DVD Backup time

[JHLandmark]

I just purchased a DVD-R recorder for my Mac Quicksilver G4-733. It is a USB 4X
drive (Pioneer 106). My first backups using Toast 5.2.3 in OS9 have taken about
2 hours for a full 4.7 gig backup. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do
to speed up the process? I am backing up Protools audio sessions. Thanks for
any feedback.

[david]

In article >, JHLandmark
> wrote:

> I just purchased a DVD-R recorder for my Mac Quicksilver G4-733. It is a USB
> 4X
> drive (Pioneer 106). My first backups using Toast 5.2.3 in OS9 have taken
> about
> 2 hours for a full 4.7 gig backup. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do
> to speed up the process? I am backing up Protools audio sessions. Thanks for
> any feedback.


Sounds like you did it at 1x and let it do the full verification. Did
you choose a different speed in Toast?

One thing you may want to consider is to take it out of the USB box,
yank your current internal cd drive, and stick the 106 inside the
Quicksilver. Then stick your internal drive in the USB box in case you
ever want to use both at the same time.

The only downside I think is a possibility that the Pioneer will not
boot the Mac from an internal system CD. Hey maybe it will from the
external with the Apple drive in it. Any maybe iTunes won't see it if
you like to burn from there. I mention these possibilities cuz I don't
know fer sure.

No way it's gonna burn at Mac's USB speed at 4x.



David Correia
Celebration Sound
Warren, Rhode Island


www.CelebrationSound.com

[Brian Standefer]

> I just purchased a DVD-R recorder for my Mac Quicksilver G4-733. It is a
USB 4X
> drive (Pioneer 106). My first backups using Toast 5.2.3 in OS9 have taken
about
> 2 hours for a full 4.7 gig backup. Is this normal? Is there anything I can
do
> to speed up the process? I am backing up Protools audio sessions. Thanks
for
> any feedback.

I'd use a firewire DVD...the speed is many times faster and (according to
Apple) 30 times the bandwidth. It'll shorten the backup time to 20 or 30
minutes.

Brian

[JHLandmark]

I set the speed in Toast at 4x. The verification was on, but the backup was
still very slow. Thanks for the reply

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> I just purchased a DVD-R recorder for my Mac Quicksilver G4-733. It is a USB 4X
> drive (Pioneer 106). My first backups using Toast 5.2.3 in OS9 have taken about
> 2 hours for a full 4.7 gig backup. Is this normal?

That's a lot of data. I used to back up my BBS to about 50 1.2 MB
floppy disks. It took about 2 hours, and I had to sit there and change
disks every couple of minutes. Barely had time to pee before the
computer was beeping at me. I suppose the modern day equivalent is
backing up 4.7 GB of data on 7 CDs. Enjoy the luxury of having 2 hours
of not being bothered every few minutes.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Sugarite]

> > I set the speed in Toast at 4x. The verification was on, but the
> > backup was still very slow. Thanks for the reply
>
> Does that Mac have USB 2.0 or just 1.1? If it was 1.1 then that would
cause
> the buffer underrun protection to slow the drive all the time (maybe?)

That's exactly what's happening. You need a USB 2.0 card. No way someone
put a DVD-R into a USB 1.1 case. If you can exchange it for a Firewire
model you should do so, saves a PCI slot and has better native support.

And I disagree about putting the DVD-R into the Mac case, since it's
something of a pain to do, you have to take the front panel off the drive
tray to fit the custom slot, and then you'll just wear the drive out faster
with routine tasks. You should get an LG combo drive for the internal bay
though, and the original Apple drive sells very well on eBay.

[david]

In article >, Sugarite
> wrote:

> And I disagree about putting the DVD-R into the Mac case, since it's
> something of a pain to do, you have to take the front panel off the drive
> tray to fit the custom slot, and then you'll just wear the drive out faster
> with routine tasks.


If the guy's owned Macs for a while he may know how easy it is to swap
out a hard drive or a Cd/DVD mechanism. If not, ask a bud who does - it
sure ain't rocket science or imo a pain.

As to wearing them out, c'mon. Superdrives have been shipping for years
installed internally from the factory. I bet my G4's Superdrive is
already 2 years old. If you're using them enough to burn them out it
won't make any dif if it's internal or external.

One of the best things about this solution: it's free.





David Correia
Celebration Sound
Warren, Rhode Island


www.CelebrationSound.com