Help with Backup/CD Burning

tabanowa · #1 February 21st, 2005, 07:31 PM

What software (cheap or free) do you recommend for backing up files to a CD-RW? I have Nero and In-CD (which is supposed to be able to format a CD-RW so it can be used just like a floppy disk, but it doesn't seem to work that way).
Why do all files get changed to read-only when they are written to a CD? I want to transfer all my data to a new computer, and don't want to have to change all the file attributes back to read-write!!!
What do you recommend as the best way to backup data files? (Note: I don't have a USB port on my computer.)

**degsy** · #2 February 21st, 2005, 09:19 PM

What problems are you having with INCD?

Also, unless you put your files into a zip and preserve attributes then they will always be read-only from a CD.

tabanowa · #3 February 22nd, 2005, 05:15 AM

Problems w/ InCD - well, I seem to recall having some problems with other computers reading the disks created with InCD, but I couldn't tell you specifics because it's been quite a while. My main complaint is that it's NOT the same as using a floppy, because when you copy files to a floppy disk the file attributes don't change!!!

So your suggestion is to zip the files first, and when I do that there's a way to preserve the file attributes?

Why is this such a difficult process? It seems that using a CD to backup files on your computer should be a common function that many people do, so there ought to be an easy answer to the problem of file attributes being changes to read-only. Do you really have to network the computers, or use some other form of backing up the data in order to transfer data from an old computer to a new one and have the files still be read-writeable???

renegade600 · #4 February 22nd, 2005, 05:38 AM

it depends what type of backup you are talking about. Just just moving files yes it is a pain, you will have no choice to change the attribute of the data files that changes, but if you use backup software to create backups then the backup will in a sense and very generally speaking install on your computer with the proper attributes when needed.

If you are installing a new drive, then there is software where you can move the files from one drive to the other without using cd because you can slave the old drive to the master.

As far as zip, the attributes are preserved since the only attribute that gets changed is the zip file but you should not have to worry about that since you can unzip to the harddrive leaving the zip file on the cd.

You are right cds are not the same as a floppy when it comes to working with data.

tabanowa · #5 February 22nd, 2005, 06:04 AM

Thanks Dan,

that was helpful

**degsy** · #6 February 22nd, 2005, 05:17 PM

Nero has it's own Backup tool which you could try.

I know it has it's own compression option so that may work for you