Invalid Location

[Justgrant2009]

Ok, at the risk of sounding like a complete n00b: I recently bought a dual layer dvd burner so i could copy some of my dvds since my roomate constantly steals my original copies and doesn't always treat them right. It's an internal drive so I've already installed it in the place of the last cd+rw drive that was in it's location. Since installing it, i have been able to burn cd's and cdrws with no problem. However whenever i try to burn a dvd or dvd-dl, it always has an error before even starting to burn anything. I've gone through multiple programs (paid for some, and also tried some freeware ones) and nothing works. Just today i tried using ImgBurn and finally got a little more understanding of what may be happening. When trying to burn it, the program reported back that it was an invalid location to burn. I don't know if that means that upon installing the drive i did something wrong or what?

Huge n00b here, i know... sorry. But hey, that's what a forum is for right? for people to help others. Keep in mind that i've just supplied all the information i know of, so if you need anymore, tell me how to find the answer too (i've already thrown away the box for the drive so i don't have the model number handy... :-\

Thanks in advance, i'll be looking forward to some replies.

[aedipuss]

assuming it's an ide drive - did you make sure that the jumper pin in the back was set to whatever the old one was? i.e. master/slave/cable connect? if not take it back out and set it.

also most dvdr drives now require an 80pin cable not the old 40 pin cdr cables. they fit the same plugs but have 40 extra ground wires.

[Jim44]

DL discs are about the most "picky" in terms of burning and playing on standalone DVD players. Most of the recommendations here, but particularly at the ImgBurn forums, are to use Verbatim DVD+R DL dics. Only. If you're using anything else it's no surprise you've had trouble. (CD and regular DVD (SL) are a bit more "forgiving" in this regard.)

Also, most of the needed info that we'd want in available in ImgBurn. ImgBurn saves log files - if you open IB and go to the "Help" menu there's a selection for the logfile. The log will contain the error(s) from the last burn (if any), as well as information about what the disc is - it's "media type". That's the key piece of info in most cases. That really identifies the disc, brand name means very little. The log file will also contain the drive info as well.

Another thing that may be necessary is updating the firmware for the drive. The firmware level should also be indicated in the log.

Also, the IB forums have a whole section on drives & media. Might be worth a look: http://forum.imgburn.com/

Hope that helps,
Jim

[Bjs]

Welcome Justgrant2009

We'll have a crack at it ... invalid location ... two pop up most common .

A: Replace media ... for dl its verbatim all the way ... or else .
B: Imgburn found something lurking in the title you tried to burn , and stopped processing .

The later refers to poor ripping technique , and tools used ... which should have been referenced if this is the case .

Dvdfab hd decrypter , the free one , handles most problems ... most other tool's are no longer updated .
You could even try fixvts to sort out any remaining issues with the title stored on the hard drive .

[Justgrant2009]

To answer your question aedipuss, it is set to the same switch as the original drive and had the same number of pins. I thought that one through first when installing it. The later questions i'm going to start experimenting with right now.

[Justgrant2009]

Ok, so i tried again, things are still not working, and this time i even got a different error message. I have the ImgBurn log files and i'm going to attach them this time. The first run through is for the movie thumbsucker which i used dvdShrink to save the movie to my hard drive, and the second movie is Snatch for which i used dvdFab to save.

imgburn.log

[Jim44]

Starting from the top of the log, the burn attempt at 17:18:41, it looks like you attempted to use a single-layer DVD to burn a dual-layer-sized file:

I 17:17:56 Image Size: 7,879,983,104 bytes
I 17:18:03 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: RITEKF1) (Speeds: 4x, 6x, 8x, 12x)

The last attempt in the log, 13:26:17, seems to show the opposite (a single-layer image to a DL disc):

I 13:23:13 Image Size: 4,681,531,392 bytes
I 13:24:54 Destination Media Type: DVD+R DL (Disc ID: RITEK-D01-01) (Speeds: 2.4x)

In addition, those RITEK-D01-01 are not Verbatim DL, and as I mentioned earlier will probably not produce the best results (if they'll even burn successfully at all).

There may be other issues contained in the logfile, but those are things that jumped out at me; I haven't had to dig into logs too often in the 2+ years of using ImgBurn. Hopefully some other folks can provide input.

There's also some very good Guides over at the ImgBurn forums, you might want to take a few minutes and read over them as well.

Jim

[Justgrant2009]

Thanks a bunch Jim. I just did some stuff again and got it to work! I'm currently watching the backup on my tv right now. works great guys. Thanks again!

[Jim44]

Just to add, in case I wasn't clear, start by using the correct sized disc for the movie you want to burn. Since SL discs seem to burn slightly easier than DL, start with a SL disc and the movie from your first run at 13:26 (Thumbsucker?). Do that and let us know if it burned successfully or not. Let's do one thing at a time, and start with the easiest

DL is a bit more complicated, and add to that the DL discs you have may not burn successfully at all. So just be prepared to have to buy Verbatims to get the movie from your second attempt (Snatch?) to burn.

Jim

[Edit: seems like you've got really old firmware for that drive, the latest is 1.21. See:
http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=2331
Probably should update the firmware first before re-attempting.]