While backing up games

[walker72]

Just wanted to know if you could listen to music or be on the web as far as being on the website while you was backing up a game or if it was better to just do nothing at all until it was done.

[NeoRio]

I'll let one of the pros answer you better...but I believe it has to do with your computer's CPU power/RAM. As long as your computer is fast enough to open multiple apps at the same time and not give a buffer underrrun to the DVD writer, you should be able to do other things while ripping/burning.

[Sesshomaru]

Yeah really depends on your setup. There is no right answer, if you have a quad core you can probably do several things at once while burning a 360 game, unless you are playing Crysis on max settings or something. Best practice is to close everything nonessential down including all programs, services, AV, Anti-Spyware, IM, P2P, web browsers, Windows auto updates (or any program that may auto update). I recommend doing that anyway, simply because Dual Layer media is super expensive, and it's not worth the risk of getting a coaster because Windows was trying to update or FireFox is gobbling up massive amounts of RAM and CPU usage. Regardless of your setup, I strongly recommend you shut down all nonessential stuff and anything that may update automatically while burning DVD's. If you are unsure what is running, open task manager (right click on task bar or alt+ctrl+delete) and see what is running. If your CPU usage is consistently under 4%, you should be fine.

[Jman 31]

I've got a 3.4 mhz single core processor and I do multiple tasks while backing up games. Walker you should have no problem with your setup. If you notice things start to take longer to load etc., then you might want to back off a couple of apps.

[CoFree]

man
your new dual core chip.
will do more than 1 thing at a time.
i would not start a big app while dumping/burning a game.
surfing the net or a program that does not take a lot of the cpu power will be fine.

When burning i would not do any thing more than you have to.
just to get as clean a burn as you can.

[Sesshomaru]

On the other side of it, I just built a quadcore PC and do not do anything while burning games. It is user preference, just about any A/V forum will tell you to shut down everything while burning. FireFox can and will eat up huge amounts of memory and CPU while using tabbed browsing. Windows Auto Updates will eat up all your memory bandwidth, so it is always good to turn them off. Again best practice is to shut everything down, but each person knows their setup best. I just don't want people thinking it's perfectly okay to have a bunch of stuff running while burning discs, because that will not be true for all setups. For some it is. Make sure you know what your setup can handle and error on the side of caution before risking getting DL coasters because of some program running in the background being a resource hog.

[Jman 31]

Try a couple, if no problems then carry on. If you find you are getting errors quit. Pretty simple.

[NeoRio]

Yes, but I think the point is that since we pay $2 for a DL DVD, it's not worth "finding out" if you get errors by running a bunch of apps while burning.

[parminder]

yeh like everyone said you need atleast a core 2 duo with 1gb memory in order to do multi tasking, one thing about music if you try playing music on media player before the actual burn with imgburn then you will get an error as " disk volume cannot be locked " this might giv u a coaster but i always switch the media player off before setting the burn, never had a coster though.

[Sesshomaru]

You can just disable the lock volume for exclusive access feature in ImgBurn to avoid getting that error. Locking the volume is not necessary to produce a working game backup or burned disc. I know what you mean though, I used to get that error back in the day and it drove me nuts lol.

The key point to the whole what should I do while burning debate is there is no right answer. It all comes down to what the user is comfortable with and what their system can handle.

[walker72]

Thanks to you all for the info. I am just getting into the whole backing up games and just do not want to make all of the same mistakes everyone else has made since all of the info is right here on the website. Thanks again

[CoFree]

no problem man
anytime

[Digital Menace]

Yes, but I think the point is that since we pay $2 for a DL DVD, it's not worth "finding out" if you get errors by running a bunch of apps while burning.

lol i agree fully.

i wouldn't want to waste a disc just cuz i wanted to browse the net, even though i'm sure it would be fine...i guess it's just common sense to most of us to have no programs open an just do the task (ripping/burning) at hand an get it done.

[Jman 31]

Yeah damn, I would hate to lose $2.00. Everyone will have to make that decision on their own. I browse when mine are burning and I've never had a problem, but that doesn't mean you won't. Plus I need something to set my mixed drinks on!

[CoFree]

Plus I need something to set my mixed drinks on!

glad your back man.