impression operations manual

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Using Impression to archive files to a CD or DVD

This document is divided into the following sections:


Instructions

Please follow through the steps outlined below to run an archiving operation to a spanned set of CD or DVD discs.

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Step 1: When you first launch Impression, the 'Archive these items' area will be blank. Add files and folders that you'd like to archive by dragging them to the 'Archive these items' area of Impression's window, or by clicking the '+' button in the lower-left corner.

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Step 2: Once you have your items selected for archiving, begin the operation by pressing the 'Archive' button.

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Step 3: The archiving options sheet will appear and take a moment to analyze the files you selected in step 1. Once it completes the preflight analysis it will appear as in the image above.

Using the 'QuickPrefs' popup button, select an appropriate archiving style (i.e. - 'Plain-file archive to CD' or 'Restorable backup to DVD'), or if you wish to construct a custom preferences set different than that of the QuickPrefs preset options, select the appropriate disc size from the 'Archive files to' popup button (i.e. - '650MB CD', '4.7GB DVD', '8.0GB DVD (dual-layer)'.

In the example shown above, the 'QuickPrefs' popup button was used to easily select a 650MB archiving operation that will copy files in plain-file format to the archive discs. A disc title of 'Archive of My Documents' was chosen, and the date will automatically be appended to the title. Impression estimates that operation this will take 12 discs.

Clicking the 'Advanced options' disclosure triangle will reveal a host of advanced archiving options such as archiving formats, exclusion patterns, incremental and cataloging options.

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Step 4: The archiving operation will begin and progress as Impression builds a verified image of the first archive disc.

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Step 5: The burn dialog appears after the archive is constructed. Insert an appropriately sized blank disc and click on the 'Burn Disc' button.

Note the options to select slower drive speeds to workaround burn failures, and the ability to burn multiple copies of each disc. Disc verification is also available.

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Step 6: The burn progresses at the rated speed of your drive. This is often the single longest step in any archiving process.

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Step 7: Steps 4, 5, and 6 will be repeated for each of the 12 discs of the backup set. Once the last disc is burned, the archiving session is over. Congratulations!

At the end of the archiving process clicking on the 'Bookmarks' button of the 'Archive' tab in Impression's main window will reveal that a bookmark was automatically added to the list from your successful archiving operation. Bookmarks are useful for both scheduling and running incremental/differential archiving operations.


Troubleshooting

There are no troubleshooting notes available at this time.

ImpsAnswer 001, last modified: 2006.02.06


© Copyright 1998-2006 Stephen W. Elliott, All rights reserved.