Global Preferences: CD/DVD Settings

The CD/DVD Settings page of the Global Preferences window (accessible from the Tools menu, Global Preferences menu item) contains options pertaining to writing to optical media.

Select this option if you want to use filenames that contain up to 64 characters in length, including spaces. This is the default option and is used to record most CDs/DVDs. Joliet also records the associated DOS-standard name (8+3 characters) for each file so that the disk may be read on DOS systems or earlier versions of Windows.

Juliet must be used if you want to use file names that contain up to 64 characters in length, including spaces. Joliet also records the associated DOS-standard name (8+3 characters) for each file so that the CD may be read on DOS systems or earlier versions of Windows.

ISO9660 is used if you want to be able to read the CD on different platforms including DOS, Macintosh, OS/2, Windows and UNIX. Files and directories recorded to CD based on the ISO 9660 standard must meet the following (8+3) requirements:

• A file name may not contain more than eight alphanumeric characters and the underscore symbol [_].

• A file name extension may not contain more than three alphanumeric characters.

• A directory name may not contain more than eight alphanumeric characters and the underscore symbol [_].

Although using ISO is supported in GBM it is strongly recommended that the user uses Joliet to avoid running into file/folder naming compatibility problems. Otherwise, the user must manually make sure that the naming convention of all selected files and folders are compatible with the ISO9660 standard.

This option increases the reliability of backup to CD media by creating a temporary file on the hard disc that is then written at once to disc. Caching, however, means that GBM will first copy the data to a temporary local drive and then onto the CD, which adds a few minutes to the total running time for each disc.

• Caching is not supported on DVD.

• If GBM doesn't detect enough space to perform caching, data will be copied directly to the CD.

Close the CD/DVD media so that further writing to it is not possible. This is done by not recording the next writable address in the last session's lead-in, so that in the next time the recorder attempts to write, it has no way of knowing where to begin writing. Only finalize CDs if you are sure that you will not be appending new backup versions to it.

This technology helps prevent bad burns and CD/DVD creation errors, including buffer underrun and trackwriter errors. This option might not be supported by all CD/DVD drives.

A Buffer Underrun occurs when the PC cannot deliver data fast enough to the drive's buffer. If the drive's buffer empties because of the lack of data, the laser will turn off. The resulting gap on the media usually renders a CD-R disc unusable"

The BURN-Proof feature is effective only for Buffer Under Run errors. Therefore this feature does not cover the following cases

• Power outage or power disconnection.

• Malfunction or abnormality in PC / Application software.

• Impact on the drives or inferior condition of the media.

If the CD contains more than one session, the most recent session is automatically imported so that it could be updated with the new data.  

Each time data is written to a CD/DVD disk a table of contents is written at the end of the session in order to make the disk readable. This procedure is called session closing; data can still be appended to the disk after a session is closed.

Genie Backup Manager will by default import previous sessions on the inserted disc before writing to it so as not to lose existing data.

Disabling this feature causes GBM to write a new table of contents that does not refer to previously written data on the disc, rendering that data hidden and inaccessible, but it will not free the space occupied by it.

If a file with the same name as the backup file already exists on the CD, GBM will rename the new file by appending a trailing number, that is incremented by one for each new version of the file that is added.

This option prevents accidental overwriting of previous backup jobs stored on the CD/DVD in case a file with a similar file name already exists on it.

When backup to optical media is performed, eject the last disk in the media set to alert user that backup is finished.