12 replies to this topic

[westes]

I'm trying to burn a single layer DVD on a DVD-R, and I am repeatedly getting an error message "There was an error trying to open the file" at the end of the test period right before burning starts.

The first and most frustrating thing here is the error message is horrible.  WHAT FILE cannot be read?  Is this a message about the hard drive source data, and how can I test and correct an error there if it is not identified precisely?   How difficult would it have been for them to insert a path and filename into this error message?

I have tried both USB 2.0 drives (HP 840E) and ATAPI based drives (NEC DVD-RW that came with a Dell Precision), and tried different DVD-R, and it made no difference.    

Can someone give me some clues about what this error means and how do I correct it?

[grandpabruce]

westes, on Jan 8 2007, 05:13 AM, said:

I'm trying to burn a single layer DVD on a DVD-R, and I am repeatedly getting an error message "There was an error trying to open the file" at the end of the test period right before burning starts.

The first and most frustrating thing here is the error message is horrible.  WHAT FILE cannot be read?  Is this a message about the hard drive source data, and how can I test and correct an error there if it is not identified precisely?   How difficult would it have been for them to insert a path and filename into this error message?

I have tried both USB 2.0 drives (HP 840E) and ATAPI based drives (NEC DVD-RW that came with a Dell Precision), and tried different DVD-R, and it made no difference.    

Can someone give me some clues about what this error means and how do I correct it?

You don't say what you are burning, but one of the files you are burning, has a problem.  You need to find which file.

[westes]

grandpabruce, on Jan 8 2007, 06:08 AM, said:

You don't say what you are burning, but one of the files you are burning, has a problem.  You need to find which file.

I am trying to burn 1.1 GB of photographs from a trip in 358 files located on an NTFS file system.

So please explain to me how am I supposed to find which file has a problem, and it's particularly frustrating since Roxio must know exactly which one it is and it doesn't tell me.    I simply copy over the files to another computer, and now it works fine.   That indicates to me that there is no problem with either the file system nor the files on that file system.   It looks more like some very subtle timing or buffer exhaustion, disk latency, whatever.    

How do I test further to find the cause?

[grandpabruce]

westes, on Jan 8 2007, 12:35 PM, said:

I am trying to burn 1.1 GB of photographs from a trip in 358 files located on an NTFS file system.

So please explain to me how am I supposed to find which file has a problem, and it's particularly frustrating since Roxio must know exactly which one it is and it doesn't tell me.    I simply copy over the files to another computer, and now it works fine.   That indicates to me that there is no problem with either the file system nor the files on that file system.   It looks more like some very subtle timing or buffer exhaustion, disk latency, whatever.    

How do I test further to find the cause?

What program in the EMC 9 suite did you use to copy, and are you trying to copy to a DVD?  If the files copied from one computer to another, then they should copy to a DVD just fine.

Use Creator Classic to copy them to a disc, not Drag to Disc.

[Squish42]

I'm trying to burn a single layer DVD on a DVD-R, and I am repeatedly getting an error message "There was an error trying to open the file" at the end of the test period right before burning starts.

I'm having the same problem with Creator Classic and Roxio Backup - both v9.  I'm trying to burn 13G of photos across 3 DVDs for a backup (the specific reason I paid $50 for this disappointing piece of software).   I leave the 1st disc run and when I come back in 30 minutes all I have is an error "There was an error trying to open the file".

[james_hardin]

I'm having the same problem with Creator Classic and Roxio Backup - both v9.  I'm trying to burn 13G of photos across 3 DVDs for a backup (the specific reason I paid $50 for this disappointing piece of software).   I leave the 1st disc run and when I come back in 30 minutes all I have is an error "There was an error trying to open the file".

The thread is 3 months old and never reached a conclusion…

Spanning discs is a very bad idea that will come back and bite you in the end!

If you know it is going to take about 3 DVDs to archive these files, set up 3 folders and copy the files into them making sure no folder exceeds about 4.3gb.

Then use Classic and burn the contents of each Folder to a DVD. Be sure to set it as Read Only after you click burn.

Since these are probably irreplaceable photos, burn a second set and store them in another area.

I would also recommend using a good quality media such as Verbatium.

[Squish42]

The thread is 3 months old and never reached a conclusion…

Yes, I noticed that but it was the only reasonable reference to the error I could find on the Internet.

Spanning discs is a very bad idea that will come back and bite you in the end!

I'm not really thrilled with the idea either but its the only way to make doing a backup relatively easy.  My time, like everyone else, is limited and I don't have the 30-45 minutes every week to split up all the files and folder structures into 4.5GB chunks.  

Then use Classic and burn the contents of each Folder to a DVD. Be sure to set it as Read Only after you click burn.

What should I be setting to "Read Only"?  The folders I'm burning from?  The DVD?

Since these are probably irreplaceable photos, burn a second set and store them in another area.

I would also recommend using a good quality media such as Verbatium.

Good advice.  And basically that's why I'm doing this weekly.  I have a 14 month old son and I can't loose these pictures.  However, since we add hundreds weekly, I can't be certain what's old, new or changed so I just want to back up the whole thing and store a decent history in my data rated fire safe.

My ultimate wish is a software package that will take a set of folders, figure out the splits and burn the files in a format readable by any system.

[d_deweywright]

Yes, I noticed that but it was the only reasonable reference to the error I could find on the Internet.
I'm not really thrilled with the idea either but its the only way to make doing a backup relatively easy.  My time, like everyone else, is limited and I don't have the 30-45 minutes every week to split up all the files and folder structures into 4.5GB chunks.  

My ultimate wish is a software package that will take a set of folders, figure out the splits and burn the files in a format readable by any system.

Obviously you've never heard of sorting your files by date?  Or even storing them by date?  Then you just grab the latest files and add them to the data to be written to disc.  It really isn't too difficult or time consuming that way.  The key is to store them in a fashion that serves two purposes, makes them easy to find and use, and makes it relatively easy to back them up.  I'm just suggesting that it needn't take 30-45 minutes to back up your new pictures every week.  By the same token, if they're irreplaceable to you, what amount of time is worth it?

There are other options too.  Acronis True Image 10 lets you do incremental backups of folders, as does AccuBurn.

As I add image files from my camera, I have a second copy of them on another HD in my system, so I just synchronize the two folders on the two drives when I'm done.  That gives me a quick backup.  Then occasionally I update the copy on optical media as a second backup.

Edited by d_deweywright, 18 April 2007 - 03:50 AM.

[Squish42]

Obviously you've never heard of sorting your files by date?  Or even storing them by date?  Then you just grab the latest files and add them to the data to be written to disc.  It really isn't too difficult or time consuming that way.  The key is to store them in a fashion that serves two purposes, makes them easy to find and use, and makes it relatively easy to back them up.  I'm just suggesting that it needn't take 30-45 minutes to back up your new pictures every week.  By the same token, if they're irreplaceable to you, what amount of time is worth it?

There are other options too.  Acronis True Image 10 lets you do incremental backups of folders, as does AccuBurn.

As I add image files from my camera, I have a second copy of them on another HD in my system, so I just synchronize the two folders on the two drives when I'm done.  That gives me a quick backup.  Then occasionally I update the copy on optical media as a second backup.

Sure, I know how to sort files by date. Its pretty easy.  Yep, I know how to pick through all the folders and backup the files manually.  Yep, I sync all my data files between two PCs and I'm trying to burn off the copy.  Yes, I could drop another $50 for Acronis or $42 for AccuBurn.

But... I paid $50 for a program that claims to do full and incremental backups across a set of DVDs so when my house burns to the ground and my PCs are destroyed I've not lost my pictures, financial, e-mail, etc, etc.  And it doesn't.  Thats the problem.  I'm getting an error, the same as the person that started this thread over 4 months ago, and there's no fix.  I have workarounds galore but nothing to fix the problem with the program I own.

Thanks to you all for trying but I'm going to go flush some more of my money.  Don't bother with the flame, I'm just frustrated.  Have a nice day.

[d_deweywright]

Sure, I know how to sort files by date. Its pretty easy.  Yep, I know how to pick through all the folders and backup the files manually.  Yep, I sync all my data files between two PCs and I'm trying to burn off the copy.  Yes, I could drop another $50 for Acronis or $42 for AccuBurn.

But... I paid $50 for a program that claims to do full and incremental backups across a set of DVDs so when my house burns to the ground and my PCs are destroyed I've not lost my pictures, financial, e-mail, etc, etc.  And it doesn't.  Thats the problem.  I'm getting an error, the same as the person that started this thread over 4 months ago, and there's no fix.  I have workarounds galore but nothing to fix the problem with the program I own.

Thanks to you all for trying but I'm going to go flush some more of my money.  Don't bother with the flame, I'm just frustrated.  Have a nice day.

Did you also try Roxio Backup, Backup My PC and Easy Archive?  Those are all part of EMC 9 Deluxe and Suite.  I confess I haven't played too much with any of those.  I know Backup My PC (BUMP) creates a .QIC archive file much like an old tape backup.  Easy Archive has an option for file "only archive files changed since" date.  So... explore those options too, they may do exactly what you need/want.  I apologize about my previous sarcastic post... just one of those moods then.

[John T Smith]

If you are doing this from the "home" task switcher program... instead go to Start-Programs and go directly to the program you want to run

This fixed a problem I was having with the MyDVD part of the package
http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=20685

[Squish42]

Did you also try Roxio Backup, Backup My PC and Easy Archive?  Those are all part of EMC 9 Deluxe and Suite.  I confess I haven't played too much with any of those.  I know Backup My PC (BUMP) creates a .QIC archive file much like an old tape backup.  Easy Archive has an option for file "only archive files changed since" date.  So... explore those options too, they may do exactly what you need/want.  I apologize about my previous sarcastic post... just one of those moods then.

No problem.  I was having one of those days too.

I tried BUMP and Roxio Backup.  Since I want the files on the DVD in a format readable on any of my machines, a couple of which are running Linux, BUMP was out.

Roxio Backup gives me the exact same error as Creator Classic but that's not surprising since Creator appears to be the engine for RB.

I hadn't tried Easy Archive so I gave it a shot this morning.  It found a few problem files (semicolons in the file names or were past the 106 character limit).  In the past I'd just let RB or Creator "fix" the file names, but this time I changed them permanently.  I clicked on recors and crossed my fingers.  It cruised through 4 DVD-Rs without error!!!  And, to ice the cake, EA just burned just the files.  This is absolutely perfect!

Thanks for the help.  I would have probably just given up on Roxio.

[d_deweywright]

No problem.  I was having one of those days too.

I tried BUMP and Roxio Backup.  Since I want the files on the DVD in a format readable on any of my machines, a couple of which are running Linux, BUMP was out.

Roxio Backup gives me the exact same error as Creator Classic but that's not surprising since Creator appears to be the engine for RB.

I hadn't tried Easy Archive so I gave it a shot this morning.  It found a few problem files (semicolons in the file names or were past the 106 character limit).  In the past I'd just let RB or Creator "fix" the file names, but this time I changed them permanently.  I clicked on recors and crossed my fingers.  It cruised through 4 DVD-Rs without error!!!  And, to ice the cake, EA just burned just the files.  This is absolutely perfect!

Thanks for the help.  I would have probably just given up on Roxio.

I love a happy ending!