[iMac]

Hello everyone,

I used to use Roxio DigitalMedia Home (which came with my notebook) to create multivolume backups with its spanning function. Unfortunately, it doesn't work under XP SP3 anymore, so I am looking to get a replacement - and I am wondering about Creator 2009.

My question is, how spanning exactly works in Creator 2009? What I want is to drag folder (for example 150 GB in size) full of small files, which Creator then burns on DVDs as they are (so no archiving to one chopped file), while to root on each DVD is added by Creator text file containing list of all DVDs in set and files on them (so I can put any DVD in drive, check the text file and see, the file I need is for example on DVD nr. 57). This is how spanning worked in DigitalMedia Home and what I am looking for.

Thanks for information and have a nice burning

This post has been edited by iMac: 23 March 2009 - 04:56 AM

[Jim_Hardin]

To be blunt – Spanning is a surefire way to lose data! If you haven't yet, you will, it is that simple…

It works the same way it always has in Classic, and I suspect this is the last version that will have Classic in it.

It also comes with Back On Track which is a backup program. It has never worked on my PC so I can't test it.

But I do have CD's I made my own copies with and they are still usable after 12 years. For all practical purposes, CDFS and UDF are timeless and will always be readable since they do not rely on any extra program to read them.

[iMac]

Hello and thanks for your reply,

>To be blunt – Spanning is a surefire way to lose data! If you haven't yet, you will, it is that simple…

I actually don't get it - If I span like 50 GB big folder with files smaller than 4 GB to DVDs, I end with like 12 or so discs, where are files distributed to fit - and the process that Creator (or other spanning software) does is the same like me manually adding files to every DVD and burn one after one - so how I can lose data? Or are there some bugs, that creator doesn't include some files during spanning (can it "forget" to add some)?

Thanks again and have a great day

This post has been edited by iMac: 23 March 2009 - 12:23 PM

[sknis]

Hello and thanks for your reply,

>To be blunt – Spanning is a surefire way to lose data! If you haven't yet, you will, it is that simple…

I actually don't get it - If I span like 50 GB big folder with files smaller than 4 GB to DVDs, I end with like 12 or so discs, where are files distributed to fit - and the process that Creator (or other spanning software) does is the same like me manually adding files to every DVD and burn one after one - so how I can lose data? Or are there some bugs, that creator doesn't include some files during spanning (can it "forget" to add some)?

Thanks again and have a great day

One little screw up and you get at least 2 discs that you can't recover; that depends on how the software works and if the reassembly program is written to one or more discs. You may want to read this. BTW, most replies of this type are based on past unhappy experiences. I have not used disc spanning so this is from what I read.

Why don't you just buy a inexpensive external hard drive to archive your information?

Just for informational purposes, Creator has a functionality where you can catalog your discs. It will tell you on which disc a particular files is located. From the home window, go to tools, "catalog your discs".

I would not trust Mac disc spanning either !

This post has been edited by sknis: 23 March 2009 - 01:13 PM

[iMac]

Why don't you just buy a inexpensive external hard drive to archive your information?

Actually, my need for spanning is part of our backup plan at my work. We have 4 external harddrives which we use for backuping regularly (so we have always 4 backups that are 4 different times back in time), but once per 3 months I take recent harddrive backup and make 2 sets of backup DVDs from it, which goes to archive. This is why I need to have each disc independent on others and readable without any third party app - so it means there can't be any chopped archives and all files have to be burned directly as they are - because if one disc accidentally fails, others are not affected (they are independent)... And I have to say, I never experienced any problems with this (the oldest backups are 10 years old - of course on CDs) - if the medium is bad, it fails verification, but all that burned successfully are fine even now... I think it is maybe about how you store disc too...

This post has been edited by iMac: 23 March 2009 - 02:08 PM

[Jim_Hardin]

Actually, my need for spanning is part of our backup plan at my work. We have 4 external harddrives which we use for backuping regularly (so we have always 4 backups that are 4 different times back in time), but once per 3 months I take recent harddrive backup and make 2 sets of backup DVDs from it, which goes to archive. This is why I need to have each disc independent on others and readable without any third party app - so it means there can't be any chopped archives and all files have to be burned directly as they are - because if one disc accidentally fails, others are not affected (they are independent)... And I have to say, I never experienced any problems with this (the oldest backups are 10 years old - of course on CDs) - if the medium is bad, it fails verification, but all that burned successfully are fine even now... I think it is maybe about how you store disc too...

OK, you have been warned about this, what you choose to do with that is up to you…

Yes Classic will do everything you want!

[Larry]

Actually, my need for spanning is part of our backup plan at my work. We have 4 external harddrives which we use for backuping regularly (so we have always 4 backups that are 4 different times back in time), but once per 3 months I take recent harddrive backup and make 2 sets of backup DVDs from it, which goes to archive. This is why I need to have each disc independent on others and readable without any third party app - so it means there can't be any chopped archives and all files have to be burned directly as they are - because if one disc accidentally fails, others are not affected (they are independent)... And I have to say, I never experienced any problems with this (the oldest backups are 10 years old - of course on CDs) - if the medium is bad, it fails verification, but all that burned successfully are fine even now... I think it is maybe about how you store disc too...

Since you posted this in the "Sales Questions" area, I'm guessing you don't actually have Creator 2009.

Attached are screen shots of the two apps (Data Disc in the Home app and Creator Classic) that can be used to create data discs and the related help file info regarding disc spanning.

Both appear to essentially do what you asked about, but I think the Home Data Disc one is closest to what you have been doing. About the only way to be sure is to actually get the product and try out a small project on some RW test discs. They don't have a trial version of the software, but if you purchase it thru their online store, they do have a 30 day return policy if you're not happy with it.

I, like others that have posted, don't recommend or use disc spanning. I think there are better and more cost effective ways to do what you've described.

I just thought these screen shots might give you some more information to help answer your questions.

Attached image(s)

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This post has been edited by Larry: 24 March 2009 - 06:03 AM

[iMac]

Hello,

thanks everyone who responded. I actually ended as was recommended by buing Crator and trying myself, so just to end this topic, I want to respond to my starting question in case someone would be interested about it too.

Spanning function in Creator works teoretically exactly as I wanted and as I described Roxio DigitalMedia Home behavior. But unfortunatelly in fact, in reality is much buggier and poorer than in mentioned old Roxio DigitalMedia Home. I was actually deciding about to buy Creator or another product (not from Roxio), which has spanning as well - and while that second products works perfectly and exactly does what I want (except adding index file in root of every disc), Creator is almost impossible to use for the task I need - it is incredibly slow (just adding 108 GB folder to the list of files for burning takes it more than half of hour, while that second software is done in few minutes), it cannot deal with files that exceeds the limit 106 characters (while the other software gives you possibilities to solve it), and I wasn't able to make it burn on ISO 2 layout (it just stopped on Checking media status, while on ISO 1 settings started to burn right after this message). Not to mention that when some disc isn't burned properly and fails verification, you just get message that there was problem with media and when you click Retry, the WHOLE process starts again (so if disc 40 fails, you start from 1 - WHY? The other software just lets you continue by recording the failed disc again...).

So I actually returned Creator, because in this state it has no use for me... I really wanted to buy Creator, because as a Mac user I own Toast and love it, but this is just unacceptable...