Software backup issues

[mikehende]

My 7 year old son's pc's DVD drives stopped playing DVD's all of a sudden, I will be reinstalling the OS in a couple of weeks because I think that's the only thing left to do [tried everything else]. He has games on there which have been licensed, in order for me not to have to relicense those games I am wondering if this can be backed up safely? The last time I created an image of my pc, I did not have to do any reinstallations but I did have to license my music softwares. What do you guys think?

[dbarrow]

A fresh install of the Os voids any programs as they have to be re-installed to the OS in order to gernerate the reg keys.
If you have the install CDs for the games, you can re-install them.

Problem with the DVD software or player?

[kelly]

Check the DVD player - I've seen a few where the DVD laser/electronics failed but the CD section still worked.
- tony

[mikehende]

Those games were bought from Nickelodeon online, so it will be a real pain to find those licenses. What I don't understand here Doug is if you create an image of a system this should mean that the Registry is also backed up so why would you have to "generate the reg keys" from a fresh install? Or if you backup the registry separately then same question?

Regarding the DVD playback problems, I tried everything, looked for help on every applicable forum and can't find a solution, the kid's Dell Dimension 2400 is only a few years old and came with a DVD/CDRW which was working fine all this time, recently I added a DVD burner to it and that's when I noticed that both drive's cd section is working fine but does not show the dvd, I tried both drives on another pc and they show the dvd perfectly. both drives does show dvd's using the VLC software BTW but it shows kind of choppy.

When I checked the DMA settings for the Secondary controller, it showed "PIO" so I got both Devices 0 and 1 to show Ultra DMA 2, problem still there. Checked for updated firmware and drivers, they are current so the only thing I can see is to reload XP?

[dbarrow]

If you are going to re-install the OS, what is the purpose of the image?

Are both drives on the same IDE bus?
Did you add any software with the DVD burner?

If you disconnect one, does the other play ok?
Did you try a different software like Power DVD or a different player?

If it comes down to a software issue/conflict that can't be resolved I would,
uninstall any software added with the burner and uninstall the burner to see if that cures it
Run a repair install and do the updates again
Add the burner and its software once more and see if the problem returns.

The fact that the DMA changed to PIO leads me to suspect a hardware problem with the burner or some conflict created by installing the software for it.

A phone call to tech support of the drive mnfr may be productive.

[mikehende]

If you are going to re-install the OS, what is the purpose of the image?

Asking the question about creating images pertaining to licenses is just for me to know if anyone has ever gotten that to work and to know "why" it doesn't?


Are both drives on the same IDE bus?
Did you add any software with the DVD burner?

If you disconnect one, does the other play ok?
Did you try a different software like Power DVD or a different player?

Yes, both drives are on the Secondary. No software added with either drive. None of them plays DVD if the other is disconnected. There are 3 dvd players on that pc, WMP, Nero and VLC, as stated before, both drives play the dvd's in the VLC software but choppy. Yes, I had uninstalled both drives previously but same problem.

[mikehende]

Yes Doug, Strangest thing, loaded Powerdvd on the kid's pc and both drives show dvd's perfectly with this software but not with VLC, WMP or Nero, any ideas why? DVD decoder missing maybe and/or lack of codecs?

[mikehende]

Question, I have 2 drives [C and F] on my pc, the OS is installed on the C drive, if I were to reinstall the OS, would my F drive remain absolutely untouched?

[dbarrow]

F drive remains untouched but if there are programs on it, you would have to re-install all of them.

[mikehende]

Great so I will simply copy all docs from C to F and reinstall therefore no need to backup the docs on my C drive, I use my F drive only for storage of music and videos, no programs whatsoever installed there.