Backup onto dual-layer BD-RE

[Lothar]

I have a new (Philips) PLDS DH-4B1S Blu-ray drive that is stated to be compatible with 50GB dual-layer BD-RE discs. I am trying to use it as a backup drive for a PC, and it keeps giving me media data integrity errors.

My PC is a Dell server workstation running Windows XP Professional. The Blu-ray drive came configured for this PC from Dell.

The backup software is Backup MyPC v4.85 (a 6-year-old old and possibly discontinued application that has served me well with DVD+RW discs). It does recognize the BD-RE drive.

The backup media is Panasonic 50GB BR-RE, part #LM-BE50DE.

I specifically wanted the ability to write to dual-layer media, due to the size of my backup jobs.

When I run the backup job, it completes successfully, but when I then verify the data to ensure a successful backup of all files, I get a number of errors that say either...

Error: <file name> has damaged or corrupt data on the media. Compression information mismatch [4886 1316]

or...

Error: <file name> has damaged or corrupt data on the media. File header not found on media [4872 1308]

I'd say it's much less that 1% of the files that show errors like this, but that's more than enough to make this application useless as a backup strategy.

I can't figure out if the problem is due to bad media, software issues, write speed (I see no way to slow it down), or with the burner drive itself.

Any ideas, or suggestions for troubleshooting? These discs are too expensive to go experimenting with various discs, at US$47 per disc, so I'm wary to open another one to try, before I've exhausted other options.

[cengell]

Hi, I would think a software that is 6 years old (if it really is) I would not use to burn dics that cost what you paid, I would something that is much newer.

I would think NERO or Ashampoo Burning Studio 7 and a free trial to test first before should work great!

I like it over Nero.

Christopher

[Chevypower]

Whats more expensive the burner or the BD-RE (DL) disc? :-)

[Lothar]

Originally Posted by cengell

Hi, I would think a software that is 6 years old (if it really is) I would not use to burn dics that cost what you paid, I would something that is much newer.

I would think NERO or Ashampoo Burning Studio 7 and a free trial to test first before should work great!

I like it over Nero.

Christopher

Thanks for the recommendations, Christopher. There are a few things that i need backup software to be able to do, and perhaps you can tell me if either of those applications do these things:

1) I need to be able to run scheduled unattended backup jobs. I was just looking over the system requirements for Ashampoo, and it says that for Windows XP (which I use) it has to be run on an account with administrator rights. I wasn't clear if they meant for installation purposes, or for simply running the program, but if the latter, this won't work for me because I need it to be able to run at the scheduled time no matter who is logged onto the computer (Backup MyPC never gave me any trouble with this).

2) It needs to span multiple backup discs.

3) Do any of these applications let you slow down the burn speed (to try to troubleshoot the write errors I keep getting)?

4) Do any of them have any option to verify written data, either on the fly or at the end of the job, and automatically retry any bad file writes?

I may be looking for features that don't exist in a backup application, but it can't hurt to ask!