DVD+ or DVD-

My appologies if this is seems a little off topic. I want to create an image on my external hard drive and copy the files onto DVD's for safe keeping. I plan to create 4.0gb files for copying to DVD's. I know almost nothing about DVD's other than my computer's dvd supports dvd+ and dvd- .

Other than the obvious, is there any technical difference between the plus and minus formats. Should I only use plus or is there really no difference.

thanks in advance Jim

 

My DVD writer supports DVD+R, but not DVD-R.
Make sure yours really can support either. I found out the hard way that mine didn't.
Also, most stores are selling both the + and - versions of "8x" media. If your DVD Writer is slower than 8x (4x, 2.5x, 2x, for example), check with your DVD burner manufacturer to see if a firmware update is required to support 8x media, otherwise the backups you make may not be reliable.

-TomQ

 

I don't think there's any technical reason to select +R over -R, but you could ask the drive manufacturer's tech support to be sure for your drive.

As far as the size, some DVD writing software will handle files larger than 2.0GB and some will not. You should test this with your software. A DVD holds 4.3GB, so you could choose this size (type in this as the split size in TI when you are creating the image). Then check that you can read this image and verify it when booting from the TI recovery CD.

The safe side approach is to split the backup at 2.0GB and burn two parts to each DVD. This wastes 0.3GB per DVD, but that's not such a big deal. If you want to use all the space, split the file at 1.45GB and copy three parts to each DVD. Again, test this with your DVD burning software and drive and confirm that TI can read the image when booted from the recovery CD.

 

Thanks for the quickie response Tom. My dvd writer indeed supports the + and the - formats and is capable of writting at 8x. Which begs another question. I assume my 8x dvd writer would or could use 4x dvd's but it would record at a slower rate than if I were to use 8x dvd's. Is there any other difference between 2x, 4x and 8x dvds other than recording speed (i.e. reliability). Thanks Jim

 

Thanks John. I am using Nero to burn the dvd. Nero uses udf format if the file is larger than 2gb. I suppose if I create something less than 2gb/file, Nero will not have to use udf format.

regards Jim

 

Re: DVD+ or DVD-tq11571

>>I assume my 8x dvd writer would or could use 4x dvd's but it would record at a slower rate than if i were to use 8x dvd's. Is there any other difference other than recording speed (i.e. reliability).<<

I'm not an expert on this, so always check with the manufacturer. That said, because the new 8x drives were designed later than the slower drives, I suspect their firmware is probably "aware" of the needs of the slower media, and adjusts the write speed accordingly. Anyway, in my town, the slower media is getting harder to find, making the whole point moot.

As far as reliability goes, I suspect you will find a lot of junk media being sold out there. Beware of bargain prices, be it tape, cd, or dvd. My son buys the cheapest bulk CD-R's he can find for recording music, and ends up tossing about 20% of them. That's fine for recording music, but I wouldn't trust my computer files on it!

-TomQ

 

I'm using at home a 12x DVD burner >8GB High Density.
I stick to the rule that i use good good dvd's for important backups and cheap ones for so called "trash backups", such as music, videos etc.

Verbatim DataLifePlus ( at 8x speed ) i can recommend for important backup,
and Proformance DVD's for all other backups. Because of regulary virus data backup i have around 800 DVD's Verbatim with no error so far.

 

I have heard that -R is better for compatibility with older video player drives, while +R has better technical features, e.g., error correction and other newer capabilities.

For me, personally, I decided to go with +R and +RW, exclusively.

Also, there is a document on the Internet called "the DVD FAQ". In fact, here is a link to it:
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

See item 4.3

Tim

 

Hello Jim,

If using Nero to burn ISO (as opposed to UDF) DVD compilations then enter 2000MB as the split file size when creating the image rather than 2GB. If you enter the figure 2GB as the the split size then, subsequently, Nero will popup an error message complaining that the file exceeds the ISO 9660 size limit.

To All,

Whilst I myself have successfully imaged and restored to/from DVD-R media, the official line from Acronis Support is that they can only guarantee compatibility with DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW.

Regards