My computer hard drive contains a large number of digital images that have been downloaded from my digital camera. I am aware it is important to backup these images, but copying the files to CD is both a time-consuming and cumbersome process. Can you recommend an easier and more efficient way to make backup copies of the images, and other important data on my computer? Another problem I have encountered is when attempting to access a CD which contains images (copied from my other computer) a message appears saying ‘D: is not accessible. Incorrect function’. The computer is running Windows XP.

In my experience, the easiest and most convenient way to backup data is by copying the data to an external hard drive. These external hard drives come in varying capacities (40GB - 2000 GB), and the price tag is not excessively expensive to get a drive with relatively decent storage space. For example, you should be able to find a 100 GB external hard drive for around $250. Most of these drives connect to the computer using USB (although some use firewire, so check the interface before purchasing). In addition, most external hard drives which use USB have support for USB2.0, allowing for fast data transfer (although the drives should also be backwards compatible with USB1.x, but you will achieve slower data transfer). If the drive you consider purchasing supports USB2.0m but your computer is an older generation machine which only supports USB1.x, before purchasing you should check whether the drive does support USB1.x. Another alternative is purchasing and installing a USB2.0 PCI controller card in your computer (which costs about $30). This will give your computer support for USB2.0, by adding additional USB2.0 ports (but before buying, make sure your computer has a spare PCI slot available for the controller card).

The price of the external hard drive vastly depends on the physical size of the external drive (you will pay more dollars for a physically smaller unit) and the capacity of the drive (you will generally pay more for larger capacity drives). These two pricing factors can also be combined: you will pay more for a larger capacity drive which is physically small. However, if you don’t intend on carrying around the drive, as portable storage, the physical size should not be of real concern.

Regarding your second question about the ‘Incorrect function’ error message, this is a very tricky error which I have encountered on numerous occasions. There are a few procedures we can try to remedy the problem. Firstly, the most common cause of this problem is the Windows XP CD recording function has been disabled on the CD-RW drive. Open ‘My Computer’ then right-click on the CD-RW drive and select ‘Properties’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Recording’ tab. Make sure ‘Enable CD recording on this drive’ is ticked. Click OK.

Secondly, the problem could be due to an incompatible version of Easy CD Creator being installed on Windows XP. If you are running Easy CD Creator on the computer, check the following article: support.microsoft.com/kb/315350.

Alternatively, the problem may be Windows not being able to read an ‘open’ CD. Most CD burning packages leave the CD ‘open’ after the burn, allowing for additional sessions to be written to the CD. We need to ‘finalise’ (close) the CD, and then Windows may be able to read the CD. Be aware that by doing this procedure you will no longer be able to write any additional data to the CD you are finalising. Should you wish to continue, place the CD into either your old or new computer and open the CD burning software. Then, instruct the software to finalise the CD. Some data should be written to the CD (to finalise the CD). Once the process has completed, try to read the CD in the computer again.

Finally, if you are really stuck and unable to read the CD through Windows, download IsoBuster (www.isobuster.com). This program will try to recover data from CDs which cannot be read in the usual fashion. The software is part freeware and part shareware. The data recovery function you need to use should be covered under the freeware portion of the software. Should you wish to use more advanced features, you may need to register and pay for the software.