There are three distinct types of backup to CD-R:
There's not much to say about backing up your current working files from your HDD to a CD-R. There are basically two approaches, used by different programs. CDRWin typifies one: replicate a folder on the CD-R with fully qualified paths to each file. The other approach, used by ECDC and others, is to organize the CD-R like a separate drive, with its own folders (invented by you or dragged from the source) and with files pulled from various places at your pleasure. You might replicate a folder if you want to remove it from the drive and be able to restore exactly as it had been. You might mix and match with ECDC in order to organize scattered files into a single project.
Of course, there are the easy ones which simply copy with a mastering program. Slightly more difficult to handle are those which appear to be oversize because of a distorted TOC (see the page on Oversize discs); those can usually be duplicated through a disc image. But there is another whole world of 'protected' software which cannot be duplicated in a straightforward way. Unfortunately, I cannot help with that.
There are moral issues of piracy, right to maintain an archival copy, licensing for use relative to ownership, and so on. They are important to me and I don't know how I'd deal with them if I were able to cover this subject at all. But I do not play computer games and very rarely copy any disc except those I create, so I simply have nothing to share. Hunt around the newsgroups for the pirates' dens - look for alt.binaries and warez - if you wish to learn about this subject.
Again, I plead ignorance: I do not know enough about Mac OS or Linux to offer anything of value. So this deals only with backup of DOS/Windows - and even then, DOS and Win 3.x are simply assumed to go along when the backup is being made. For that, there are two different approaches to backup: file level and disc image.
File-level backup transcribes each file with its fully qualified name. It operates in a manner similar to XCOPY - and XCOPY can do it. So can PKZIP, which will also compress the files and reduce the number of entries needed for the final TOC. Where position of the file on the disc does not matter, that's all that you need. Unfortunately, a full system backup includes some files whose position is critical. The system files with which your computer boots and certain files used in copy protection are characteristic of position-sensitive information.
Drive imaging means compressing the information on a drive so as to preserve positioning as well as all data. It is also needed to capture certain files which are opened when you enter 32-bit Windows and are therefore inaccessible to ordinary programs.
There are two approaches to imaging a drive or a system: capturing directly to CD-R or capturing to a conventional drive (hard disc or removable) for mastering later to CD-R. Direct capture requires some form of packet writing. It is slow but convenient; it requires a writer which supports the type of packet writing the backup program uses. There are many programs which use one or both of those approaches, including Ghost from Symantec, Veritas' Backup Executive and PowerQuest's Drive Image. The most flexible program I have seen and the one I use routinely is TakeTwo, part of Adaptec's Easy CD Creator 4 and above. For that reason, I use it here as an example of the options and their uses. Other programs provide subsets of its features which may be sufficient for your needs and desirable for other reasons - such as being bundled with your drive or having a user interface which you find easier to navigate.
TakeTwo backs up from within Windows either directly to a supported CD writer or to any partition - even the one which is being backed up. Writing directly, it automatically spans discs and formats them if required during the backup. Writing to another device, it permits you to specify the size of each constituent file, so you may use it to write to Zip cartridges or to HDD files which will later be mastered to CD-R.
TakeTwo restores a drive from a cold boot, using a single floppy which it creates for you. While that disc works 'as is' on most systems, it may not on yours, so test it before relying on it. If you need a driver to access your storage medium it may not be supplied on the disc; then you will have to add it yourself. Since the drivers included handle all Adaptec SCSI interfaces and most ATAPI devices, the odds are that they will be sufficient. The program also supports simple retrieval of files and folders from within Windows, allowing you to recover them to any location you choose.
Again, the above is not intended to be an endorsement of any specific program. TakeTwo is my choice because of the way I have configured my system and the drives and devices I employ. Other people prefer other software for reasons which make sense to me. You may well be one of those "other people."
E-mail me at cdrecording@mrichter.com
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