Stuart McGraw wrote: > I am trying to setup backup software (Bacula) on my home > network and ran into a real dumb newbie DVD question I haven't > been able to google an answer to (at least an answer I could > understand) since I have never used writable DVDs before. > > How does one write a iso filesystem onto a blank DVD+R disk > without writing any files, and leaving the DVD writable (i.e, > not finalized if that this the right term)? The growisofs > and mkisofs man pages are mostly greek to me. Is there a > magic cookbook incantation I can use until I can figure > out all the techy details? > FWIW, the concept you want to research is "multi-session". This is basically the same for both CD's and DVD's. There is no need or advantage to "initialize" a blank DVD+R. As a matter of fact, there is no concept of doing that. The very first time a blank DVD is written in multi session all the necessary bits will be laid down. Also, remember that DVD+R is *write once*. Each time a new DVD session is written it will consume an additional amount of space to "replace" the previous TOC (Table of Contents) (Frankly, I don't recall if the new TOC contains the old TOC info or if the new TOC contains only new info and refers to the old TOC(s).) So, the more sessions you write to a DVD the more space that is consumed by the session information and the less space available for actual data. In my history I first starting using DVD+R or DVD-R media to backup data. At that time DVD+RW or DVD-RW media were more expensive and I thought I was saving money. I switched to using DVD-RW media. But, as time when on I had more and more data that I felt needed to be backed up. But, since DVD's hold only 4GB there was plenty of manual intervention involved. This would cause me to avoid doing backups.... Now...or in my case years ago...hard drive prices came down quite a bit. Even though it was more expensive than it is today, convenience outweighed cost. I used an old PIII system as a headless file server with 2TB of backup space. While I've heard that sw such as Bacula and Amanda are good solutions I don't use them. All of my important systems are Linux and I simply use rsync and crontab entries. -- Consultant, n.: Someone who'd rather climb a tree and tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth.
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