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El Puma
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Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Posts: 341 | TRs | Pics
Location: Inside, wanting outside |
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El Puma
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 Mon Sep 15, 2003 2:45 pm |
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| MCaver wrote: | | My system so far has been to keep every photo I take. I go through them and pull the "keepers" into a different place, then burn all the originals off to CD. Since I started shooting digital 2.5 years ago, that's amounted to ~40 700Mb CDs. |
You CD-burners (myself included) better check this out - got it forwarded from a friend in Europe this AM who had some access problems to his old CDs and ended up doing some research.
Translated, it's approximately like this:
CD-Rs deliver degrading experience - [Computer Hardware]
Submitted by Forcefire on 9/2/2003 4:34:21 AM
Keeping data CDs in the dark for two years isn't a good idea. According to the Dutch magazine PC Active, some CD-Rs degrade in months, even at room temperature without sunlight. PC Active tested data disks from 30 manufacturers that were recorded 20 months ago. Several data CDs developed serious errors, or became virtually unreadable. A graphic shows what can happen when CD-Rs are left too long in the drawer. The colours of the CD-R on the right indicate the severity of the errors; white specifies that the disk can be read well, red that it can't be read.
Some manufacturers claim that their CDs are good for at least 10 years, if you keep them out of the sunlight. Some even say that their CDs will last up to a century; but the Dutch test seems to suggest that CD-R is the wrong medium to store photos, music or data files for posterity. It makes you wonder how the various DVD disk formats stack up. PC Active believes that different dye systems used for CD-R disks are the root of the evil. Some dyes are more stable than others. The most stable dyes are used primarily in premium brands. A combination of heat and light and marginal drives also contributes to the deterioration. Higher recording speeds are not the issue.
(Original)
So do we try putting these things in the freezer? Do DVDs work better? Anyone here had similar experiences or info?
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Larry
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Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 1084 | TRs | Pics
Location: Kitsap |
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Larry
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Mon Sep 15, 2003 4:50 pm |
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Getting some real problems at my workplace with the CDs degrading. Some of them are six years old and nearly completely unreadable. Most are about 9 years old, and missing 20% to 40% of data. It's becoming a big problem.
Transferring most of the data to hard disks (removable bays) because the data on all the old hard disks (15 years old) is still perfect.
Don't know what the long term solution is, but it's going to cost some bucks to get the data transferred to more reliable media.
And, I see some correspondence that this stuff was supposed to last for up to 25 years on CDs....yikes. No way. At least not all of them are lasting very long at all.
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Malachai Constant
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Joined: 13 Jan 2002
Posts: 16092 | TRs | Pics
Location: Back Again Like A Bad Penny |
I have been noticing 80 gig hdd's from good brands at Fry's for about $50, that's a lot of CD's
"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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Larry
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Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 1084 | TRs | Pics
Location: Kitsap |
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Larry
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Mon Sep 15, 2003 5:06 pm |
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| Malachai Constant wrote: | | I have been noticing 80 gig hdd's from good brands at Fry's for about $50, that's a lot of CD's |
MalCon: Yeah, I use a removable bay on my personal computer with four 80 gig drives. Very, very nice setup. The removable bay costs about $20, and it is so slick to snap the drawer out, pop out a hard drive, put another one in, and snap it back home. Slam, bam, thank you, maam.
I simply copy the files to the "backup" drive occasionally from the "primary" drive. Take the backup drive to another location for storage, and always have a backup of images in case of fire or whatever.
The 80 gigs hold a LOT of images...don't know WHEN I'll ever get to the two unopened 80 gig drives. Maybe in a few years.
Extremely fast retrieval, and no disks to fool with. A 40 megabyte image file can be retrieved in about 3 or 4 seconds.
Hopefully, the hard drives have as much integrity for storage as they are reputed to have. Based on the hard drives at work for data storage, it's looking pretty good.
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MCaver
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Joined: 14 Dec 2001
Posts: 5124 | TRs | Pics
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MCaver
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Mon Sep 15, 2003 5:28 pm |
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My CDRs are only backups of my backup. My primary backup right now is a 60Gb firewire hard drive. I plan to replace the CDs with another firewire drive, which will be stored offsite.
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Larry
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Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 1084 | TRs | Pics
Location: Kitsap |
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Larry
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Mon Sep 15, 2003 6:17 pm |
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| MCaver wrote: | | My CDRs are only backups of my backup. My primary backup right now is a 60Gb firewire hard drive. I plan to replace the CDs with another firewire drive, which will be stored offsite. |
Based on the little we know about data integrity on drives, that sounds like a stellar solution, MCaver.
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Alan Bauer
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Joined: 11 Jan 2002
Posts: 942 | TRs | Pics
Location: Fall City, Washington |
MCaver--that's essentially what I've just done. I've always had an 80gig external drive as backup...just got a second one two weeks ago and am in the process of backing up the backup so it'll be hiding somewhere else.
Of course, 30% of what is "backed-up" is my clutter of unedited images taken since January...grrrr. I'll get organized when I have copious free time...in a year or 20. 
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