dvd backup

[newbievamp]

Hi im new to the forums. I have a little problem iv got 10gig hard drive but my new pc will only register it as 7gig that means i only have 4.7gig free had disk space so its not very easy for me to make good backups of my dvd.im running windows xp 256 ram cpu:duron 950mhz.im using dvd shrink wich is very good but if you have a dvd that is say 8gig then when you compress it down to say 50% you have bad quality loss.plus the blank dvds i have are 4.7gig wich dosnt help matters.are there any other programs that i can use without using all my hard drive?.or is there anyway of makeing my pc see my 10gig hard drive as a 10gig so i can back up my dvds with out leaving myself 300meg on harddrive after backing up a dvd.is it possible to backup a damaged dvd.

[jimmalenko]

It sounds like your HD has only been formatted to 7GB, which is pretty strange.

Two ways I can think of:

1. There are a number of programs that will let you modify your HD partitions such as Partition Magic. You could enlarge your C drive to take up all of the available space without having to reinstall anything.

2. You could use XP's Computer Management console to set up another logical drive for the leftover space. You would then be best to uninstall some programs and reinstall them onto the new drive.

[newbievamp]

Iv tried a few programs and the most i can get out of my hd is 7.8gig could it be that it is a 7.8 gig hard drive? it was sold to me as a 10gig.i didnt think they ever made a 7.8gig iv had a 1,3 & 5gig but never a 7.8.only oterthing i can think of is trying to reprogram the bois?.i would have to get all my hd info.

[LeoNapier]

Considering yr OS is WinXP and you must have some other apps installed as well, i am not certain a full 10Gb HDD would be enough for the purposes of backing up DVDs.

Sometimes (like when DVDshrink fails to rip) it s neccessary to rip the files onto the HDD and then do the transcoding from there which neccesitates the use of about 13 Gb of space!

Maybe you could look into bying a cheap 40 Gb drive? Not sure though whether yr motherboard will be able to address it, so you might need to update yr bios.

As for yr current system, it sounds like a bios addressing the HDD prob, so the full 9.sth or so Gb arent showing. If you do start messing about with the bios settings for the drive, do make a backup of yr drive cause its likely you 'll lose the existing data.

hope this helps.

LeoNapier

[macleod]

either a bios issue (not enabling LBA) or a partitioning issue. Could you tell me the motherboard info (just start with the age of the motherboard which will help). Is this the primary/only harddrive? What does the BIOS say BEFORE going to XP. What are the partitions like.

For now, when you go into computer management (right click on "my computer", click "manage", then "disk management"), what does it say? Is it NTFS or FAT32 under file system. What is the capacity and free space?

You say in your original post that after all is said and done, you only have 4.7 gig left over for making backups. That, quite frankly is all you need. If you are using the latest version of shrink (and have dvddecrpyter installed), all you need to do is modify the settings to create and ISO image that dvddecrypter will burn. It doesnt create the file first and then make an iso (like ISOTOOL does), it actually makes the ISO image on the fly. So basically, all you have to do is after it is done is burn with dvddecrypter.

[newbievamp]

it says fat32.the mother board is a week old from a new computer store.it takes only amd xp chips up to 2gig.other then that i do not know.i can backup dvds but i have to compress them alot. by 50% i need to compress them to 70-75

[newbievamp]

the disk space is 7.86 gig not earlier it was 7.8 gig i have not deleted any files but i did use a program to free up space.iv got 61% free of the 7.86 gig(4.82).would it work if i put my old 5gig hard drive in as a slave?.

[macleod]

I'd convert to NTFS (fat 32 has a 2 gig limit). This "may" solve either part or all of the problem. Do a backup first!!!!!

If the board is a week old than it really cant be a BIOS issue. On the BIOS setup, do you have the hdd set up to user defined or auto. If it is either one, maybe switch it and enter the values yourself.

You could put the 5 gig drive in as the slave and it would solve the initial problem (and have the ripping/burning ocurring on a non OS drive is preferred anyway).

Can you detail the steps of what you did when you put XP on it. Did you format the drive, set logical partitions, etc......

[jimmalenko]

quite frankly and bluntly, you got gypped buying a supposed 10GB drive. Buy a 40GB drive and be done with it.

[newbievamp]

i got it set to auto.i would have to take the hard drive out to see the parimitors(dunno if i spelt that wright).if i was to buy a 40gig then how would i know if it would work on my pc with a 950mhz duron amd cpu?

[johns0]

Any new motherboard will take up to at least a 120 gb hdd.

[macleod]

"a" weird thing is that it is a BRAND new 950? 950's were great about 1-2 years ago. But it would still do XP. Where did the hard drive come from? The min hard drives I see are at least 40 gig.

I just reread your post. I am going to do a little paraphrasing here, because I think my comment about fat32 vs NTFS is the answer you are looking for. (not the hard drive size problem though)

Your new hard drive says 10 gig, however, shows up 7'ish gig. After the OS is on there and whatever else, you have 4+ gig left. You cannot use dvdshrink to compress to a dvd-5(4.3 gig) because it only goes to 2 gig.

Your first question is the 10 gig purchase vs 7'ish gig free space. 2nd is that it only goes to 2 gig.

The 2 gig issue. This IS because you are using FAT32. Convert to NTFS and you WILL ber able to back up a dvd over the 2 gig limit.

After you do this, please tell me what you did when you set everything up. I do need to know the parameters of the hd

[johns0]

Fat32 has a 4 gig limit,fat16 is 2 gig.

[handyguy]

if you look at the model number on top of the hd you can look it up to see what it really is.

xboxes usually use 8 gig HD's so maybe its one of those?

[newbievamp]

how do i convert it from fat to ntfs?

[newbievamp]

http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=8438

on this like they say if you convert from fat32 you can get problems with running programs from the start menu or something

[newbievamp]

now this is weird i changed my hd to ntfs and its got less space then i had when i had fat32.next i iwll try to get the hd settings and enter them myself in bios instead of having auto detect.would i need to do this them reformat my c: drive?

[macleod]

Fat32 has a 4 gig limit,fat16 is 2 gig.

Dammit! You are right. What the heck was I thinking

[newbievamp]

Now my pc is slow and messed up.i will have to convert it back.

[gjviii]

I may be wrong saying this but with the knowledge you are showing here, I think your best bet would be to buy a bigger hard drive and take the computer to someone who knows how to work on computers.

[macleod]

Your computer is slow converting from FAT32 to NTFS??????? Ok, something else is going on here. You need to tell me what the hell you are doing step by step when you are doing the set up.

How many systems have you set up? I may be making too many assumptions when I was telling you stuff originally. I need to get an idea of your technical understanding.

[Mattsensei]

Hi im new to the forums. I have a little problem iv got 10gig hard drive but my new pc will only register it as 7gig that means i only have 4.7gig free had disk space so its not very easy for me to make good backups of my dvd.im running windows xp 256 ram cpu:duron 950mhz.im using dvd shrink wich is very good but if you have a dvd that is say 8gig then when you compress it down to say 50% you have bad quality loss.plus the blank dvds i have are 4.7gig wich dosnt help matters.are there any other programs that i can use without using all my hard drive?.or is there anyway of makeing my pc see my 10gig hard drive as a 10gig so i can back up my dvds with out leaving myself 300meg on harddrive after backing up a dvd.is it possible to backup a damaged dvd.

Computer prices in the UK are very low. Now is the time to upgrade m8. I just bought a 2nd HD from savastore.com, giving me a total of 160 gig. It's cheap. Do it. 8)

[jimmalenko]

I may be wrong saying this but with the knowledge you are showing here, I think your best bet would be to buy a bigger hard drive and take the computer to someone who knows how to work on computers.

I agree.

There are quite a few threads that need this post

[newbievamp]

my farther works on computers i just do the software and installing side.its not the fat32 thats gone slow its the other.iv wiped my pc many of times and reinstalled windowsa if thats what you mean.i know a little about bois settings.my pc is very new apart from the hard drive.to make things worse my vdu is breaking down.when i format my pc i put the boot sisk in go through the options untill i get the c: come up then i do a c: format c: then it says y/n ect.then when its done i have to go in to bios n turn boot from floppy off n then turn it to boot from cd rom.i realy need to reformat this hd BUT i have no floopy disk drive as thats given up the ghost.im not having much luck her am i?.so thats a new vdu,hd & a:drive.in a few days i will get a new hd n vdu but do i need to format the new hd? if so im screwed coz no a: drive.

[jimmalenko]

If running XP, you don't need an a: drive. Put your copy of XP in your CDROM (XP discs are bootable). Reformat using the setup utility and go for it from there. You really should get a bigger HD if you want to do anything with DVD though.

[newbievamp]

ok.weird thing is the size limit on my hd goes up and down like a fiddlers eldow today i booted it up and now its 5.2gig now its 4.8gig im not adding anything to my pc the only thing im using it for is backing up dvds after its done i delete the files and empty the recycle bin

[richdvd]

Now my pc is slow and messed up.i will have to convert it back

You can't convert NTFS to FAT32...You should always use NTFS anyway...FAT has no advantages over it whatsoever.

[newbievamp]

What have i gained by changing to ntfs? i havent noticed any difference only that my hd size limit keeps going up n down

[richdvd]

What have i gained by changing to ntfs?

http://www.nextlev.com/Windows/Tech/ntfs.htm

[jimmalenko]

ok.weird thing is the size limit on my hd goes up and down like a fiddlers eldow today i booted it up and now its 5.2gig now its 4.8gig im not adding anything to my pc the only thing im using it for is backing up dvds after its done i delete the files and empty the recycle bin

You sure you're talking about size limit, or free space ?
If you are indeed talking about size limit then there is something seriously f'ed up with your computer, dude.