Backup to CD-RW nightmares

When you say 'different media' do you mean Tape/Diskette etc or just different CDRW's, as it sounds like the program is attempting to write to a media type (ie tape/Hard drive/daiskett/CD) not of the type it is expecting.

Sorry I can't help more, but I'm not familiar with your program.

btw Is Cincinnati cold? Why the compact heat thing?

HTH -Peace

CD-RW isn't reliable enough to be more than a media for transporting data.  In fact, you'll get better results backing up to a CD-R than CD-RW.. the problem with CD-R is that it is not reusable.

Here's what I'd do:

1.  I wrote a script to "backup" (actually copy newer files) using XCOPY from computerA to computerB, and computerB to ComputerA, etc.  You can actually use one of the free utility from PCMAG.com called syncback that does pretty much the same thing.  

2.  Every few weeks/month, I'd do a manual backup from those backup directories to a CD-R.  I also use FTP to backup my photos to a remote site, where it can act as both a web server for viewing, as well as remote backup.  The reason I don't do a CD-R backup more frequently is because the chance of both hard drive being bad is really very small.  If you worry about your data, you can do it more frequently.

3.  I also use the "Shadow Copy" on Windows Server 2003 (which I understand most of you don't have)... This resolves my problem of try to recover earlier version of a particular data.

4.  That along with WindowsXP's ability to "roll back" system state, I think I've got it covered.

5.  Worst case scenario... Whenever I build/rebuild a computer, I always make an image of the system, so in the future I don't have to worry about installing software, registration, configuration, etc.

- Info

I have used both CD-R and CD-RW to do backups, and I can verify that the CD-RW is not very reliable in terms of a regular backup procedure.  A simpler backup can be performed by the following steps:
1) use CD-R's
2) use NTI CD-Maker 2000 or some such CD-R burning tool (I have never had a problem with NTI).
3) Keep your user files in a folder
4) Keep install files in a folder

I think that you'll find #3,#4 to be especially helpful to keep you sane while doing backups.  It really doesn't make sense to do a backup of >10GB worth of data if <500MB has changed since the last backup.  Generally, users create files or install applications.   If your installed application .EXE's or .ZIP's are all in one directory, it will be far easier to make backups of that information; likewise with the user-created files.  You'd just load NTI CD-Maker, drag 2 folders to the new CD image, and click "Write"...  done!
If you scatter files around in your directory structure, backing up the drive becomes much more difficult.  Additionally, if you are backing up the files CD's, you really only need one or two additional copies on CD-R before you can delete those files-- there's no sense in backing up the same thing 100 times. Plus, you downloaded the ZIP files from the internet, etc., so if *all else fails*, you can usually find those files again.  I use CD-R's to back up large image files (4 fit on each CD-R), and the only drawback to using CD-R's is that they are slow to load *large* files (>100 MB) to/from.  

Comment to Hippy Warlock, no Cincinnati is not all that cold!  By different media I meant different brands of CD-RW's . By packing heat , I meant  I do not have to carry a gun to go downtown. I was referring to the unrest in a 2 square block area that occurred last year. The major media make it look as though downtown Cinci is dangerous, and that is a crock.  

Thanks to all for the info.  I suppose DVD RW is just as unreliable as CD-RW for backups. If not I'd like to know.