Spanning files across multiple discs

[Harrison]

DC and I have been using a program called SizeMe for some time now to make it very easy to backup large directories of files onto multiple discs.

If you have ever tried to manually back up a large directory of files (over 4GB) you will know that it can be quite time consuming to arrange the files so they fit onto the least number of discs to back them up. And also to retain the directory structure and layout of the files.

SizeMe is very good at doing this. Give it a directory and it will quickly scan through all the files and arrange them into disc images that will each fit onto the size of media you specify. You then just drag each disc layout into your favourite burning application and write them to disc. Fast and very easy.

However SizeMe has a limitation. It cannot calculate and split/span sub directories up to fit onto multiple discs. So if you had a large collection of files on yout harddrive with sub directories for easy management, and these are over 4GB in size, then SizeMe will mark them as red and leave them out of the disc layouts it creates.

I've therefore been looking for alternatives to SizeMe, but it is very hard to find any, which is very surprising as you would think that many people would need to backup large directories of files these days, and be able to span these backups across multiple discs.

Backup software is something that might have this ability, but most backup software usually creates locked disc sets that can only be read and recovered by the backup software. Something I don't wish to do, as it is always useful to have standard discs that can be read by anything. Therefore I've not yet explored backup software in much detail to see if any offer this feature to calculate spanning of files across multiple DVDs.

But this afternoon I've come across a program called DVD Span. I've given it a test and it seems to work perfectly and do exactly what I need. The only downside is that it isn't that fast. It takes a few minutes to scan through an 8GB directory structure and create a disc set with the files split across multiple discs. It does however support sub directories.

DVD Span also builds temp ISO images when you wish to burn the files to disc in the layouts it has created. This therefore slows the process down again as it needs to build each ISO before launching your default ISO burning program to burn each disc. But I can live with that for the moment.

I just wish SizeMe would include the multiple sub directory support as it is very fast compared to DVD Span and doesn't need to create ISO images when you wish to burn a disc as it just creates layouts that get passed to the burning software.

If anyone wishes to try out DVD Span you can find it at http://hcidesign.com/dvdspan/

And unlike SizeMe, it is still being developed. It is also commercial, with a trial version downloadable. I'm not sure what limitations the trial version has because it is working OK at the moment.

SizeMe is also still available, although no work has been done to it for some time, and you can download that from http://lars.werner.no/?page_id=2

[Demon Cleaner]

It would be great that BR discs and burners would get cheaper, just imagine backing up your Dreamcast set to DVDs, that's still a lot.

[Harrison]

BR Writers are coming down in price. Around £150 now. And the discs keep falling in price, but currently a bit too expensive. End of the year maybe.