External DVD Burner

Lazarus

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Just taken delivery of a DVD Burner to improve versatility for my Netbook.

Ummed and aahed for a while, but finally ordered one from the Auction Site for the princely sum of £10.50 plus a couple of squid pp.

Although it comes with a USB Power Lead as well as the usual USB to mini-USB lead, I connected it to my Toshiba Netbook with just the latter and in a triumph for Plug and Play (For once!) it was up and running within seconds.

Really slim design in the ubiquitous satin black plastic casing.

Not had time to try burning as yet, but navigating a Red Dwarf video with all the endless menus and other bumph was a breeze.
 

rolfw

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Got one for my lappy as well, you may need both leads connected when burning, as it probably needs more power than a single USB connection will provide.
 

Lazarus

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Yes, well my joy was short lived!

It failed half way through copying some pics from a DVD (made on our Laptop) to the Netbook.

Kept connecting and disconnecting - traced it to the connector bar between the Interface board and the sealed Drive.

Can't fix it.

BUT it was sold as Brand New, yet the label on the sealed Drive say Manufactured November 2005.

Needless to say, I am awaiting an explanation from the seller.

(Thanks for the advice about the power lead ..................)
 

Channel Hopper

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Lazarus

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Doesn't matter, in it's current condition (Fooked) how much oomph is available.

It's clearly a refurbished drive married very badly with the Interface board in a cheap slimline case.

100% issue with physical interconnection. Proven beyond all doubt.
 

Lazarus

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Well, had one last go this morning and it's just read a DVD (Ext 4) and copied to my Hard Drive several GB of pics without complaint.

When it arrived yesterday and worked straightaway, it was ice cold from transit.

Seemed to get more finicky as it got warm.

Thought I'd try in a cold lounge with cold kit just now and it works (Single cable).

Having ascertained yesterday that the Interface to Drive connector was making dodgy contact, I guess this morning's experiment tends to prove the diagnosis - perhaps a spot of thermal expansion/contraction is in force?

Anyway, I only really wanted it to provide an extra means of backing up SWMBO's pics between Laptop and Netbook: They are stored on her Hard Drive and burnt (In Linux) to DVD once there are around 4GB worth, but having had a failed Hard Drive in recent months, I also back them up to my Netbook Hard Drive - belt and braces with 2 Hard Drive Versions plus a DVD.

Tried USB, but it's slow and also hit & miss as you never really now when every last bit of data has been transferred and can end up with apparent success only to find the slave computer can't find all it needs eg Thumbnails etc.

So, as I only do this once or twice a year, I'll keep this manky DVD Drive. Hardly worth the cost of sending it back and hopefully I can shame the supplier with my evidence of 2005 manufacture into compensating me in a small way. But I won't bank on it!

A result of sorts.
 

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Wouldn't a USB stick have been better ?

8GB ones are under a tenner these days.
 

Lazarus

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No.

Covered in my previous Post (Second para. from end) >>> Too hit and miss with transferring files from a Linux system.

And because of one failing to unmount properly, it became unusable despite many resuscitation efforts.

It's precisely because of hours of failed transfers using all sorts of hints, tips and tricks - and several different sticks, that I came to settle upon DVD.

Reasonably happy now!
 

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I don't like using USB sticks or memory cards for long term backing up either. It just seems too easy for it to go wrong but great for short term shifting of files from one place to another.

Personally, I prefer multiple external hard disks for my backups. I've had an external hard disk fail so I always use two or three (plus my internal computer HD) to backup and keep them stored in different locations.

The problem I have with DVDs are they can degrade over time but certainly preferable to me than USB memory sticks.
 

Lazarus

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Yes, I'm with you >> One of the reasons for backing up SWMBO's Pics from Hard Drive to my Netbook Hard Drive (In essence, the equivalent in this case of an External Hard Drive) was indeed the DVD degradation issue.

That said, in reality, I've never ever noticed any problems with DVDs degrading.

Still, easy enough to avoid the risk by employing both Redundancy and Diversity.
 

Lazarus

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Just done a few Burn tests: It happily formatted and burned (Nothing fancy - just native Win 7 Burner) Documents etc.to some TDK DVDs that, although previously unused, Crunchbang with XFBurn would not recognise.

Technology moves on so fast these days - but still nothing really works! (Consistently, anyhow)

PS: Single lead still!
 

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Tivù said:
That said, in reality, I've never ever noticed any problems with DVDs degrading.
Yes, true, me neither. However, I've had a couple of commercial audio CDs I bought in the early 90s change to a coppery colour and disintegrate at the edges which are getting hard to read now (but are backed up as MP3s so I don't really care).
 
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