Sonic Dla Has My Drive Screwed Up

[kc8wjg]

I have a desktop Dell Dimension 4700 that I have owned since April 2005. It came with Sonic DLA packet writing software, and has two drives. Several times in the past, I have had issues with writing image files to CD's and in two instances, I prematurely ejected the disc before the media was updated. Recovery mounts were totally unsuccessful, so I had basically had to accept the loss of the files.

 

Today, the same thing happened, but after formattting...trashing...formatting...trashing... yet another disc, I cannot get anything to write to drive E. I formatted several discs, but each time, when I try to drag and drop, it says "Copying...(filename.jpg) From (source folder) to 'E:\' with the folder sailing through the air and the time remaining. I started copying 20 minutes ago, the file name hasn't changed, and the "time remaining" has also not changed. The light for drive E on the tower is just blinking steadily about 2 times per second.

 

This is ridiculous, now I can't write anything to disk, and it's really getting annoying.

 

Please help!

 

How long does it take to get a response from tech suppport here? I opened this help ticket three days ago and have heard nothing. I need to write files and I need it three days ago!

 

[kc8wjg]

Hello.

 

Roxio does not provide tech support for Dell machines and their OEM software. That responsibility has been undertaken by Dell.

 

The users here, by and large don't have a lot of confidence in packet-writing software. It tends to fail at awkward times without explanation, and it is not always easy to read packet-written discs on a system which didn't create them - or to be more accurate it is often impossible to read them on other systems.

 

All the Dell systems I have seen with disc writers have had bundled 'authoring' software - the sort which writes onto unformatted discs and produces standard CD or DVD discs which can be read on any PC. May I suggest that you consider using that software instead of the packet-writing system.

 

If you insist on having the packet-writing software fixed, you will need to get Dell to do it, as mentioned above.

Good luck.

 

 

 

 

OK, I've got my drive E back, I disabled DLA on the drive, then took it a step further and removed the program altogether. However, in my usual infinite wisdom, I forgot that I had several non-finalized DLA written disks in my collection that I cannot view now. This isn't life changing data, so if I lose it, life will go on, but I kinda would like to get some of the files back.

 

What are my options?

 

If I reinstall Sonic, will I be able to read them or is there any other program that I can use? While I'm at it, I have a CD written with Sonic that had a recovery mount attempt, but was unsuccessful. I kept this one too, just in case.

 

I guess I'm learning the hard way that using packet writing software is just asking for trouble. I'll stick with the windows CD wizard for now, I'll just have to plan better and wait until I get a disk load worth and just do a one time burn and be done with it.

 

Thanks for your insight.

 

 

[Brendon]

Hi,

 

I think if you reinstalled DLA you should be able to read its discs from earlier, but I never like to make prophecies about packet-writers. You could perhaps reinstall DLA, get the data off, and then uninstall DLA again if you want.

 

There are two recovery programs which make their vendors a great deal of money from customers with failed packet discs. They are ISOBuster from isobuster.com, and CDRoller from cdroller.com. I have used both of these successfully.

They have trial versions which will show you if they can recover anything off your discs, but you'll have to buy a full version to do the actual recovery.

 

I agree that packet-writers do have a lot of inherent dangers and disadvantages. They can work well within their limitations but those who have gained enough experience to use them properly, usually choose a more reliable way of doing things.

 

Go well,

Brendon

[Brendon]

Hello.

 

Roxio does not provide tech support for Dell machines and their OEM software. That responsibility has been undertaken by Dell.

 

The users here, by and large don't have a lot of confidence in packet-writing software. It tends to fail at awkward times without explanation, and it is not always easy to read packet-written discs on a system which didn't create them - or to be more accurate it is often impossible to read them on other systems.

 

All the Dell systems I have seen with disc writers have had bundled 'authoring' software - the sort which writes onto unformatted discs and produces standard CD or DVD discs which can be read on any PC. May I suggest that you consider using that software instead of the packet-writing system.

 

If you insist on having the packet-writing software fixed, you will need to get Dell to do it, as mentioned above.

Good luck.