Best way to backup PT sessions?

[chieflh]

I'd like to start saving some of my PT sessions to DVD. Currently I'm using a Mac G4 10.2 with Roxio Toast Titanium 6 as my backup app. There is no option to leave the disc unfinalized after backing up, so I can't add more data weeks down the road. I know that's what RW's are for, but it's out there that it's too unstable for long term storage. I have everything on a slew of external drives, but is there a program that will copy data to DVD-R and leave it unfinalized for future additional data files? My Tascam cd player/burner will play audio off a CD-R disc that it hasn't finalized, isn't that the same? Am I missing something obvious? Thanks for any input.

[mixmama]

IMHO, I use Firewire external drives for back-ups and as I'm going along on a project, I save to it when I'm done with the song/s of that day. When the project is completed, the client gets back their Firewire drive (I make every client have their own drive) and THEN I copy my Firewire back-up to DVD's.
This way, during the project AND after completion there are always 2 copies of everything.
Seems to be the best idea to me.

:)

[albee1952]

There's no problem with having more than one version backed up. DVD-R are a good choice, and cleaning out the session of unused audio can trim the size down. I also copy sessions to external drives, depending on if I think I need to work on a session in the near future. Remember; its not really backed up unless it exists in 3 places

[chieflh]

I do backup all my sessions to external drives. But what I'm confused about is why I can't create a multisession backup to DVD. Do DVD's even support multisession backups? The superdrive burner in my G4 (as listed in the Apple System Profiler) supports CD-R, CD-RW and DVD-R. It says nothing about DVD-RW. To backup a PT session that's, say, 2 MB in size, I go to Toast Titanium and drag the PT session folder to the DVD-R in my Macs superdrive, but now I've got approx 2.7 GB of blank space on that disc that I can never add data to, the disc is finalized and there is no way to prevent this. Is there a program that backs up files to DVD-R in a multisession mode, ie; not finalizing the disc untill I tell it to?

[chieflh]

As an added note, here's what it says in my OSX Jaguar manual.
"If you'd like to add more to a previously recorded CD-R or CD-RW (technically creating a multisession disc) you'll need a full fledged CD burning program like Toast Titanium).
This manual is 8 years old. Can't you do this on a DVD-R yet?

[The Weed]

AFAIK only CD-R's and CD-RW's can be Open or Closed, Open meaning you can add more data to it at a later time, Closed meaning you can't. Audio CD's are automatically Closed. I don't know of any DVD-R burning software that allows a DVD-R to be Open.

Cheers,

[TOM@METRO]

Just never rely on DVDs as your only backup. Your just a scratch away from disaster.

[chieflh]

Here's an interesting link I found.

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archiv...p/t-44207.html

It goes on to say:

I just asked the same question on Toast's own forum and got this answer from the expert there:-
'There's no multi-session DVD burning. It's not readable by the Mac OS even if you found an application that lets you do it...No, Toast 7 doesn't burn multi-session DVDs either because the Mac OS won't mount the multiple sessions.

I guess that answers that. Thanks for all your inputs everyone!