiff has a little red-nose Staffordshire in him, but he
>>>> too is so sweet, even though he was terribly abused for about 4
>>>> years. He was so starved that he couldn't stand up. Our grandson
>>>> had to carry him in, and I thought it was a sack of bones. He is
>>>> scarred all over, but many of the scars are not as visible any
>>>> more. His poor ears were a mass of puncture wounds.
>>>>
>>>> I never dreamed when we took him on as a rescue, that he would be
>>>> so sweet.
>>>> I thought we would really have our hands full...I also thought that
>>>> he would
>>>> 'hate' people because of how he was treated. But, other than
>>>> wanting to sit
>>>> on my lap, he is pretty good. Like many mastiffs, he is a bit
>>>> willful, but wants so badly to please that he becomes totally
>>>> bummed out if he thinks he
>>>> messed up. And wants to make it up to you by extra kisses, ha-hah.
>>>>
>>>> You mentioned a possible problem with the DVD drive, it is possible
>>>> and I did wonder about that, I have played audio CDs in it teday,
>>>> with no trouble.
>>>> But since it is a combo, it might just be.
>>>>
>>>> I'll be working on the backup problem. I can't afford it really,
>>>> but I was even considering an external hard drive. Don't know for
>>>> sure at this point.
>>>>
>>>> Sammi
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