How can I find out what is on my win rescue back up disc?
Where do I begin if I had a crash and I have the back up discs  of winrescue?

   Run WinRescue and use the Extractor to see what is on a disc.  If you put the last disc in, the Extractor will show all of the files on all of the discs for that backup (if the backup had more than one disc) and then it will tell you which one to put in when you restore any items.

thanks for that tip. I have a new problem. When I run the back  up, it keeps saying insert disc (I have an H and I drive. One is a dvd and one is an audio. The screen goes on but it is white-ed out (no image), or in another trial the screen is there, the envelopes (?) are moving but the red progress lines do not ever fill, even partly. Thanks for your advice/ Bill

You need to wait.  If the backup file is big, it will take time (yes, sometimes a long time) for it to be read.

I now have the patience to wait until winrescue copies my files BUT I get a message telling me there is no disc in drive H (my DVD Drive) and there is one there. I've tried other discs and get the same message. Is that winrescue or my computer?

   Start Windows Explorer (you can do this by right clicking on the Start button in Windows and selecting Explore from the popup menu) and see if it shows that there is a disc in that drive.
   If it does not show a disc in that drive and there is one there, that is a bug that sometimes happens in WinXP.  Sometimes ejecting and inserting the drawer will fix it, sometimes restarting Windows will fix it, sometimes you just have to wait several days for it to start recognizing that drive again.

Start Menu then look for "explore"... I don't see explore. Perhaps you meant a different thing in the menu. Is this the same menu that has control panel, my computer and "run?"

billrob,
If I may be of some help. I had a similar problem on my WIN XP2. Nothing seems towork. Than a freind of mine advise that I should check which drive is the primary drive in the BIOS The CD Rom or DVD Rom.
I changed the DVD rom as the primary drive in BIOS and viola. It worked fine.

billrobb, I said to RIGHT CLICK on Start.  If you right click (that means to put the cursor on Start, then click on the right button on your mouse, this is not the button that you usually press on the mouse, it is the other one) on Start, a menu with only about 6 items on it will popup.  The first item will be Open and the next should be Explore.

Which drive should be the back up drive. I'm using the DVD drive. But anyway, neither drives show the disc in. I've taken up enough of your generous advice, but since I need the disc to back up I need help. Can you, anyone, recommend a person who knows a dell computer and works on these problems by phone that I could buy some time with (maybe one of the responders?)

I still get "insert disk." after a few days. on-off,, etc. What is my next option?

   I don't know.  That is a problem with Windows.  What I have told you is all that I know.