Storing images on DVD/CD???

[Simple]

Hi all,
I have found this article and thought it was good reading and informative for the people who store images on DVD's or CD's.
http://adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/30/how-to-choose-cddvd-archival-media

[Mark Ellis]

Interesting reading (for those of us who like that kind of thing  ) Must be honest, I'm the world's worst when it comes to backing stuff up so thanks for reminding me what I should be doing!

[Hinfrance]

I sort of speed read this - if this tip is in the article I apologise for repeating it. Always burn DVDs at a speed significantly below their rating - I usually write at 2.4x whatever the rating. It still doesn't take long to write a DVD. Unfortunately this usually means paying extra for a full version of the disk writing software that comes with a PC as the OEM ones all seem to burn at maximum speed and consequently deliver loads of errors.

Second tip - back up the back ups. I store 75% sized jpgs of everything on Flickr, just in case. If I had faster broadband I'd store full sized images.

[Mark Ellis]

Completely agree with slower burning speeds. I had coaster issues in the past with high speeds. Also had serious problems with cheapo cds (silly me). Fortunately they only had music on them but seeing them slowly disintegrate to transparent plastic husks was a little unnerving!

Like the idea of using Flickr for backups since we pay for the privilege of having accounts there. Only problem is I can't see a way of making the full size version private (or at least restricted access) while the smaller, web versions are available for everyone to look at.

[Hinfrance]

How many of my backups can you see on Flickr then? I hope it's none as they are all marked private. I just upload a smaller picture for the public area, only takes a few moments and I don't bother tagging and labeling all the back ups anyway.

[anglefire]

I gave up on cd/dvd backups a couple of years ago. It was costing a fortune a year!

I just backup to a NAS drive (1TB) and that backs up to its own USB EHD (1TB) - I do plan to get a ESATA EHD shortly- as the NAS drive supports that as well. I can then use the USB EHD on my MAC as a time machine

[oRGie]

certainly enough acronyms for time travel lol

I have come to the end of my current storage solutions, I also gave up on cd/dvd a few years ago now and swapped to 2 backup external drives and a large internal slave drive for easy access, all getting rather full. Nice to see prices have dropped a lot again, looks like a couple more 1tb drives are in order shortly and another internal slave

[Chris P]

I've never been able to make myself happy with backing up.  I've known DVDs corrupt, hard drives fail and the 4 Horsemen of the Apocralypse (not a spelling mistake - Discworld fans will understand ) ride through my laptop leaving nothing but dangling cables.

So I've just bought a 1TB hard drive and everything lives on it.

[anglefire]

My last post for a bit, but Chris, if you can't guess I've had a hard drive fail too. Hence the 2 backup setup - which are set to auto backup daily.

[Hinfrance]

I guess everyone's experience is different. I don't find DVDs expensive (less than £60 for 1tb equivalent). I keep them in a fireproof safe and I haven't had one fail yet. Unlike hard disks where I've had two total failures in as many years . . but I know the DVD's won't last forever and will have to be rewritten to some long term media at some point. Hence the back up of the back up of the back up. Like Mark I also run a daily back up to a second hard drive.

Don't forget though that if you keep all the physical copies in one location and the worst does happen - a fire - you will lose everything. So some form of online back up is a good idea. But then even Carbonite lost a load of customer data last year . .

[Simple]

For me the interesting bit in the article was the durability of discs of unknown origin. And the recommended type of discs to buy. I have a double HDD back up system myself, but still often put pics on CD/DVD's.
If I do a wedding/party/prom etc for relatives/friends, I would like to give them the pictures I have taken on a disc. I would feel rather bad when they come back in 5 years time saying the disc has failed. For that reason I thought the article interesting.

[Chris P]

While it is an interesting article, this is kind of an on-going issue.

Paintings get dirty, photos fade, inks chemically reduce or oxidise, papers dry and crack etc.  Pretty much all organic materials are susceptible to mould/rot or some other biological degradation and all electronic devices are fallible to faults, power spikes, failures or other issues.

Personally I store everything on a slave 1TB internal HDD as it's less likely to be shaken, dropped or knocked which can throw heads out, warp disc layers and (apparently) even completely dislodge parts of the drive mechanisms (especially in Winchester format drives).  I also back everything up onto DVD but probably not as often as I should.

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me is the differences between DVD-R and DVD+R.  I've usually bought whatever was known brand and cheapest.  Places like SVP are very good value and carry a huge range of media but I will certainly be buying DVD+R from now on.

Thanks for the link!