Help, trouble making a DVD Backup

[thetigs]

I've tried searching this forum as well others but have not found a solution to my problem. Other forums have suggested to post on this website.

This may be long.

My PC info:

Dell 4600 P4 2.4 800MHz front side bus/HT TEchnology
256 RAM
AIW Pro 9000
40G HD
200G HD run through ATA controller card
CD-R
DVD-R
no floppy
OS: W-XP with service pak 1

I installed the DVD Burner NEC ND 1300A (Pacific Digital packaging) about 4 weeks ago. I have not been able to make a back up a DVD.

I can burn a DVD of recorded captured TV shows from my AIW card. I use TMPG Authoring software, then it burns it fine.

Problem:

I go to burn a back up DVD after using DVDShrink and it ejects after 5-10 minutes with error message. Looking at disc, it appears to have burned about 1/4 of it (about 1/2" wide area around disc).

Here is what I have tried:

DVD Firmware 1.05; 1.07; 1.08 hacked version

DVDshrink 2.3; 3.05b; 3.1: I did a shrink with all 3 saved to HD. They play fine from HD with my DVD player software.

Burning software used: Nero Express and/or Burn At Once. Exact same problem with either one used.

Disks used: DVD-R Optimum 2.4x; Khypermedia DVD +R 2x; Memorex DVD-RW 2x. Same problem with either one.

Regardless of what firmware or DVDshrink versions I use or mix & match, I get the same problem.

Now being a Dell and having to use "cable select" on install of DVD, could this be problem? I also disconnected the CDr, and had just the DVDr as "master", but no luck.

I do have the DVDr showing up as the second or slave on same cable as CDr which is primary (both are jumpered at cable select). I noticed the DVDr shows PIO mode when I have "use DMA if available". Yet the CDr shows Ultra DMA mode 2. Does this cause a problem?

Does anyone have any ideas what I am doing wrong? I don't think it is the actual drive, because I can burned recorded shows after runing through TMPG. I could be wrong though. Could it be a hardware problem or a configure problem? I tried 3 different disks, so I don't think it is that.

I do know when using Shrink it is taking me 45 minutes to rip the movie, then another 25 or so to encode it to HD. Does this sound right? I have read where others have been much faster than this.

From what others have told me, I am or appear to be following the correct steps in doing a backup.

Thank you in advance for any help.

** I will be out for a few days, so I will not post any results of suggestions until then. I wanted to post now, so I can get this cleared up by the weekend.

[thetigs]

Hello?

Does anyone have any suggestions to this original posted question?

Thank you.

[AdamRA4]

I have read about people having problems with this drive. If you can take it abck and try to get a pioneer or some other type of drive IMO. The ripping speed (45 min for rip) is right for an unlocked drive because it is capped at 2x and the Encoding is about right at 25 min. You may also try some Better media, like Ritek or BeAlls (www.rima.com), that may get you through an entire burn process. And try different burning software. Alot of people use Nero, I use CopyToDVD and love it. Hope the info helps.

[thetigs]

With failure on 3 different media brands............you still think it is the media?

I am able to burn recorded shows from my HD that I record with All In Wonder Pro. You still think it is the burner itself?

Am I using the correct steps as I outlined? Why do some people use DVD decryptor before Shrink?

[shelbyGT]

tigs, i had the exact same problem as yourself.

When i first installed my 1300a, it only wrote to dvd+r, no dvd-r or dvd-rw. So i was getting many a coasters.

Installed firmware 1.09 and tested out various media. Here is what I have, and it works.

firmware 1.09
memorex dvd-r version 2.0 OR maxell dvd-r or sony dvd-r ALL burn in my player now, before they didn't.
I use roxio creator classic, create the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS files and simply drag over the files that dvdshrink spit out. And I noticed a huge improvement in ripping time using the newest version of dvdshrink, 3.1.1 i think it is now.

I hope some of this can be useful. I know its annoying, but you'll get through it.

[thetigs]

OK, still no luck.

Installed firmware 1.0A (is new and it is after 1.09) along with trying Shrink 3.1.3 (the latest one as of today).

No matter what I try to burn it kicks it out at the same point on disk.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[northcat_8]

Not that I am an expert or anything but I'll toss in my 2 cents.

First set your DVD-R as the Master on the 2nd IDE channel and enable DMA...that is important. You should be able to have DMA enabled when it is a slave but then again its a Dell so you never know.

secondly - upgrade your RAM, 256 MB is not much, you are running a 800Mhz FSB, a 2.4 Ghz P4 processor and only 256 MB of ram?? (This is not your problem but still you should go with at LEAST 512 MB, Dell knows better)

thirdly?? - why is your 200 GB HD in a PCI card instead of slave on your primary cable? Take it off the ATA card and make it the slave on IDE channel #1. This may be why your DVD-R will not go DMA mode. I'm sure that card is set to DMA and don't forget it has room for 4 devices. If no longer used, remove that card. I know, I know, I had one too...nice to have but if not necessary, remove it, it takes up memory and you only have 256 to work with.

Now more to your issue.....

If the burner will burn something you captured to a DVD and the DVD will play then I do not think your burner is bad. I mean if it will burn that, it will burn others.

I would not suggest using Nero Express. If you are going to use Nero then use the Real Nero not the OEM version. Nero Express is trash IMO, I never could get it to burn DVD video...it came with your burner right?

Now I am not familiar with DVDshrink. But one of the first things I would try is I would have DVDshrink output the files on the HD like you did, then I would use IMGtools to make them an Image file and then try burning them with DVD Decrypter.

Also here is another little "gold nugget" that sometimes catches people if they aren't paying attention. Using Windows explorer go find the VIDEO_TS folder that contains your video files from DVDshrink or the Image file, which ever form it is in before you burn it. Anyway, select all the files / folder involved and look at the bottom of the window and see what the file size is as windows reports it in the status bar. Now right click on them and go to properties. In the properties it will give you the size in GB and the size in bytes. Make sure the size in bytes is less than 4,700,000,000...no matter what the size is in GB check the byte size. I have a group of files that windows tells me is 4.46 GB which will fit on a DVD-R...right??? NO...because the files total size is 4.46 GB (4,793,282,560 bytes) and 4,793,282,560 bytes will not fit on a DVD-R. That's my own fault for being in a hurry. But maybe your software is starting to burn before it realizes the file size is too big and stops once it realizes it won't fit, I've never heard of that but who knows...could happen.

After it ejects the disc, can you play any of the disc in WinDVD or PowerDVD?

And FOR goodness sake, I hope you are burning out to the DVD-RW and not DVD-R...that could get expensive. If you are burning to RW then there is a very real chance that maybe the RW disc did not erase properly and your burning is stopping when the disc is read to be full.

Some other suggestions...close all background programs. You can kill most of them through your task manager. Also disable your screen saver if you haven't already.

I would first try the image burning like I suggested earlier. If you have the same problem burning the image with Decrypter then we'll know exactly where we are. But make sure you get that DVD-R to DMA mode first...that is priority #1.

[thetigs]

First set your DVD-R as the Master on the 2nd IDE channel and enable DMA...that is important. You should be able to have DMA enabled when it is a slave but then again its a Dell so you never know.

In my "testing" methods, I only had the DVDR hooked up to 2nd channel as master. It still did not burn. I would have to go back to see if it allowed it to go DMA mode or not. Is there a way to force it to DMA & keep it there?

secondly - upgrade your RAM, 256 MB is not much, you are running a 800Mhz FSB, a 2.4 Ghz P4 processor and only 256 MB of ram?? (This is not your problem but still you should go with at LEAST 512 MB, Dell knows better)

I will work on upgrading to 1G

thirdly?? - why is your 200 GB HD in a PCI card instead of slave on your primary cable? Take it off the ATA card and make it the slave on IDE channel #1. This may be why your DVD-R will not go DMA mode. I'm sure that card is set to DMA and don't forget it has room for 4 devices. If no longer used, remove that card. I know, I know, I had one too...nice to have but if not necessary, remove it, it takes up memory and you only have 256 to work with.


I did this because, the instructions with HD stated to do this? I'm a novice on some things (as you can see this is one of them), I followed the instructions. I'm assuming that I did not have to do that?

Now before switching anything around as you suggested, I made some backups of this 200G HD to DVD. It burned without a problem. If I put this as slave, I'm assuming since I had it hooked up through ATA controller, that I will lose my files once I move it to slave on IDE 1?????

Yes I am using DVD-RW disk...........after burning 5 coasters of -R or + R disks.

As for Nero Express, I will try to get the Nero regular. I do not expect any different results, because it also will not burn with "Burn At Once" a freeware burning program that was recommended on another forum. BUT, you never know, it could work with Nero.

I will have to try the IMGtools method you describe.

As for trying the golden nugget idea. I tried to copy a 44 minutes or a 1 "hour" episode of 24. No luck, same problem.

The disk will play about 17 seconds in my stand alone Toshiba DVD player.

Thank you for your help.

[half_track]

thetigs,

There are some posts on the ROM or burner running in PIO mode rather than UDMA mode 2. I had the same problem with my DVD ROM running in PIO mode as well. My burner and ROM are on the secondary IDE channel as master and slave.

To correct my problem, I uninstalled the Secondary IDE channel driver and then restarted XP. This is a good time to check to make sure that the BIOS setttings are set to auto for these devices. Then XP detected new hardware. Both devices are now running in Mode 2 and I can tell the improvement in performance.

Take note of the dvd drive letters before deleting the driver, just in case they show up as different drive letters after the re-start.

[northcat_8]

thetigs -

half-track gave you some sound advice there with the DMA and the secondary IDE channel. That should work.

The reason to get rid of the expansion card is several reasons actually.

First, it takes up a PCI slot.
2nd, your computer will assign an IRQ to it when you could use the IRQ for something else.
3rd, your power supply has to supply power to it
4th, it gets recognized and then installed everytime you start windows, so the drivers are loaded and stored in memory.

Like I said, I have one and I had 6 hard drives in my PC at one time. I was having trouble with my DVD ROM and DVD-R retaining the DMA mode. Uninstalling that card allowed this to happen. I don't know if there is a limit on the number of drives that can be DMA enabled or not. But I know DMA was enabled on my primary master and slave, my secondary master and on my RAID array. And any time I tried to make a something else DMA it would switch back to PIO mode.

I did this because, the instructions with HD stated to do this? I'm a novice on some things (as you can see this is one of them), I followed the instructions. I'm assuming that I did not have to do that?

No you didn't have to do that and I'm not sure why the instructions said you had to. Unless it is an external HD. If it is internal then either make it your slave on your primary cable or make it your master on your secondary cable and set your DVD drives as the slaves on the 2 cables.

Moving your 200 GB drive will not destroy the data on it unless you reformat it. The drive letter may change but that is easy enough to change back.

You know, before you make system wide changes, I would be willing to bet that getting your DVD-R drive to DMA mode would fix your problem. It burns video, and the burnt video plays. It's just not burning all of it. There is nothing wrong with the drive. It almost seems like a buffer or memory type of issue.

Get DMA enabled and try the IMGtools method, before going too crazy with system changes. That method has never failed me...there really isn't too many things to go wrong with it.

[thetigs]

Hey northcat_8,

What version of IMGtools do you recommend? I only have Nero Express (v 5.5.10.13 bundled). Will it work or should I download the trial version of Nero 6 Ultra before trying th IMGtools?

Thanks!