General Troubleshooting Tips for Backing Up to Recordable and ReWritable CD Drives

Some users have reported problems backing up their data in PowerChurch Plus Version 8.5 to Recordable and ReWritable CD drives, so we created this document to serve as a general troubleshooting guide to help users solve some of the most common issues.

Please note that some of the following suggestions involve making system wide changes to your computer and if you aren't comfortable making these kinds of modifications, we would strongly recommend having your computer support staff make the changes for you.

When I go to back up, my CD drive letter isn't listed.
The first thing to do is to verify that your drive is a CD-Recordable (CD-R) or CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) drive. It isn't possible to back up to a CD-ROM drive.

Most CD-R/RW drives are supported. There are a small number of older drives that are not supported, however. Please also note that currently it is only possible to back up to CD-R/RW drives. DVD burners are not currently supported, even if you're backing up to a CD-R/RW disk.

If you are unsure if your drive is a CD-R/RW drive, just ask your computer support staff or check the documentation that came with your computer.

I have a CD-R/RW drive, but the drive letter still isn't listed.
If your drive is a CD-R/RW drive, it is possible that the issue is with the ASPI drivers installed on your computer and that updating or reinstalling them may correct the issue.

ASPI (which stands for Advanced SCSI Programming Interface) is a software layer that enables programs to communicate with SCSI and ATAPI devices. In other words, it is the software required for programs to interact with your CD drive.

If you want to update or reinstall your ASPI drivers, the best option would probably be to contact the manufacturer of your drive. They may have these drivers available as a download from their Web site.

If you are unable to find updated ASPI drivers elsewhere, our Technical Support Staff recently discovered a program that you can also use to upgrade those drivers. This tool is called ForceASPI and you can find it by going to http://www.google.com and searching for "forceaspi."

Please note that neither ASPI nor ForceASPI are products of PowerChurch Software, so they are not supported by PowerChurch Software. We would recommend using extreme caution when updating the ASPI drivers and if you are not comfortable making these kinds of software changes, we would strongly suggest having your computer support staff do this for you.

When I try to back up, I get a message indicating that the disk isn't writeable or the backup appears to finish and then I get a message at the end saying that errors occurred.
Some CD writing software may launch automatically whenever you insert a CD-R/RW disk. If this occurs when trying to make a backup in PowerChurch Plus, just close or cancel that program before you continuing the backup.

Also, some CD authoring tools will try to format your disk when you first put it in. If this occurs, do not format the disk if you want to use it for backups in PowerChurch Plus. It is not possible in the software to back up to a CD-R/RW disk that has been formatted.

Since blank CD-R/RW media is so inexpensive, you may want to devote a disk solely for backups you make within PowerChurch Plus. You can even make multiple backups to a single CD-R/RW disk.