Failure to Burn DVD/RW

I have just downloaded/installed ATI10.
OS= XP Home, PC = new and otherwise wkg well.

It would not install to a single user so I have had to install to all users - but receieved zero response to my query on the topic using 'support'.

I now want to use the product to create a full pc image on DVD/RW media. The discs are new (Panasonic) and my writer is known to work well with them.

I get an error message claiming that my media may be of poor qualityas below:

____________________

E00040003: Error writing the file.


A possible reason may be poor media quality.

Please press Retry to continue with Volume*1 or press Cancel to cancel the operation.

_____________________

I have tried a) brand new discs, b)used but erased discs, c) using the acronis 'format' button that appears with the error message without explanation.

The FAQ is hopeless, the website is hopeless and it seems that I am without hope too!

Could somebody please provide advice on this topic soon.

If only the forum had been visible to me before buying the product I might have been forewarned!

 

Our experience is that each new version of ATI provides some good new features, but the support for writing DVD/RW is getting worse and worse. TI8 used to validate a 3.5GB image on a disc in a few minutes, then each of TI9 and TI10 multiplied that time by several factors.

Anyway, we used to use TI often for writing directly to DVD+RW discs, but we gave that up simply for the reason stated above. You may end up doing the same. We don't have your particular error, so the only things that come to mind are:

1. Terminate any UDF programs you may have running (INCD, Drag-to-Disc)
2. Leave the drive's door open, and close it only when TI calls for the disc. I was a bit skeptical when I saw this suggestion posted somewhere, but it actually makes a difference in how TI behaves on our machine.
3. If the above don't help, you may want to try formatting the disc with some other (non-UDF) software before trying it with TI.

If you are using some UDF software, don't be surprised if it is unable to erase/format a disc created by TI.

 

It might be that TI is having trouble burning at full speed. Unfortunately there is no way as yet within TI to burn at a slower speed.

If the above suggestions don't work, the other option is to make an ISO and use your burning software to record it to DVD.

Colin

 

Even if you do eventually get TI to backup to dvd, the process is so slow that you will become frustrated with it. And if it takes several dvds to hold the backup, when it comes time to restore that image, you'll be swapping those dvds back and forth so many times your arms will become tired. LOL.

It is much better to us another hard drive, either internal or external, to hold your backups. If you want the extra security of dvd, then burn the image from the hard drive to dvd afterwards.

 

In response to the comments about writing speed, I need to stress the fact that I don't find that TI writes to the DVD+RW significantly slower than a couple of other applications we use to burn to the same discs. The problem, very clearly, is in the validation time, which is much, much longer than the writing time. This makes no sense. Interestingly, validating an image (on the HDD) using SAFE MODE was very fast, whereas FULL MODE was much slower (though nowhere near as slow as when the image is on a DVD).

I started a post about this (TI9) here:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=137417

 

The point I was making is that TI will only burn at full speed, causing buffer problems, data corruption etc with some setups.

Colin

 

My apologies.

Fortunately (for me), I don't have any problems as you suggest. For what it's worth, I'm using a USB NEC-ND3500 drive and it works like a charm.

I may as well correct the last comment I made in my previous post. The validation time using SAFE MODE is not faster than when using FULL MODE. Both are acceptable in validating an image that is on the HDD. My problems pertain to validating an image that is on a DVD drive (USB or ATAPI) when running from Windows, not when running from a boot CD, in which case the time is reasonable (not great).

 

Firstly, thank you all for your replies. Unfortunately my position is practically unchanged.

However, I have proved the hardware ok by using Nero. I did find a page that claimed that Acronis specified the use of packet writing software (InCD in mycase). I still cannot write to a DVD-RW that is formatted in UDF. In fact TI simply crashes and closes.

Having received advice above to disable InCD it is hard to know in what format TI can backup. It might help a bit if the Acronis query site responded to my questions - so far nothing.

I do understand the advice to backup to a hard drive and copy to CD and may end up doing that. My problem is that I have just spent 40 quid on software to do what I want and it doesn't work! I suppose I could have put the money toward an external drive and simply dragged data to it. It seems to me that if imaging software cannot write reliably to removeable media it might as well not exist.

Still, any help still gratefully received,

Regards,

xahgx

 

Hello zahgx,

I carried out some testing a while back on TI 9.0 Home's direct to DVD imaging capability. The latest results are as detailed in this previous thread titled <TI 9.0 Build 3666 Direct to DVD Imaging - Still Some Problems>. The same problems are still present in TI 9.0 Home Build 3677.

For reasons reported elsewhere, I've not upgraded to TI 10.0 Home so can't say which, if any, of the previous problems have been fixed. However, in case another application is interfering with TI, try burning to DVD after booting into TI's Full rescue mode from the rescue CD.

Regards

 

Although I have not proved my problem has been solved yet, I might have found the way forward.

Remembering that XP uses Roxio code to burn CDs, I thought that Drag-to-Disk might work better than InCD. I removed Nero and put Media Creator on instead.

Acronis now works - but I have yet to perform a complete backup and prove it will restore satisfactorily.

When I have all my facts together I shall post them here in the hope that somebody else will be saved the time and bother I have gone through.

I have been reading horror tales about Packet Writing software (Drag-To-Disk etc.). Is there anybody who has used it (ideally with Acronis TI) who can vouch for its reliability please.

I must say I am really hacked off that Acronis claims the TI to backs up to DVD R/RW but actiually requires additional (but unspecified) software to do it. They do not respond to legitimate support questions and I believe that they are breaching UK trading standards. I feel inclined to press the matter here. Perhaps it would be useful for somebody else across the pond to do the same!

 

What part of Nero did you disable?

I use Nero v7 premium, but haven't installed InCD or the other utilities, and have no problems with the Windows based version of TI 9, I appreciate you are using 10 so there could be a new bug here.

Under UK law, you'd have to try and prove, either false advertising or the goods are not fit for the purpose, but as Acronis are US based, I imagine that the contract and advertising falls under whichever States juristiction they are based, so UK or EU law might be difficult to apply.

Colin

 

XAHGX,

Your statements Having received advice above to disable InCD it is hard to know in what format TI can backup and I have been reading horror tales about Packet Writing software (Drag-To-Disk etc.). Is there anybody who has used it (ideally with Acronis TI) who can vouch for its reliability please lead one to think that you believe that some third party packet writing software is required for True Image to work with DVDs. I Believe it is correct to say that this was the case until TI8, but not thereafter. If anything, I woul say that the presence of this other software may present some conflicts with the way TI operates.

I have both TI10 and Drag-to-Disc installed, and I am able to backup directly to DVD+RW discs, with the only problem being very slow verification when done from Windows (as opposed to a bootable CD - I have another post detailing this issue).

Other comments:

1. when backing up directly to a DVD, I have to leave the drive door open, otherwise I get a Device is Busy message. The door is closed automatically when TI is ready for it and the backup proceeds properly.

2. Drag-to-Disc is unable to process discs written by TI10. If you need to erase/format the disc you'll have to do it with some other "normal" software. Having said that, I'm not sure that this is really a TI problem, as DtoD shows some inconsistencies in being unable to format discs that DtoD itself has already written successfully. This may be an issue related to the choice of eject options used when the disc was written. Now to possibly contradict myself, I will mention that TI writes the DVD using CDFS and sometimes leaves the disc looking like a CD-ROM. I don't know enough to say whether or not it should be doing that but it looks suspicious to me. Note that you should not have to format a disc written by TI in order to reuse it for another TI backup. If the disc was last written by software other than TI, you should be presented with a Format option, which works for me, and the backup proceeds after that.

3. When creating a bootable backup disc, the process calls for another disc at the end, saying the current disc is full, even though it certainly is not. Specifying Cancel at this time leaves me with a perfectly useable bootable disc.