Is nero any good? go with another..

[Golden Gunstar]

Hello,
My external DVD burner came with nero 9 essentials and I wanted to know if it is worth installing? Are there better DVD burning software out there that are free? Also would anybody know of any good file checkers? I'm backing up my data from my hard drive to DVD rams and I would like to know if the files(photos, music, etc.) got copied and transferred alright.

 

[hang-the-9]

Nero is probably the top burning software out there. It has a disk verify option also after you burn a disk.

 

[Golden Gunstar]

Thanks for the reply!
I installed nero and I wanted to make sure about one thing. Does nero copy the files on to the DVD-Ram? Or does it directly move them onto the DVD without copying the original file? I'm asking because there is no option to copy/move files on to the DVD. I'm sorry if this question sounds ridiculous but I just want to double check.

 

[hang-the-9]

First, if you are using DVD-RAM as in a disk enclosed in a plastic cartridge, don't, it's an older standard. Use DVD-R or DVD-RW, you will have more compatability with disk drives.

If you burn a disk, the default is to burn a copy of it. You can move files over to it, but that's not the same thing.

 

[Golden Gunstar]

No its not enclosed in a plastic cartridge. Its a Verbatim 5x DVD-RAM.
I choose DVD-RAM because I've read that it has very good data retention. The bad part about DVD-RAM though is that I only found one 5 pack of them at my local computer store.

Not to say I don't have more dvds, I have a 25 pack of DVD-Rs but I don't know what brand there are(Does brand matter?).
I also remember seeing DVD-R/RW that were advertised as "Archival Grade" are archival grade DVDs good or just marketing BS?

Are dual layer DVDs good for archival? Does the disk verify option on nero work with DVD-R because I heard that it rewrites the data in-order to determine if the media was copied properly.
Thanks again!

 

[Golden Gunstar]

Best answer selected by Golden Gunstar.