Storage: CD or DVD?

smlunatick wrote:
> On Apr 21, 4:39 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>>smlunatick wrote:
>>
>>>CD / DVD is good for "somewhat" long term storage, providing you care for
>>>these correctly and make additional copies.
>>
>>>Flash disks / drive -- not recommended! I've seen these drives erased at the
>>>first time "static electricity" "zaps" these.
>>
>>>External hard drives. Good and reasonable price. Still prone to the same
>>>failures as the internal hard drive. Two additional failure causes exist:
>>
>>>1) Dropping the drive. As humans, we are subject to "bone-headed" causes. We
>>>can "drop" these drives and unless these are designed to survive, the hard
>>>drive would be done once it hits the floor.
>>
>>Most modern drives "park" their heads when powered down, and should
>>survive drops from desk height or higher.
>>
>>
>>>2) 3 1/5 inch hard drive require its own power adapter. Additional power
>>>plugs have their own problems with power fluctuations and could "blow" the
>>>drive.
>>
>>Very unlikely--and the insurance against all of these issues is to
>>have *two* or more external drives as backup.
>>
>>This is important since the OP said he was planning to remove the
>>original photos from his PC drive.
>>
>>Since *internal* hard drives are now also huge, reliable, and
>>inexpensive, rather than removing the files from the PC, I would
>>install another, large, drive and copy them all to that drive
>>*in addition* to copying them to an external drive.
>>
>>Then he has two copies of all his photos--one on his PC for
>>immediate access and one in the drawer on a removable drive.
>>
>>You could even keep the external drive in a safe deposit box
>>if you're worried about fire, etc., and update it once a month.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>On 21/04/2008 "Yves Alarie" <rd50@@pitt.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>>I used CD and then DVD. I prefer DVD.
>>>>However, the price of USB or Firewire external drives started to come down
>>>>about two years ago and I started using this. Easier, faster and much more
>>>>space, so I can also copy my documents as well for safe keeping.
>>
>>>>"spamlet" <spam.mores...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
>>>>news:OUN0Sj8oIHA.1772@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl.. .
>>
>>>>>About to start long overdue clearing of pics safely from pc to disc.
>>
>>>>>Nowadays, should I be storing on CD or DVD? ( or Blue Ray; flash drive
>>>>>etc.?)
>>>>>Should I be using one disc per 'roll' or putting a whole library of pics
>>>>>on a disc?
>>>>>Seem to be a mind boggling number of ways this cat might be skinned...
>>
>>>>>Regards,
>>
>>-michael
>>
>>NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers!
>>Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
>>
>>"The wastebasket is our most important design
>>tool--and it's seriously underused."- Hide quoted text -
>>
>>- Show quoted text -
>
>
> I am not worried about the external hard drive "heads" during the
> drop. Have you every seen an hard drive fail onto a tiled floor or
> hard wood floor? The casing will crack.

If you mean the plastic box around some external hard drives, yes, that
case may be damaged in a fall. But the hard drive inside is enclosed
in a metal casting, and that drive and your data are quite safe.

In the worst case (!), that the external drive's case damage prevents
it from working, you can always re-mount its drive in another external
drive case (~$25) and have it working as good as new.

> Also, with external hard drive, there is a chance to drop the drive
> when powered on, so the heads are not parked.

Yes, carelessness is always a potential issue, just as you may
inadvertently *delete* thousands of photos. The first line of
defense is to be careful when performing critical operations. ;-)

Note that in the case you bring up, the copy on the computer's
hard drive is still intact, even thouth the external drive may
be damaged. And if you have been incrementally transferring
files to (at least two) external drives, then the other external
drive(s) still are intact, as well as the new files on the
computer's hard drive.

That is why *multiple* copies of anything valuable is the only
real protection. And, since nature can be cruel, at least one
of those multiple copies should be far away from the others.

Beware of absolutes. We are not searching for the *perfect*
solution, which is often so cumbersome or expensive that it
would not actually be used, but for the *good* solution, which
provides excellent insurance against foreseeable problems at an
affordable cost in time and money.

"The perfect is the enemy of the good."

-michael

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."