Hi all, Can any body check, the steps to take the data backup on DVD. please make corrections if I am missing some thing. or any other way to do this. All I need to take backup of .tar.gz files to DVDs. I have installed dvd+rw-tools. 1. dmesg The last few lines of /var/log/dmesg ( just wanted to know where this device is attached ) sr0: CDROM (ioctl) error, command: Xpwrite, Read disk info 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 sr: old sense key No Sense Non-extended sense class 0 code 0x0 usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using address 4 scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices Vendor: FREECOM_ Model: DVD+/-RW20J6 Rev: 9F51 Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02 sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 48x/48x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi3, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 USB Mass Storage device found at 4 cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I recognize! [B]Question[/B]: Is this attached to sdc1 or sr0 ?? (Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi3) 2. cdrecord -scanbus Cdrecord-Clone 2.01-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jörg Schilling Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original. Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version. Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27 Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'. cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.83-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c 1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling'). scsibus2: 2,0,0 200) 'FREECOM_' 'DVD+/-RW20J6 ' '9F51' Removable CD-ROM 2,1,0 201) * 2,2,0 202) * 2,3,0 203) * 2,4,0 204) * 2,5,0 205) * 2,6,0 206) * 2,7,0 207) * [B]Question:[/B] Can any body tell me why we get output different when i run this command? like scsibus2: 2,0,0 200) 'FREECOM_' 'DVD+/-RW20J6 ' '9F51' Removable CD-ROM scsibus3: 3,0,0 300) 'FREECOM_' 'DVD+/-RW20J6 ' '9F51' Removable CD-ROM 3. mount -r -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /media/cdrecorder 4. To create the ISO image. # mkisofs -r -o /tmp/home-backup-disk1.iso /home/backup 5. Now use the growisofs command to write the ISO onto the DVD. # growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/tmp/home-backup-disk1.iso Will these steps work?? I was looking on some site where these commands were mentioned [B][I]Backup a directory to a CD: One step: mkisofs -r -R -J -l -L /home/user1 | cdrecord dev=0,4,0 -v --eject speed=4 - or the two step variation of the process: mkisofdot -o /tmp/backup.iso -graft-points "/home/user1=/home/user1" cdrecord dev=0,4,0 -v --eject speed=4 Make sure directory does not hold more than CD capacity (700Mb typically). Check with the command: du -s /home/user1 [/I][/B] Can any body explain the abouve bold and italic lines ?? tell me which way is good the steps i wrote or these commands? what if i need to use the blank part of the DVD again? waiting for an earlier response. Thanks.