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Other Features:

Gold 8 Recorder also has a number of other programs available in its suite. Here we will go through a few of them.

HD Backup

The first screen on the HD Backup wizard shows you your current partition information. You can switch this view to see your drives if you intend to backup an entire drive instead. For the purposes of this test I will be backing up partition D.

The next screen allows you to set your options. Here, I have ticked the 'Exclude unused hard disk Space" so that the overall image size will be reduced. I have also ticked the compression box and moved the slider up to maximum compression. This way I hope to get the smallest image possible to fit onto the least amount of disks.

The next screen allows you to change the recording speed, booting options and to enter a password on the backup. After recording you can also verify the data you have written by ticking the box.

The final screen is just a summary of the options that you have chosen. To make the backup, all you have to do is to hit the Finish button.

The final message that will come up is to tell you how many disks you are going to need to complete the backup.

Once you have put a disk into the drive the backup will start. It will first collect the data on the drive before writing it to disk.

File Backup

File backup works in a similar way to HD Backup. However, instead of backing up the entire drive, you can select which individual files or folders you want to put to disk.

On the first screen you can select what you want to backup. If you want to have something backed up time and time again, then you can create a Preset Backup. This way the next time you want the same files and folders backed up, all you will have to do is to select the pre-made backup record.

To do this you will need to click on the New button. If you just want to make a backup of some random files then you can select the Custom Backup button at the bottom.

This next screen is where you create the Pre-made backup record. Here I have selected to backup my old saved games folder. As you can see I have entered the location and designated all of the files to be backed up. If you want to make backups in the future as well, then you can also specify a date when this will be done.

Once you have created your backup record you will be returned to the first screen. Once you then select your newly made record you will be taken to the file selection screen. Here you can deselect some of the files if you don't want all of them backed up.

Once you hit the Finish button you will be taken to the burning window. It will first go through your files and compress them down so that they take up as least amount of space as possible.

Once they have been compressed down the burning will start.

When done the following window will come up showing you what has taken placed. It also gives you the option of saving the file list to a CSV file. Also as stated in the window, the files will be automatically restored when the disk is inserted into the drive.

Direct Cut

The Direct Cut program is a way of recording analogue sound onto your computer or disk from either a microphone or line in on your soundcard.

There are two options available the first is to record the sound straight onto your hard drive. By selecting this backup method you get a few more options regarding compression, which includes MP3 and OGG format.

If you choose to store it straight onto a CD then the compression options are unavailable and it will be stored as wav format. Once you have put a disk into the drive it will be checked and the amount of space will be shown.

Once you start recording, the remaining time will decrease enabling you to see how much more you can fit onto the CD.

Once you have decided that you have put everything you want onto the CD you will be asked if you want to close the CD. If you do this then no more can be written onto it via this program, you would have to use another blank CD.

MPEG Conversion

The MPEG Conversion program allows you to convert various video files to MPEG1 compatible files so that you can create a VideoCD with them to play on your stand alone DVD player.

Once you open up the program you will need to select the video files that you want to convert. As you can see below I have selected three files. One has a red circle next to it showing that it will not be converted. This is because it was in DivX format. The other two are standard MPG files.

Once you have entered all of your files all you have to do is to hit the Convert button. This will launch the program. Depending upon how large your files are this can take some time.

Once done the following window will come up telling you want was successful and what wasn't.

HighMAT CD Creation

Conclusion