Burning my Documents to cd help please

[Heather Positive Thinker]

I thought it was a long time since I copied my documents to a disc, just in case of HD failure.

I can never remember how to do it, so I fumble along, I opened my documents, I use "select all" I click Burn and bung in the cd. This time it said it had to format the disk - fair enough, now it appears to be burning but it says 1day 5 hours left I can never rememeber it taking more than half an hour.? Have a done something wrong/different?

It says 10 days now!! Oh, now 7 days and 8 hours

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Ive given up :(

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Computing query - burning docs to a cd

I know this should be on computing board, but no one is taking any notice of me there :o

I decided it was time I should burn all my documents to cd again just in case of a puter breakdown.

Now I go to documents, I click on select all, they highlight, I click on burn. I put in the cd and its just taking forever! The first couple of times it was saying 10 days remaining!! Ive taken out the cd and put it in several times and tried again and this time its saying 1 hur 58 mins but its been saying that for half an hour.

ANYONE, please what am I doing wrong this time?

Oh the other thing is, it looks like somehow Ive got all the docs duplicated on here. Is there anyway of asking the puter to delete one lot?

[WendyPusey]

When you say you click on ALL how many documents are you talking about?

[Guest]

that happened to me Heather and it was trying to copy everything took 3 dics and was asking me for more ???
I have trouble all the time with the Vista Laptops backing up .

[Guest]

if you find out what was wrong Heather let me know ?

[Guy]

First problem is you formatted a CD.
All CDs come pre-formatted and do not require formatting (DVDs are different and do require formatting).

The second problem is you seem to be selecting every file in the My Documents folder instead of selecting only those files you want to keep.
Depending on your save policy this could be many gigabits of data.
Cheers
Guy

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Well, I didnt choose to format the disk Guy, it did it automatically when I put it in.

The documents add up to 2.68 GB - the disk says it holds 4.7 GB

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Ive just tried copying all the files to a new folder as I thought that may be a way of doing it and it only took 3 minutes BUT I cant find the folder :D

The disk I am using is a DVD-R - is that ok? Ive used CDRW before but they only seem to hold up to 700 mb.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Still no luck Val :(

[Cliff inNZ]

DVD-R and DVD+R are pre-formatted and can only be used once.
DVD-+RW are pre-formatted ready to use. They can be erased and re-used.

Should take about 35 mins for your data at lowest speed -most recorders can now do at least X8 speed and would take about 5 mins for that amount of data

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Thanks Cliff, it just isnt working. Ill get some different disks when I go out I think.

[Cliff inNZ]

Are they new disks?

What programme are you using to 'burn' them?

[daj]

can I maybe offer a little tip here?....

I use a service called DropBox -- I store all my Genealogy data online, which means I can access it even when I am not at home. So if for example, I am in the Library, I can check a document quickly. The best thing about DropBox is that it automatically Synchronizes with your PC. So anything you put in the Dropbox folder on your PC automatically gets copied to the web. Also if you add anything while out and about it also comes back down to your PC. Best of all you can sync several machines together.

It's free too for the basic account with 2gb web space -- which is plenty for my needs

If you use this link to sing up I will get an extra 250Mb as a referrer and you will too ;)

https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTMzNDg4OQ

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Sounds great, but I need my documents on a cd for the accountant and so on.

I did have a similar free service with MS Hotmail - free air or some such Uploaded a ton of stuff on there and Ive forgotten about it

[Guy]

Well, I didnt choose to format the disk Guy, it did it automatically when I put it in.

The documents add up to 2.68 GB - the disk says it holds 4.7 GB

In that case you are using DVDs not CDs.
A Cd holds a max of 700mb
Cheers
Guy

[Guy]

If you want to use CDs or DVDs as a back up the best bet is CDR.
Any re-writable media will fail often within 5 to 10 years, CDRs will normally last 20 to 50 years or longer.

To burn to cd insert a blank CD. Select a number of files check the size is less than 650 mb drag a drop into your cd-writing program or if using Vista select burn.
Repeat until all the required files have been copied to CD
Cheers
Guy

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Thanks Guy, but I would like the lot to be on one disk rather than several. Thats why I was hoping the DVDR with the bigger capacity would be ok.

[Guest]

thats exactly what happens to me it formats the disc even though I dont ask it to ????
I got myself an external hard drive and have only managed to back up to it once ??? and that was luck.

[Guest]

I dont get the option to erase the stuff on the disc how do you do that please ?????????????