Backing up to CD, DVD or Blu-ray media has become increasingly common due to mature technology and cheap CD, DVD or Blu-ray burners.
If you plan to do a backup to a CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc, please consider our recommendations:
- Do not use the same CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc to store consecutive backup versions. It's better to use different CD, DVD or Blu-ray media for each backup version (change the CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc at each backup run). Use a set of CD, DVD or Blu-ray media and rotate them periodically (e.g.: take 7 CD media, one for each week day; start with the first CD again every 7 days). The reason for this is that in case the burn process fails or the CD, DVD or Blu-ray data becomes corrupted, you still have the previous backup version on a different disc.
- Rewritable CD, DVD or Blu-ray media can be burned only a limited number of times. When strange errors happen you should consider that the CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc might be over-burned (worn out).
- Always test the backed up data after burning. Backup4all has a special option to automate the test after backup and also in case you are spanning multiple CD, DVD or Blu-ray discs, Backup4all test each CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc before writing the next one.
Backup4all makes the backup to CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc process to be easy to perform: just set the backup destination to the CD, DVD or Blu-ray burner drive and run the backup. By default Backup4all uses its own built-in burning engine to backup to CD, DVD or Blu-ray media (you do not need third party drivers or burning software to be installed).
If you prefer packet writing (using third party software) you can select it in the Write method section.
If the backup does not fit onto one CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc, Backup4all will automatically span the backup over multiple media. Each disc is assigned a different label for future identification. We recommend marking the CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc with this label.
A few recommendations before backing up to CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs:
- Before backup execution, be sure to insert the CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc containing the latest ".bkc" file if you have the option Use local catalogs unchecked (in Backup Properties->Advanced->Backup options section, default is checked)
- On backups to hard disk, you can limit the number of stored zip backups by using the Yes, l imit number of file versions, Yes, limit number of backups and Merge backups options. These options do not apply to CD, DVD or Blu-ray media, you cannot limit the number of stored backups on removable media.
- A mirror backup copies every file matching the sources and the file filter to CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc. On a mirror backup to hard disk, files that are deleted and excluded from sources can be deleted from destination too if you want so. This is not possible on the CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc, so deleted and excluded files are just left there as they were burned before, but the catalog (".bkc") file is updated and the restore operation will not copy these files back.
- When backing up to CD, DVD or Blu-ray discs Backup4all requires additional free space on the drive where the Temporary Folder is located (at least 700Mb when backing up to CDs, or 4.7Gb when backing up to DVDs)