Burning DVD Backups

[Punkishlyevil]

I'm burning all my audio to DVD data discs and I'm wondering if I should check all the MD5's when I'm done burning them.

[U2Lynne]

I always do. So far I've never had any problem, but I like to make sure before I delete the original off the harddrive. I check all the md5s for my shns and I do a fingerprint check on all the flac files.

[Punkishlyevil]

I'm doing a data verification after each disc (the burning program askes if I want to) and I'm keeping the files on my hard drive for now, so if its not strongly suggested I probably won't check each md5/fingerprint.

[U2Lynne]

I do a data verification also. But really, how much extra time does it take to do some md5/fingerprint verifications? I set it up just as I go to lunch or to pick the kids up from school or anytime I'm going to be gone for about 10 minutes. That's all the time it takes to do it and then I feel good about deleting the stuff.

[RainDawg]

If you have the time, always do a double check. Depending on what kind of "verification" you're using, it will actually be able to determine more errors than the md5 check will, so that would be the first line of defense. But when you're dealing with your collections, double-checking is never a bad thing.

By the way, on this topic, might I recommend that you also burn your DVD compilations with some par2 recovery files? I have had a few discs verify OK, then sit on a shelf for a year, only to have read errors on some file later on. Par2 files will ensure that you can recreate any files that potentially get corrupted over time.

[fistula]

nice call with the par files and also def do an md5. a bad stick of ram can corrupt your files and you wont even know what happened

[irishcrazy2005]

By the way, on this topic, might I recommend that you also burn your DVD compilations with some par2 recovery files? I have had a few discs verify OK, then sit on a shelf for a year, only to have read errors on some file later on. Par2 files will ensure that you can recreate any files that potentially get corrupted over time.


Since I'm about to try to burn all of my collection onto DVD instead of CD, this is very relevant to me. How do I make a par2 file? How do they work? Thanks for the help.

-Phil

[RainDawg]

Basically, par is an algorithm designed to check and reconstruct files that have been partially or entirely corrupted. I am not sure how it works, but the algorithm itself is pretty advanced. What you can do with it, though, is create an archive of par2 files that will be able to rebuild any files that becomes missing or corrupted, even without knowing which file it is going to be ahead of time. I put together the files for a single DVD, trying to get as close to 3.7 GB as possible, and fill the remaining space on the disc with par2 files. That comes out to around 20% redundancy, so that 1/5 of the files on the disc can be come unreadable, and I will still be able to recreate everything that was there.

Par2 is basically just a more robust version of the par implementation, and has pretty much taken over; not many people are ignorant enough to use the old par style anymore.

QuickPar is the best program out there for par2 creation, and also acts as an md5 and sfv file verification checker.

http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

[katnapz]

Repeat after me:
Burn To The Brim
Burn To The Brim
Burn To The Brim

If you want to get the maximum bang for your buck with using up as much room as possible on a disc I'd recommend this program. It'll take whatever folders/files you have...and figure out the jigsaw puzzle of what needs to be burned to take the maximum amount of space up on your DVD. I just finished up doing the transfer of "thousands" of lossless CD's to DVD a couple months ago and it was invaluable to me for this, not to mention the time saved from me trying to do this myself (and I still use it). Usually as long as I had about 5-6 gigs worth of shows in a folder it would figure out the best way to rack and stack them....but most of the time while transferring I kept about 20-30 gigs available as a pool.
With a reference to the thread I put up about collection database programs...once I had all the DVD's burned (which took me about 3-4 months), it only took me about a day and a half to input all the DVD's into my database (using the program I use). I'm still sweeping up some of the rough parts to make it "prettier" but at least everything's there.

EDIT: WIth a note to RD's comment about getting as close to 3.7 gigs...Burn To The Brim will let you specify that amount too :)

[Five]

This sounds very useful! How can I learn how to do this?

[katnapz]

This sounds very useful! How can I learn how to do this?

Hey Five :wave: Guess you're talking about BttB? Doh! Guess it would help if I posted a link to it...

Burn To The Brim = http://bttb.sourceforge.net/

When you first install it there isn't a setting for DVD (or at least wasn't when I last downloaded). I forget where I found these settings (or maybe I came up with them...don't remember). Just click "Add" to create a new size setting. The "Allowed" waste size is how much wag you want to allow the program to come up with possible fits "as close to what you want"....meaning in my case 50 megs...this will at least let you see what you could burn that will be a bit outside of your parameters...then it's your choice to burn those or not. The program will then list these combos as 99% compliant with your settings.
Probably sounds a bit confusing from the way I'm describing it but it's actually very much a "set and forget" program. Usually only takes seconds to come up with combos.

[RainDawg]

Nice Katz....I'll check this one out. As it is now, I have no wasted space on my DVDs because I create an exact amount of par2 files to fit perfectly on the disc. But this would absolutely be helpful for quickly finding collections of folders to fit onto a disc....as it is now, I just have to try different combinations of folders in my "to burn" directory until I get a number I am happy with.

TTD really is a neverending source of good discussion and good ideas from experienced traders.

[Five]

I've got to try this, thanks for the tips!

another question, have you guys ever actually used these par2 files to successfully save a corrupt data disc? how well did it work?

[katnapz]

Glad I could point you to something helpful :clap: :)

I agree, I wish that when I started different phases of my collection that I had had a resource to read through and go "wow, what a great idea!" I'm constantly coming across details like that where I still think...why, oh why didn't I think of that...or why didn't someone tell me years ago.
My most highlighted idiotic idea for my collecting habits? Using MM.DD.YY instead of YYYY.MM.DD. But it's too late for me to go back now until I retire and have time do do it by hand ;)

Hey, what a great idea for a thread...what's the dumbest thing about your music collection?
I guess the second good idea for a thread would be what is the dumbest musical action/event you ever did to stay in good with someone you were dating?....me? I actually went to a Winger concert BLAH! I still feel unclean...

Oops, Five you got a reply in before I knew it.
I use par2 files all the time with stuff I download from the newsgroups. It's "the bomb" :D I've used it before to pull stuff from discs too. What kind of info do you need?

[Five]

haha I saw Winger opening for Kiss in 1991... really terrible! He had one of those helecopter-pilot-sammy-hagar-attaches-to-your-head mics and when he'd finish singing the delay fx would just keep swirling on and on. But I'd better stop before I give you flashbacks :eek:

I've got some homework to do regarding par2 files... I guess I'll ask more questions when I learn a little more. Thanks so much for getting me started!

[katnapz]

No problem Five. Let me know if I can help.

Yeah, Winger,.....
About the only good thing was the girl got sick during the show (no not drinking and much as I like to joke it wasn't because of Winger although that's my story ;)) sooooo...we had arrived late to the show as it was so I ended up seeing the tail-end of Poison (my god, what was I thinking!), saw some of Winger until she went funky and ended up out in the area where the venders are for about an hour waiting for her to get restabalized...during which I got to listen to the BulletBoys come out and do their thing (actually didn't sound bad), and then left before they were done. Man, I really missed the $12.95 per ticket that night :lol (or whatever it cost)

Remember the song "The Things We Do For Love" :disbelief

[Five]

what a drag! some of the hair metal bands weren't half bad... some of them were 100% bad!! I can't remember those Winger songs, that's a blessing!

I think they were just marketing to teenage girls anyways...

http://members.tripod.com/pease/winger/kip1.jpg

[jcrab66]

great info on that BTTB soft, thanks.....

[Punkishlyevil]

Thanks for all the info. :)

[katnapz]

BTW, if you go into the Forums on the BttB website, the first post listed is about the settings for a DVD...nice discussion. Reading it reminded me a bit of why I have my settings the way they are. You can make the max size bigger than what I use (4450.00) as that is something of a known value (you're telling the program what it is after all), but depending on what you're burning your tree size can vary a decent amount. For instance, if you are burning say, 5 shows with 10 files (tracks) each, your file structure will be much smaller than if you're burning a random compilation of mp3's, which could be hundreds of files in different folders....or thousands of pictures which would really complicate the tree depending on how they're broken up. I remember I just went with a nice size that I considered "buffered" so I wouldn't have to readjust each time I burnt a disc with different stuff. The 50 megs left (prior to the creation of the tree) before you hit the 4.5 gig limit isn't that big of a deal to me. Of course, you could create settings for different types of DVD burns. YMMV :)

[Jskibum]

Repeat after me:
Burn To The Brim
Burn To The Brim
Burn To The Brim

If you want to get the maximum bang for your buck with using up as much room as possible on a disc I'd recommend this program. It'll take whatever folders/files you have...and figure out the jigsaw puzzle of what needs to be burned to take the maximum amount of space up on your DVD. I just finished up doing the transfer of "thousands" of lossless CD's to DVD a couple months ago and it was invaluable to me for this, not to mention the time saved from me trying to do this myself (and I still use it). Usually as long as I had about 5-6 gigs worth of shows in a folder it would figure out the best way to rack and stack them....but most of the time while transferring I kept about 20-30 gigs available as a pool.
With a reference to the thread I put up about collection database programs...once I had all the DVD's burned (which took me about 3-4 months), it only took me about a day and a half to input all the DVD's into my database (using the program I use). I'm still sweeping up some of the rough parts to make it "prettier" but at least everything's there.

EDIT: WIth a note to RD's comment about getting as close to 3.7 gigs...Burn To The Brim will let you specify that amount too :)

Would you mind sharing your DVD settings in Burn to the Brim? I downloaded it and played around with CDs, but there aren't default settings for DVDs yet and I need to archive about 150 Gigs of music offline so that would be a great help to know how to do it correctly.

Thanks,
Skibum

[Five]

I like the sound of this!

I'm always puzzling out what combos of folders to burn manually

[Greengoat]

Same line of questioning...

Does anyone burn the DVD's as appendable copies? I've started that, assigning DVD's to a specific artist/band then as more shows of the group comes in I simply pull out the disc and add the new show to it.

Of course this only works for groups that I intend to keep getting or have a lot to add

Stones, Floyd, Zep, etc.

[irishcrazy2005]

I got an error message after installing and trying to run this program. I have rebooted and reinstalled and still get the same thing. Ideas?

-Phil

[katnapz]

Would you mind sharing your DVD settings in Burn to the Brim? I downloaded it and played around with CDs, but there aren't default settings for DVDs yet and I need to archive about 150 Gigs of music offline so that would be a great help to know how to do it correctly.

Thanks,
Skibum

I posted a follow-up message with a picture of my settings. :D Lemme know if you can't see the picture for some reason.

[katnapz]

I got an error message after installing and trying to run this program. I have rebooted and reinstalled and still get the same thing. Ideas?

-Phil

Sounds like you need to set up your aspi drivers....if you go into the BttB forums there's a post about a new link for them:

https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1166736&forum_id=164745

Since I haven't messed with this for a long time this is the extent of the tech support I can give on this unless I do some refresh reading...