Problems with CloneCD and PlexTools Professional XL

[biyahero]

In the FAQ's for Plextools Professional XL it says:

- What can be the reason for PlexTools to display the error message ‘Source disc too large’ after the start of a writing process?

Answer: This warning message may be caused by a CD-recording software that has a 'Hide CD-R' option (e.g. CloneCD, Alcohol 120%). Please deactivate this option in the recording software or remove the program.

Note: this function can remain active even after closing the program.

So is any fix known for this problem, or any information about it here? I was going to try installing this to troubleshoot my PX-716SA which appears unable to create backup media using Paragon Drive Backup Professional Version 9 and when I try to burn these disks I get error messages of 0x80 or sometimes 0x63 I think it was or 0x68 and occasionally "Can't read the file" after it has seemingly been burning the disk for up to 20 minutes.

Also frequently after reformatting the computer and installing Windows again.... like 7 time in a week now... it seems to be running normally and then the next morning again it gives me a BSOD on attempting to boot it. I am not suspecting the 716SA but at the same time it can play DVD's, it can read the Windows Installation CD and burned CD's so that seems like it is OK. Other than unplugging the drive next time this happens, does anyone have any suggestions to troubleshoot this?

I am not eager to uninstall AnyDVD and CloneDVD just to be able to run Plextools Professional XL as the Plextor FAQ's suggest, especially since I am not sure that would even provide any useful troubleshooting information about this type of problem.

 

[Webslinger]

So is any fix known for this problem

Do you have Clonecd installed?
If so, run Clonecdtray.exe, and simply ensure "Hide cd-r media" is unchecked. It is unchecked by default anyway.

I am not eager to uninstall AnyDVD and CloneDVD just to be able to run Plextools Professional XL as the Plextor FAQ's suggest.

Why would you?
The FAQ mentions Clonecd--and not Anydvd nor Clonedvd. Neither program has anything to do with "hide cd-r media".

Since you are experiencing issues with Plextools, it would be more prudent to contact Plextools support: http://www.plextools.com/support/feedback.asp

Paragon Drive Backup Professional Version 9

And http://kb.paragon-software.com/paragon/templ/372.jsp

Also frequently after reformatting the computer and installing Windows again.... like 7 time in a week now... it seems to be running normally and then the next morning again it gives me a BSOD on attempting to boot it.

Without knowing what error message you receive from the BSOD that's rather difficult to troubleshoot. BSODs can result from either hardware or driver issues. I would start by running a memory testing program such as memtest.

Other than unplugging the drive next time this happens, does anyone have any suggestions to troubleshoot this?

Why? Does unplugging the drive resolve the issue? If so, you may need to check both your bios settings for the way Sata ports are handled and also update chipset drivers for your motherboard.

 

[biyahero]

Do you have Clonecd installed?
If so, run Clonecdtray.exe, and simply ensure "Hide cd-r media" is unchecked. It is unchecked by default anyway.

Yes I do have it installed. I have "Hide CD-R media" checked, and I need it to continue to be checked since I have a Rosetta Stone language CD image mounted in my AlcoholSoft virtual CD drive and this won't run unless "Hide CD-R media" is checked.

Why would you?
The FAQ mentions Clonecd--and not Anydvd nor Clonedvd. Neither program has anything to do with "hide cd-r media".

My mistake... I was reeling after reading various forums about this stuff today and about the apparent problems with the drive I would have purchased as a replacement for my 716SA if it turns out to be faulty (a PX-812SA) and I believe there were some problems involving AnyDVD and CloneDVD in that topic.

What I meant to say is that I am not eager to remove CloneCD (or any of the Slysoft programs for that matter) just to get Plextools Professional XL to function... especially since I am not even sure that program would actually provide any meaningful information about the drive as far as if it the cause of the problem. The reason I was thinking I would have to uninstall (I meant to say) CloneCD and/or Alcohol 120% probably to get Plextools Professional XL to function is that in their FAQ it does say:

" Answer: This warning message ('Source disc too large’)may be caused by a CD-recording software that has a 'Hide CD-R' option (e.g. CloneCD, Alcohol 120%). Please deactivate this option in the recording software or remove the program.

Note: this function can remain active even after closing the program."

Their comments in bold made me think that simply unchecking the option to "hide cd-r media" is not going to be sufficient to cause the error to not happen.[/QUOTE]

Since you are experiencing issues with Plextools, it would be more prudent to contact Plextools support: http://www.plextools.com/support/feedback.asp

And http://kb.paragon-software.com/paragon/templ/372.jsp

I agree with you Webslinger. I am not really experiencing issues with Plextools because I don't have it installed, but upon reading that statement in the FAQ's I figure I *will* have that issue if I install it, plus I remember having that issue once before when I did have it installed, and before proceeding to fight with that issue I had hoped that here would be folks who had used Plextools Professional XL and would be able to advise me if the kind of information provided by that software would be useful in troubleshooting this type of issue.

Actually contacting Plextor was the first thing I tried before posting here... but the email address to contact them "E-mail: feedback@plextools.com" in their readme/FAQ's bounces with the following message:

"Hi. This is the qmail-send program at avmxsmtp5.comclark.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<feedback@plextools.com>:
User and password not set, continuing without authentication.
194.78.35.66 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable
Giving up on 194.78.35.66."

So much for Plextor "support"

As for Paragon I have had and continue to have extensive communication with them, without success. Their latest message failed to answer my question about what those error codes meant "0x80" and the other codes I mentioned before in my original message... that I got when trying to burn a backup DVD... which might tell me something, and they suggested I run chkdsk (which I did and it showed no errors). I am continuing to work with them.

I was hoping that I could get some supplementary information here from anyone who might have experienced problems with a 716SA before. I have had several 716A's and 716SA's fail before in various machines I have, but not this kind of failure. They would just have the orange or green light on continuously or flashing, and never would burn or read anything, but they never stopped the computer from booting before that I recall.

For example one question I was hoping the CD/DVD gurus such as yourself might be able to tell me is when Windows XP shows that screen saying "Windows XP" with a scrolling progress bar below it... right before it briefly goes to a blank screen and then USB devices like the mouse and Flash Drives light up and the desktop appears, is that when Windows is initializing devices such as the DVD/CD ROM drives, and thus a hang at that point *might* indicate a failure of such a hardware device?

Without knowing what error message you receive from the BSOD that's rather difficult to troubleshoot. BSODs can result from either hardware or driver issues. I would start by running a memory testing program such as memtest.

Yes I agree there too. The problem is that BSOD's in their latest incarnation flash on the screen momentarily and then the machine reboots, so I can't read them. Is there a logfile created somewhere that I could access after the fact and read what the error is?

Right now I am no longer getting BSOD's, since the last reformat... only the intermittant hang at the screen I mentioned during boot. My current suspicion about that is either the P 716SA (due to the failure to be able to burn successful backup DVD's with Paragon... even though it does read disks seemingly OK... Oh also it wouldn't copy a CD I was trying to copy with Alcohol 120% the other day either, and I was able to copy the same CD during the same Alcohol session with my Plextor 800A by just switching the output to that drive.). So that is why I am suspicious of the 716SA. The other thing I am considering right now is the HP Digital Imaging Monitor which I allowed so far to be started with Windows, since I have noticed that it seems that all these hangs occur when my networked Photosmart C7180 printer is turned off.

Before the last format I was getting BSOD's that blamed iaStor.sys which is my RAID driver, so I destroyed the whole RAID array and recreated it and used the older RAID driver software that was supplied by ASUS with the motherboard rather than the latest and greatest from Intel and also used the chipset software supplied by ASUS since that does not show any "Unknown devices" as does the latest and greatest from Intel. But those type of BSOD's seem to be a thing of the past now, so I only get the ones that flash on for a nanosecond only and then the computer reboots.

Why? Does unplugging the drive resolve the issue? If so, you may need to check both your bios settings for the way Sata ports are handled and also update chipset drivers for your motherboard.

No I haven't tried that. However I just thought of that today while reading the forum, and if/when the computer hangs again, and and if you think a faulty drive could cause this kind of hanging, I plan to pull the SATA wire off the motherboard and see if that will allow it to boot.

The BIOS settings are correct, the chipset as I mentioned above is the one supplied by ASUS for this motherboard since the lastest one from Intel that I had on there last week showed an unknown device and the ASUS supplied one does not do that.

If that happens and it is not the drive I guess it could be the motherboard SATA ports... I read on the forum this afternoon somebody had discovered that was the cause of their problems, but hopefully it will be the drive before it is that.

Thanks a lot for the time in answering and trying to help me!

 

[oldjoe]

To read the error when you get a BSOD....go to Device Manager--Advanced---In Startup and Recovery...Advanced Settings.......Uncheck "Automatically Restart"
BSOD's are "usually" hardware related.
Get your chipset drivers from Intel. If you can't find them post the exact Model of your Asus MOBO and I will direct you to them.
What brand of Hard drive(s) are you using?

 

[Webslinger]

Yes I do have it installed. I have "Hide CD-R media" checked, and I need it to continue to be checked since I have a Rosetta Stone language CD image mounted in my AlcoholSoft virtual CD drive and this won't run unless "Hide CD-R media" is checked.

You don't need Clonecdtray at all if you're using Alcohol's virtual drives. In Alcohol, under options, select "Emulation"-->Check "ignore media type". Same function. . . Another Atip hider

My mistake... I was reeling after reading various forums about this stuff today and about the apparent problems with the drive I would have purchased as a replacement for my 716SA if it turns out to be faulty (a PX-812SA) and I believe there were some problems involving AnyDVD and CloneDVD in that topic.

The last real Plextor drive was a PX-760. I don't see much point in buying current Plextor drives, which are just rebadges now. You'd be paying a premium for another company's drive with Plextor's label slapped on it.

What I meant to say is that I am not eager to remove CloneCD (or any of the Slysoft programs for that matter) just to get Plextools Professional XL to function...

You don't have to at all. Run Clonecdtray.exe, and simply ensure "Hide cd-r media" is unchecked. It doesn't have to be checked all the time.

The reason I was thinking I would have to uninstall (I meant to say) CloneCD

You don't. The solution is very simple: Run Clonecdtray.exe, and simply ensure "Hide cd-r media" is unchecked.

Their comments in bold made me think that simply unchecking the option to "hide cd-r media" is not going to be sufficient to cause the error to not happen.

No. I have Plextools installed, and I've never had that error message. Granted, I can't get Plextools to run at all under Vista 64 bit edition, but I suspect that's more of an issue with Plextools than anything else. Plextools does work fine under XP 32 bit.

I figure I *will* have that issue if I install it

No. Just simply disable Atip hider functionality in either Alcohol or Clonecdtray

Plextools Professional XL and would be able to advise me

I have Plextools installed under XP. I don't have Plextools Professional, however. Regardless, I do not have that issue. Other than using Plextool's scanning function, I really have no need for the program, so I rarely use it.

Actually contacting Plextor was the first thing I tried before posting here... but the email address to contact them "E-mail: feedback@plextools.com" in their readme/FAQ's bounces with the following message:

"Hi. This is the qmail-send program at avmxsmtp5.comclark.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

Just give them a call: http://plextor.com/english/about/contact.html

They have a 1-800 number if you're in North America

As for Paragon I have had and continue to have extensive communication with them, without success. Their latest message failed to answer my question about what those error codes meant "0x80" and the other codes I mentioned before in my original message... that I got when trying to burn a backup DVD... which might tell me something, and they suggested I run chkdsk (which I did and it showed no errors). I am continuing to work with them.

I really have no experience with Paragon. Consequently, I'm not sure what to advise. Again, I think I would probably run memtest and check to see if I have other processes running in the background that might be causing conflicts (you can check in Task Manager by disabling unnecessary background tasks).


I personally use Acronis True Image Home 11.

They would just have the orange or green light on continuously or flashing, and never would burn or read anything.

Orange flashing lights typically indicate a dead drive.

visit http://www.plextor.com/english/support/plexhelper/atapi/blink716A-SAandUF.htm

I had a PX-716A at one point (non-sata). It died. I do have a PX-760a.

For example one question I was hoping the CD/DVD gurus such as yourself might be able to tell me is when Windows XP shows that screen saying "Windows XP" with a scrolling progress bar below it... right before it briefly goes to a blank screen and then USB devices like the mouse and Flash Drives light up and the desktop appears, is that when Windows is initializing devices such as the DVD/CD ROM drives

Yes

and thus a hang at that point *might* indicate a failure of such a hardware device?

It's possible, yes. It could also be some sort of driver conflict.

Yes I agree there too. The problem is that BSOD's in their latest incarnation flash on the screen momentarily and then the machine reboots, so I can't read them.

Do what oldjoe wrote

Right now I am no longer getting BSOD's, since the last reformat... only the intermittant hang at the screen I mentioned during boot. My current suspicion about that is either the P 716SA (due to the failure to be able to burn successful backup DVD's with Paragon... even though it does read disks seemingly OK... Oh also it wouldn't copy a CD I was trying to copy with Alcohol 120% the other day either, and I was able to copy the same CD during the same Alcohol session with my Plextor 800A by just switching the output to that drive.). So that is why I am suspicious of the 716SA. The other thing I am considering right now is the HP Digital Imaging Monitor which I allowed so far to be started with Windows, since I have noticed that it seems that all these hangs occur when my networked Photosmart C7180 printer is turned off.

I would disable all unnecessary programs from loading at startup.

Before the last format I was getting BSOD's that blamed iaStor.sys which is my RAID driver, so I destroyed the whole RAID array and recreated it and used the older RAID driver software that was supplied by ASUS with the motherboard rather than the latest and greatest from Intel and also used the chipset software supplied by ASUS since that does not show any "Unknown devices" as does the latest and greatest from Intel. But those type of BSOD's seem to be a thing of the past now, so I only get the ones that flash on for a nanosecond only and then the computer reboots.

visit http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us to find the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard and install them

No I haven't tried that. However I just thought of that today while reading the forum, and if/when the computer hangs again, and and if you think a faulty drive could cause this kind of hanging, I plan to pull the SATA wire off the motherboard and see if that will allow it to boot.

I would try that. If it makes a difference, I would then boot into bios and see if changing sata ports to function as "ide" instead of "ahcpi" or instead of "raid" makes a difference.

If that happens and it is not the drive I guess it could be the motherboard SATA ports... I read on the forum this afternoon somebody had discovered that was the cause of their problems, but hopefully it will be the drive before it is that.

Wouldn't be the first time a Sata controller went bad on a motherboard

I've personally experienced a lot of issues with motherboards based on Intel X48 and X38 chipsets with raid enabled. Mostly boot issues (the system wouldn't boot at all). . . This problem is due to IRQ conflicts. If you have raid enabled on your sata ports, and if you don't have any ide drives, try disabling the onboard IDE controller in bios. If you don't have raid enabled, then that shouldn't be an issue (and then don't bother trying to disable your onboard ide controller).

 

[biyahero]

To read the error when you get a BSOD....go to Device Manager--Advanced---In Startup and Recovery...Advanced Settings.......Uncheck "Automatically Restart"
BSOD's are "usually" hardware related.
Get your chipset drivers from Intel. If you can't find them post the exact Model of your Asus MOBO and I will direct you to them.
What brand of Hard drive(s) are you using?

Thanks oldjoe, I made that change in the Automatic Restart so that it will no longer do that. The choices for the dump file are "Small memory Dump (64K)" which appears to be the default and for which I left it set for now, or "Kernal Memory Dump". Would it be advisable to use the "Kernal Memory Dump" instead?

I have an ASUS P5WD2 Premium mobo. I currently have the "updated chipset" which ASUS posted on their website version 8.3.0.1013. There is a version on the Intel website which claims to support my 955X chipset, version 9.0.0.1008, but during one of the formats I tried using that chipset driver version, as well as the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager application and driver version 8.2.0.1001 (installed with F6 during format and reinstallation of Windows), and I ended up with an unknown device in Device Manager, which seemed to be related to the SATA RAID controller since in the truncated greyed out entry for that unknown device indicated that it was a component of the RAID controller.... I can't find that name now

Anyway because of that, I used the latest versions of the Chipset Driver and the latest version of the RAID controller driver posted on the ASUS website for my mobo, which are 8.3.0.1013 for the chipset driver and 6.1.0.1002 for the Intel RAID driver, which is shown as the "Latest" for my mobo... originally it was supplied with Version 5.1.0.1022.

Both these versions seems to be a version only available from ASUS, since on the Intel website I can only find versions 5.5.0.1035, and then it jumps to versions 6.2.1.1002, 7.8.0.1012, and the latest Intel shows is 8.2.0.1001. I did notice that when I had Version 8.2.0.1001 installed (at least in conjunction with the latest Intel supplied chipset software 9.0.0.1008), Device Manager called my "Intel 82801 GR/GH SATA RAID controller" by a different generic sounding name than when the older chipset versions and Intel Matrix Storage Manager softwares were installed, AND I have a yellow unknown device showing in Device Manager.

Since with the original ASUS supplied versions did not feature a yellow iconed unknown device, I decided to try just using the updated ASUS supplied chipset driver and Matrix Storage Manager versions. ASUS tech support indicated to me that the firmware version of the SATA RAID controller ROM comes from the BIOS version installed, and suggested I install the latest Beta BIOS 802. I previously had the latest non-Beta BIOS 709 and from my reading the only difference I saw in the Beta BIOS 802 and what I was using was support for the "Pentium D 960(3.6GHz, 800 FSB, L2 4MB, revD0)" and a few other processors that aren't supported by the standard BIOS 709, and I have the "Pentium D 960(3.6GHz, 800 FSB, L2 4MB, revC1)" so the standard BIOS is fine. Nevertheless upon assurances from ASUS tech support that the BETA BIOS 802 had been out a long time and was stable, I installed that in hopes that it would upgrade the firmware version of my SATA RAID Controller ROM. It did not... it remains at version 5.1.0.1022, which is the same version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software that was originally supplied with the motherboard, and ASUS tech support did claim the normally the ROM version should match the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software version.

However since ASUS did post version 6.1.0.1002 as an update for my specific motherboard and because version 6.1.0.1002 does have the graphical interface to work with your RAID array as well as the driver only, as is the case with the originally supplied 5.1.0.1022 I elected to go with the updated verson 6.1.0.1002.

Strangely I just noticed while opening Device Manager that there is a device I hadn't noticed before called "SCSI/HOST RAID controller" which is located on the "on Extended IO Bus" which shows a Driver Provider of "Unknown", a Driver Date and Driver Version of "Unavailable", but does use a driver "C:\Windows\system32\drivers\afqmfp9e.sys" which looks like it might be a SP3 file since in the Driver Details it says it is a Microsoft file version 5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2108)

Having said all that, do you think there would be any point in changing to the later Intel supplied chipset driver and Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver?

I am not currently getting any BSOD....

 

[Webslinger]

"Kernal Memory Dump"

Kenral Memory Dumps tend to be more useful if someone requests one.

do you think there would be any point in changing to the later Intel supplied chipset driver and Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver?

No

I am not currently getting any BSOD....

Then don't touch anything.

 

[biyahero]

You don't need Clonecdtray at all if you're using Alcohol's virtual drives. In Alcohol, select under options, select "Emulation"-->Check "ignore media type". Same function. . . Another Atip hider

OK thanks. Perhaps I will try that. Before these latest formats I had been using Daemon Tools as the virtual drive and SD4Hider as the hiding application and realized I didn't need those anymore.

The last real Plextor drive was a PX-760. I don't see much point in buying current Plextor drives, which are just rebadges now. You'd be paying a Premium for another company's drive.

OK ... I'll have to look around or keep checking the forum then as I have only used Plextors forever after having bad luck with Sony and Pioneer early in my computing life.
I have a PX-755SA in one of my machine and I really had to pay a super premium to get that since TigerDirect, the only place that has them rips you off big time for shipping... almost as much for the shipping as the drive cost.

You don't have to at all. Run Clonecdtray.exe, and simply ensure "Hide cd-r media" is unchecked. It doesn't have to be checked all the time.

You don't. The solution is very simple: Run Clonecdtray.exe, and simply ensure "Hide cd-r media" is unchecked.

OK thanks!

No. I have Plextools installed, and I've never had that error message. Granted, I can't get Plextools to run at all under Vista 64 bit edition, but I suspect that's more of an issue with Plextools than anything else. Plextools does work fine under XP 32 bit.

OK. I have had that error message before running under Windows XP SP2 using my 716SA to burn, as I recall, but Plextools itself worked fine. I am sorry I wasted the money to buy Plextools Professional XL becasue every time you reinstall it you have to go through a big hassle to reactivate it and element 5 is involved in that hassle.
Anyway it doesn't seem too useful and the fact that you are far more into the CD/DVD world that I am and rarely use it tells me I probably won't get much useful information from it, so I guess I will forget installing it again.

No. Just simply disable Atip hider functionality in either Alcohol or Clonecdtray.

OK Thanks.

I have Plextools installed under XP. I don't have Plextools Professional, however. Regardless, I do not have that issue. Other than using Plextool's scanning function, I really have no need for the program, so I rarely use it.

Just give them a call: http://plextor.com/english/about/contact.html

They have a 1-800 number if you're in North America

OK Thanks!

I really have no experience with Paragon. Consequently, I'm not sure what to advise. Again, I think I would probably run memtest and check to see if I have other processes running in the background that might be causing conflicts (you can check in Task Manager by disabling unnecessary background tasks).

Thanks! I downloaded the latest version of Memtest86+-2.01 and ran it last night for 8 iterations.... about 8 hours and it passed all tests and all was good.

I personally use Acronis True Image Home 11.)

Up to now I have been satisfied with Paragon... They do have very responsive tech support which overall seems excellent.... we'll see how this turns out now....

Orange flashing lights typically indicate a dead drive.

visit http://www.plextor.com/english/support/plexhelper/atapi/blink716A-SAandUF.htm

I had a PX-716A at one point (non-sata). It died. I do have a PX-760a.

Thanks. Plextor did replace them. I think so far I have had two PX-716SA's and one PX-716A go bad in various ways with either a steady green light when no disk was in the drive (should mean a disk is present) and flashing amber lights or once I think alternating green and amber... anyway Plextor replaced them under warranty.

Yes

It's possible, yes. It could also be some sort of driver conflict.

OK! Thanks for the confirmation! That is one thing I really needed to know for sure in my troubleshooting!

Do what oldjoe wrote

I would disable all unnecessary programs from loading at startup.

visit http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us to find the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard and install them.

I got the latest drivers shown at ASUS's site for my motherboard... not the latest ones from Intel... as described in my answer to oldjoe.

I did re-install X-Setup Pro last night and checked out what was running at startup and was surprised to see that "HP Software Update" was supposedly starting with Windows althought I had selected it to never check for updates within the HP Software Updates application itself.
So I disabled that, Quicktime Task, Adobe SpeedReader Launcher. The rest is for the ReakTek sound, nVidia video card, and Intel Matrix Storage Driver for the RAID, all of which are necessary.

My intention was to disable HP Digital Monitor but that doesn't show as starting with Windows, although it does. If the problems return I will disable that in some other fashion.

I am leaning toware blaming the HP Software Update coordinated with the HP printer not being turned on when I boot... HP Software really sucks but they claim if I don't install the whole suite the buttons on the scanner won't work or the fax... if I have to reinstall I will try just the basic driver and see if the buttons actually do not work or not. I know that in the past with my old PSC 2510 if you tried to uninstall their software you often ended up with a mess unless or even if sometimes you used their special uninstall application that had 4 different levels of uninstall with a reboot after each level, so I am reluctant to mess with that if I don't have to.

For awhile during the previous format and uninstall I had an issue with the computer not wanting to shut down because of an HP file "hpqtra08.exe" which appears to be the HP Digital Imaging executable, but so far this time I haven't had that problem about the shutdown hanging after the last reformat and install.

I would try that. If it makes a difference, I would then boot into bios and see if changing sata ports to function as "ide" instead of "ahcpi" or instead of "raid" makes a difference.

Wouldn't be the first time a Sata controller went bad on a motherboard

I've personally experienced a lot of issues with motherboards based on Intel X48 and X38 chipsets with raid enabled. Mostly boot issues (the system wouldn't boot at all). . . This problem is due to IRQ conflicts. If you have raid enabled on your sata ports, and if you don't have any ide drives, try disabling the onboard IDE controller in bios. If you don't have raid enabled, then that shouldn't be an issue (and then don't bother trying to disable your onboard ide controller).

I do have RAID enabled... a RAID1 two drive array... I think you asked or maybe oldjoe asked about the kind of hard drives... I have four Hitachi 500GB HDT725050VLA360 drives, two in the RAID 1 array. They are all SATA drives.

One that is not in the array is used to back up the contents of the Raid Array partitions, and the fourth one is in an external enclosure connected via the eSATA connector of the motherboard, and is used only to store files created by my Canon HD video camera.

On the positive side I did boot from the various Paragon Recovery CD's last night using the 716SA and it read and booted from them fine... both the linux and WinPE versions and even the BartPE version, so separating the failure of Paragon to create image files successfully on the 716SA from the BSOD and hanging problems, perhaps it is the media I was using to try to create those image files.
I found an application on the forum last night called "DVD Identifier" and according to that application, what I was using and what is labelled as Maxell DVD blanks:

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:RITEKG05]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type : [DVD-R] - [DVD-ROM]
Manufacturer Name : [Ritek Corp.]
Manufacturer ID : [RITEKG05]
Blank Disc Capacity : [2,298,496 Sectors = 4.71 GB (4.38 GiB)]

I don't know if this is a good media or not, but I have a lot of them and have never had any problems with them before. But I also have these:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R:YUDEN000-T02-000]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type : [DVD+R] - [DVD-ROM]
Manufacturer Name : [Taiyo Yuden Co. Ltd.]
Manufacturer ID : [YUDEN000]
Media Type ID : [T02]
Product Revision : [Not Specified]
Blank Disc Capacity : [2,295,104 Sectors = 4.70 GB (4.38 GiB)]
Recording Speeds : [1x-2.4x , 4x , 6x-8x]

I got these free from some offer someplace from "Disk Maker's", so I had figured they were cheap low quality ones, but I remember reading that name as a good media I believe somewhere here on the forum, so I will try making a Paragon Image with one of those right now and see what happens with that, and post back the results.

Thanks again for all your help.

Regards,
Dave Martin

 

[Webslinger]

OK thanks. Perhaps I will try that. Before these latest formats I had been using Daemon Tools as the virtual drive and SD4Hider as the hiding application and realized I didn't need those anymore.

Alcohol's virtual drives are based on Daemon Tools. Alcohol's virtual drives uses Daemon Tools' code.

OK ... I'll have to look around or keep checking the forum then as I have only used Plextors forever after having bad luck with Sony and Pioneer early in my computing life.

Pioneer dvr-215 is a great burner for dvd writing: http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=17106

Also visit http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=767

I got the latest drivers shown at ASUS's site for my motherboard... not the latest ones from Intel... as described in my answer to oldjoe.

Yeah, just use the latest ones from Asus' website. Since you're not having problems with them, stick with them.

I am leaning toware blaming the HP Software Update coordinated with the HP printer not being turned on when I boot...

I've read tons of horror stories online about HP drivers. So, I wouldn't be surprised . . .

I do have RAID enabled... a RAID1 two drive array... I think you asked or maybe oldjoe asked about the kind of hard drives... I have four Hitachi 500GB HDT725050VLA360 drives, two in the RAID 1 array. They are all SATA drives.

Okay, then obviously you need to leave your Sata ports set to function as "Raid" in bios. I really don't see the need to fiddle with anything else in bios unless you're still getting BSODs, and you say you're not.

I found an application on the forum last night called "DVD Identifier" and according to that application, what I was using and what is labelled as Maxell DVD blanks:

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:RITEKG05]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type : [DVD-R] - [DVD-ROM]
Manufacturer Name : [Ritek Corp.]
Manufacturer ID : [RITEKG05]
Blank Disc Capacity : [2,298,496 Sectors = 4.71 GB (4.38 GiB)]

I don't know if this is a good media or not

No. Junk. Avoid.

Use Taiyo Yuden (not Valueline) or Verbatim

----------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R:YUDEN000-T02-000]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type : [DVD+R] - [DVD-ROM]
Manufacturer Name : [Taiyo Yuden Co. Ltd.]
Manufacturer ID : [YUDEN000]
Media Type ID : [T02]
Product Revision : [Not Specified]
Blank Disc Capacity : [2,295,104 Sectors = 4.70 GB (4.38 GiB)]
Recording Speeds : [1x-2.4x , 4x , 6x-8x]

I got these free from some offer someplace from "Disk Maker's"

I could be wrong, but I think Disk Makers just use the Taiyo Yuden media code.
I don't think those are real Taiyo Yudens:
http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden-how-to-tell-fake-or-real.html

For real Taiyo Yuden (which are excellent), visit www.supermediastore.com
Again, don't buy the Valueline or Trublu series.

For Verbatim visit www.newegg.com

 

[biyahero]

Kenral Memory Dumps tend to be more useful if someone requests one.

OK Thanks! If nobody else will request one and I am going to try to look at them and understand them myself is one format more conducive to understanding the contents than the other one? If they are more or less the same format then I will go with the Kernal Memory Dump... in fact I just changed it to that, pending advice from you that might make me change it back.

No.

OK good I will leave it like that.

Then don't touch anything.

Hahaha... OK. Hopefully they are gone. Now I am slowly slowly reinstalling my applications and waiting a day or so inbetween to see if any problems surface before installing the next few applications, not only to see if the BSOD's return but also the hangs that prevent booting.

 

[Webslinger]

OK Thanks! If nobody else will request one and I am going to try to look at them and understand them myself is one format more conducive to understanding the contents than the other one? If they are more or less the same format then I will go with the Kernal Memory Dump... in fact I just changed it to that, pending advice from you that might make me change it back.

I'm not an expert at reading Kernal crash dump files. But a lot of developers and programmers are. For more information visit http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2008/01/08/understanding-crash-dump-files.aspx

The thing is Kernal Memory dumps are significantly larger than small memory dumps, so if someone requests a crash dump file, the small memory dumps are much easier to upload or email.

I guess I should have said Kernal Memory dumps provide more information, but the cost is file size.

For practical purposes, perhaps the small dump files are more useful. Here's how to read/analyze them: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263#appliesto

 

[biyahero]

Alcohol's virtual drives are based on Daemon Tools. Alcohol's virtual drives uses Daemon Tools' code.]

Interesting! Thanks for the info. I have used the same version 4.08 forever, and used to spend a lot of time on their forum and read about people having problems with later versions, so I left it at that. Now when I started reinstalling everything this time I contacted their tech support and they confirmed that my registration is for lifetime but that it appears that the new free "Light" versions like 4.12 are supposed to be better than 4.08.
One interesting thing about their new paid versons like Daemon Tools Pro Advanced is that they provide vIDE emulation as well as vSCSI emulation, so if I was to need to use Daemon Tools again, I would probably get that version, but fortunately for what I am doing at present
it looks like Alcohol is all I will need then.

Pioneer dvr-215 is a great burner for dvd writing:
http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=17106

Also visit http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=767

Thanks for the tips! I'll check those out.

Yeah, just use the latest ones from Asus' website. Since you're not having problems with them, stick with them.

OK thanks!

I've read tons of horror stories online about HP drivers. So, I wouldn't be surprised . . .

I hope that is all it turns out to be. They do have "tech support" by chat, but it sucks almost as bad as Symantec's. All they know is uninstall and reinstall their software, which often causes a worse mess!

Okay, then obviously you need to leave your Sata ports set to function as "Raid" in bios. I really don't see the need to fiddle with anything else in bios unless you're still getting BSODs, and you say you're not..

So far I am not getting them anymore since the last reformat... slowly installing applications to see if it comes back so I can tell which one does it if any.

One thing that concerns me about the hangs is at one time during this process I tried running Paragon Total Defrag and it said that it couldn't complete the defrag because of "cross linked files"... maybe that is a failure in the program, but if I really did have cross linked files I am wondering if it could be because different Paragon Products might use the same files and I had Paragon Drive Backup Professional, Paragon Hard Drive Manager Professional, and Paragon Partition Manager Server Edition all installed and I am wondering if those applications might use the same filenames... I am trying to get Paragon to address that question now. At one point when I was getting these hangs, I tried booting into safe mode and it appears that the hang occured on the file hotcore3.sys, which Paragon admits is one of their files, and they say that the computer indeed would not boot if that file was corrupted. However they say that if it even had booted once (which it had) then it could not be that the file was corrupted.

So in the meantime I think I will just run those programs from CD and not install them again on the computer pending further information from them.

The other questionable application(s) might be Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 Ultra and CyberLink Power Director 7 Ultra. I have noted that if I install CyberLink Power Director 7 Ultra first, as part of the installation process it installs "Microsoft C++ Redistributable Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable (Version some earlier number)", while if I install PowerDVD 8 Ultra first, it installs a later version "Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable (Version 8.0.56336)", and then the subsequent installation of CyberLink Power Director 7 Ultra will just use the later version of Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable installed during the course of installing PowerDVD 8 Ultra. So that is my other thought that either
CyberLink Power Director 7 Ultra and PowerDVD 8 Ultra both using the "Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable (Version 8.0.56336)" causes the cross linked files message OR having two separate versions of "Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable" installed causes this.

Cyberlink tech support seemed unaware of this situation about two different versions being installed by the respective programs when I reported it and are checking into it now.

No. Junk. Avoid.

Use Taiyo Yuden (not Valueline) or Verbatim Datalife Plus

I could be wrong, but I think Disk Makers just use the Taiyo Yuden media code.
I don't think those are real Taiyo Yudens:
http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden-how-to-tell-fake-or-real.html

For real Taiyo Yuden (which are excellent), visit www.supermediastore.com
Again, don't buy the Valueline or Trublu series.

For Verbatim Datalife Plus visit www.newegg.com

OK thanks for the tips! I can't find Verbatim in Hawaii, except for the Dual Layer ones at Office Max.... CompUSA went out of business so I'll check those websites you mentioned.

These are the Verbatim Dual Layer ones I have... are they good ones?
----------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R-DL:MKM-001-000]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type : [DVD+R DL] - [DVD-ROM]
Manufacturer Name : [Mitsubishi Kagaku Media]
Manufacturer ID : [MKM]
Media Type ID : [001]
Product Revision : [Not Specified]
Blank Disc Capacity : [4,173,824 Sectors = 8.55 GB (7.96 GiB)]
Recording Speeds : [2.4x]

Thanks again!

 

[biyahero]

I'm not an expert at reading Kernal crash dump files. But a lot of developers and programmers are. For more information visit http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2008/01/08/understanding-crash-dump-files.aspx

The thing is Kernal Memory dumps are significantly larger than small memory dumps, so if someone requests a crash dump file, the small memory dumps are much easier to upload or email.

I guess I should have said Kernal Memory dumps provide more information, but the cost is file size.

For practical purposes, perhaps the small dump files are more useful. Here's how to read/analyze them: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263#appliesto

Thanks... I just changed it back then to small dump files and if I have more problems I will try to understand them myself, and if that fails and someone asks me for/offers to interpret one of the more complex ones I will just change to that style. In the meantime I will check out those URL's you sent me to learn how to interpret those files.

Thanks!!

 

[Webslinger]

Interesting! Thanks for the info. I have used the same version 4.08 forever, and used to spend a lot of time on their forum and read about people having problems with later versions, so I left it at that.

With programs that deal with copy protections, you do need to update in order to keep up with the latest protections. That includes Alcohol, Daemon Tools, Anydvd, and Game Jackal.

One thing that concerns me about the hangs is at one time during this process I tried running Paragon Total Defrag

I am not terribly familiar with Total Defrag. I use Raxco's Perfectdisk 2008 (another moderator here also uses and recommends that program). Here's a good defrag shootout: http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2007/06/great-defrag-shootout-all.html

and it said that it couldn't complete the defrag because of "cross linked files"

That can happen when Windows doesn't shutdown properly. So the BSODs you encountered may explain that situation. I recommend running chkdsk on your hard drives.

The other questionable application(s) might be Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 Ultra and CyberLink Power Director 7 Ultra. I have noted that if I install CyberLink Power Director 7 Ultra first, as part of the installation process it installs "Microsoft C++ Redistributable Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable (Version some earlier number)", while if I install PowerDVD 8 Ultra first, it installs a later version "Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable (Version 8.0.56336)", and then the subsequent installation of CyberLink Power Director 7 Ultra will just use the later version of Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable installed during the course of installing PowerDVD 8 Ultra. So that is my other thought that either
CyberLink Power Director 7 Ultra and PowerDVD 8 Ultra both using the "Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable (Version 8.0.56336)" causes the cross linked files message OR having two separate versions of "Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable" installed causes this.

No. You're misunderstanding what crosslinked means.

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/crosslin.htm

"Cross-linked files are FAT entries that point to the same cluster. Cross-linked files are generally created when the computer is improperly shut down or an application abnormally aborts. Cross-linked files can be corrected using CHKDSK, or, more commonly, Scandisk."

Cyberlink tech support seemed unaware of this situation

In this instance, there is no issue here with Cyberlink. I recommend, however, that you ensure you don't have any packet writing software installed, such as Cyberlink's Instantburn. If you want to drag-and-drop files to a blank dvd as you would to a floppy disc, invest in dvd-ram instead, which is more stable.

Also visit http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=15536

These are the Verbatim Dual Layer ones I have... are they good ones?
----------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R-DL:MKM-001-000]
----------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type : [DVD+R DL] - [DVD-ROM]
Manufacturer Name : [Mitsubishi Kagaku Media]
Manufacturer ID : [MKM]
Media Type ID : [001]
Product Revision : [Not Specified]
Blank Disc Capacity : [4,173,824 Sectors = 8.55 GB (7.96 GiB)]
Recording Speeds : [2.4x]

Thanks again!

Yes, Verbatim +R DLs made in Singapore (not India) are the best. A decent alternative is MAM-A 8x +R DL. All other +R DL blank media should be avoided.

 

[biyahero]

With programs that deal with copy protections, you do need to update in order to keep up with the latest protections. That includes Alcohol, Daemon Tools, Anydvd, and Game Jackal.

Yes I understand that concept of those who want copy protection always will have a never-ending battle with those who want to defeat it, and the updates sometimes only days apart to AnyDVD in particular. And I do update all the Slysoft programs as soon as the updates are released, and even bought AnyDVD HD even though I don't need it just to support the kind of things they do, and upgrade Alcohol when or if they release new versions.

The reason I said I didn't upgrade DaemonTools is because
I only used it for one purpose... to mount a Rosetta Stone CD copy, which already works so it is not likely to stop working, so no need to upgrade. If I used it for other things I would keep it upgraded. I was tempted to upgrade it to the highest paid version now that they have their vIDE capability, but right now I am out of the country and if I recall correctly I have a big hassle always with Element 5 about the location of my current IP address I am paying from when I am out of the country and I got enough to do without dealing with that right now.... maybe later I will do it.

I am not terribly familiar with Total Defrag. I use Raxco's Perfectdisk 2008 (another moderator here also uses and recommends that program). Here's a good defrag shootout: http://donnedwards.openaccess.co.za/2007/06/great-defrag-shootout-all.html

Thanks for the link to the Defrag shootout! I am pleased to see the reviewer hates Diskeeper as much as I do.... I like him paid for the constant upgrades at nearly the cost of a new user each time and I never liked it, but foolishly continued to use it for years. The final straw I guess was when they sent me some application that claimed it could detect defragmentation on your networked computers, and returned ridiculous results that I knew to be false.

Any of course they hated Symantec as most people except those who don't know any better do ;-))

They did like Paragon Total Defrag and PerfectDisk both pretty well. I think I might try Perfect Disk. Some of the folks on the Kaspersky forum use and like PerfectDisk also, but I think there might have been some issues with PerfectDisk and Kaspersky that I will have to check on.

Paragon actually has stopped selling Total Defrag and include it's functions in their Hard Disk Manager 2008 product, and support says running the defrag component of Hard Disk Manager is more reliable (and some other comment they had about it being better than running Total Defrag 2007 which I can't recall at this moment).

One thing I think I like about ... I guess time will tell if I really like it" is that Hard Disk Manager creates a protected area called the "Restore Capsule" on your hard drive where it keeps the backups.

That can happen when Windows doesn't shutdown properly. So the BSODs you encountered may explain that situation. I recommend running chkdsk on your hard drives.

Actually when the cross linked files message appeared in Total Defrag 2007 I did try to run ChkDsk, and it never got beyond 0% even after hours, so it was impossible to run it. Now however after this latest format and restoration, in my communications with Paragon support they said this too... they recommended running chkdsk on all my drives with the parameters /f /r, and then try to make anothe image and report the results.

I have run chkdsk on all the drives, and they all reported (now at least) that there are no problems. The one odd thing is that C of course reported that it could only run chkdsk after it rebooted, so I let it do that, and while all the other drives showed stuff like this:

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

where there were 5 stages, when I let it do C after reboot it simply said something like "The drive is clean"

Anyway that is good that it can be corrected with ChkDsk.

Apparently there was a issue with the versions of Kaspersky Internet Security taking half a lifetime to run Chkdsk because of some issue about extended file attributes that it created, which is why I haven't reinstalled that yet, although supposedly that issue is fixed in the new version 8 aka KIS 2009. But due to that issue in the past I had gotten out of the habit of running chkdsk, so thanks for reminding me of it's usefulness!

No. You're misunderstanding what crosslinked means.

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/crosslin.htm

"Cross-linked files are FAT entries that point to the same cluster. Cross-linked files are generally created when the computer is improperly shut down or an application abnormally aborts. Cross-linked files can be corrected using CHKDSK, or, more commonly, Scandisk."

Thanks for clarifying that. I knew what cross-linked files were, but not how they got to be that way, and I was thinking incorrectly that they were created by the installation of programs which pointed to files other than those they should be pointing to in their links.

In this instance, there is no issue here with Cyberlink. I recommend, however, that you ensure you don't have any packet writing software installed, such as Cyberlink's Instantburn. If you want to drag-and-drop files to a blank dvd as you would to a floppy disc, invest in dvd-ram instead, which is more stable.

Also visit http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=15536

Oops. I do have CyberLink Power2Go version 6, which I just reinstalled to burn the CD containing Memtest+86 last night so I could run it. This program does allow you to drag a file to one of four icons.. one to make a data disk, one to make a disk copy, one to make an audio disk, and one to make a DVD/VCD. Is that likely to cause problems?

I am going to try reinstalling PowerDVD 8 Ultra tonight if the machine has self-destructed yet to see if that generates any problems....

Yes, Verbatim +R DLs made in Singapore (not India) are the best. A decent alternative is MAM-A 8x +R DL. All other +R DL blank media should be avoided.

Thanks! How can you know that these particular DVD's were made in Singapore rather than in India? I don't notice that in the DVD Info report.

This afternoon ... after I cleaned the registry and defragmented all drives using the Windows XP built in defrag tools, I tried burning an image to DVD using those Disk Maker's (possibley fake) Taiyo Yuden disks since that is all I have right now other than the Memorex branded ones. When using the Paragon Drive Backup Professional Linux based boot disk I was able to successfully burn an image by booting from the 716SA and burning the image on the PX-800A and then I switched the drives in the BIOS and booted from the PX-800A and burned the image disk using the PX-716SA.

Both these operations were successful. So maybe the drives are not the problem after all. But then, I switched the drives in the BIOS again, and I booted with the Linux version of the Paragon Hard Drive Manager 2008 in 716SA and tried to burn an image of Partion C:\Windows using the PX-800A as the burner, and received an error 0x67 after 3.1 GB had been burned. I then tried to burn the image using the PX-716SA as the burner... same error after 3.1 GB.... 0x67. Next I tried to create an image of the same partition and save it to one of the hard drives.
This time after 3.1 GB had been saved, I received an error "Unable to read file"

So now I guess I'll see if the CD WinPE version and the BartPE versions of that program also produce those errors or not, and then let Paragon support know to see what they say...

 

[Webslinger]

Some of the folks on the Kaspersky forum use and like PerfectDisk also, but I think there might have been some issues with PerfectDisk and Kaspersky that I will have to check on.

I'm not having any compatibility problems between these programs, currently. But Kaspersky did annoy me a little recently with another issue, and once my subscription expires, I may give Nod32 a shot.

Apparently there was a issue with the versions of Kaspersky Internet Security taking half a lifetime to run Chkdsk because of some issue about extended file attributes that it created

I'm not having any problems with KIS with respect to running Chkdsk.

Oops. I do have CyberLink Power2Go version 6, which I just reinstalled to burn the CD containing Memtest+86 last night so I could run it. This program does allow you to drag a file to one of four icons.. one to make a data disk, one to make a disk copy, one to make an audio disk, and one to make a DVD/VCD. Is that likely to cause problems?

What I mean is dragging a file to a drive in windows explorer with a blank dvd inserted in that drive. I don't believe Power2go contains packet writing software. I think Instantburn is Cyberlink's packet writing software program.

I am going to try reinstalling PowerDVD 8 Ultra tonight if the machine has self-destructed yet to see if that generates any problems....

Most people in the AnydvdHD forum are using Powerdvd 8 Ultra.

Thanks! How can you know that these particular DVD's were made in Singapore rather than in India? I don't notice that in the DVD Info report.

On the packaging, right below the UPC code it will say "Made in Singapore".

other than the Memorex branded ones

Really, avoid Memorex

Both these operations were successful. So maybe the drives are not the problem after all. But then, I switched the drives in the BIOS again, and I booted with the Linux version of the Paragon Hard Drive Manager 2008 in 716SA and tried to burn an image of Partion C:\Windows using the PX-800A as the burner, and received an error 0x67 after 3.1 GB had been burned. I then tried to burn the image using the PX-716SA as the burner... same error after 3.1 GB.... 0x67. Next I tried to create an image of the same partition and save it to one of the hard drives.
This time after 3.1 GB had been saved, I received an error "Unable to read file"

So now I guess I'll see if the CD WinPE version and the BartPE versions of that program also produce those errors or not, and then let Paragon support know to see what they say...

Sounds like a bad source file that may need to be re-created. Anyway, yeah, contact Paragon.

 

[JoDerBaer]

Best drives and media

The last real Plextor drive was a PX-760. I don't see much point in buying current Plextor drives, which are just rebadges now. You'd be paying a premium for another company's drive with Plextor's label slapped on it.
.

I agree 100%. The renowned german computer magazine " c't " has tested media and drives, and the conclusion is (as of this time):
Pioneer drives (215 or 115 or 212 or 112) and Tayio-Yuden media for less errors and longest endurance...
*** In Europe, Tayio-Yuden media you can get for example at http://www.cdrohlinge24.de/taiyoyudendvdr16xfullprintable100stck-p-5253.html ***