span mutiple DVD's WITHOUT file spliting

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Level 1

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span mutiple DVD's WITHOUT file spliting

Anyone know of a backup software that can span across multiple DVD's WITHOUT splitting files? I can find software that will perform a backup to multiple DVD's, but they all split the last file between two DVD's, making it useless to copy via the finder or import into an application. For some reason I cannot find any software that will do this? I am not archiving and the software does not need to be freeware but a GUI would be preferable. Thanks in advance.

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Jun 20, 2006 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 20, 2006 4:48 PM in response to haskellf

Query presales tech support at Roxio regarding Toast, an excellent app: <http://www.roxio.com/en/index.jhtml>.

-Allen Wicks

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Answer 2

haskellf Author

Level 1

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Jun 21, 2006 10:55 AM in response to SierraDragon

I spoke to Roxio and Toast does split files so that software won't help me but thanks for the reply 🙂

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Answer 3

Jeyell

Level 2

260 points

Jun 21, 2006 11:06 AM in response to haskellf

Not certain if this is an answer either, but what about Backup app that comes as part of a .mac account ? It does spanning, but not sure about file splitting.

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Answer 4

Jun 21, 2006 1:07 PM in response to haskellf

Toast can do that perfectly, check out this screenshot:

http://img487.imageshack.us/img487/8310/screenshot11ah.jpg

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Answer 5

Jun 21, 2006 1:42 PM in response to Eduardo Calvo

Yes, that is what I do all the time. But I believe haskelif wants more than that. That is why I suggested he call Roxio.

A .Mac account sounds ideal.

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Answer 6

Jun 21, 2006 5:57 PM in response to haskellf

Dragon Burn will burn to/span multiple DVDs and doesn't split files.

you won't be able to see which files get burnt to which DVDs from the Dragon Burn interface, and it's not universal binary, but it works!

and you can try before you buy (USD$40 retail for the downloadable version).

from Dragon Burn's Help:

When creating a Data CD/DVD, users may choose to enable the Disc Spanning feature to allow Dragon Burn to write data files onto multiple discs automatically. The files are left in their native format – there is no file compression or file splitting used during this process. To enable Disc Spanning, click the “Enable Disc Spanning” checkbox in the Data CD/DVD Layout and select the proper disc size of the blank disc you will be using from the drop-down menu. Once Disc Spanning is enabled, users will be able to add an unlimited amount of data to the layout as long as none of the files exceed the chosen disc size. Dragon Burn will calculate and display approximately how many discs will be required to burn all the data.

During the burning process, Dragon Burn will prompt the user to insert additional blank discs until all the files in the Data CD/DVD have been written. If the disc inserted is not blank or not large enough to hold any files, an error message will be displayed. For example, if a 400 MB file needs to be written, a 210 MB disc will be rejected; however, if there is a 400 MB file and a 200 MB file that need to be written, a 210 MB disc will be accepted. Users can use multiple blank discs of varying sizes with the Disc Spanning feature as long as they are large enough to accommodate some of the files.

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Answer 7

kgelner

Level 4

1,205 points

Jun 21, 2006 9:54 PM in response to Jeyell

Not certain if this is an answer either, but what
about Backup app that comes as part of a .mac account
? It does spanning, but not sure about file splitting.

I am pretty sure that Backup does not do file splitting, which makes it also useful for this task.

I think if you have a single file larger than a DVD it may still split it.

The reason I suspect this is that I was able to recover a whole iDVD project off backup DVDs without using Backup, I just copied the files off the discs.

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Answer 8

NeilR

Level 2

225 points

Jun 23, 2006 6:33 AM in response to haskellf

I use Tri-backup with DVD-RAM, (but have not tried DVD r) and it does not split files. When the last file won't fit, it asks for another disc.

http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

there is a 30 day trial version

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Answer 9

haskellf Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2006 3:29 PM in response to Gregory Rivers

Thanks Gregory and everyone else who responded 🙂

I contacted most of the backup software companies and developers and so far i haven't found one that will do what I wish. Based on your responses, I am waiting for a reply from NTI Software (Dragon Burn) and Tri-backup in regards to this question. I will post their messages here when they reply. I spoke to Roxio about Toast they told me that Toast does indeed split files.
IN the meantime, here is a great link that someone researched and tested some backup software that you might find helpful:

http://blog.plasticsfuture.org/2006/04/23/mac-backup-software-harmful/

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Answer 10

haskellf Author

Level 1

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Jul 3, 2006 11:15 AM in response to NeilR

Thanks Neil,

I emailed the tech's at Tri-Backup and here is what they had to say:

Q1) When spanning a backup to multiple DVD's, does Tri-Backup split files?

A1)
No. We use our own copy routines, and files are not splitted. When there is not enough space to copy the next file, the entire file will be copied on the next partition.

Q2) Now this is more technical and I'm only asking you this based on the
following article link
( http://blog.plasticsfuture.org/2006/04/23/mac-backup-software-harmful/)...

Does ALL of the information being copied/backed include: BSD flags, file
ownership, permissions, resource forks, HFS+ extended attributes, and ACLs ?

i.e. All metadata preserved including owner/permisions or modification
date, creation date, HFS+ extended attributes or ACLs, or BSD flags...

A2)
Tri-BACKUP can copy files without owner/group/permissions information, if the Copy UID/GID option is not checked (this is helpfull if you want to copy files owned by another user to your own Home folder, and want the copy owned by you).

But if you want an exact copy, Tri-BACKUP will create a copy preserving the same owner/group/permissions, HFS+ extended attributes, resources fork, BSD flags, etc. Folders infomation are also copied.

Note that the demo version can help you checking this.

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Answer 11

NeilR

Level 2

225 points

Jul 3, 2006 1:47 PM in response to haskellf

( http://blog.plasticsfuture.org/2006/04/23/mac-backup-
software-harmful/)...

Does ALL of the information being copied/backed
include: BSD flags, file
ownership, permissions, resource forks, HFS+ extended
attributes, and ACLs ?

i.e. All metadata preserved including
owner/permisions or modification
date, creation date, HFS+ extended attributes or
ACLs, or BSD flags...

A2)

But if you want an exact copy, Tri-BACKUP will create
a copy preserving the same owner/group/permissions,
HFS+ extended attributes, resources fork, BSD flags,
etc. Folders infomation are also copied.

Note that the demo version can help you checking
this.

Thanks for posting this - I reviewed the link above regarding Mac Backup Tools, and their analysis clearly is at odds with the above statement from TRI. I personally have not set up specific tests for each type of item, however I have used TRI backup to make a copy of the disk and restore a bootable copy - I don't know that proves either case completely one way or the other.

The program isn't perfect - some operations can be a bit confusing, so practice before setting up final routines.

It does have a number of nice features as well. The developer has been fairly responsive in the past, answering my questions and addressing bugs with maintenance updates when needed.

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Answer 12

Jul 3, 2006 5:05 PM in response to haskellf

this would be pretty trivial to do with perl via the unix cli if that helps

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