Computer Help, Please

7/1/05 | Asphalt

[Asphalt]

Today I was going to make a backup so I took a CD-RW, put it in the CD Drive, and copied the folder I wanted to write to the CD. When I clicked the 'copy this folder to CD' button it launched the wizard like normal. Then I named it, but then on the next box it said 'There is no disk in drive. Please insert a writeable disk into Drive D:\'

I don't know what the deal is. The computer read the disk, I could view folders on the disk, but it won't write CDs. Anyone have a clue what's going on?

[hiredhand]

Yeah...that sounds about right. A lot of hosting centers buy a couple of DS1's (1.544mbps) from a DS3 (fractional) because they can add on easily. But even at that...all you have to do is hit a site supported by any link along the way which has less bandwidth than you, and you slow down to at least their rate. :-)

That's a goodly little data rate you have there though. :-) Is it 4mbps both ways?

[hiredhand]

No...I don't think you're supposed to do that. There "should" be an option in your burning software for burning an "ISO image" to CD. That's the one you want.

[Asphalt]

It's actually more like 500KB per second. Web pages load in about 1-3 seconds. Sometimes instantly, sometimes 5 seconds. Uploading is about 100 KBPS

[Asphalt]

Now you tell me. Let me look

[hiredhand]

Sorry. :-) One more thing too...I don't "think" it will work on a CD-RW disc. Don't quote me on that, but I think it's that way.

[Asphalt]

I see the option now.

[Asphalt]

what will it work on?

[hiredhand]

Knoppix? As far as I know, it runs on x86 computers. I'm not sure if there is a Sparc port, or any other architectures. I've only run it on PCs. :-) You got it working?

[hiredhand]

Sorry...I misunderstood the question. What I meant is that the last time I put Knoppix on a CD-RW, it wouldn't boot the PC. But when I burned it to a CD-R, it worked just fine.

[Asphalt]

I tried it, got the Linux screen, hit enter to boot it, but then nothing happened. Never mind. I think I'll get along without it. Oh well.

[JoJo Gunn]

Two on this thread made erroneous generalizations about how RW's are "costly".

My computer is almost 4 years old now, (bought on July 12 of '01). On that same day I bought a 3-pack of Fuji RW's, and I still have them and use them. I backup stuff over multiple discs, and when the time is right I bundle everything and burn them permanently.

I'd hate to think how many CD-R's I'd have needlessly burned until necessary.

[hiredhand]

No joy eh? Hmmmm.... I didn't mention this before, but the clincher here is that your video hardware has to be VERY standard, such as Nvidia. The reason being is that those manufacturers who release their full specs end up being well supported.

There is a cheat sheet somewhere on the Knoppix site for boot options that might help. It's a great CD to keep around, and has saved me at least once by helping me recover user data from a Windows box that wouldn't boot. :-)

[Asphalt]

exactly my point and reason for buying them. I got a five-pack the other day for just over five bucks. I've already re-written over one of them three times.

[Asphalt]

I've got an nVIDIA chip, so that wasn't the problem.

[Asphalt]

I got a CD-R and am trying puppy I'll see how it goes. I'm still not sure what it is I'm trying to do

[Asphalt]

I ran puppy and it worked, but I had no idea what I was doing. I opened the internet browser and tried typing. The 'm' key came out a ':' or something. Anyway, it was all messed up. Any idea what was going on? I had no idea what was happening.

[hiredhand]

Puppy?! No kidding. I've been meaning to try it out myself. :-) Well...I thought if one of the Linux apps worked well with your CD burner, then you could rule out any hardware problems. Linux distros such as Puppy and Knoppix let you do this without installing it, or ruining your current OS.

[Asphalt]

see my next post. Any idea how all that is supposed to work?