Hi, Edward:

Since the DVD burner appears to work, there's not much I can suggest beyond going to the Genie and/or Acronis sites for support.

Hi Osprey:

Thank you for the e-mail response. I have asked for assistance from the two vendors of backup software.

Consider the following:

1) Acronis True Image Home 2009 [ http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ ] can't record backup to DVDs.
2) and this was an issue discussed in 2006, as per [ http://www.infopackets.com/news/software/reviews/2006/20060216_acronis_true_image_cant_record_backups_to_dvd_solution.htm ]
3) Genie Backup Manager Pro 8.0 [ http://www.genie-soft.com/Products/gbmpro/download64_bit.aspx] can't record backup to DVDs.
4) But, DT Utilities PC Backup Pro 10 [ http://www.dtransfer.com/products/data-backup/pc-backup-pro/ ] can record backup to DVDs.

What does "DT Utilities PC Backup Pro 10" know that the other two have not yet figured out?

I have only limited experience with Acronis. I set it up on my father's new Optiplex but with an external hard drive. I did not try doing any backups with the DVD drive.

My theory is that Vista LFS interferes with other programs' ability to write to the DVD drive. Try disabling LFS.

Hi Osprey4:

On Sunday (Aug 16, 2009), using "remote assistance", a tech support person from Genie-Soft helped me to solve the "can't record backups to DVD".

The solution was simple: insert a blank DVD disk into the DVD writer BEFORE selecting "Backup Now" to DVD.

I always selected "Backup Now" BEFORE inserting a blank DVD disk into the writer.  Just backwards to what they wanted.

Problem Solved!    The Genie Backup Manager Pro 8.0 functions very well on my new Dell XPS 435T computer.

(And maybe Genie-Soft will take care of this little DVD procedural sequence, when they do a software update).