Unable to Create System Image on DVD's

[Jack Gillis]

I have Win 7 64 bit installed on my laptop as well as my desktop. System
images for both are on external HD's.

On the laptop, I have created a system image on blank DVD's using DVD-R's.
No problems -- I can restore from the DVD's.

However, when I try to create a system image on blank DVD-R's on my desktop,
I get a message saying something like, "format was unsuccessful." If I use a
DVD+RW the process runs to completion and I can restore from it. I had to
use RW's because I don't have any +R's.

I get the same unsuccessful message if I try to format a blank DVD-R with
Win 7.

My DVD burner on the desktop says it is a +R. Does that mean I can't
use -R's.

I've no idea whether this is a Win 7 problem, burner problem or a problem on
my part.

Would someone please try to straighten out the dense old mind?

Thank you very much.

 

[Bob H]

I have had a similar problem last night.
I put in a DVD-R in my DVD writer to do a system backup of my win7 64bit
system, and I got the message after a long time ,after formatting?,
saying the backup was unsuccessful.
Do I need to buy DVD+RW or DVD-RW for doing a backup.

Any ideas please.

Thanks

 

[Jack Gillis]

I have had a similar problem last night.
I put in a DVD-R in my DVD writer to do a system backup of my win7 64bit
system, and I got the message after a long time ,after formatting?, saying
the backup was unsuccessful.
Do I need to buy DVD+RW or DVD-RW for doing a backup.

I really wish I knew the answer to that! Maybe somebody will chime in with
it.

 

[John Keiser]

Tell us the make and model of the DDV burner and the version of the software
you are using.
You will get a better answer.

 

[Dave-UK]

I have Win 7 64 bit installed on my laptop as well as my desktop. System
images for both are on external HD's.

On the laptop, I have created a system image on blank DVD's using DVD-R's.
No problems -- I can restore from the DVD's.

However, when I try to create a system image on blank DVD-R's on my desktop,
I get a message saying something like, "format was unsuccessful." If I use a
DVD+RW the process runs to completion and I can restore from it. I had to
use RW's because I don't have any +R's.

I get the same unsuccessful message if I try to format a blank DVD-R with
Win 7.

My DVD burner on the desktop says it is a +R. Does that mean I can't
use -R's.

I've no idea whether this is a Win 7 problem, burner problem or a problem on
my part.

Would someone please try to straighten out the dense old mind?

Thank you very much.

You don't format blank DVD R's. They are a write-once medium.
DVD-RW need to be formatted as they can be written to multiple times.

Have a look in Help and Support and enter 'dvd burning' into the
search to get some info about different DVD formats.

 

[Jack Gillis]

Tell us the make and model of the DDV burner and the version of the
software you are using.
You will get a better answer.

Thank you

Belarc Advisor reports the burner to be an
ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P ATA Device
as does Win7 Device Manager

As I said, I was trying to create a system image of my Window 7
installation. So I suppose I can safely say the software is within Windows
7.

Thanks again.

 

[Jack Gillis]

You don't format blank DVD R's. They are a write-once medium.
DVD-RW need to be formatted as they can be written to multiple times.

Have a look in Help and Support and enter 'dvd burning' into the
search to get some info about different DVD formats.

Thank you very much.

That is what I thought also.

It surprised me when during the process I got a message saying, " Are you
sure you want to format this media? The media needs to be formatted before
it can be used." Then it gives me the choice of 'Format' or 'Cancel' and
nothing else. If I choose Format, I get the problem I described above. If
I choose Cancel I go back to the previous screen and then to the above
question again. This loop continues until I cancel the whole thing.

If our common belief about not needing to format a blank DVD is correct, why
in the world would Windows 7 'Create a System Image' say otherwise? Go
figure? Bug maybe?

Thanks again.

 

[John Keiser]

I asked because old DVD units were often limited to certain media.

Your DVD unit should not be the problem if it is a LiteOn DH-20A4P which has
the capability of using either meda:

"The LiteOn DH-20A4P is a half-heigt internal dvd reader and burner
combination drive. With its support of Double Layer DVD recording, you can
burn up to 8.5 GB of data on a single DVD-DL disc. This drive has special
technology to reduce noice during reading and burning, and multiple other
technologies ensure burning quality.

Features
.. ATAPI/E-IDE Half-Height internal DVD+R / DVD+RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD+R9/
DVD-R9 / DVD-RAM / DVD-ROM / CD-R/ CD-RW / CD-ROM combination drive.
.. Support Double Layer DVD+/- R9 Recording Function.
.. SMART-WRITE: Through drive's self-learning function, automatically detect
and decide the optimal write strategy of DVD recordable media ( DVD+R &
DVD-R ) for the best write quality.
.. Support Fixed Packet, Variable Packet, TAO, SAO, DAO, Random Access time,
Incremental, sequential recording, restricted overwrite, Layer Jump
recording, Raw Mode Burning & Over-Burn."

Perhaps someone better versed can use that info to solve the issue.

 

[John Keiser]

Clearly you are not alone:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...y/thread/bf9427be-596b-4aab-9fb6-1beb6c51eb19

 

[Mr doe]

With all these problems users are having with win7... I can see why
Microsoft does not want to create a Newsgroups for Win 7 .

 

[Dave-UK]

That is what I thought also.

It surprised me when during the process I got a message saying, " Are you
sure you want to format this media? The media needs to be formatted before
it can be used." Then it gives me the choice of 'Format' or 'Cancel' and
nothing else. If I choose Format, I get the problem I described above. If
I choose Cancel I go back to the previous screen and then to the above
question again. This loop continues until I cancel the whole thing.

If our common belief about not needing to format a blank DVD is correct, why
in the world would Windows 7 'Create a System Image' say otherwise? Go
figure? Bug maybe?

Thanks again.

I don't know the answer but Vista was plagued with dvd burning problems
and it hasn't improved. I cannot understand how a one-man-band like Imgburn:
http://www.imgburn.com/
can produce a superior free (donation) product while Microsoft, with all their
$billions, fail. In any case, if you finally do get the image to burn, how reliable
is the (a) image and (b) the recovery routine?
I prefer to rely on a hard disk image.
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

 

[Jack Gillis]

Thank you, John.

I will keep pursuing this and hope someone can come up with an answer.
Several people on Tech Net suggested using +RW disk instead of +R. I know
from experience that will yield a good image. I guess I could copy the RW's
to a R for long term storage. For now, I will just depend on the images I
have out on external HD's.

Thanks again.

 

[Worn Out Retread]

That is what I thought also.

It surprised me when during the process I got a message saying, " Are you
sure you want to format this media? The media needs to be formatted
before it can be used." Then it gives me the choice of 'Format' or
'Cancel' and nothing else. If I choose Format, I get the problem I
described above. If I choose Cancel I go back to the previous screen and
then to the above question again. This loop continues until I cancel the
whole thing.

If our common belief about not needing to format a blank DVD is correct,
why in the world would Windows 7 'Create a System Image' say otherwise?
Go figure? Bug maybe?

Thanks again.

I suspect that this process is a form of "packet writing" which does
require formatting of the media even if it is "write once."

 

[Worn Out Retread]

I don't know the answer but Vista was plagued with dvd burning problems
and it hasn't improved. I cannot understand how a one-man-band like
Imgburn:
http://www.imgburn.com/
can produce a superior free (donation) product while Microsoft, with all
their
$billions, fail. In any case, if you finally do get the image to burn, how
reliable
is the (a) image and (b) the recovery routine?
I prefer to rely on a hard disk image.
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Vista plagued with DVD burning problems???? I don't know what your problem
was. I had never heard of any burning problems and never had a problem
burning hundreds of DVD's of various types and brands using Vista Home
Premium 64.

 

[John Keiser]

Jack,
Could be the media or who knows.
I have always used Acronis TI with no complaints. Possibly more options
than the included MS product.
I use both DVDs and an external HD but I assume the external HD is better
than the DVDs, if only because I have found that a homemade DVD may not be
readable on another DVD player.
Can't have too many backups.

 

[Jack Gillis]

I suspect that this process is a form of "packet writing" which does
require formatting of the media even if it is "write once."

Interesting! Thank you.

 

[Jack Gillis]

Vista plagued with DVD burning problems???? I don't know what your problem
was. I had never heard of any burning problems and never had a problem
burning hundreds of DVD's of various types and brands using Vista Home
Premium 64.

I can't say I've burned 100's of DVD under Windows 7 but have burned quite a
few with Nero, Image Burn as well as 7's native ability. All with no
problems.
The problem comes about only when I try to create a System Image from the
Control Panel.

Thanks.

 

[Jack Gillis]

Jack,
Could be the media or who knows.
I have always used Acronis TI with no complaints. Possibly more options
than the included MS product.
I use both DVDs and an external HD but I assume the external HD is better
than the DVDs, if only because I have found that a homemade DVD may not be
readable on another DVD player.
Can't have too many backups.

I agree with that! Will continue to rely on my TI backups as well as System
Images on hard disks.

It is funny but sometimes I get the feeling I've more backups than I do data
files.

Thanks.

 

[John Keiser]

If you have TI, why use the included System Backup?
You may not have bought the option, but TI has "Universal Restore" which
allows you to restore different hardware, if needed. This has been useful
to me in the past.
I don't see what advantage the MS System backup has over TI.

 

[Jack Gillis]

If you have TI, why use the included System Backup?
You may not have bought the option, but TI has "Universal Restore" which
allows you to restore different hardware, if needed. This has been useful
to me in the past.
I don't see what advantage the MS System backup has over TI.

I don't use the Windows Backup. I was only trying to create System Image.
I guess that might be considered part of Backup but am not sure. I am a TI
fan for years. The only problem I have had with 2010 under Win 7 is that I
have been unable to restore from within Windows. I have to boot the TI
Rescue Disk. Probably not a bad idea anyway. I wish I could find a way
to automatically add the @time@ and @machine@ to the proposed name for
backups. @date@ is already there. I have to add those manually for each
backup and it is a wee bit troublesome but well worth it for my purposes.

Thanks again.